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My daughter woke up early, but I put her in bed with me and we both fell asleep again and didn't wake up until nearly 8am, which is almost unheard of. There's something very special about sleeping next to your own sleeping baby (it's weird if you do it with someone else's) and it's these simple and still moments that I enjoy with her the most (even though she's a lot of fun when she's animated and shouting). But when I am feeding her and she's in the point of falling asleep, or she's sitting beside me on the sofa watching telly it's so simple and special and nothing else really matters. Just two human beings, hanging out, safe in each other's company, bonded by love (from me to her, as you know, it's my strong belief that children are incapable of love).
I can never quite enjoy snoozing with her for fear that I will somehow crush or suffocate her, but was so tired this morning that I fell back to sleep anyway. And fortunately she survived. It threw everything else out of whack a bit, but I don't care. These are the bits that I will remember, look back fondly on and envy my old self for having experienced. There's a few years of it not being weird for us to fall asleep hugging each other left, but she will grow out of that before I do.
Phoebe remains the happiest baby alive and it's hard not to be cheered up by her positive outlook even if you're tired and tetchy. She's been on the outside now almost as long as she was cooped up in her womby prison, but I am still not quite used to this new life (both hers and mine) and it's still surreal to think I have an actual baby. Maybe those moments of happy calm are so special because in them it really hits home that I am a dad. I don't know. But I am really delighted this little bag of urine and smiles turned up. I am not sure where she came from. And watching Modern Family tonight and seeing one of the daughters heading off for a college, I got a real pang of despair at the fact that my new little friend will one day leave us behind. Hopefully I will be dead by then so won't experience that betrayal. Or just as likely everything will be so expensive for young people by then that she'll have to live with us forever and then murder us in order to have any kind of financial security.
It's a thankless task, but only an idiot who would write an open letter to the Guardian would be expecting any thanks. The punishment of having a child is its own reward.
I can't guarantee that this will work out for you though. We got given the best baby, so we're probably not a good example to work to.
Putting “embarrassment†and “embarrassing†into my Warming Up search engine led to me finding another old blog to adapt for the Metro and I also wrote a piece about International Men's Day (it's coming up soon - all you guys who tweet about it must be very excited) as I've agreed to spend the day promoting Target Ovarian Cancer, by saying a thank you to all the men who've done fantastic jobs of supporting the amazing women in their lives who are affected by ovarian cancer. If I am going to make International Women's Day partly about men (even if it's about stupid men) then I should make International Men's Day partly about women. When's Women's Ovarian Cancer Day though hey? It's May 8th.
If only I could remember the date of International Men's day it would help. I suspect the men who were complaining about it not existing (when it did) have all got distracted because they're now arguing about why shaving equipment should be exempt from tax if tampons are going to be (which it seems they probably aren't anyway). Because those kind of guys are fucking geniuses and should in no way take a good long look at themselves in the mirror (whether shaving or not) and ask themselves, “What the fuck is wrong with me?â€
Kevin Toms who nearly caused me to fail all my exams because I became obsessed with his Football Manger video game in the 1980s is trying to kickstart rewrite for the modern world. If he meant as much to your childhood as he did to mine, or even if you want to play a proper football manager game without all the faff that they have these days, then donate here . One New Zealand dollar is about 44 pence.
And he's got a game out on iOS already.
Thanks for all the wasted hours when I should have been out kissing girls, Kevin. You ruined my life.
Obviously your first priority must be to get my snooker kickstarter to the million, but I reckon that's in the bag (pocket?) already. I mean it hasn't gone up much recently, but I suspect people are just going out and earning the money to add to it later on. And so they should.
