Stories from across the water

I have been meaning to do a post about this for a while. For those of you who don't know I live in the south of Ireland and my parents live in Bristol in England, which sadly means that we don't get to spend an awful lot of time together. However, since Christmas we have found an ideal solution thanks to my wonderful little brother.

On Christmas day I received this from him. At first I was scratching my head a bit wondering why he has given me a webcam...after all I'm not that technology savvy. Then he told me that he had also given one to my mum for her present and has one himself. How clever and thoughtful is that! He gave us a wonderful way to communicate with each other and now Monday nights have become Bubs story night... We try to make sure that we're bathed and ready for bed by 7.30pm and we come down to the computer so Bubs can read the children their bedtime story.

It works brilliantly and we look forward to it so much! Benny in particular is really benefiting from seeing Bubs. At his age (nearly 2) I just don't think they get the telephone, but he really recognises her and asks often for 'Butts' pointing at the computer. He's sitting on my knee as I type this pointing at the pictures of Bubs and the webcam saying 'peebles' (the name of one of his favourite stories Bubs has read).

It even works as a bit of a babysitter. On Monday when I was in the kitchen getting them their warm drinks I could hear Bubs telling Benny to take my camera cable out of his mouth...and he did!

They compensate not sitting on Bubs' knee listening to the story by cuddling each other.

I just wanted to share this brilliant brain child of my dear little brother. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is away from their special people.

Thanks Chris and of course Bubs for all the wonderful stories and poems.