George had been bad for a few nights, and we'd taken him to a cranial osteopath who had puggled about with him and made him relax for a day before he went back to crying and screaming.

We took him back on Saturday and gave him another session and I think he's begining to stop waking us up in the night.

I think part of the problem is that we'd decided to become a bit more forceful in letting him get himself to sleep. We could probably have stopped him crying just by picking him up and comforting him, but we're not doing it. We're letting him cry.

And that has meant leaving him to cry for two hours at a time.

However, I think he's finally getting it. He's learning not to wake up in the night, but he's also learning to be a bit more self-sufficient on his own - play on his own and go to sleep on his own.

We're putting the ipod on in his room at night because he finds it easier to relax to music. when I went in at 3am, Coldplay was playing.

I have to congratulate him for actually waking up during a Coldplay song - that's got to be some kind of a record. Even Coldplay themselves rarely manage that.


it's a tough thing to learn, and not easy for us to let him... but still. it'll eventually work I'm sure.

..well, I'm not sure, but it better had.


On saturday we met up with Jane and Dan and a couple of their friends with a baby the same age as George. We tried really hard to resist going on about babies all the time - I don't think Jane thought we tried hard enough - but it's difficult. If you're not careful you end up having nothing else to talk about!

By about 4pm, though we were both knackered... we've been working hard and not sleeping. it's not a good combination. On the way home, though I found a good outlet for tiredness. A teenage girl was playing music on her mobile phone - one of those nasty tinny mobiles that can't possibly be better to listen to than a pair of headphones.

There are only two reasons I can think of for playing music loud on a train when it sounds better through headphones. One is to deliberately annoy people and make a statement about how you just don't care. The other is because you're stuck so far inside your own head that you haven't got a clue that other people even exist.

I told her to turn it off - but instead of giving me a screaming row or pulling a knife as teenagers are supposed to do, she agreed.

God, if you're going to rebel, at least have the courage of your convictions!


On sunday we went over to Mons and Abi's for sunday lunch. We had curry and Mons randomly handed out Islamic literature. Not because he's Muslim, but because he was given it at college.

The glossy leaflets were titled "discover islam" and were laid out like leaflets for the Norfolk Tourist board. They could just as easily have been entitled "discover Yarmouth". Only they probably wouldn't have contained so much information on the evils of other religions if they had been.

Again, we were knackered by 5pm... come on, George, go to sleep.