A birthday party where Morgan was the only child

After mum came and picked Jenna up for a swim and a sleepover we went out just the three of us - I don't remember ever doing that before. We went to so many places with just Jenna but if we have only Morgan with us we tend to stay in, perhaps it's just our comfort level regarding having a social life has changed. There are far more places you can go with just one child, let's put it that way. We've just stopped a couple of things without thinking about it overmuch or missing them. The only exception is the acoustic club which we can't get to without a car but would gladly brave the coping-with-two-lively-children thing for.

Anyhow, it is my friend's birthday tomorrow and her party was last night. If this entry becomes mostly a list of all the things that Morgan did, so be it - it's a parenting blog lol. What actually happened for *me* is that Morgan wandered off and played pretty much on her own (or getting other grown-ups to help her out) and left me to talk to friends and sit on the sofa eating strawberries. ;)

It's still at that stage when giving her an instruction and having her actually do what I ask is funny, especially to other people. She does that gorgeous toddler thing where you tell her she can't do something and she tries to find the loophole. In a cupboard she discovered a little bottle of Baileys. She wanted it; and after being a little disappointed to find that it wasn't a spray bottle (it was one of the mini ones so about the same size as her nappy spray) she tried to unscrew the lid. We said to put it back. She opened the cupboard again and put it in, took it out again, closed the cupboard. We played this game for a while, until something else distracted her.

They have one of those percussion frogs that we have two of, the kind where it seems to have a stick in its mouth that you can take out and run along its back? It makes a pretty realistic frog sound anyhow, but Morgan couldn't make it go. So she decided to take the stick and find other things to bang with it, the best option being Garry's pint glass which made a great sound when rattled with the stick inside. He had to find himself a new drink after that.

The moment that really made me think how grown up she is was when she put the stick down on a table behind her, slightly above her head. She just reached up and dropped it down, but then she heard that it was rolling - without looking she reached up again and put her palm against the side of the table so that the stick rolled to a stop against it! It seemed such a complex operation for such a small serious person, but she did it almost automatically.

After everyone had managed to drink a suitable amount for someone to suggest such a thing, the indoor golf came out. We *all* had to have a go, and although Martin proved quite good at it I didn't expect to manage it myself! After even Morgan had had a good go at it I obviously had to give in, and sunk a shot in about six tries. After everyone had pretty much given up playing with the thing we tried to show Morgan how it worked, spitting the ball back out when you put it on the magnets. Unfortunately when my friend put it down she pulled it a bit too close to Morgan and the ball flew out and hit her on the leg to looks of shocked pain from the poor baby - who then flinched every time it dispensed after that!

We got home around 11, with Morgan still fairly cheerful, so this morning we had a long lie in. I just couldn't sleep as long as Martin and Morgan, I'm too used to being up early now. Getting back into the habit of a full night's sleep is exhausting!