gothams3rdrobin | On this day in 1990...

Not only was Nelson Mandela released from prison, but my eldest nephew was born! My mother and I watched the TV coverage from South Africa while waiting for a telephone call from my brother.

Happy sixteenth birthday Shane! It's funny how fast the years fly...

I still remember very clearly babysitting him while on one of the yearly 'pilgrimages' to my maternal grandmother's house near Hastings, England. He must have been about nine months old. I had him up in the bedroom we were sharing, and I had him bouncing on the bed to the end credits of 'Little Shop of Horrors' before we settled down to watch 'Working Girl' on the movie channel. Shane was sitting on the camp bed most of the way through, and amusing himself by leaning backwards and forward to touch his toes, giggling happily. At one point, he turned to me, and put his tiny hand on my cheek with this adoring look on his face. It was like he was saying "Thanks for a fun time, Aunty!" *sniffles*

Why do they have to grow up?

On a similar note, I had to endure another four-year-old's birthday party this afternoon - this time in a church hall. The parents hired a bouncy castle, had a go at a few party games, and put on all the food themselves. It wasn't that bad, though I do think the kids were a little young to focus on the games properly. Once several of them got caught 'out', they'd go back to playing and end up distracting the kids who were still 'in'. Rowan spent most of his time playing with his friend Isaac, and seemed to really enjoy himself. I spent most of my time watching him and listening to my mother mutter judgements about the way some of the little girls had been dressed, or generally offer little criticisms of the party. Okay, maybe I agreed with some of it, but surely that could have waited till we'd left?

As we were on the street where the local pizza takeaways are based, I headed over the road afterwards and ordered a chicken supreme from Pizza Hut. The only bad thing about calling in to get it is the fact that it was all cold by the time we got it home. But still good food. I was hoping, since it was Rowan's idea to have chicken pizza, that he'd actually eat some but he wouldn't. He's perfectly happy to eat a basic cheese and tomato, but he refuses the ones with toppings which is frustrating for me. So he ate his share of the garlic bread and cola, and then ate the little snacks that came in his party bag.

He wanted to play on the computer before bed, but I enforced certain conditions before I'd allow him - one of which was that he had to put away his toys from this morning. Unfortunately he only put a few of them away before he went back to playing, and a row ensued so he ended up being put straight to bed. No bedtime story or song. He thinks I'm so mean....