Good morning Kirsten

I can hardly believe that I’m typing this, but you’re FIVE today!

4 v. 5

This was you on your fourth birthday (the two of us went on a disastrous trip to Rothesay which was aborted due to bad weather as soon as we arrived):

And this was you a few days ago:

Updates

The changes for you have continued at-pace this year. In order:

Moving house – October 2024

We said “goodbye” to 142A Queens Drive and “hello” to 28 Newlands Road.

The move was a blur, to be honest, and maybe the hardest day’s graft I’ve ever done. I’ve just checked and we took zero photos of moving in.

Although we had hired perfectly capable and professional removal people, I decided that I should try to make myself useful and try to help them. Suffice to say that I was not match-fit and needed electrolytes within about 10-minutes of getting started. I don’t remember your mum carrying anything… but she’ll no doubt correct me.

Holiday – July 2025

We went to Mallorca for a couple of weeks during the summer. We stayed at a golf resort about 10 minutes outside Palma called Arabella. It was pretty nice, and Palma itself was great. You swam every day and became highly proficient at diving for ‘sinkers’.

You started School – August 2025

A proper biggie in the context of life events:

So far, at least, school is going great. There have been no issues with you settling in; you seem to really enjoy it, and have lots of friends; you’ve come home with stickers and certificates for good behaviour; and you’re doing your homework. Long may all of that continue!

I’ll come back to school below.

What about you?

You’re a great kid.

You’re really into drawing and colouring-in, and dressing up. If you’ve drawn one rainbow, you’ve drawn a million. You’ve also started to draw our family, which has been nice. Although I must say that some of your depictions of me have been quite, how shall I say this, authentic (they’re hate crimes, frankly!). You recently drew me wearing a bow tie (I don’t think you’ve ever seen me wear one) so that I would “look smart“.

You enjoy watching any Disney film (Peter Pan has been a particular favourite) and, believe it or not, a programme called K-Pop Demon Hunters. I’m still not sure how you managed to sneak that one past the monitoring protocol of mum and me. You are living the dream in the new house insofar as you now have a dedicated play room, including a projector screen.

You have sort of learned to ride a bike. I say “sort of” because you haven’t really been interested in it. You prefer to ride your scooter.

We’ve had a summer of fantastic weather and you’ve enjoyed playing in the garden, especially in the paddling pool and on the trampoline (which I’d much rather we hadn’t bought but I was out-voted).

You’re generally brilliant with Cooper. You increasingly play together, now that he can sort of keep up with you. The favourite game is currently “King and Queen Nap Time“, which involves you both pulling blankets and cushions from couches; lying on / under them for c.2 seconds; then running around with the blankets over your heads.

Music, of course, remains important. The anthem for the year is most definitely Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, although Tataki (by Argy); Xumba Xumba (by Mainline Magic Orchestra); and Holding Out for a Hero (by Bonnie Tyler) have all received serious air-time. We have to have Pink Pony Club on all the time in the car, between listening to the Tales of Narnia audiobook!

Family

Time with family remains one of, if not the, most important things for you. You’ve had a great time with everyone this year:

Max Q

SpaceX is currently developing rockets that are intended to take people to Mars. Maybe by the time you’ll have read this, they’ll already be there! They’re doing stuff that seems out of science-fiction: like catching rockets when they land.

I mention that because, during launches, SpaceX calls out the point at which the vehicle reaches “Max Q” i.e., the moment of maximum dynamic pressure – which apparently is exactly what it sounds like.

I feel like your mum and me are at Max Q right now, and have been for some time. We have two small(ish) kids, which is brilliant but non-stop; a new house, and all the work that comes with it, to do and pay for; school; busy jobs; etc. Maybe there will be points in our lives with more going on, for a prolonged period of time, but I sure hope not!

The difference between this year and last year is that we (or at least I) am starting the feel the benefits of all of the effort. One moment that has stuck with me, and which I photographed at the time with the plan of mentioning it to you, was your first day of school. We all left our nice house, in a good and safe part of town, where you and Cooper have plenty of space, to walk / scoot along to the school that we had the option of choosing for you:

That was cool. And it wouldn’t be possible unless we were pushing ourselves for you and Cooper. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m hoping that our current upwards trajectory will continue but it would also be nice, one day to find ourselves in a steady orbit.

Finally: this was also cool. I think it’s my favourite photo of us this year – taken on our last night in Mallorca:

Until next year, pal.

Love,

Your Dad.