TWO MEN AND A BABY

I was due to meet my friend, Caroline, today for coffee, and as she likes to walk every day, and we have the same Fitbit, I thought it would be good to drive to her house and then we could walk up into Old Town to have coffee at Jack’s, which is what we did.  It is about 3,500 steps there, so on my calculations, by the time we had walked there and back, we would both be well on our way to our 8,000 total.  I apologise that I am being BORING about this, but I am quite excited to think that I am so enthusiastic about walking.

We had the wind in our faces as we started walking and it was quite chilly, but we soon warmed up, and when we reached Jack’s, we were ready for our cup of coffee - but we didn’t have anything to eat, except a small shortbread biscuit that comes with the coffee and of course, it would have be rude to waste it!

As we sat there, we noticed a young man with a baby sitting to the side of us, so I asked how old the baby was - he told us just over 4 weeks.  I then asked if he was the main “carer” for the baby and he said he wasn’t but that he had brought her out so that Mum could have some “me time” and he could spend some time with her himself.  However, he also said that he wouldn’t mind being with the baby full time because coming out for coffee and meeting friends beat going to work any day.

A few minutes later we noticed a friend arrived and he seemed really taken with the baby - and Dad, on the right, seemed quite happy to hand her over.  Between them they were looking at the baby adoringly, so I took this photograph.  

A few minutes later, two plates of breakfast arrived and the baby was put into the pushchair, but soon started crying, so Dad lifted her out and started to give her a bottle of milk, which meant she quietened down.  Then came the tricky bit - and as Caroline said, "Now we'll see how they manage" as Dad tried to cut up fried bread, sausages and egg etc just using one hand.  We both smiled and said that we remembered how it had been for us when we our two boys were younger - trying to feed a baby with one hand and eat with the other - so I said that I remembered doing lots of chores with one hand, whilst bouncing a baby on one hip - those were the days!

Although I took a few photographs of flowers (and I have put one in as an extra) after we had walked back to Caroline’s, I decided to Blip this one instead - it will be Flower Friday again next week, but I may not see a father gazing so lovingly at his daughter for a while.

"Children learn more
     from what you ARE
          than what you TEACH."
W.E.B. DuBois