I really should try harder to find the time to update this blog, but in my defence Joe is more demanding of my time these days. He started walking a few weeks ago, although at present he is still happier crawling, and I've got to keep a constant eye on him.
He usually takes five baby steps before throwing himself to the floor and bolting away on all fours. He's not as advanced at walking as I was at 13 months, as my mother recalls that at 10 months I would escape from my cot Houdini style before negotiating the stairs and climbing on to the kitchen stool to make myself and my twin sister a jam sandwich - usually at 5am!
Like me at his age, Joe is also an early riser. It's rare for him to sleep later than 6am. However, his dawn chorus of 'Daa-dee' was quite helpful last weekend as it woke me in time to see the Olympic Flame leave Bournemouth Pier on its early morning journey to Southampton.
We left home at 7am and walked for an hour along the promenade from Southbourne, past Boscombe Reef, to the pier at Bournemouth, stopping on the way to pose for pictures with a Met Police bike rider who told us he'd accompanied the Olympic Torch all over Britain. (7 days on 7 days off -nice job if you can get it!) Apparently, his colleague had only just learned to ride a police bike after having his lucky ticket pulled out of a police helmet.
To my surprise my heavily pregnant wife joined us on the long walk to see the flame, but she was glad she did as the atmosphere amongst the early birds was quite special. Children waved their union flags in anticipation and policemen, torch carriers and Olympic Mascots posed for pictures with young babies. The only thing missing it seemed was a politician!
And then the flame appeared and after what seemed like two seconds it was gone! But no one seemed to care - they'd witnessed history (and captured it on their smart phones) and in an orderly fashion the large crowd filed away for breakfast - a very British occasion.
One of these life changing functions is the 'White Noise' application. Since Joe was born he's always been a good sleeper, although we struggled at first to get him to take a daytime nap until I came up with the idea of leaving the hairdryer on in the room that he was sleeping. It's worked a treat, but I've always been conscious that this practice might be dangerous as I'm sure they aren't built to be left on for more than 20 minutes at a time. In fact, the worry that it might catch fire has caused me to lose sleep at night! Anyway, the White Noise app has solved the problem as I can now play white noise through the phone. Joe goes down within a few minutes of turning on the 'extreme rain pouring' setting. The 'crickets chirping', 'oscillating fan' and 'beach waves crashing' also do the job just as well, although for some reason he hasn't taken to the 'train ride track noise' - maybe there are leaves on the line.
