Alder's Tone

From a very early age Junior has shown pleasure at seeing his Dad come home from work in an evening. But this Monday was something else.

I have always come in and said hello straight away, but on Monday night I broke the routine and headed for the day's post first.

As I opened the door, with the usual alarm chime sounding, Junior realised Daddy was home. He was bouncing at the time on MOTS' lap on the sofa, which increased in rate and magnitude at the excitement of Daddy coming in.

Only Daddy didn't come in, he turned left instead of right and headed for the pile of unopened envelopes.

"I think you need to say hello to your boy", instructed MOTS
"I'll just flick through the post", deferred I
"I think you need to say hello now", suggested MOTS
"Just a minute", confirmed I

As I've never had him in this situation before I've never noticed it. He's always pleased to see me, but that's a reaction to something being there. A reaction to a specific situation. Monday was different, it was an adverse reaction to the absence of a situation. It was the acknowledgement that he was either used to something happening that didn't, or just missing something that was expected.

Either way, I was really pleased at his disappointment that I hadn't said hello. I really felt like I had made the transition from "father" to "dad", and even as I type I'm fighting the lump in the throat and tears in the eyes.

Posted by Alder at 26 April 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Junior has got his first certificate! Nothing special, but a certificate nonetheless.

He attended his first "Sing and Sign" session this week and loved it. So, that'll be him signed up to the full classes then!

Link here.

Posted by Alder at 17 April 2007 | Permalink

It’s been a busy week of it over Easter, and only now, on Wednesday afternoon, have we truly got the place to ourselves again. It’s also been a weekend of firsts, again, culminating in baby’s first flight.

Well, when I say flight, he’s been on a plane. It never moved an inch though!

First off, on Thursday the Bowes heading up to meet the son and heir, with their son and heir in tow. It was an experience, having an insight into what our little angel will become in around 18 months time – what a cutey. It was a pleasure too, seeing Mr B as a real dad, not like this pretend thingy I am just now, just pushing a pushchair around doesn’t qualify. Interacting, playing, hanging the kids upside down – now that’s parenting.

Sunday was a trip South, or North depending on perspective, to meet the Leathams for the first time. An attempt at meeting half way didn’t quite add up, not even for the mathematician and two statisticians amongst us. Still, I had a longer trip to worry about, the guilt trip I was sent on for not providing my chef duties last August (sorry, wife in hospital and all that…)

Easter Monday. What did daddy do? What any self-respecting dad does on Easter Monday and cuts the grass. Only psychopaths leave the house on Easter Monday, getting caught in the traffic.

Fly on THIS?Tuesday, and the arrival of Grandma and Grandad for the night. With Concorde G-BOAA being homed at East Fortune in East Lothian we decided to take the drive out and pay a visit. Boarding cards in hand one of the museum staff kept us chatting with tales of her coming back to work three weeks earlier and looking forward to her one-year-old’s upcoming birthday party, which has ballooned from a small family affair to full-on staged event complete with bouncy castle. With only a few short months to go I aint looking forward to it. More Stella, Vicar? Moments later we climbed the steps and onto the worst museum exhibit ever. Why worst? Because it should be at 60,000 feet mid-Atlantic, not a museum piece, that’s why.

So, while not actually taking off, Junior’s had his first shot on a real aircraft which he seemed to enjoy. Shame we’ve decided he’s more of a pirate than an astronaut, so will be sea-based. Can’t get everything right, eh?

Picture used in this post:
Close-up of a section of the front landing gear of Concorde, showing cables clearly not meant to be plugged in (or so you'd hope)

Posted by Alder at 11 April 2007 | Permalink

In the immortal words of the Bay City Rollers, "Bye Bye Baby".

There have been many things along the way, a lot have been written about here, that show our baby is growing up, but yesterday I realised we've lost our baby forever.

How?

We met Gent Junior for the first time. And with the two together at just over 2 weeks and just over 7 months, our monster is huge! Bye bye, baby!

Posted by Alder at 01 April 2007 | Permalink

Now here's a good idea. MOTS picked up a leaflet in the changing room in a leading supermarket yesterday. In this instance this is a good thing, as MOTS came across a service she did not know about but would find useful. In that respect the advertising has worked, unusually.

And the service? Odeon's "Newbie" screenings.

Young FilmstalkersWhat a great idea!! There has to be a large number of parents out there who just on't go the the flicks any more because it is just too much hassle and too expensive (see below) to go without junior(s) in tow, and too much worry about them upsetting others if they do have junior(s) in tow. So the answer? Odeon's Newbies.

"But it only costs £6 to see a film". Yeah, OK, real world now:
Baby sitter - £5/hour, double after 11pm plus taxi home. With travel, film, food, looking at a good 5 hour slot before you leave
Meal out - £25/head including drinks, because you have to take advantage of the fact you're out without junior and make the best of it you can

It soon mounts up!

So, why not take the kids and have Filmstalkers in the making? Genius. Absolutely genius. They just need to extend it to Saturday mornings so the whole family can go, including working parents / partners, and it's perfect!

Oh, don't go expecting to see The Hills Have Eyes II, it's 12a or lower certificates!

Posted by Alder at 01 April 2007 | Permalink