Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

There are three different classrooms at Amy’s nursery, the baby room, the toddler room (or tobbler room as Amy calls it), and the big room. I’m not working today but I’ve still taken her to nursery as she’s going to be spending some time in the big room in preparation for her moving up next month. She’s about ready for the move; most of the friends have already gone to the big room and the majority of the kids in the toddler room are smaller, younger and less socially developed than she is.

I spent my morning of freedom in Borders reading graphic novels with absolutely no intention to buy any of them. This is about the only contact I have with comics these days; they are just too damn expensive. In one hour I read three books that would have cost me around £10 each. That’s 50p a minute, almost 1p a second. I could go on holiday for a week in Jamaica for that sort of time/money ratio. I did buy something though, I spotted an Apple Tree Farm lotto game that I plan to add to the slowly growing pile of presents we have in preparation for Amy’s third birthday.

I’ve mentioned Amy’s graduation to the big room and her upcoming birthday and this post could easily degenerate into a bitter-sweet observation about the speed at which Amy is growing up and the certain knowledge that she won’t be my little girl for ever. It seems only yesterday that she was blowing two candles out on her birthday cake and now shes only weeks away from turning three. But even if I could stop time I wouldn’t. Every day that passes reveals that she has blossomed even more. She’s thriving. She is exuberant, vibrant and beautiful; tender, loving and humorous; inquisitive, inventive and imaginative; and becomes more so every day. She is Amy Hughes and time will only strengthen her already monumental impact on our lives.

I look backwards with fondness, but I’m also looking forward to what’s to come.