Nana, nana nana, hey hey, goodbye
Lucky boy that he is (even if he’s too young to know it),
Jasper has had visits from all kinds of friends and family in the past year,
with more to come.
First there was Dudditz!, all the way from Japan; then, in the past two weeks, the little man’s Nana, my mum, Jacqui, has been staying with us.
Turning one year old was a big moment for us, if not for JD, so we wanted his Nana to be here to share it with us.
It’s never a bad thing to have an extra pair of hands around the place either, and whenever chaos threatened to reign, mum stepped in and gave us some much-needed breathing space to rest and regroup. She flew back to England on Monday, leaving the house feeling very empty again.
Meanwhile, we have had a few more visits to our house. Signs are that the market is pretty dead, but that doesn’t give us any excuse: the place still has to be immaculate. It keeps us on our toes, at least.
Since the snow melted, revealing the gruesome truth about our neglect during Jasper’s first summer on earth, we’ve been forced outside to tackle the gigantic lot. Our deck is going to need a complete overhaul, there’s tons of leaves everywhere and none of the trees have been pruned since we moved in, three years ago.
None of this matters a jot when you have a child learning the boundaries of his existence. Jasper took six consecutive unaided steps this weekend, which means within weeks he will be climbing (and falling from) stairs, chairs, tables and boxes. Suddenly our child-proof house needs making safe at a new level, two feet higher up.
It’s loads of fun to watch my son taking steps on his own, as well as humbling and awe-inspiring. As long as Jasper doesn’t realise he’s walking, he is a natural, toddling with confident balance.
The second he looks down, he realises the potential danger and squats quickly onto his bottom. One day, our little Dumbo will figure out that, after all, he doesn’t need the feather to fly – that’s when our real trouble is going to start! Sleep well.
