Can babies see dead people?

I'll just come out and say it: I believe babies have a sixth sense, one which allows them to see dead people.

It's a belief I've held since 2003, when I'd sit and watch my baby nephew communicating with someone in the same room who I couldn't see. He'd either look over my shoulder or up at the ceiling and stare intensely before pulling a wide toothless baby smile and then start to giggle. It was very strange.

My sister and I tried many times to come up with a plausible explanation for her son's apparent ability to communicate with nothing but fresh air. At first we thought he was filling his nappy and giving a celebratory smile, but that proved a bum steer. We even considered if he might be cross-eyed, but his eyesight was perfect. After going through every possible explanation we came to the conclusion that it was his 'Sixth Sense' and just like the boy in the M. Night Shyamalan movie 'The Sixth Sense' he could "see dead people".

My grandmother had passed away a few months after my nephew was born and we liked the idea that it was her who was making him giggle. When he'd start giggling at the invisible entity we'd say to him: "Are you smiling at Nana again?"

My nephew's sixth sense lasted until he was about one year old. It stopped about the time he started walking. And then one day, when he was about two, my sister and I showed him a photograph taken when he was three months old sitting with his Nana. "Do you remember this lady?" my sister asked him. "Yes," he replied. "That's the lady that talks to me in the sky." I kid you not, that's what he said!

Three year's ago my sister had a second child, this time a daughter, and she too seemed to communicate with something invisible in the room. We wondered if my Nana had returned, only this time with my father who had passed away when she was just five weeks old. And now Joe-Joe's sixth sense seems to be active as I've been watching him from a distance this morning smiling and laughing at invisible people in our living room. I wonder... It's nice to think that my dead family members are keeping him amused when I'm preparing his bottles of milk.

I'd be interested to hear if you believe your baby has a sixth sense. Leave a comment.

Latest dirty nappy score: Daddy 47, Mummy 40, The Dragon 4, The midwife 1 
  

'Wolf Baby' gets a haircut!

Joe-Joe gets his first trim!

I took a look at the stats for this blog today and was surprised to discover that my entry on June 8 titled: 'Are We Having A Wolf Baby' has registered twice as many hits as any other offering on 'Joe-Joe and Me'. (Over 550 page views!).

It seems there's nothing like a hairy child to get mouses clicking on a global scale. I even had a reader in Burkina Faso !!! (It's a country in west Africa - I had to look it up!)

Chris Waddle never looked so good!

My prediction back then that our unborn child would be a hairy baby proved correct and last week I was forced to give our seven-week-old 'wolf baby' his first haircut.

Joe-Joe took it all in his stride and actually seemed pleased to see his Daddy carrying a big pair of orange scissors. My wife Deborah wasn't too happy though and it took some convincing before she let me loose on our son's locks.  I trimmed the long strands of strawberry blond hair that covered  his ears and after some persuading agreed to hold off from trimming the locks currently below his collar. I'm pleased with Joe-Joe's hairstyle and it can only be a matter of weeks before it resembles the mullet look of my favourite Tottenham Hotspur footballer from the late Eighties - Chris Waddle. Cool!


Latest dirty nappy score: Daddy 39, Mummy 36, Grannie Mary (The Dragon) 3, Midwife 1

I'm a freebie mummy!

Last week I spent an hour of my precious time when my son was asleep signing up to a load of internet baby clubs with the aim of getting as many freebies for Joe-Joe as possible. And this week the postman began delivering the fruits of my labour. 

On Monday a package arrived from those nice people at organic baby food company HiPP. It contained an A-Z guide on pregnancy and baby health "for mums", plus a comforter for baby with an elephant face on it. Sadly, there was no "A-Z guide for Dads" so I'll just have to be a mummy. At least Joe-Joe likes his orange comforter and allows it to rest beside his head in his child seat.    

The run of gifts from companies desperate to lure me in continued today when the postman delivered a package from baby milk firm Aptamil. The accompanying letter read: "Nick, Thank you for registering with us and congratulations on becoming a MUM." !!! Funny that, but when I took a look this morning I was definitely a DAD!!! Along with that rather annoying piece of literature the firm had sent a lovely cuddly toy polar bear. I'm not sure whether it's a boy or girl bear, but I wouldn't expect those people at Aptamil to be fussed over such details. 


Joe-Joe loves his bear and now holds it in a vice-like grip after his terrible two-year-old cousin Benjamin borrowed it for an hour and then refused to give it back! My wife seemed happy to allow Benji to take it home, but I wasn't prepared to let my freebie, sorry I mean Joe-Joe's brand new freebie travel to Portsmouth in the hands of my grubby nephew. "Get that polar bear back," I urged Deborah as Benji climbed into his car seat for the journey home. Thankfully, his daddy Ryan grabbed the now dirty white bear from his son and gave it to Deborah who ran back inside the house. As their car pulled away I could hear Benji sobbing uncontrollably, "Bear, Bear, Bear." I must admit that I failed to feel any regret for our actions, after all, I'm going to suggest that Mr. Ryan Read joins the ABC club and becomes Aptamil's next freebie Mummy!     

Latest dirty nappy score: Daddy 38, Mummy 36, Grannie Mary 3, Midwife 1