Hello Charlotte

Today there was a baby in the big house. How lovely!

Charlotte is a delightful little lump of 5 months, with 2 teeth and a wonderful, light up the room smile. She is a clever combo of mummy's fairness and daddy's ruddy shape. She was alert and only cried once when I held her and that was after quite a long cuddle. That in itself was pretty impressive as I very often have an hysterical crying affect on little people who are too small to get my jokes. I am not at all sure what it is about me that babies find so off putting. It could be that I am scary loud or that they feel, perhaps rightly that they are only minutes away from being thrown to the ceiling or turned upside down, cos these are games I do like to play. Perhaps I am guilty of treating babies as tougher than they really are and that as they push forth into the big bad world, they hear an announcement that they need to be wary of anyone called Sue. Anyway the lovely Charlotte was not too fazed by me and we enjoyed some snuggly cuddles.

Her parcel was wrapped in bright animal paper that crinkled and rattled and tasted pretty damn fine too, by all accounts. I reckon we could all save  ourselves a bundle if we just accepted that the best parcel you can give a kid is a bit of paper or a box. This holds true until they become first world consumers and products of advertising. Zig would be happy with a box or a carton, so long as he had already played with the lego inside and might be more so if it came with instructions on how to make it into a car or a boat or an alien spaceship.

I remember Belly playing with a fridge box for weeks. I cut a doorway and armed her with paints and crayons and she and all her little visitors were off and running. They played with that cardboard until it literally fell to bits. It was a house, a car, a boat, or just something to hide in. They definitely loved that box!

Charlotte and her mummy and daddy live a long way away, but I do hope that we get to see her again this year, or at least before she goes to Uni. Ta to Dan and Sophie for calling in to introduce us to your girl. She's a beaut!