Darling Father comes to stay

Darling father arrived yesterday. I will be quite honest, I am a little concerned. He rang up to come and visit early and I was happy for him to come, of course I was. However I am a little concerned that he arrived on a Tuesday - a day normally inviolable and sacred to golf.

He brought with him a thirty two inch high panda for little bear. Little bear has a four foot panda, four ikea pandas, a very peculiar Japanese panda, a TY panda and lots and lots of panda related bits. He even has a panda rug (best acrylic! - I was having a bad time and ebay was being very friendly). This did not dull his enthusiasm with this new panda - his entire face lit up at the sight of it.

We picked up little bear on the way home from picking up darling father, and had to persuade him carefully that the huge panda was staying in his bag until we got home. When I got in, the first thing I did was put the kettle on. The first thing little bear did was make pleading eyes at darling father until he got his hands on the panda.

I had left little bear a little longer at nursery, and they assured me that he had napped, but he was doing a very creditable impression of exhaustion. All he wanted to do was sit on his mum under the new panda. The new panda is bigger than him (I think, or as big) and nearly as heavy, so being under a little bear and large panda was no joke. I kept peering round various arms, legs, paws and ears to try and have a conversation with darling father.

I would also like to add that I was extremely grateful for dear heart for lugging big panda upstairs rather than me - I think it might have been rather beyond me.

Little bear didn't go straight to sleep and we heard sounds of distress. Dear heart went to investigate, and little bear was struggling. He had managed to heave the new panda onto the bed, despite the panda being at least as large as him, nearly as heavy and having to negotiate the bed guard. Now he was struggling with the four foot panda (exactly the same length as his old cot) and trying to get that on the bed by himself. Dear heart helped out in the end, it was kinder.

When I went to bed I looked in on little bear. He was there in his pyjamas and boops, wedged between a huge mound of soft toys and an almost equally large mound of books, completely and utterly asleep.