The above picture has nothing to do with this post. Other than the fact that I used the word ‘renaissance’ in the title and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are all named after Renaissance artists. I know very little about art but I do know a fair bit about 80s cartoons.
Mrs Proclaims, however, is very much an aesthete.
Which is not necessarily evidenced by the fact that she married me.
She knows very little about 80s cartoons, but has managed to expose me to a few of the great works of art over the years. We used to enjoy a city-break in the early years of our marriage and, having taken in Rome, Amsterdam, Vienna, Madrid, Copenhagen and of course having originally met in Paris, I have been exposed to a fair few of the world’s more renowned art galleries. There are also some art galleries in the UK, believe it or not, and she’s dragged me around quite a few of those too.
We haven’t been to any for a while because, back in August 2018, our first daughter, Little Proclaims, arrived and having children tends to alter how you spend your free time. Various well-documented political, economic and pandemic related issues may also have curtailed art-appreciation opportunities in recent years, but I still feel that parenthood has been the main limiting factor in the Proclaims household.
In April 2022 our second daughter arrived and since then the concept of free time has been extinguished from my world and there have been very few opportunities to explore art galleries and even fewer opportunities to watch 80s cartoons. Although I have reluctantly become an expert in Peppa Pig, Bluey and Cocomelon in that time.
Little Proclaims has featured a fair bit on this blog over the years and, insofar as I have readers, she has proven to be something of a hit. Her younger sister has not featured much at all. Mainly because I haven’t really blogged prolifically since her birth. This cannot entirely be blamed on my youngest daughter. Her addition to my life would best be described by a metaphor involving the dried yellow stems of crops and the vertebrae of a humped animal. If only such a metaphor existed. And is that one hump or two?
In her brief exposure to these pages, I have referred to my younger daughter as Littler Proclaims, which I thought was a clever way of differentiating her from her older sister. On reflection, it isn’t all that clever because, assuming that anyone does still read this blog, I fear that it would be all too easy to get confused between Little Proclaims and Littler Proclaims, were I to write a long missive featuring both of my offspring. And being honest, my life is now so devoid of anything other than my two children that it’s highly likely that both will feature quite heavily should I manage to return to something approximating regular blogging.
But a return to regular blogging is what I am hoping to achieve, as insanely ambitious as that may seem to be. On the off-chance I do succeed in that laudable goal, it may make things a little easier on both of my readers if I now refer to my youngest child as Mini Proclaims. So that is what I shall do.
And so the renaissance of James Proclaims begins.
And it will have very little to do with art or turtles.
James Proclaims! 
21 responses to “A Post Which May Indicate The Renaissance Of This Blog”
Welcome back! As it happens we have recently visited a number of continental art places, but then our kids have now done the growing up thing … so looking forward to you refreshing my memory again about how things used to be in our family!
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I hope my travails can bring some amusement, and thank you for showing me that there is a light at the end of this tunnel!
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Pity! I was rather looking forward to your views on the mating habits of turtles.
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The less said about the mating habits the better. That’s how I got into this mess…
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I didn’t realise Mrs Proclaims was a turtle!
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Welcome back.
Did you deliberately leave out a reference to Paw Patrol, or haven’t you, Little Proclaims and Mini proclaims got into that gem yet? After a few episodes you will be pining for an art gallery.
Will your blog herald the return of old favourites in the run up to Christmas, or are you completely redeveloping your concepts around content?
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Paw Patrol is very much a thing in the Proclaims household alas. And in fact my only trips to the cinema post parenthood have been to see the Paw Patrol movies. Of which there are two. And so many toys…
The usual run-up to Christmas is a done deal, because I wrote several years worth of those posts in advance a few years back. It was, in fact, that preloaded content that made me endeavour to return, otherwise my blog runs the very real risk of being an annual festive review of movies that have very little to do with Christmas and nothing else. Which would be a bit weird.
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As the pups say…”no blog is too big , no Proclaims is too small”.
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Welcome back to the blogging world. Looking forward to hear more about Little Proclaims and Mini Proclaims.
Also, you could write about Pizza, doesn’t have to be about Turtles…
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Both the smaller Proclaims enjoy pizza to be fair.
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Welcome back, good to see you’ve managed to free yourself – albeit briefly – from the clutches of the little ones. If you need some more ‘me’ time I can recommend Bluey, which keeps my two granddaughters (5 and nearly 2) occupied for a while.
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Bluey does the same for me, and truthfully it’s the show I hate the least when I have to sit through it. But I’m fairly sure that some of Little Proclaims ‘less desirable’ behaviour is copied directly from Bluey. So there’s always a cost to the ‘me’ time…
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My daughter and son-in-law both enjoy watching it with their girls so it can’t be all bad! Long gone are the days when I was word perfect on most episodes of Postman Pat 🤣
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Having kids puts you in a world where time has little meaning. There’s so much to do in the future, now is going in a blur and the past is gone. As a grandad with a 20 month old grandson I can see my daughter and her husband living in the eye of the hurricane. Welcome back, but as a seasoned blogger I know family comes first, blogs second. Forget deadlines, do what you can when you can.
Regards to the family!
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Family does indeed come first, but I suspect I now need the blog to help me to survive the family…
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Whatever gets you through the days and the sleep-deprived nights.
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Welcome back to the Blogosphere! And, of course, welcome Mini Proclaims. The Human Adventure is moving forward!
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And it is quite the adventure!
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Introduce Little and Litler Proclaims to 80’s cartoons. At least that will solve 1 issue. Welcome back! 🤣😎🙃
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I have tried. They’re not buying it.
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You might have to start slow and start with Bugs Bunny And work your way up 🤣😎🙃
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