Smiles Without Wind

Baby engagement is increasing and I'm getting a little google-eyed and proud fatherly and all that, you know the stage where gurgling starts to happen and you spend hours or at least fractions of hours - well, minutes - gazing into one another's eyes, and maybe you might get a smile that isn't accompanied by seismic activity from beneath, like Mum's being getting for literally days now and you really think you deserve.

Neck strength continues to build as it has to since we aren't gentle with this baby; if she got through the birth canal in one piece then she can stand a little man-handling, so it's in the sling for dog walks and lugged around in arms at school pickup time. "Holy Dooley!" say the mums, "be careful with that child!" to which: "Who's this legendary Dooley anyway?"

And the guzzling continues as Lyra becomes appreciably heavier and larger: I think she looks like a Sumo wrestler and a moon-faced one at that, but Nicole mysteriously doesn't see it.