Category: Paternal Thoughts

I’ll post some pictures of the lad enjoying his birthday cake when I find the cable that connects the camera and the computer, but here’s a brief video to keep you going till then… Sometimes, when you’re tucking into a birthday lunch of fish and chips with mushy peas, the music just takes hold, and…

It’s always been tricky to capture the cheerful essence of the Little Monkey, but now he’s mobile it’s even harder. Fortunately, messing around with photos to make them look grainy and out-of-focus is de rigeur lately, so I’ve taken advantage of the trend with these pics of the wee England supporter. So far England have…

The Little Monkey has the good fortune to have inherited some fine dancing genes, with Mrs. Monkeyshines being particularly able to throw some mean shapes on a dancefloor. He’s clearly got some decent moves already (also, note the cute little crossed-ankle thing he does)…

Inspired by the recent anniversary of our first date at the Manchester Art Gallery, Mrs. Monkeyshines and I took the Little Monkey into town to visit said gallery for his first bit of culture. It was also Toby’s first bus ride, having previously had the luxury of a chauffeur-driven automobile or a mum willing to…

The Little Monkey has recently learnt how to speed across the room to get what he wants (Mrs. Monkeyshines has cleverly enticed him with the item that babies prize above all else, car keys). This video is from a couple of weeks ago, when there was still an endearing, clumsy-big-pawed-puppy quality to his motion. Now…

The Little Monkey is increasingly mobile, so it’s time for us to think about baby-proofing; which is just a neologism for what my mum would have called common sense. So the bleach is locked away, the nunchucks and katana are put in a drawer, and some order is introduced to the wire spaghetti around the…

The Little Monkey has recently developed the requisite manual dexterity, will, and nous to start communicating with his little paws. Last week it was waving (during which he looks a bit perplexed about why we’re all so pleased about wiggling our hands in the air, but joins in the fun nonetheless), and lately it’s been…

The Little Monkey is rather adept at plucking the top cup from a stack; but the subsequent delighted leg-kick is his, and the tower’s, downfall… (It’s a bit of a shame that the bib obscures his smart shirt, which makes him look awfully grown up; but he’s currently dribbling at a Premiership level, so bibs…

As Mrs. Monkeyshines and I are raging bibliophiles, we thought that the Little Monkey might have a love of books in his genes. I didn’t realise, however, that ‘Book People’ are literally (re-)born, kicking and thrashing, into the world…