Phew-ee – babies are hard work, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Ben has been having trial days at nursery, and so picked up the expected cold, so has a very runny nose. His upper central and lateral incisors are also coming through, which has turned him into a total grump for the last few days. He either wakes up in the middle of night because he’s rolled over on to his front, and can’t do anything about it, or wakes up an hour or so early crying, presumably because of his teeth. I thought we’d got past the sleep deprivation stage, but oh no.

Still, Calpol works wonders, and between times he’s his usual happy chatty stuff (and very close to saying “dada” now, although I think he’s just trying to get on my good side).

On a different note, we’ve been trying to continue our habit of a weekend stroll – nothing too heavy, just an hour’s toddle or so. We’ve done Swinsty and Fewston reservoirs, Bolton Abbey (although I’d almost broken my toe that morning, so it was a curtailed walk), and yesterday was the “seven bridges” at Fountain’s Abbey (there are, in fact, 6 – but for some reason the walk is titled with seven.) The revelation for me was getting a GPS receiver, which I can program up with the walk in advance, and then watch our progress round as we go. I still find it amazing that, with a small hand-held device, I can pin-point my location to within about 10m anywhere in the world. That’s better than I can do with a map on most scales. I know it makes me a saddo, but if it motivates me to actually get out and walk (and enjoy it) then it can’t be too bad in my reckoning!