Sunday, June 10, 2007

Normal service has been resumed... hopefully

Since I started this blog at the start of 2005, there has never been more than the occasional week or so without a post. So why did I disappear (barring links to BBC News stories)?

Listening to Desert Island Disks today I heard John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy" and its prophetic line "life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans". Now it's not that anything very life-changing has happened to me, it's just that my work - you know that place where you have to spend the majority of your waking days - has been pretty atrocious recently. All in all it has left me asking big questions about my future career. That might sound like navel gazing, but as I'm the sole bread-winner for the next year and the main breadwinner the rest of the time, it gives you pause for thought when a job that seemed to be going well suddenly seems to be on decidedly shaky ground.

Anyway it's a pretty poor excuse for not writing for so long, but it comes on top of Hayley starting to suffer with the hot weather, hay fever, swollen feet... you know, the usual heavily pregnant woman's afflictions. We've both been physically and mentally a bit shattered by the end of the day when I might be thinking about blogging all those good things that have happened.

And lots of good things have been happening. Oliver is becoming more and more talkative. And although he occasionally can become inconsolably upset when denied something important like having Julien join in with eating his breakfast cereal, most of the time he is the happiest little boy you could imagine.

He has even started to joke with me. Well, I think he has. Until a few days ago we had a regular conversation that went like this.
Daddy: "Have you poohed Oliver?"
Oliver: "Yes."
Daddy: Are you going to let Daddy change your bottom?"
Oliver: "No."
This was often followed by him running off laughing.

Then a couple of days ago I thought I smelled a tell-tale smell and asked him whether he'd poohed. The conversation went the usual way. So I picked him up and sniffed his bum. Nothing. I asked him again, "have you poohed Oliver?". He smiled the most mischievous smile and, laughing, said "No"! Maybe it was coincidence. Or maybe his teasing has reached a new level. Either way, it really made me laugh.

Today and yesterday have been really hot. Well, hot by English standards. About 25 Celcius and a bit humid. Oliver has playing in the garden in his new sand-pit and mini-pool. He loved it. Mostly he loved half getting out of the water then falling back in.

We also went to a little fair in Didsbury park yesterday. While there Oliver and I played with circus props: juggling, spinning plates, etc. Then we went and sat back with Hayley under the trees in the shade. I looked away from him for about 5 seconds and when I looked up again he was about 10 yards away. He is so fast!!! As soon as he saw me look he laughed and started to run off again. The place was quite packed so it was quite alarming to think that he could move that fast. He was never going to get out of our site, but it made me think. I then followed him as he ran through the park from stall to stall, attempting take the giant teddy someone had won, attempting to pop all the bubbles one girl was blowing, attempting to dig up a tree with his bare hands. So much fun to be had in a park!