Tuesday, August 07, 2012

A piece of sausage, peace and quiet and feeding Baby.

1. Over lunch in the cafe, Alec balances a piece of sausage on his plastic teaspoon and holds it out to me.
"No, Alec, it's yours."
But he insists on putting it delicately into my mouth.
I offer him a piece of mine. He doesn't want it on the fork. He wants in on the pl... no, on the highchair tray.  He grabs it using his whole hand and mashes it into his mouth.


2. That home-coming tantrum that means Alec is very much ready for a nap.


3. I tried to buy myself some supper-preparing time by encouraging Alec to do some wholesome roleplay with his doll, Baby. "Give Baby some snack, Alec. Look!" And that's how I found myself sitting on the floor pretending to spoon a wooden brick out of an egg box. I felt stupid, supper wasn't getting made and Alec's demands for "Nack! Bic-bic!" were getting more and more piercing.
But after we'd eaten and while I was making things orderly, I heard lip-smacking. I turned round to find Alec offering the spoon to Baby.

Escape, tulips and samosa.

1. This morning, I'm piling into a car with friends to escape into the Weald, where we will visit a garden planted with 45,000 tulips. 2...