It was the first parents’ evening at Millie’s new school on Tuesday.  I had to work from home to be able to attend, but, y’know, these things have to be done.  I even shaved my head for the occasion (although, not my face).

It seems she’s doing just fine at school, which the Lovely Melanie and I pretty much expected, but as always it’s nice to hear from someone else.  In fact, the only even slightly negative thing Ms. Curtis had to say was that Millie sometimes has selective hearing – which we already knew: Millie has selective hearing and it’s becoming more selective as she gets older, just like her Dad’s!

The Lovely Melanie asked Ms. Curtis the question that’s always somewhere in the back of our minds regarding Millie’s premature birth, plus the fact that some of the children in her class are literally a year (or more!) older than her and had she noticed anything…how shall we put it?  Anything unusual about Millie’s abilities or behaviour?

No, she hadn’t.

We were only in the classroom talking to Ms. Curtis for about ten minutes, but AmberG still managed to empty two buckets of toys on the floor and carry the contents of another from one side of the room to the table we were sat at.

Note to self – don’t take Amber along next time have to meet the bank manager…

Then, when we said “goodbye” AmberG sprinted out of the door straight into another parent’s meeting!

Really – sprinted!  I’ve never seen her move so fast!  It was like a scene out of Benny Hill as Millie and I chased her around the classroom, apologising all the the while to the other parents in there.

After the parents’ evening I had to run off to the other side of London, Shepherd’s Bush, to see the absolutely wonderful Camera Obscura play.

I love Camera Obscura; I’ve been a massive fan since their very first album, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi, came out in 1999, and their albums have never ever disappointed, so it’s nice to see them now getting a big (well, big-ish) record deal and filling good-sized venues.

Yesterday, following another day of working from home for me (enforced this time, because of train problems, but I was quite glad of it, being very tired from getting home after midnight from Camera Obscura) we again took the girls to Millie’s school, but this time for a fireworks display.  Considering we only paid £3.50 for the Lovely Melanie and myself to get in it was bloody impressive, too.  Not only that, but judged very well, too – the bangs weren’t too loud and frightening for smaller children.

AmberG took it mostly in her stride, doing exactly the same as Millie did at her first fireworks display a couple of years back, which is to say cuddling my shoulder and looking cautiously out from under her hood with just one eye.

I had Millie on my shoulders for some of the display and I felt her jump a little at the first few pops and bangs, but she loved it.  She can be absolutely overwhelmed with enthusiasm for things at the moment – overwhelmed in that the only thing she can think of to do to express her joy is jump up and down screaming.  When she calms down slightly she’s fantastically uninhibited in her appreciation: “That was the most wonderful thing ever!” she’ll say.

And even this grumpy old adult can’t help but be caught up in her enthusiasm.

Thanks to Uncle Nik for our giant pumpkin this Halloween.

He gave us a choice between “the small one, the big one and an even bigger one.”

The one in the picture is the small one!

Millie helped me carve the pumpkin Saturday afternoon and we put it outside in the evening to attract some trick or treaters – something Millie got very excited about.

When the doorbell rang just after bathtime she raced downstairs as fast as her little legs could carry her, opened the door…

..and SCREAMED!

The Lovely Melanie and I had foolishly forgotten to mention that trick or treaters come dressed up in scary costumes – and the three at our door were in some quite gruesome masks.

We gave them some sweets from our trick or treat bag, but Millie wasn’t quite the same for the rest of the night.

Perhaps waking up at 5am this morning wasn’t one of my greatest ideas…but I’m making up for it now.

I’ve had some fascinating First Aid training today, and was pretty impressed by both the trainer and what he taught us.

That's it, luv!

First, some context: I’ve been trained in First Aid At Work for about about 8-9 years now.  First Aid At Work is the most basic medical training you can get.

First Aid At Work tries to teach you how to stop someone dying before an ambulance arrives – don’t ask me to bandage wounds or fix broken bones, let alone amputate a limb!   And my youngest brother, Rich, who’s a proper paramedic, would doubtless laugh at my “training”.

Previous First Aid courses have taught me all the usual stuff: CPR, mouth-to-mouth and the recovery position, plus a little bit of bandaging.  But they made it all seem so complicated and beset with small details that my big worry has always been: could I remember all this in an emergency?

The guy who taught us today, a very likable ex-Army chap called Tony, was far more practical.  Basically, all we First-Aiders can do – all we need to do – is present the emergency services with a viable patient upon their arrival.

Which is to say, try not to let the victim bleed to death and start performing CPR/mouth-to-mouth – if necessary – as soon as you can.

And that’s it.

We didn’t practice anything on a dummy – all of us in the training had learnt that stuff before and the basic techniques have become increasingly streamlined until these days you’d be hard pressed to get them badly wrong (by which I mean fatally wrong).

Instead Tony spent the time impressing us with the basics and having us look at some real-life patients we might encounter, i.e., not a person lying quietly on their back on the ground waiting for our diagnoses.  We then ran through the small number of possible techniques and treatments we could bring to bear, looking at if, when and how to apply them in.

The result is that I now feel a lot more confident about using the few techniques I do know, rather than before, where I supposedly knew more but was very nervous about putting any of it into practice.

Just for today let’s not talk about the evil Daily Mail or religion or some other stupidity, shall we?  Let’s talk about how lucky we (the Lovely Melanie and I) are in having a couple of the best daughters a parent could wish for, eh?

Case in point #1 – the Lovely Melanie took Millie to a party held at and by the library yesterday (presumably because it’s half term at the moment) where she tells me that, amongst other things, they had a sort of talent show for the children there with a prize of some sweets for anyone brave enough to get up and perform.

