Molly - 10 Weeks

My man flu continued to afflict me for the best part of two weeks through November so I was unable to visit little Molly for fear of spreading germs and making her poorly. Then last week I was away in Andalusia so I hadn’t seen her for nearly four weeks. I planned to put that right this week and took a days leave from work to go and see her. Well, would you believe it? Two days before the planned visit I went down with another bout of winter woes. Luckily this time it wasn’t the death strain that I had gallantly fought off two weeks before but was more of a girly cold so after consultation with Sally we agreed to go ahead.

When you are a father and around your children every day just after they are born you don’t really notice the rapid changes and the pace of development. Molly is now two and a half times her birth weight and very different indeed. The first obvious thing is that she has far more developed neck and shoulder muscles, which means she has more control over her head and she can hold it still and move to look around the room and when she is put on her tummy on the floor she strains to lift it and continue to take an interest in what is going on around her. In this position she also makes attempts at what will one day soon be crawling movements but that is going to take at least another three months or so before we get any forward motion.

Her eyes are still very dark blue and even though there is still time to change we are all optimistic that they will stay this way. They are open a lot now and she is very alert and although her eyesight isn’t fully developed she follows movement and is attracted to mobile type toys and things that glitter and sparkle, so it is a good job it is Christmas. Her cheeks have filled out and her distinctive little chin dimple is even more prominent and the only thing that hasn’t changed so much is that she hasn’t grown much more hair yet. One thing for certain is that she won’t be as blonde as Sally but she has the most beautiful auburn hair that is going to look lovely. She has learnt to smile and every now and again we are rewarded with a drop of the jaw and a nice smile radiating around her mouth and Jonathan has taught her how to stick her tongue out and she seems to think that that is amusing.

We took her to the pub again and I am proud to say that she behaved impeccably even when the staff and the customers were cooing over her and lugging her about the restaurant. Actually she slept most of the time, which was nice because Sally was able to enjoy her meal with us undisturbed. The waitress asked if Jonathan was the father so I am not sure what she would have thought about that but I can say for sure that he wasn’t amused.


So now I have to decide what to buy her for Christmas. She already has everything that she could possibly want because Sally is a perfect and generous mother so I am wondering what to do? Sally has just received the Government’s £250 Child Trust Fund Voucher and I am tempted to think about the future rather than today. I can open an account and make a monthly savings deposit that will be there when she is eighteen and hopefully wants to go to University, or perhaps a gap year and a trip round Europe, that’s what I would do! I have been studying the web sites that give advice on what to do and where to put the money but I have always been a spender rather than a saver myself so I am in very unfamiliar territory. There have been reports recently that because of the economic downturn that these funds are not performing all that well but I suppose 2026 is a long way off and I am sure that gives the markets the chance to fully recover. I think that this is what I will do but I will probably buy her something for the day as well of course especially if I am lucky enough to win the £1,000 prize for entering a customer survey at the Rose and Crown that I have just filled in and completed.