Don't let me put you off

Not so long ago, a childless friend remarked to me "you know, if I didn't know better, your blog would really put me off having kids".  "Yeah, I know" I responded quickly.  "But there's nothing interesting or funny about blathering on about how moonily in love you are with your newborn, or his latest achievements.  And plus there's like a tonne of those blogs on the internet already."

So, just to even things up a bit, this blog post is me blathering on about how moonily in love I am with my toddler.  In small doses.  Like just evenings and weekends.  But whatever, that suits us both.

If you asked me to name the best thing about having a child, I would say it's the ability to experience your baby-days and childhood all over again, with the wisdom and knowledge that you've gained from having been there, done that.  Something as simple as the texture of the leather on the couch has a whole new fascination when you're a baby, nothing is more delightful than the feel of running your hand through a hedge as you walk past it, and water... now that's a whole other cup of tea.

At the moment we're all about language development.  We're working on two word sentences, the best one of which has been "yellow bus".  Milkbaby knows what a bus is, but the concept of 'yellow' is proving tricky. I had a the following conversation with him tonight:

"Okay, hold onto your car" (I'm changing his nappy)
"Car"
"That's right, car. What colour is your car?"
"Yellow bus"
"Well, it's more of a red car really"
"Yellow bus"
"Red car?"
"Yellow bus."
"Okay, sure, whatever."
[There's a pause]
"Car?"
"That's right, red car" (I'm like, wahoo, he's getting it!)
"Yellow bus."
"mm hmm" (I give up.)

Yellow bus? Red car? Who cares?

What's your favourite thing about parenthood?