Where has all the time gone?

Here I am, sat in front of the computer on yet another horrible Saturday Morning. Laura (my baby - LOL ) is up, cutting out shapes and watching cartoons (Scooby-doo at the moment). The weather is cold and very foggy(is that better than cold and icy?)

One of the jobs for today is to go to the local shops to find Laura a Birthday pressy. Next week she will be 8.

The reason for the posting?

Memories I suppose. I was at Laura's birth, as I was at Liam's. And the memories of both are as clear as if they were yesterday. Cathy (that is "she who must be obeyed") had been in and out of hospital with both of them (and they've been awkward little devils ever since - mind you Cathy always insists that they got that particular trait from yours-truly).

With Liam, Cathy went into labour the night before. That was a long night - but he was born at 6.30 in the morning, just as the sun was coming up. The next few days were equally hard as he had to be treated for jaundice, and it felt like the little devil had screamed continuously for three days solid ( where as now - being a trainee teenager - he just sulks for that long - LOL)

Fast forward four years. Cathy had been hospital again for most of the previous month (she had been allowed out for Christmas and Boxing Day but had then gone back in.), Liam was constantly asking to see his mum, where was the baby - you know the questions that an almost 4 year old would ask. Anyway a call at 5 in the afternoon, a quick visit and drop off at the grandparents, and then a baby daughter by 6.30 (in the evening) - you get the suspicion that 6.30 has some commonality in this family (would you believe that 6.30 is the time I normally get up for work - weird or what). Making sure it was alright to bring up an anxious toddler - back to Mums, tell the grandparents ( and the family ) about the new addition (first time I'd ever nearly seen my dad cry - as it turned out it was his only grand daughter) - then take an awe struck 4 year old to see his sister for the first time.

Back to today - we have a shopping list, and a mission. Laura wants a dance mat (possibly one for a play station) - and Liam and Laura are like proper Brother and Sister. One minute lovey-dovey, the next shouting at each other at the tops of their voices.The next - silence, they are not talking.

The memory - Liam was born 12 years ago, Laura 8. Before that we had even lost a baby at about 15 weeks, something I, for one, never really got over. Dad lived long enough to see all his grand kids - but I still miss him. Cathy's Mum and Dad never got see any of their Grandkids (I never knew Cathy's Dad amd her Mum die before we got married) - and I know that that is something that has bothered Cathy from time to time.

But isn't memory funny. These things I remember clearly - as though they only happened yesterday, but the normal minutia of life ?.It's as though I'd forget my own name - isn't memory strange or what?