Silly walks

At lunch-time yesterday Aidan was five minutes away from sleep. We didn't know at the time. He didn't look like he was. And he was doing the opposite. We were in a bussling food court in Windsor after visiting the Castle with our friend, Beth, who's visiting us from Seattle.


Aidan had everyone staring at us. Not in the cute-young-baby-with-dad way, more a what's-that-noise way. I didn't know he was five minutes away from sleep. It could have have been 5 hours. And felt like five days. I would have done anything to get him to nod off.


And, I suppose, I did.


Recently we've been using an exaggerated bouncing up-and-down walk to bounce him calm, which could be confused with a walk needing a government grant from the Ministry of Silly walks. We've also borrowed the heavy patting of his behind technique, as used to great effect by a grandmother friend of ours. And in desperate situations, both. Which is what rather self-consciously happened yesterday.


I kept looking around thinking I might be arrested. But thankfully the end of the five minutes eventually came.


I told this story to someone this morning and they said: 'If I saw you doing that I'd just have given you a knowing wink and a smile.' She's obviously a parent. But I do think we might want to get him used to a gentle calming shush. People wouldn't stare so much.