An optimist is one who happily rides her friend’s bike with no pants on. I am a pessimist. I specialise in negative visualisation. Much of my spare time, which these days is usually from 4 to 6 am when I can’t sleep, I spend constructing imaginary conversations with People Who Are Out To Get Me. At the moment, those people are usually involved in one of my many worst-case scenarios surrounding the birth of our new baby. I’ve made plans for how to stand up for myself and talk

1. When she walks down steps, May Blossom has taken to sometimes refusing the proffered hand of her father or me and instead holds her own hand. Independent much? Lacking understanding of the concept of the stabilising force an adult hand can offer? Very, very funny to watch? All of these things. 2. When she wants to warn anyone of anything — that the heater is on; that there is a flight of steps approaching; that the cat is nearing dinner time and could remove the next digit

Today I was going to start a series inspired by the lovely blog Soulemama, in which each Friday I would post a picture of a wonderful moment from the week past. I like this idea. It’s a gentle form of online gratitude. No words, just a solitary inspiring image. But while I experienced lots and lots of precious treasured moments this week — an ever increasing number of which involved me being asleep — I neglected to photograph them. You know, because I was participating in the