From stagger to swagger

With all the crap there is in the world, it can be all too easy to get a bit gloomy now and then. I’m no exception and can actually give Morrissey a run for his money when I’m feeling sorry for myself, which is why I think it’s so important to embrace the good times. I’m happy to report, therefore, that it’s been a good week. A really bloody good week, in fact.

Starting with the best bit, Dylan’s upright movement has graduated from stagger to swagger – and that's a statement that sums up the week, actually. He can now get to his feet without the aid of a sofa or our legs, walk some impressive distances considering he’s still new to it all and even pause on his way to one of his daily missions – such as emptying cupboards or throwing things down the back of the radiator – without having to get down to a crawling position. He can change direction too. Oh yeah! Of course, his movement isn’t completely there yet; I would describe it as ‘cheerful zombie’ for now. He happily ambles along at a good pace, waving both hands and sporting a huge grin. Good lad!

There has been one thing stymieing his progress, however. We’ve been having work done on our kitchen this week, which means the baby gate that separates the kitchen from the dining room has been permanently closed. Dylan doesn’t approve of this and swaps cheerful zombie for imprisoned King Kong while one of us is in his promised land that is our food preparation area. Oh well, you can’t have it all and he soon forgets about it. And the kitchen is looking like a real kitchen now so that’s good.

Diary of the Dad has also had a good week. Since my win at the MAD Blog Awards – which I will probably shut up about soon – I’ve been getting attention from the local media, which is nice. In the last seven days, this blog has been featured in two papers and one radio station. If you insist, one can be read here and another listened to here. Sigh. Oh, and an absolute gentleman I’ve never met wrote some really kind things about Diary of the Dad. Thank you, Shane!

The other result this week has been my first ever attempt at video editing. As I work for a charity, we rely on them as a good, cheap way of getting attention and all was going well on this front until my esteemed friend and colleague Amy the video editing genius got another job. I’ve always been interested in film making, so put myself forward and was promptly sent on a course. A few of us filmed the footage for our new campaign video – and had a good laugh doing so – and it was then time for me to have a go at cutting it all together. And the result? Well, it’s had a pleasing number of hits for starters – we only launched it on Thursday and at the time of writing, we’ve had over 1,700 views. I’ll take that! What’s that you’re saying? You’d like to see it? Oh, okay then. Here it is.

There has been one other massive achievement that, Dylan’s walking aside, has beaten all the others into submission. Remember how I was on a frustrating quest to find the perfect pair of slippers? I only went and found them yesterday. Warm, not too ‘old man’, with backs and even a nifty toggle-and-elastic fitting on each to ensure the perfect fit. Boom! 

I think that provides the perfect footnote to this post, don’t you?