ahwooo

Nine weeks, can you believe it, nine weeks. Max is a full nine weeks old and he is growing up, developing, changing at a massive rate. He is even getting a routine. His Dad is back to work and his Mum is looking after him wonderfully. It's amusing how my priorities have shifted.

It's not that I have to be home at a certain time. If I need to stay late at work I can, the thing is I don't want to. I want to be able to do my teaching, look after the students and then get the hell home to see my wife and child. It's like one of those scenes from a very bad Disney film. The hero is rushing past obstacles on his way and the camera cuts from each vignette back to a still or almost still of the forlorn family minus the hero, standing at the doorstep. Casting myself as the hero speaks volumes, but its my psychosis and I'm sticking to it.

In reality of course there is no forlornness, I get home and it is domestic bliss, I hear about the day that they have had and do my best to fit in. Ten minutes later it's as if I was never at work and there is a little stream of baby vomit running down my back, I've changed a nappy and it's time for dinner - welcome home daddy!

And that's the funny bit. I want this, I want it all the time. I wonder could I teach from home. I wonder could I set up some sort of a web link and then I stop wondering and come back to earth. This is the way it must be. Stop trying to change the things that are immutable and focus on maximising time at home while still also being able to pay for it.

The title of this post is 'ahwooo' - that is Max's default noise for I am contented and talking to you. We talk back and if there is more to say another ahwooo comes our way. He communicates other things like hunger and discomfort by crying but lets put them aside for a minute. The ahwooo phenomenon reminds me of a device controlled by a single button. Press the button once, something happens. Press it twice, something else happens. Hold the button down, something entirely different, and so on. Max is a bit like that in reverse. If we knew what the Max Code of ahwooos was, we would have communication with our nine week old baby sorted! Forget your baby sign language, forget your flash cards. Ahwooo is where it's at.

It is such a delightful noise. It's soft, it's accompanied by a smile. It has a tonal interrogative at times, a guttural imperative at others. It's a delight to try and decipher this undecipherable communication. In the not too distant future he will find a consonant and aghooo will arrive, but I want to hold on to ahwooo. It's like it has everything good, wise and cuddly about it, like the Owl in the hundred acre wood.

Just one more thing, lest you though I was finished with scatology, I'm not. The poo still fascinates. It's just gone to ground. One good nappy only every two or three days now. What a perfect feeding system that basically uses up every morsel that isn't chucked back over dad's shirts. Every few days a minimum of waste is ejected and it now has the consistency of paint, Dulux probably have a lovely name for it, Autumnal Leaf or Disturbed Earth. Well its disturbed all right. I wonder what its Pantone Colour reference number is? Max is also very respectful of his nappy changer now. No more wild peeing. He can last a full 10 minutes with his nappy off, to prevent rash. It is a little like Russian Roulette as you never know when the metaphorical chamber is full but as long as there are no expensive furnishings around, you're all right.

Nine weeks, nine weeks, sure he's very advanced for nine weeks :-)