Eek a Baby Blip

I headed over to Rosemary's mum's in Garforth near Leeds for the holiday weekend. R n I were there to help with her mum's new house and to meet Ethan, her wee brother's recently born baby.

Aren't newly born babies so interesting? No I hear you cry! Puppies are far more interesting at 5 weeks as they've started to develop their own wee doggy personalities. In contrast, humans are far slower, only being able to suckle, shit and scream. Ironically, parents are pre-programmed to attribute every motor reflex as a future sign of brilliance.

To be fair to Ethan, although he's not yet learnt to focus his eyes, he's already famous. He was born on the same day as Prince George and received significant media attention as a result. He, like his mother, is a ginge too. My feeling is that he will become the next ginga ninja, following in the footsteps of Ed Clancy the ginger Olympic cyclists. I was born ginger too and it can be challenging. Fate intervened for me though and I went bald.

It was a cool afternoon though. Rosemary amused me with her parrot like vocabulary, continually saying "hello" to Ethan. I resisted shouting "squack, pieces of eight, pieces of eight", thus avoiding a slap. Admittedly, I did have a wee tear in my eye seeing Grandma holding the wee bundle of joy with such pride. I was allowed to hold him too. Suddenly, I heard a funny noise as brown liquidy gunk shot into his nappy. The reflex action was to toss him across the other side of the room but my brain kicked in just in time to prevent this automatic response.

In all seriousness though, it was great to see a family so proud and happy, especially Granny