Bananas

I learnt three new things today.

The first was after I told a couple of work colleagues about how hard it often was to get Jamie off to sleep, particularly after he'd woken up in the night.

"I used to put my daughter in the car and drive her around until she nodded off," said one of them. "I remember taking her out once at 2am."

"My sister does that with one of her kids," said my other friend. A common approach then and most bizarre.

But not as bizarre as the next discovery I made. I was talking to a local businessman who, for an entire lifetime, has presided over a very successful paint firm.

We were discussing the Prince Charles "Sooty" controversy which broke today, off the back of the Prince Harry row which was in the Sunday papers.

"We used to sell a paint called 'nigger brown,'" said the man who, I can assure you, doesn't have a racist bone in his body. "It seems almost unbelievable these days, and understandably so, but a lot has changed since then."

And as an aside, a little research this evening unearthed the following related passage on Wikipedia:

"Historically, British people would often describe a dark shade of brown as 'nigger brown,' but this and all other uses of the word 'nigger' have long since been considered offensive in Britain."

The things you learn.

The final little piece of knowledge gleaned today was that it's not a good idea to feed Jamie bananas immediately before he is due to go to bed.

Coming back to the catalyst for my first discovery, he has been waking up a lot in the last couple of nights and it's been driving us barmy. So tonight, as well as his milk, we gave him some mashed banana.

And now, at shortly after 9pm - more than two hours past his bedtime - Vanessa is still trying to get him down. The above picture, taken only minutes ago, shows just how "sleepy" he is.

I wonder what I'll find out tomorrow.