David was due to be born on 5th February, setting a precedent for the rest of his life, he arrived in true laid back fashion 10 days late at 18.40 on the 16th. He only weighed 7lbs 6ozs and was extraordinarily little. The nurses took him off to a "nursery" very quickly and left me, lost and wide awake, until they returned him, thankfully early, the next morning. I will have to admit to being less than impressed with him! Everybody else seemed to have beautiful babies, at least from a distance, whereas I got this skinny little thing with a punk hairstyle, his hands clasped very sanctimoniously on this chest and more than a little of a "Churchillian" face. I went and checked out the other cots more closely and was thankful to discover that indeed it was only the distance that was making any of these babies look beautiful; they were all fairly deplorable looking items. Whatever, he was my deplorable item and I felt a need to have him with me, to talk to him and to make sure he was ok. At lunchtime a nurse appeared again to take him away. I expressed some disquiet at this and asked where he was going. I was informed that all the cots would be lined up in the nursery facing the window and the sun, which would prevent them from opening their eyes and thereby encourage them to sleep! Not my baby! I kept him with me at all times from that moment and that was the begining of the slippery slope, down which I tumbled whole heartedly and willingly, of undying devotion. We left hospital on the Sunday and I took him home, terrified! My Dad had been to visit us in hospital and immediately, and irredeemably, fell head over heels in love with David, way before I could not resist his charms. Until the day Dad died David was the greatest love of his life; he adored him, unquestioningly and without exception but also without any true acceptance of who David was. His greatest desire was to wrap David in cotton wool and to keep him safe from the world and any ill. How different thngs might have been if he had been the dominant influence in David's life. Undoubtedly we would still have him with us but, in my view, it would have been "another" David. But that weekend, 19th Feb 1978, was the first time he met his Grandma. I sat feeding him on the settee when she walked behind us, talking. David stopped feeding immediately and listened; this was a new voice! He had the most amazing violet blue eyes and the longest eyelashes imaginable and these beautiful eyes followed the sound of that new voice and you could read on his face every thought; even at a few days old he was aware and thinking. He was an exempelary baby. After a fortnight he started sleeping through the night and with the pride and smugness of a very new mother this was a point of huge achievement and cause for a bit of lording it over other mothers whose babies were not doing so well! It was short lived. David slept through the night for two weeks and clearly filled his sleep quota for several years to come because he then ceased to sleep at all! On Christmas Day 1978 I had some wine and, because I was still feeding him, so did he! He fell asleep on the settee, doubtless the first of his many drunken sleeps, and now we know who was to blame for all those future occurences! I took endless photos because that was the first time I had seen him asleep for 9 months! And so was the pattern set for the first 6/7 years of his life. I became a zombie, incapable of interaction with or thought about real life. We sat up all night and I might drift off to sleep for a few minutes or, who knows, hours but when ever I woke David would still be sat on the floor playing with his toys. We would have breakfast, dress and head out. Wandering the streets for hours, looking at every stone, smelling every flower, collecting leaves, flowers, conkers or blackberrys, absorbed and enchanted both. Some days I would suddenly realise that we hadn't eaten or that I was so desperate for the loo that there was no waiting and we would have to dash home to eat or whatever! I used to sit him on the kitchen top while I cooked, thinking that he would be more involved and that we could share the process much better than if he was on the floor; he was at my level and could see and be seen. He never once did a kamikaze dive from the that top, which would have been patently ridiculous for one so small from such a comparatively huge height but I discovered, to my cost, that that was because he was David and not because all children were so wise. When babysitting a friend's child and treating him to the same consideration, he did do a head dive of the top and it was only my well honed cricketing skills that enabled me to catch him before his head contacted with the hard kitchen floor! David always showed wisdom beyond his years. I remember one night watching a film, "Big Foot" I think. David was sitting at one end of the 3 seater settee and me at the other. He was so little that his legs, fully stretched out, didn't reach the end of the cushions. I am not good with tension, even with something so feeble; David was unnerved too. He gradually inched along the settee until he finally crawled on to my lap. After a couple of minutes sitting there with us both rigid with the horror he looked up at me, aged 2ish, and said "I don't think we should be watching this"!What could I do but laugh, agree and switch the damn thing off!