Sleepless in San Francisco

Daniel's first picture

Newly hatched and underwhelmed

  Joni and Daniel      Joni and Daniel

New brothers “swop” presents

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Road testing his first set of wheels

Quote of the day…

"Joni you’re such a slave driver”  “No I not.  You’re the train driver”. 

It is possible that some little-published mathematical law states that two children equal ten more than one.  Nevertheless, so far we are all wearing our own clothes in conventional configurations, and meals are happening in their traditional order even if the timings need some work, so we may be making progress towards establishing some sort of routine at some stage.  We’re hoping that sleep may turn out to be one of those unlockable features available by downloading service pack 2. 

He’s a lot more fun out than in; and as for the bit in the middle, all I can say is Genesis 3:16. Joni stayed with friends on Monday night and Martin brought him in to see us on Tuesday morning.  The first thing he decided was that the baby needed a present, so off they disappeared again on a present-choosing mission, followed by a little handing-over ceremony… soft-toy crab in lurid colours for Daniel, and a big green truck for Joni.  The rest of Tuesday passed in a blur of feeding, phone calls, more feeding, receiving visitors, more feeding, medical professionals coming and going, and more feeding… He came out demanding steak and chips, and has since progressed to onion rings on the side with death-by-chocolate to follow.  The hospital wanted us to stay in till Wednesday, but when I asked, no-one could think of any reason why we shouldn’t go home on Tuesday evening, so we went. 

And now here we are, learning to be four.  So far we’ve gathered up the sundry baby-related items from various storage holes around the house (OK, normal people might have done that before the baby actually arrived).  We’ve been round town a couple of times doing odd jobs and buying other bits of stuff (how can we possibly not have any bibs; or are they still squirrelled away in a household storage hole?).  We bought a new pram/pushchair type thing in a “can’t lose you in the supermarket” shade of red (thanks for the gift Granny and Grandad!).  I even took the dogs for a (short) walk this morning (on foot rather than bike; stitches in a location incompatible with cycling).  We went visiting this afternoon; friends from church, one of whom conveniently works in the civil registry, so she gave us all the information we need that we can hopefully register him in the next few days, and we called in at the plaza for a bit on the way home.  And we’ve managed to deliver Joni on time to nursery two days running (which is almost more efficient than we manage in an ordinary week!).  Apparently he went in to nursery yesterday and told them that the baby had come out, that his name was Daniel, and that he is this small… (hold up right hand and with thumb and fore-finger indicate a distance of about 4 cms) so the staff were surprised to meet him at going home time and discover that he’s pretty much standard length for a new-born. 

And tomorrow’s another day, whatever it might hold.  It feels like quite a long way away yet; on the far side of whatever might happen between now and then… To sleep perchance, to dream??

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