going postal

I have been ill. Not in any sort of life-threatening way, just ill enough to stop me posting. Better now however, thanks to two days of sleep. The trouble with this has been that because I'm so knackered, every time the Spud naps, I nap with him meaning that we both sleep a lot. So, now he's been having two or three long naps with Mum every day he’s now expecting me, or his Dad to chill out with him all the time. And I mean, all the time. He’s up at 5:30 and we have to be up with him or he sets off the air-raid sirens. Luckily he doesn't seem to care if we're awake or not and so the nursery sofa has been seeing a lot of sleeping grown-ups while the Spud potters happily around his toys in the same room.

Apart from this new-found clinginess, lots of little things have happened in Spudland this week. He’s worked out that he can ‘carry’ now which turns the normal sound of his crawling (shh-SLAP shh-SLAP shh-SLAP - or, when running, SLAPSLAPSLAPSLAP) into the sound young Jim Hawkins must have heard when old Pegleg was following him around with the Black Spot, ie, shh-clump, shh-clump shh-clump. It’s quite disconcerting, particularly when he rounds the corner pushing the lid of his nappy bucket and looking particularly smug.

He’s also discovered the art of ‘putting’. This means that everything he picks up has to be ‘put’ somewhere. Since he has also discovered how to open the bins, this means a certain amount of concern whenever a remote control goes missing. It also means that waking up on the nursery sofa must be done very slowly as the Spud will have 'put' his toys on one's face, behind one's back and inside one's pajamas and it is unwise to roll over too quickly...

The art of ‘putting’ comes with the fledgling art of ‘giving’ which means holding up for offer anything in his hands – should one accept this offer however, a screamingly bereft baby is the result. It is however unsafe to assume that he’s not really ‘giving’ so much as ‘showing’ because sometimes he is actually offloading something he’s bored of and, should one ignore this offer, one could end up with a lap full of apple juice, or a face full of banana.

I realise this is a very short post given the long period of time since the last one but I am resolved to post more often, perhaps even daily, even if it’s only something small. Rather like a mobile in the recycling bin.