“Aunty Susie, what are you doing with that phone?”

Usually when I go visit my sister I take lots of photos of Noah. As I only get to see him every few weeks I like to record as much as possible, while enjoying the moment too, of course, but there is this compulsion to record, so that I have something to sustain me while I’m away from him (my feelings for this little boy are that melodramatic. I get tearful when I’m here and he’s there. PMS isn’t always to blame.)

This weekend there were moments when I realised I was not taking photos. We’d be playing — teacups and plastic toast; chasing each other round the kitchen table; reading the tractor picture book  — and I’d panic for a millisecond and think: where’s my camera? But rather than exit the fun to go find it, I’d just keep playing. I’m trusting that I will see him again, that he won’t change so much that I don’t recognise him when we’re next together. That he will remember me.

– He spent roughly 90 mins walking around an art fair on Saturday chatting into his mobile phone (my iPod). He’d shout “hello?” and then blather on in what sounded like Cantonese :)

– I spent at least 30 minutes talking into a wooden banana yesterday.

– I got my first bonafide cuddle on Sunday. We were alone in the house, playing pretend picnics on the living room floor. Noah put his shopping basket over his arm and headed to the kitchen to get on his Scuttlebug to visit the imaginary shops. So I called out buh-bye and said “can I have a kiss?” He turned around, came back over and with his tiny pursed lips gave me a kiss before wrapping his little arms around me and placing his head on my shoulder. I was still sitting there with cartoon lovehearts falling out of my eyes when he did it again five minutes later. I can honestly say that was my favourite moment of 2011.

New words of note: nice, aeroplane (said unprompted when he saw one in the sky), horsie, “sit down” and… my favourite… Susie (pronouced shoo-she).