Mike's musings

Well, it's just gone six in the morning, and I've been awake since five. I'm downstairs with Josephine, in the hopes that Catherine will get some more sleep if we leave her in bed for a bit. Jo is alternating between chewing a cloth bee and trying to grab the laptop screen, which seems to hold a strange fascination for her: maybe she's got her Dad's geek gene. Actually slept quite well, bizarrely: Moo (Catherine) brought Jo into bed around 12:15, rather than have her waking us and going into her room every couple of hours, which is what it had been up to then, and she (Jo) slept pretty well after that (until 5:25, obviously). So, I'm feeling pretty rested: let's hope Moo gets some more sleep.

One of the bonuses from Jo's point of view about coming downstairs early is seeing more of the Willem (one of the cats). He lives upstairs (to avoid the dog) unlike Meg, who lives outside (to avoid the dog) but at this time in the morning, the dog's shut away in her room, so Will, at least, tends to roam around downstairs. As he thought that I'd got up just to feed him, he came and paid us lots of attention for a while, which Jo certainly approved of, as her fascination with the cats outdoes even her fascination with the laptop screen.

Profile profiling: being a dad
Next on the profile is "being a dad", so this gets a few lines today. Josephine Ruth McLaughlin Bursell (Jo, Jojo, J, etc.) was born on Monday, 21st February, 2005, and completely changed our lives (unsurprisingly). We had a hard time having her (two years of trying - not bad by some standards, but hard on us), and Moo had a somewhat difficult pregnancy, and Jo is, whatever way you look at it, a complete blessing. She's bright as a button, always trying new things, and being her dad is like nothing else in the world. She's hard work sometimes, and I'm very aware of how much Moo puts in during the day, just keeping her fed, occupied, happy, etc., so I try to do my bit when I can (like getting up early in the morning and taking the babe downstairs so that Moo can grab that extra bit of sleep). I often worry that I don't do enough, but we need to balance the requirements of work, too. Luckily my boss (Peter) is very accommodating. Anyway, I'm both jealous of Moo that she gets to spend so much time with Jo, and relieved sometimes that I don't have to (which I feel guilty about). I guess this is all part of being a dad. I wouldn't change it.