Thanks to Dan's
rather touching post over at
All That Comes With It, I was prompted to take this photograph of Oliver soaring through the air. It's a pastime we often enjoy, particularly when killing a minute or two waiting for the girls to get themselves ready and into the car, and yet I have never taken a photograph of it. I found myself suddenly worried that perhaps any day now I wouldn't be able to throw him that high any more. Worse still, had the day come without me noticing?
Apparently not.
But it will. And when it does I will do what I have had to do at every previous passing milestone: pause for a moment in poignant reflection, before embracing my boy's journey and taking comfort once again in his own own joy at undertaking it.
And then there's Lucy. I looked out of the spare room's window at a man with a husky dog. I watched him for a moment before realising that this dog was the puppy I had grown used to seeing out of the window over many months. In the blinking of an eye it seemed, he had grown up.
As if I needed reminding how fast the young grow. Lucy is fast approaching 4 months old and doesn't like to be cradled in my arms any more. But at least she still grabs my hands and won't let go. That's something she does much more than Oliver did. She holds them tight and looks into my eyes. And then I'm putty in her hands.
So what about today? We visited Charnwood's Christmas Fair where Oliver sampled his first mince pie...
...decorated a biscuit (and ate it, obviously)...
...and then met Father Christmas. Despite his excitement at the prospect of this meeting, when the time arrived he was a little hesitant entering the grotto. But he settled nicely on my knee while Mummy took photos, with Lucy experiencing the whole scene from her Baby Bjorn sling (where she dozed away much of the morning).
This afternoon our friend Babs came round. It's her birthday on Tuesday so we had some birthday cake. Oliver brought it out, we sang happy birthday then he acted as waiter ferrying cake to us from the kitchen. He chatted away so merrily the whole time.
[Oliver enters with cake on a plate.]
"Here's your cake Babs".
"Thank you."
[Turning to me...]"Would you like some cake Daddy?"
"Yes please Oliver".
"OK Daddy. I'll go and get it."
[Oliver exits to kitchen before returning with my cake...]
"Here you are Daddy. You eat your cake."
[Later when I've eaten my cake.]
[Oliver surprised] "Oh, you ate all your cake Daddy, well done."
Oliver is a very sociable and talkative chap. Not really surprising given that few have ever accused his parents of having nothing to say.
His accent is interesting. Some words such as "no" are (mystifyingly) close to
received pronunciation, while others such as "sunshine" make him sound like an out-and-out
Mancunian. Everything in-between either resembles my rather generic northern accent or has the occasional twang of Wiltshire that he picks up from his Mum or his relatives in the south. But whatever his accent, he is certainly finding his own voice.