A welcome addition

George isn't the only new face in our household – there are 43 of them (I counted, and that's just one more than the greatest number of bibs in one room at one time – I counted those too), and all cuddly and cute in varying degrees. There are monkeys, bears, lions, rabbits – there's even a cuddly crocodile.

One of these additions arrived on Christmas Day – a rather large (huge in relation to George) tan-coloured Big Ape who has been surprisingly helpful to mummy and daddy.

George has pretty much learned to sit up on his own now, but occasionally he topples over. If it's forward it's usually in slow motion until he wacks his head on the xylophone. It doesn't seem to matter how near we are, or how slo-mo things go, there's no preventing impact.

Mostly he lands face-first on his comfy playmat and usually starts to whinge after a few seconds until we sit him up again – he hasn't learned to roll over and we're certainly in no hurry to progress things to crawling.

If he topples backwards there is a bank of cushions to soften the landing – or there has been until Big Ape arrived. Now the cushions stay on the armchairs and Big Ape has taken over the protection racket. And in the

evenings, when George has gone to bed, Big Ape guards George's spot in front of the fire and watches telly with us.

Last week it was the iPod, this week it's a shelf on the bookcase. There has been a bit of shuffling and jostling for position, with daddy's 'Who's Who in British History' vying for prime shelf space alongside George's 'Tractor Trouble' (which daddy knows off by heart by the way – be far more impressive if I knew the 'Who's Who in British History' off by heart, but I have my limits).

Other recent developments include George's garbling noises evolving into a repetitious "da-da-da-da-da-da" which has only made mummy even more determined to get him to say "mom-mom-mom"...

And at bathtimes we have been getting a bit of a drenching. George's legs, constantly getting stronger, are capable of delivering splashes that slosh across the bathroom and spray the door and splatter the floor. Needless to say, George isn't the only one who requires a warm change of clothing after his bath.