The first was to get him out of the house and tire him out. Canada, being a far more progressive (socialist) state than it's southern neighbour, puts a lot of money into community centres. No dusty old halls these, they contain ice rinks, libraries, dance studios, etc. Our local one runs a children's music class every Wednesday and so I took our little mischief maker along.
"Jump Into Music" is run by a lovely lady called Ori and includes lots of dancing around and jumping, punctuated by rattling, bashing and bubbles. Basically an energetic baby's dream. The current theme is French music and the website reminds you that parent participation is required.
"Don't you have two Masters degrees?" a small part of my brain was asking as I pranced around waving a rainbow parachute to the strains of Edith Piaf. As usual I was the only man, although there was a strange dynamic of nannies who were then supplanted by parents arriving from work half-way through. I ignored all this, of course, as we learnt the body parts to Alouette, and a song about a bug tickling you as it crawled. We'll be back next week - je ne regrette rien!
The second tactic was containment. Owing to the open-plan nature of our flat there's nowhere to really put a safety gate so we had to opt for a euphemistically-named "play yard" by the equally euphemistic manufacturer "Baby I Love You". It's a cage. We bought metal, reasoning that Pete might be able to chew his way through a plastic one. And it's a cage that you can move about and reconfigure to be a fire guard or a barrier or an aforementioned "play yard" so that it doesn't feel like a cage and, if you think about it, aren't we all really just trapped inside our own little cages?
I know someone who, thankfully, now is.
Well somebody's pleased with his new mobility.
It's been a dry and (unseasonably, they claim) cold few days, but the rain of last week picturesquely became snow on the mountains.
Ambition is greater than ability.
Morning light and fog at the Vancouver docks.
We agree!
On a wander around we passed again by Pirate Joe's. They're not dodging the publicity.
I once saw something similar, in The Silence of the Lambs.
Getting maximum use out of the "play yard".
