Babysitting 101

Last Sunday, we looked after Temo while his parents went out for dinner in West Hampstead. And it all started out quite well...

He didn't seem too worried when they left, which was encouraging. We pottered about from the living room to the kitchen and back again a few hundred times, taking bites out of random pieces of fruit, and then we read Spot, lifting all the flaps. So far so good. Jules made him an omelette, which he pretty much rejected, picking out the occasional bit of broccoli and leaving the rest.

Then he had a bath, cooperatively lifting his arms and legs up to get undressed, and splashing about happily for a good twenty minutes or so. Getting him back into his pyjamas took a bit more negotiation i.e. I chased him around the house trying unsuccessfully to push the top half over his head while he did other activities. Eventually he submitted - and then I remembered Ruth saying something about two singlets, one cotton and one wool, but I figured I'd quit while I was ahead.

At that point Jules reappeared with more adult-sized omelettes, with bacon on the side. It turns out that Temo likes bacon - even more than broccoli - and thinks nothing of filching a rasher off someone else's plate and taking it away to a quiet corner to consume!

Shortly after that, he started rubbing his eyes and looking a bit grumpy, so I thought I'd try to encourage him to go to bed. To cut a long story short, that was where it all went wrong. Half an hour later he was standing at the top of the stairs down to the front door, sobbing and stretching out his arms towards the door in a piteous 'why have they abandoned me?' gesture.

We fed him some pear as a temporary distraction but still, by the time his mum and dad got back, he was all red and blotchy and looked like we'd been torturing him for hours. Spent the next half hour in a subdued hiccoughing heap on Ruth's chest, not at all sure it was safe to go to sleep.

Still, he seemed to have forgiven us by the next morning, so maybe it was a bonding experience after all! Or perhaps he had just blocked it out, like all things too painful to remember...

Three visitors and a violin

Jeremy, Ruth and Temo arrived in one piece this morning, with a small avalanche of luggage. Temo was wide-eyed and alert and kept up a running commentary all the way in on the train, mainly 'truck', which seemed reasonable given the view out the window. His parents were a little more subdued, not having had the benefit of a 10-hour kip between Auckland and Los Angeles.

When we arrived at Paddington, Jeremy slung his big backpack on his back, a smaller one on his front and then picked up the buggy in its case to try and carry that over one shoulder. Temo thought that was pretty funny - was completely overcome by giggles just watching!

Now they've all retreated for their afternoon nap. I'm supposed to wake them up in an hour or so, but I feel like the Wicked Witch of the West even thinking about it so we'll see.

In other news, we have a violin in the house again. My friend Matt had been talking for ages about how he had his father's old violin sitting at home doing nothing and I'd be welcome to borrow it etc and then one day a couple of weeks ago he remembered to bring it in to work and we went up to Foote's at lunchtime to have it restrung. Turns out to be a really nice violin - the guy in the shop thought it was about 1880 vintage.

Meanwhile, Matt's summer project is setting up a "non-guitar-based" band, which so far consists of Rachel (vocals), Matt (piano) and me (violin). We had our first rehearsal yesterday, and it actually went really well. Mostly what we play is Natalie Merchant and Ben Folds, but there's a bit of other stuff thrown in like Feeder's 'Just the Way I'm Feeling' and 'Lilac Wine'. There is also possibly a cellist called Becky, who is coming along for the first time next week.

I only got the sheetmusic on Wednesday so I spent the next few days frantically practising and having nightmares about the horror of playing in front of people after so long, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought - I even had a good time.

Well, I think someone might be surfacing next door so I'd best go. Promise adorable photos contrasting one-year-old and Big Ben or other major monuments soon.