Sleeping

HARRY’S sleeping is a funny thing. When he first goes to bed at night, I swear you could put a brass band outside his room and he wouldn’t wake up.

But after about four in the morning, he’s awake at the slightest sound – including the creak of floorboards.
As you can imagine, this makes visiting the toilet in the night something of a challenge.
Sleeping in the day is another challenge altogether. Take last Sunday.

We decided to pop to Eagles Meadow in Wrexham to get the last of our Christmas shopping done and, much to our relief, Harry dropped off in his pushchair shortly after we arrived.

With Harry still fast asleep when we’d finished the shopping, we thought it best not to disturb him by putting him back in the car and decided to have some lunch instead.

The restaurant looked fairly quiet, so we wheeled Harry inside hoping to eat our lunch before he woke up.
Unfortunately, our table was right next to what has to be one of the noisiest coffee machines in the world. Whenever somebody ordered a hot drink, there was a bang, followed by a loud tapping and the sound of steam being released.

Every time this happened, Melissa or I would check Harry nervously, expecting him to wake up.
We had managed to eat our starter before it was all too much for him and he woke up, slightly dazed.

Of course, we then had to negotiate our main meals while keeping Harry entertained.
Fortunately – and perhaps surprisingly – we discovered that he quite liked the seafood sauce on my pasta; dipping pieces of bread in it kept him quiet just about long enough for us to finish our food.

It didn’t make for a particularly enjoyable meal, however, as Harry insisted on standing on the seat and shouting ‘ba-ba’ at baby on the table next to us.

Put it this way, I was left wondering whether it would have been easier to risk waking him by putting him in the car after all.

Dance the night away

Harry was 18 months old on Monday – and I’ve no idea where the time has gone.

He is growing up so fast, it’s hard to keep up with his development. I’ve got pictures of Harry taken just before Christmas on my office wall and he looks so young and small, nothing like the stocky bundle of energy that greets me every evening when I arrive home from work.

He’s also a real little character, playing up to any attention and, frankly, showing off. It was certainly the case last Saturday when Melissa’s nan had a party to celebrate her birthday at Stansty House in Wrexham.

The country music duo Jeff Cliffson Duo performed for the occasion and Harry loved it, spending most of the performance bobbing up and down right in front of Jeff and John, much to the amusement of the residents.

Occasionally, Harry would take a break from the dancing to drag one or two of us up to bob up and down with him, including Melissa’s nan of course. It was all good fun and Jeff and John were on fine form – even I got out of my seat a couple of times.

Anyway, I’m sure Harry will appreciate me reminding him of this when he’s, oh I don’t know, about 15 years old.

He was also fascinated by John and Jeff’s guitars, and you could tell he was desperate to have a go. I just hope he takes after his mum when it comes to musical talent; heaven help him if he takes after me.

Swimming is definitely more my scene and now Harry’s a bit older, I’ve got a good excuse to act like a big kid again. We went to Waterworld in Wrexham on Sunday and I spent most of the time going down the slide with Harry on my lap.

The slide seemed very fast – certainly faster than when I was little. Harry screamed – I think it was with delight, but I can’t be sure. The worst part, though, was trying to stand up when we reached the bottom of the slide; balancing Harry while pushing myself upright and hanging on to a rubber ring was not easy. But as I’m quickly finding out, it’s hard to look dignified when you’ve got a little one in tow.

Footballers

As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm a Wrexham fan. And as anybody with any knowledge of football will know, things have been a little bit on the tough side for the Reds in recent years.

So, after relegation to the Blue Square Premier, it's nice to have some light relief. I am, therefore, grateful to Silvio Spann, who came up with this gem in Friday's Evening Leader:

Spann says he holds no grudge against manager Brian Little for the decision to transfer list him - one year into a three year contract.

"I do not really look at what man has to say, it’s more about what God has to say," said Spann.

"If man puts me on the transfer list that’s their problem but when God says it’s time to move then I move."'

If you would like to read the full article, click here http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/wrexhamfc/39I-want-to-be-Red.4257129.jp

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Well, I couldn't resist. I haven't been to the cinema in ages but the new Indiana Jones movie was enough to drag off the sofa, back to the big screen.

Was it worth it? Well, yes. Ok, so perhaps The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn't quite as consistently exciting as Raiders of the Lost Ark, or as consistently funny as The Last Crusade, but it's still great fun.

Harrison Ford looks a lot older now, but there are plenty of references to this in the dialogue, and the set pieces are still spectacular. It's certainly as good as the Temple of Doom.

In fact, my main criticism of the film would be directed squarely at The Odeon, Wrexham. As I said, I haven't been to the cinema for ages - at least a couple of years, and probably since the final film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But I was nevertheless shocked when, after the usual half hour of adverts and trailers, the screening was delayed so the cinema staff could sell ice cream. It was, to put it mildly, frustrating. I just hope they stop short of re-introducing intermissions.