Olivia, you will be pleased to learn, circumnavigated the two major obstacles that faced her over the past week, with total aplomb. If she didn't quite laugh in the face of her jabs, nor did she kick and scream for too long either. Indeed by the time I rushed home from work to comfort her, some eight hours or so after the actual event, the worst had passed and she was back to her giggling best. As for the second ordeal facing her - witnessing her father in a state of drunken disrepair post his Christmas do - it turned out that my capacity to turn down free pints was stronger than anticipated and so the fear that I might lurch into the bedroom and launch a stream of vomt into the Moses basket, remained simply a fear.

In other news, Olivia this week stepped up to size two in nappies, an event that underlines how quickly they grow up these days and clearly presages greater change to come. It won't be long now before our little girl is setting off to school or getting her first ASBO. Sniff. It all goes so fast.