Toddler news

Mrs C and I have just finished a marathon babysit with Little
Ava, who arrived Sunday afternoon at our house, and whom we
drove back to her house mid afternoon today (in advance of her
mum arriving back home at about 7pm). We had a lovely but
exhausting time looking after her. She tends to wake early at
5.30am, so I got up early the first morning at 5.30 (after
hearing her babbling on the baby monitor on and off for an
hour), and Mrs C did the same this morning.

Unfortunately, Mrs C is a light sleeper and because we'd got
the baby monitor on all night, she only had 2 hours' sleep with
listening to Ava turning over in her cot most of the night.
So she felt like a zombie for most of today.

As I've said already, Little A is a delight to be with and to
watch her "growing up". She started to take her first few steps,
in the last 2-3 days ... Mrs C counted 8 steps today, though as
you can imagine she's walking very cautiously and slowly. Another
first is her clapping her hands when we ask her to do so ...she
started to do so in the middle of a nursery rhyme: "Wind the
bobbin up", when it came to the "Clap, clap clap" bit,
spontaneously by herself. And we reckon she said "(L)ight" when
we were switching the lights in our sitting room on & off, and
pointed at them too.

So she does seem to be bright for her age (she slightly over 1
year in age).

All this baby talk ... I can see how dull it can be for some
people if they're not at all interested in little children....
or if you're at a family gathering and the conversation is non-
stop talk about babies -- feeding them, changing them, when little
so-and-so said his first word, etc, etc .. and yet if you're a
young mum or dad, your whole life becomes devoted to looking after
your baby 24/7.

A big day for me tomorrow. I'll be 60. I'll qualify for a
Nottingham City bus pass (free to roam the city and the surrounding
countryside, plus hop on the bus to East Midlands Airport nearby),
and I'll also qualify for ... wait for it ... free prescriptions
from my GP ... not that I need anything at present. If Viagra were
available free on the NHS, I might be tempted to go along and ask
for some of that -- for just a bit of fun. Then I would be able to
"keep up with the Joneses".