Many of the children were older than Millie and most of them got up to tell a joke (note: jokes by anyone under the age of eight tend towards the hyper-surreal, i.e., not funny).  Millie, however, took the microphone and sang “Once Upon A Dream” from Sleeping Beauty!  The Lovely Melanie had a tear in her eye as she watched, and even some of the other mums there – hardened against cuteness by having their own children – were quite taken aback.

Tragically, no record exists of this performance, so you and I can only imagine what it was like; however, you can be sure Millie got an extra special bedtime kiss from both of us last night!

Case in point #2 – after a long day at work I had a nasty headache and an AmberG to pick up from nursery.  I got off the train at Sidcup, trudged, sweating and desperate for the loo, up the hill to her nursery where I got the most wonderfully effusive welcome that a dad anyone could wish for from another human being.

AmberG came running up to me, arms outstretched, and cuddled me as tight as she could.

Going outside I pointed out the moon to her in the sky and she then helpfully pointed it out to me, saying “moom, moom!” and standing up in her buggy to get a better view.

She also pointed out “bus”, “dark”, “car”, “window”, “doggie” and some other stuff I didn’t quite catch.  All the way home on the bus she was stood up at the window looking out, laughing and naming things.  Including the “moom” again.

It was just one of those journeys when you remember why you had kids in the first place – something that can sadly sometimes be forgotten in the kerfuffle of daily family life.  For me one of the reasons was to pass on what I know about the world and its wonders to someone else.  I don’t want my children growing up “bored” all the time, contemptuous of knowledge and learning, and how these can hardly fail to enrich the world,

One of the things that makes my life so interesting, so completely not-boring, is my sketchy understanding of how incredibly huge and complicated it all is – “it” being life, the universe and everything – and how its intricacies all mesh together so beautifully.

Because with an open, enquiring mind I don’t think you can ever be bored – there’s always something new to see and think about and try to grasp.

Better still: with an open, enquiring mind you can regularly be overwhelmed with wonder at the world.  It can not only make you simply not-bored, but genuinely amazed, excited, awestruck, humble and, in my experience, much happier.

One of the saddest and most shocking things anyone ever said to me was about my time spent at university: “That was a waste of time, wasn’t it?” they said.

Seldom has a single sentence left me quite so dumbstruck.  I wanted to launch into a tirade about how utterly misguided that statement was, about how those three years had made me what I am today, shown me how much I don’t know and made me want to learn about, well – everything!

It almost literally made me want to live forever so that I would be able to do this – learn everything about everything!

Sadly, I kind of flapped my jaw a bit and that person moved on to talking about something else before I could form the devastating riposte that was so clearly needed.

But that’s one of the things I’m hoping to pass on to Millie and Amber – a sense of wonder and curiosity that will stand them in good stead for their whole lives, and ensure that those lives are substantially happier as a result.

No, Millie’s wonky eye isn’t better.

Yes, she will need an operation.

No, we don’t know when it will be. Probably “before Christmas”.

Yes, she will need a general anaesthetic.

No, she won’t need to stay in hospital overnight.

Yes, the prospect of Millie having surgery does worry me a little bit.

A very tired Millie has returned to us from Swindon, and we are happy.

Sigh.

She’s also brought a ton of presents that she’s somehow extracted from Nanny and Grampy, too – including (somewhat ominously) a Barbie doll.  I think the Lovely Melanie and I were both hoping that we might be able to hold off on that kind of thing until she was a little bit older.  But never mind – Millie is still loyal to her Disney Princesses at the moment.

I think I’m a bit nervous about Barbie as I don’t want either of our girls to get sucked into that horrible world of “glamour” and “girlie-ness”.  You know, the kind of thing that involves obsessing about “fashion”, jewellery, make-up and other such nonsense.  I don’t want them to grow up thinking that “celebrities”  like Paris Hilton or some hateful pile of neuroses from Big Brother are great and praiseworthy role models; that “shopping” is somehow a worthwhile activity that will make you a better human being, and that your value as a person is predicated by how pretty you are or who makes your clothes.

I feel quite strongly about that, as you can tell.

But it’s only one Barbie doll, right?  Where’s the harm in that?  And we’re educated parents who read books and talk to each other and watch the news and value the pursuit of knowledge as inherently good in itself – surely that will help inoculate both of them against the creeping tide of “girlie-ness” and “celebrity” and “glamour”, right?

Right?

This was only going to be a quick piece about Millie’s return, but I think some of my deeper fears about parenting have rather hijacked it.  Sorry.

Thank you to my mum and dad for looking after Millie for two days and for all her lovely presents (yes, even the Barbie doll!) – we’ve had a bit of a rest, as well as some quality time with AmberG,  and we hope you all had a great time in Swindon: it certainly sounds like you did.

Millie has another appointment at the hospital this morning, with the eye doctor, to decide once and for all what they’re going to do about her lazy eye, which we suspect will involve surgery, since all previous strategies seem to have made very little difference it.

I’ll let you know what they decide as soon as I hear.

On the plus side, I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox at the cinema last night (Tuesdays are cheap night at the Peckham Premier!) and was surprisingly impressed.  It was a bit of a long-shot choice of film, especially for our regular lads’ night at the cinema which usually involves horror or science fiction films; but Fantastic Mr. Fox was eccentric, funny, whimsical – quite unlike anything else I’ve seen for a very long time without being deliberately “difficult” – and I loved it.