All that comes with it

There was a time when you could put Evan down somewhere and be confident that he would stay there. This predictability was very useful. I’m not saying we used him for a door stop or anything; but sometimes you just need a door to stay open.

Not anymore. Evan is now finely balanced between the two poles of imobile and mobile; and like many finely balanced things he keeps falling over. You can almost smell his frustration. He knows that he wants something. He knows that it is out of his reach. He knows that there must be a way for him to move so it will be in his reach. But he just can’t work out what that is.

In practice this results in him falling forward onto his hands then (despite at that moment being in the ideal crawling position) slowly stretching out his legs so he ends up flat on his stomach. You then see a confused look of incredulity flash across his face, and it doesn’t take a baby whisperer to figure out he is thinking: “Now what?”. The answer to that question is of course obvious. Make screeching Godzilla noises until someone picks you up and sits you back down on your bum. Then you go through the whole process again. Marvelous.

We don’t really mind of course. Learning to move isn’t exactly the easiest task in the world. And anyway, sometimes in the mornings I have trouble switching from inertia to motion, and I’m 31.

Of course there is a small part of us that is sorry to say goodbye to the stationary Evan. I would like to say that this was because of bitter-sweet feelings about our baby growing up, but I’d be lying. No, it’s because when he starts crawling we are going to have find a place out of his reach for all the crap that’s on our floor that we don’t want him to get hold of.

Perhaps we could tie his legs together until his first birthday.

Kerry, Amy, Evan and myself are off to spend a few days cruising the canals of Derbyshire on my Dad’s narrowboat. We haven’t got a specific plan on how long we’ll be gone; it all depends on the weather and how well Evan and Amy tolerate the experience (we’ve only been for day trips with them up until now).

I have been trying to lobby my father to change the paint job on the boat, but so far I haven’t had much success:

Current paint job

Proposed paint job

Keep the song suggestions coming, and I’ll get started on the podcast when I get back.

When I was about nine years old the boy who lived next door to me, Ben Askew, rang my house pretending to work for a comic I read. He told me I had won a BMX bike in a competition and that it would be delivered to my house the next day.

I told my parents and they expressed their doubts. Why would they be ringing on a Saturday? And who would they find to deliver a bike on a Sunday? But I didn’t listen. I had faith. I told all my friends I was going to get a brand new bike and I waited in all day Sunday for it. At 6pm it still hadn’t come, and then Ben rang the house and said it had all been a joke.

I think that was the most disappointed I have ever felt in my entire life.

I didn’t win the iPod. But that doesn’t really matter. Coke appear to have an additional promotion on where you automatically win a iTune track as well as getting your regular entry. So now I have 46 free songs. And I have an idea about how to use them

I want to create the ultimate All That Comes With It Soundtrack. I would like everyone who reads this blog to suggest one or two songs and then I shall put them all together to form a marvelous mixture of musical masterpieces. It doesn’t matter if it’s well known or obscure. It doesn’t matter if you think I’ll like it or if you think I’ll hate it. All that matters is that you like it. When I have all 46 tracks I’m going to make them into a podcast, because I’ve always known that I was born to be an inane radio DJ.

I want everyone participating here. Both the regular commenters and the lurkers. Go on, you know you really want to.

And Ben Askew. Yes you, the Ben Askew who owns Ben Askew Caravans, Lincolnshire. You owe me a BMX you bastard.