Verbally abused

I am struggling to remember a time before this morning.

The Youngest woke up and started talking.

She did not stop talking or making a noise of some description until bedtime. That is approximately thirteen and a half hours of uninterrupted noise. Some of it was quite sweet innocent chatter. Some of it was not quite so sweet and some of it was literally just noise.

I can’t decide if she was chivvied along by her brother or if she chivvied him along, but regardless there was a lot of hyper-activity in the house. I tried to temper this with threat of exercise, which went unheeded, so I had no alternative but to take them for a walk and whilst I sat on a rock on a dry river bed, munching a doughnut, I enjoyed the sight of The Youngest (still chatting away) daintily hoiking her skirt up as she tried to cross the stream. Amazingly, she went back and forth a few times without tumbling headlong into the water. Am I a bad dad if I admit to being slightly disappointed by this rare display of stability?

We carried on walking (remember: constant stream of consciousness from Matty all the way) and came to Hawes Bridge where I joined in on the paddling action, which was so very refreshing. The photo here is looking upstream.

We made it home, through dinner (still talking) and an After Dinner Perambulation before finally I was able to bath her and put her to sleep (talking slightly less). Once she was down, I was able to set about mopping up the blood that had been seeping from my ears throughout the day.

I can still hear her. There is nothing else. 

There is only the sound of Matilda.