There's Soda Pop and the Dancing is Free...

Like Wither's , I too have a monster.

This little cherub was an unexpected arrival into the Life of me and Mr DWNB. An unbelievable surprise, but who gave me plenty of warning of his arrival. From the moment I was "diagnosed" pregnant, I began to throw up.

I threw up in the morning, I threw up at lunch time, I threw up at tea time, I threw up before I went to bed. Once I even threw up after eating a packet of White Rainbow Drops. Heavens, I thought my insides had exploded.

He was due at the start of August, I hoped he might hold on til our Anniversary, at the end of August, but he hung on in there until the end of the first week in September.

In the ward, he looked older than all the other babies. He wasn't pink and crinkly. he was yellow (like his dad), and held his head up and looked around.

At four weeks, after feeding non-stop and introducing a little rice to him, and discovering this made him sleep right through the night, I took him to the Vet, the doctor, who berated me and said "You should have brought him in for a ten week check up". I looked at my little stranger who was sitting on my lap taking in everything around him, and looked back at the doctor and said "He's only 4 weeks old".

From then on, he was "The incredible growing Steve"; the doctor asked me to bring him back weekly - not that he thought there was anything wrong with him - he just couldn't believe that a baby could grow so fast in such a short space of time. And he didn't let him down, it wasn't until he was 11 weeks that the weight and size gain slowed to just less than a lb a week.

I figured then that he was always going to be bigger than norm, and that was okay - until he started suffering stiffness in his joints at 9. After a football training session he would stiffen so badly, I would have to drag him out the car - the school nurse referred him to the doctor, the doctor referred him immediately to the hospital.

The pediatrician walked into the room, took one look at him and said "there's the problem, 9 year old boy in a 14 year old boy's body, his bones and muscles just aren't strong enough" .

So now he's this size. Hopefully fully grown. He is a good foot taller than me and a good few inches taller than his dad. And noise. he is so bloody noisy you wouldn't believe it. Talks non stop. I don't know where he gets that from.

Hey ho - anyways, he's away out tonight. Girlfriend is having a "pre-birthday" party before she heads off to USA next week. He is heading the week after. It barely seems like five minutes since he came home... and off again, for his last year :-)