Dragon Boat Races and Carnival Weekend

We have all had a pretty hectic week including; a trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh (such a beautiful part of the world), a visit from Simon's Auntie Sue and Uncle Gordon, a staff party featuring dragon boat racing at Canary Warf, a lazy lunch in Queens Park, a beautiful BBQ on Howard and Barnie's East London roof top terrace and an afternoon of dancing at Notting Hill Carnival (dad did the dancing with Richard Fearne while Maddie and I chilled out away from the mayhem with friends). Thank goodness it was a long weekend... we all needed the extra day to recover.

Maddie is such a cool character. She is so sweet, social and happy. She just fits in everywhere we take her and happily dozes off when she starts to feel sleepy, no matter where we are. She is pure goodness.

I read a lovely article the other day that reminded me not to take one single day with her for granted. Here is a little extract...

I remember once as a kid, I did something dumb. My actual crime was I lied about where my friends and I were going one night. My father - because he wasn't born yesterday, either - caught me out, and I felt appropriately stupid and embarrassed. And then, in a rare moment of parental candour, explained, "It's OK. your job is to try and get away with stuff. And my job is to try and stop you. That's how the game works." And it is a game. A really fast game, too. No kidding - it really does go incredibly fast. and you'd think knowing that in advance helps, but it doesn't. Everything the good stuff, the bad stuff, the hard stuff - it all ultimately goes away. It evaporates, with no clear warning. One day, you just notice, "Hey, you stopped asking me to read you a bedtime story. Hmm... I guess that's over". Or, "Hey, you don't waddle when you run anymore - when did that happen?" The changes are so imperceptible. But, I suppose, how else could it be? Nowhere along the growth curve do toddlers announce, "Daddy, y'see this little fleshy part of my thigh that's really soft? Well, take a good look, because that's all changing. Wednesday at three." No-one tells you that, but come Wednesday, sure enough, it's gone.

So as it turns out, my father did know what he was doing. His game plan was simple but on-the-money: "You be the best kid you can be, I'll be the best father I can be, and let's see what happens."

Lots of love xxx