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Monday, August 19, 2013

I'm not saying that Toby's a little bit camp like his father, but ta-daaaaa..!


He's definitely got a touch of the Louie Spence about him. Albeit with legs that don't work. He can do the splits, but it's usually unintentional.

Anyhoo, my reasons for not blogging since Wednesday are less about death, and more about death warmed up. In fact, my excuses are many and various, and come down to a combination of working too hard, playing too hard, and finding it too hard to summon the strength. My chronic prostatitis flared up on Saturday which left me feeling half-dead all weekend, but even without that slowing me down, I'd have struggled to find the time.

As it happens, Thursday was a major milestone in the life of my daughter. It was Amelie's last day at nursery. She doesn't start school for another fortnight, but the government funding ended last week, and we're too cheap to pay the full fees. It means that we've now got her at home full-time until September, so I've stocked up on painkillers and ear-plugs, and I'm having Lisa tagged to stop her leaving the country.

To be honest, I don't think Amelie quite grasped the significance of her last day. She was more interested in whether or not she'd get a cake to take home. But after eighteen months of fun, happiness and learning, the thought of Amelie saying goodbye to her nursery and moving up to big school was enough to reduce Lisa to tears. That, and the thought of having her at home for a fortnight.

Mind you, that led to a bit of a misunderstanding. When I got home from work on Friday, I asked Amelie if she'd like to walk down to Lidl with me. She responded "I would like to walk to Lidl, Daddy, but Mummy said I can't go out for two weeks". Fortunately, Lisa cleared up that confusion by shoving her out the door.

So my Thursday was East Grinstead Health Centre followed by a farewell to Am's nursery. My Friday was Crawley Hospital followed by a walk down to Lidl. And my Saturday was a hastily arranged trip to St Leonards. My parents have just invested in a new computer, on the grounds that Microsoft no longer support steam-powered versions of Windows, and their arthritis is making it hard to wind up the clockwork mechanism on their five-hundred-year-old PC. So I offered to go over there and set it up for them.

To be honest, we had other reasons too. Entertaining Amelie is generally a four-man job, and my attempts to distract her with creative activities were already falling short. She marched into the bedroom on Friday and said "Daddy, I've just realised that this SpongeBob sticker book is actually very, very boring". So we decided we could do with some help. And childcare in return for I.T. support seemed like a reasonable deal.

Of course, I didn't realise at that point that my prostate was flame-grilled and throbbing. I thought I was just tired after a couple of busy days, and would pick up after a strong cup of tea. As it transpired, I found myself getting to grips with Windows 8 while my brain slowly left the building and was replaced by a pain in my pelvis.

Fortunately I managed to battle through, and by 11am on Sunday morning, I had a fully functioning PC, installed with my Dad's favourite software, plus a set of written instructions. Which started with how to turn it on. So with my work done, I headed out to Gensing Gardens for some fun in the sun with my children. Here's Amelie looking confused...


A look she soon passed to her brother...


But if you want to get them both smiling, you have to ask one to tickle the other's feet...


Or haul him around the park by his armpits...


... until Amelie's ready for her close-up...


They might be trouble with a capital T, but they provide a lot of pleasure to go with the pain.

1 comments:

Phil's Mum said...

They're beautiful! But I think you should have taken a picture of Toby sitting at the head of the table to eat Sunday lunch - which prompted Lisa to ask for a plastic mat to go under his chair AS A BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR HER!