Wednesday 19 March 2014

Who's the daddy?

Are you actually reading this?” I ask.
“I’m more surprised you’ve actually written something.” I hear you reply.
Blimey. I’m constructing my own arguments now.
My poor old blog has been sitting here unloved since the middle of last year. That’s been for a few good reasons.
Firstly, I’ll admit, the last piece I wrote about my sadly departed friend Andy felt like a good place to leave the blog for a while. He was a tremendous chap, and coming to the blog every time and seeing him there felt right. Recently, though, I know he would have told me to just get on with it and start writing some more nonsense, ‘Carpe Diem’ he’d have probably said – only with the accent of a Chuckle Brother/Sean Bean.
The other reason I haven’t been writing, is the fact I became a dad.
It’s not a question of not having enough time, we’re very lucky in the fact that Callie sleeps quite a lot (maybe she’s been reading my work), and it’s not about a lack of topics…it’s just that every time I come to write something I find myself almost overawed by how fortunate and blessed I feel to have a daughter - that I can’t begin to write properly. Honestly, I didn’t make that up.
I’m also acutely aware that banging on about babies can be horribly dull for people who (a) don’t have kids or (b) have had kids, and know this stuff already. So I’m not going to bang on about it, save for two things. Firstly, the question I keep getting asked which is “How does an idiot like you possibly know how to be a father?” Good question, thanks. Well, the best way of describing it is like playing an old text based computer game. You get a scenario and you try what you can, and it eventually works. Therefore, Sunday night would have been something like this:
Baby is crying. What do you want to do?
>FEED BABY
You feed baby. Baby is still crying
>CUDDLE BABY
You cuddle baby. Baby cries some more
>PUT BABY IN COT AND SING ‘GAY BAR’ BY ELECTRIC SIX

You sing. Baby giggles for 10 minutes and then falls asleep.
>GO DOWNSTAIRS AND HAVE A LAGER.

The second thing I wanted to bang on about is this: Callie has the most wonderful mother. 

I try not to blog too much about the missus (she normally gets suspicious, thinks I've been up to something, which I'm not, really) but she deserves this. You’ve probably seen lots of photos of Callie smiling on Facebook. That’s because of her mum. Those who’ve met Callie have told us what a lovely personality she has. That’s because of mum. And I know it doesn’t come easy. The preparation, the long days, the sheer amount of cuddly Disney toys that you have to find space for – she does it brilliantly and I'm so grateful for it. If my blog can do anything, it's celebrate the wonderful people in my life.

Happy 8 months birthday Callie and happy 8 months being a wonderful mum, Lisa.    

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