The Days of Bears and Puppies

As J is asleep in his cot, we take the opportunity to sort some of his clothes.

W: He's grown out of so many things...
Me: We only bought him that shirt at Christmas and already it's too small.
W: Like everything, it's OK width-wise. It's the length that suffers.
Me: It all looks too short now. No wonder he's already on to the 6 to 9 month clothing.
W: And beyond.

Pause as W holds up one of his smaller babygrows

W: Aw! It's the end of bears and puppies...
Me: Goodbye puppies!
W: Farewell to the zebras.
Me: The zebras have left the building...

Pause

Me: What shall we do with them?
W: (opening the bottom draw) We'll keep them here, just for a bit. You know?
Me: Yeah, good plan. Maybe someone else will want them.

The Appearance of Reading

We're in a local coffee shop.

W: It's only a matter of time before he locks eyes with a middle-aged lady.
Me: He's good at that?
W: Oh yes, and then they come over and ask his name and how old he is.
Me: Very sweet.
W: I don't know how he does it.

J stares, meercat-like, around the shop. I see what W means.

W: Only a matter of time...

I unfold a section of the newspaper, J turns his attention to it and holds one edge, appearing to peruse the print. Nearby, I notice an older couple watching us.

Woman: He looks like he's reading. (her husband smiles)
Me: He does that a lot at home with his story books.
Woman: How old is he?
Me: Four months.
Woman: He looks very alert. (she smiles)

J does it again, another granny is hooked. Reading is a few years away, but the appearance of reading, it seems, may have already been mastered.

The Pirate Alphabet

An example of mummy and daddy humour as we're putting him to bed...

W: It's funny how he sometimes sleeps with one eye partly open.
Me: I swear he can see us.
W: Our little pirate.
Me: If he becomes a modern pirate, he might end up hijacking yachts and kidnapping rich older couples.
W: That's true. Where would we put them up?
Me: No one ever pays the ransom. We'd have to build a granny annexe.
W: (to baby) Let's draw a line at kidnapping eh?
Me: And hijacking.
W: That too.
Me: Stick to the nicer bits of pirating eh? Travelling and singing.

Clears throat and sings

Oh! The pirate alphabet is very very short,
N, O, P, Q, Arrr!

And the pirates sail in a great big boat, on the
Y, Z, A, B, Sea!

Like it?
W: Love it!

Little J smiles too.

Parenthood in a Nutshell

We're sitting on the sofa. I'm holding J.

Me: (to W, sitting nearby) Where's the muslin? He's drooling again.
W: Got to get used to that.
Me: I am actually. (wiping it away, then looking down) Oh, he's been sick on my hand. How long's that been there? When did that happen?
W: I think that's the definition of parenthood right there.
Me: Did we just stop noticing?
W: It's not that. It's just that we take it all in our stride now.

I'm sure there are plenty more things to get used to.

Jiffles and Sniffles

The new year has brought a new bed, and a cold, for little J. You join us as we've just put him down for his first night in the cot.

Me: All that space around him.
W: He needed it. He was waking himself up in the Moses basket every time he moved his arms.
Me: We always think he's getting big, but the cot makes him look so small.
W: I know!
Me: Plenty of space to jiffle* if he wants to.
W: I'm sure he will - I wonder where he gets it from?
Me: (innocently) No idea.

Pause

W: And poor little man has a cold too. He's all snotty.
Me: So we're going to get woken up later?
W: Probably.
Me: Best get to bed then.

In the event, he took to his new bed extremely well. It was the next few nights that the sniffles really took their toll.

Note
* to jiffle or jiffling accurately describes a case of the fidgets. It's a word from my childhood, which I'll pass onto little J.