All the things!

I’m walking towards the kitchen, when….OW! 

Something has pierced my foot!

I look down, and – OH MY GOD IT’S A LION!! 

But no, it wasn’t him. He’s too small and rounded to cause that kind of damage. 

It must have been the pointy, triangular piece of wood next to him – you know, the one that looks almost as if it was designed to dig deep into my heel. 

With every passing day, our living room is acquiring new toys, picture books, and a variety of wooden things. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful that Marley has so many things to play and interact with. It’s just difficult to keep up with the quantity, and also it’s difficult to figure out which one is his favourite. 

He seems to really love playing with one particular Balamory DVD case (he loves it because his Auntie is in that episode). But then he also loves Thomas the Tank Engine. And the plane. And the Alphabet Bus. 

There’s a lot of stuff!

And there must have been even more when we were kids – I have two older brothers. So, despite now living more than 300 miles away from my parents, this makes me increasingly capable of empathising with them. 

They were clearing out my old bedroom recently, and found some old things of mine. My Dad’s two options for me were:

a) we bring them to London so they can clog up YOUR house instead, or

b) they go on the fire

Shocking! (But also completely understandable).

I can only presume they are now burned.

Not the books, though. They wouldn’t do that.

And I’m really pleased that books, in particular, are becoming such a large and enjoyable part of Marley’s life. One of my resolutions for 2018 is to read more – I have 40-50 unread books on my shelf that I want to get through – and it’s lovely to be able to share in that goal with Marley.

He reads first thing in the morning, he reads during the day at nursery, we read him books before he goes to bed – he even reads in the bath!

One thing that even a book can’t overcome, however, are his dislike for trips to the doctors or to hospital. His most recent visit (for a THIRD bout of bronchialitis, which causes him a lot of coughing at night) was a 5am trip to A&E after we were recommended to go by the NHS 111 advisers. 

This was his reaction when I asked him for a photo in the waiting room….