Up north

'I have no idea what I've packed for myself,' Erin looked over to me and smiled as we crossed Vauxhall Bridge to leave London for Bolton.  Neither did I.  The preparations were all about the boy who was sitting in the car seat sucking on his dummy deciding whether the motion of the vehicle was going to send him to sleep or make him sick.  His clothes took up three quarters of our suitcase, he had another bag for his food paraphernalia, and we even had his crib tightly packed in the boot so he would have a little home from home in my old bedroom up north.

Thankfully he slept instead of being travel sick and loved the white noise of the car doing 70 down the motorway. It was only when we more or less came to a standstill on the M25 when he stirred and had his first bout of road rage. This was only 30 minutes after we started. Thankfully it didn't outlast the traffic jam.

With a pit stop at a services it took us 6 hours, 2 more than usual, to get to sunny Bolton and apart from a screamy last 25 minutes when Erin sang 26 verses of Kum Bah Yah - calming him, not making him scream - we made it.

We hadn't put off going up north but we also hadn't rushed to take Aidan there either.  It's not that we didn't want to see everyone's reactions when they saw him or see everyone generally. But to me, it's a pretty intimidating place.  My mum was born to be a nan and our best friends up there are on their second children, making parenting look easy.  We just wanted to be ready.

We needn't have been worried.

Nan and grandad met the wee fella with open arms and he had a good kick around on his swiftly set up baby gym before a swiftly set up bath-time then sleep, which he did in his crib (swiftly set up by grandad and I).

He slept very well and was cheery during the morning.  The next test was when our friends, Alison and Railton, came up with their two children, Owen and Joesphine, their two parents, Alan and Jenny, and their brother, Matt with two dogs whose names escape me. Aidan was due for a nap when they arrived but lasted long enough for a few photos.

Stripes are in this season.

The closest Aidan, Owen and Josephine got to looking at the camera without any crying.

We were hoping to pick up a few parenting tips by being around wise parents and grandparents, and Erin got one just before she put him down for his morning nap.  Patting his backside quite firmly put him sound asleep in a stranger's arms in seconds.  Amazing.

And as for being intimidated? Railton told us about a nappy change he had made that morning which involved poo on hands, socks and a teddy bear.  That didn't just make me chuckle but physically relax.

There's more about their visit. I'm going to save it for the next post.  It's about me being shouted at.  Twice.  For now, I'll leave you with a proud grandad feeding his grandson.