He made it!!!

On Friday 13th December 1996, without any inkling and little in the way of preparation, a boy was born. Coming from a household of girls myself, surrounded by girl cousins (the only boys being one who lived in Edinburgh and one more than a decade younger than me), a mum with 2 sisters and an unmarried brother, a daughter of my own and a niece, I gazed on this baby boy creature experiencing a mixture of love shock and awe.

Then the diamorphine kicked in and I wandered out of the delivery suite for a shower.

I’m still not convinced he wasn’t swapped with some maternity goblin’s baby whilst I was stotting around on my own, feeling no pain.

On the occasion of the goblin changeling’s thirteenth birthday we (me and he) headed off Saturday on the train for a daunder round Edinburgh. He’s not daft is he? Given the choice of a party, a day out with his mates or anything else he could think of he followed the cash cow. Schweet.

I’ve always had difficulty finding the perfect gift for Andrew. Every year, especially when I was single-working-Mum, I’d try toys, toys he’d shown interest in, toys he’d begged for or toys I thought possessed a modicum of shelf life. We have a room full of MWMT and MIB toys… well we did until Paul came along.

Although he was always politely thankful for clothes, now he has a bit more interest in them…. especially shoes. Of all things. I abhor with every fibre of my being shopping for shoes. Especially for myself but extra especially with bells on for Andrew. Particularly school shoes. Birthday shoes, however, are immeasurably more bearable to shop for.

Once we had a bag of our own to lug round, once we considered ourselves “out shopping”, we headed to South Bridge Street and Blackwells book shop. I heard about The Children’s Book Tree over at John Connell’s blog and was keen to get me some book shop action.

I love scouring for books for my children, trying to find something they will enjoy, and thought it would be an interesting challenge for Andrew to try the same thing for a stranger. It wasn’t that easy. We tried to pick a free choice book for a boy around Andrew’s age from the books he’s read himself but unfortunately much of Andrew’s reading involves series. In the end we opted for David Almond’s Skellig. I sent Andrew back for another tag and we got some help from a member of staff picking a book for another boy. The tree will be there until 20th December so I think I’ll try to get back there with my (far better read) daughter. We then headed off to Forbidden Planet where he found six manga books for himself – cos that’s all we could carry.

Down Candlemaker Row to the Grassmarket….

Despite the fact I can’t make him cut that fringe I can assure you I did make him try all those hats on. He refused, point blank, to buy the pirate hat tho…. spoilsport.

Across the Royal Mile and down The Mound to the German Christmas Market. We would have taken photos if we could but scratching one’s nose in the melee was challenge enough.

Edinburgh is quite lovely at Christmas, if a tad busy on a Saturday. I’m not sure the train was the best option, although having a jinky wee son who can duck and weave through the crowd to grab a seat helps muchly.

Next day there were more gifts, haggis, Irn Bru and cake and finally…

… finally after 23 years of trying and failing, I enjoyed a whisky.

Thank you Mr Schweppes.

I feel whole now.