Family matters

Dilly and the children have gone away camping for a few days. It was blowing a gale yesterday, but they didn't leave until 4 o'clock, when Al shut the shop early and went to help them set up the tent. I had a text from Dilly later to say they were all tucked up warmly. Al will go and join them again on Saturday evening.

Ro is coming home this evening, just for a day. He's got various things to look out and take back, including his passport. He thought he knew where it was and asked me to look, but it wasn't in the drawer he keeps that sort of thing - he probably needed it for ID sometime and just put it somewhere afterwards - he'll find it easier than I would, I certainly don't want to start looking through all his stuff.

And Weeza and Phil have asked us round for dinner next week, for my birthday. Ro will join us, and we'll go early in time to play with Zerlina first. Weeza, who finds that routine suits her baby best, asked that we arrive before 6 or after 7, as if we arrive during the run-down to bed time, Zerlina won't want to go to bed when she usually does, and then she'll have a restless night. So we'll pick up Ro from work and go then.

Both Weeza and Dilly had the babycare thing sussed so much more effectively than I ever did. Mind you, I was only 20 when Weeza was born, and getting into a steady routine was certainly something I resisted. A bit more organised when Al came along a couple of years later for practical reasons, but I didn't want our life restricted by fixed times for a baby - you have to remember I was a 'child of the Sixties' and whilst I was by no means a hippy (too young, too sensible, and, though still so far in the closet that I didn't even know it myself yet, too control-freakish), I had something of the relaxed attitude to life and still do. It is restricting for Weeza and Phil, who will rarely stay out past Zerlina's getting-ready-for-bed time, but they are rewarded by a child who welcomes and enjoys going to sleep. When it's getting near nap time during the day, Weeza will get out Barry the Bear and little z reaches for him and gives him a cuddle. Then Weeza gets out the little pillow that someone just gave them from New Zealand, and z takes it and snuggles her face into it. Off they go upstairs to read a book, z goes into her cot and, though she may not go to sleep for a while, she rarely fusses but just lies there happily talking to herself before drifting off. It's remarkable. Well, it is to me. I love it that my daughter is a better mother than I was!