Never a dull moment

It goes without saying that life with Harry is never dull. In fact, it’s getting more entertaining by the week.

When I arrived home the other day, I found both Melissa and Harry covered – literally from head to foot – in emulsion. It turns out that Melissa had decided it would be a good idea for Harry to help her paint his playhouse.

Of course Harry was delighted to get stuck in and, judging by the photographs, had a whale of a time. Unfortunately, since this rather messy episode, Harry has been determined to do more decorating and is not easily put off. When I told him we’d run out of paint, his reply was: “That’s alright daddy, you can use my paint if you want to.”

To distract him, we’ve been doing plenty of digging in the garden, which happens to be Harry’s other favourite occupation. He spends his time barking orders – dig weeds over here daddy, and so on – while I have to get down on my hands and knees and dig around in the soil.

If I’m feeling adventurous, we dig potatoes. The best bit about this is watching Harry load the potatoes into his little tractor and trailer before trundling off up the garden and delivering them to the conservatory.

I have also been trying to encourage Harry to take more of an interest in football, with mixed results. On a couple of occasions, he has really enjoyed playing and he certainly seems to have decent coordination when it comes to running and kicking a ball at the same time.

Unfortunately, and as you might expect, he doesn’t have a particularly long concentration span and we’re soon heading back to the shovels to dig again.

Regardless of this, playing football with Harry is another one of those magical moments of parenthood. Now all I’ve got to worry about is getting Harry to concentrate on a game of cricket…