Making Small Friends.


Today I met Glyn’s new son properly for the first time.

We popped over to their house this afternoon to say hello - not unexpected of course - and to hand over a couple of presents, along with a card for Glyn’s birthday last week. Not only did this give us the chance to meet the new arrival, it was also an opportunity to play with Glyn’s other son Max, who - a month into having a younger brother - was more excited about showing us his new heavy-duty bubble machine than introducing us to his sibling.

I feel we've started to bond properly in the last few months. I felt the change kick in when we went to visit the Broadway Theatre in Letchworth a couple of months ago, with Max in tow. It was nice to chat with him, to be able to ask him what he liked and to hold his hand. What was lovely - as was the case today - was how he kept comfortably referring to my wife and I by name, like he sees us all the time, despite us maybe not having met that often. There’ll be plenty of opportunity to right that in the future, but it’s nice to feel he knows me in the meantime.

It was fun to play in the garden today, while he ordered me to catch as many bubbles from the bubble machine while he waved it in my face. We also had a kick-about with his Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends football, using his slide as a makeshift goal. As it stood, I spent more time with him than I did with the newborn, but that’s okay. Just before we left, he gave me a hug, which was lovely. I’m glad he feels comfortable with me, and look forward to getting to know him and his new brother better - even if he did get in a strop because my wife and I were unable to transform into the Incredible Hulk convincingly; you can’t argue with standards like that.

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