Mina at one

I expect very few of you to read this post. It’s one for the superfans. Of the girls that is, not my superfans (inevitably a much smaller clique). So I’m mainly speaking to my mum and dad. Perhaps my in-laws. And possibly Mina when she’s old enough to read this, assuming she’s even interested. And that the internet still exists then.

By all rights, this should rank as the dullest post I’ve ever written. A doting panegyric to my youngest child is hardly a crowd-pleaser. But Mina isn’t dull. She’s one of the least dull people I know. I spent five solid months with her and never had a dull moment. Even her hair is arresting, remarked upon wherever she goes. So maybe it won’t be such a dull post.

Mina hit the big numero uno a couple of weeks ago while we were in Portugal (if you’ve read this far, you’ve probably also read about that holiday). Not that she particularly cared where she celebrated her first birthday. For her the novelty of having some new toys to play with was sufficient.

How a single memory can make it all worthwhile

Two weeks ago today, I witnessed something that fully justified my decision to take time off work to look after my daughters.

I now have the perfect answer to every question I’ll ever get asked about why I deemed it appropriate to step out of the office to become a stay-at-home father.

That moment was a tangible flag in the ground that I can look back on in weeks and months and years to come and say, that’s why I did it. These few seconds were emblematic of why I wanted to care for the girls and what I hoped to get from it.