Day 147

I keep banging on about the word "normal". Normal, what exactly is that, everyone has a different idea of normal. Well for me normal was waking up, a bit too early, to little one's cries as he wanted to get up. It was little one's birthday today - not that he knew it, but hey we did.

We brought him into our bedroom and opened cards for him while he jumped around the bedroom. It's a very difficult situation, as he always gets a card from his Dad, never his Mum, but in our own strange way we don't want his Dad to keep contact. He is strange man who is very dominating, and wants control of situations, even when he doesn't really have any.

In this case he sent his card to my brother and his wife, rather than social services, like he knows he should - this is his way of having control of the situation. It is another one of those instances where you either have to get heavy or just ignore - sometimes though, it is just easier to ignore and not feed his ego and need to be different.

So we opened the cards and little ones new trike/scooter combo. He has used it as a seat, but at the moment doesn't have an idea that he is supposed to wheel it - think I may have said this before, but Rome wasn't built in a day!

We had invited my daughter and her partner and their little one round for birthday tea, but really didn't hold out too much hope as the weather forecast was crap. However, we got very lucky, and apart from a 30 minute wet spell the afternoon was good. The kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline, while the adults enjoyed a beer or two, and played some indoor games, with my daughter and her partner sitting outside on the decking, with my wife and I in the kitchen. It was a very good afternoon, one that we would like to do again real soon, without the need for the whole worrying about distance...