Bridget has generally been fairly indiscriminate in her desire to be with a particular parent. She'll happily sit with one or other of us for as long as we want to spend keeping her entertained. However, in the last couple of days it seems that Mummy (despite her new appelation of 'grumpfrown') has become the parent of choice. If I leave a room for even a few moments my departure often elicits immediate wails from our daughter, which are promptly stifled when I return. It's nice to feel wanted.

...will be resumed when we've had our main computer fixed. We think it's got amnesia. Okay, we think it's got a dodgy RAM module that's been unhappy for ages and now simply won't play. So we're back to prehistoric (1998 era!) Mac, and connecting to the internet is, like, such a drag. And plug a digital camera in? Where - the coal chute?

Another developmental step-change. In the course of a few hours on Friday, Bridget went from vowel-soup with very occasional consonants to full-on babbling. That is, she went from (and I quote):

aaaaaeeeooooaaaaaa baaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeoooo

to

bambarbarbarbambeedadadadardamdamdoo

- from vowel soup to syllable soup. All the time.

You don't have to be a feminist critic to think it probably no accident that 'dada' words (made up of syllables very common when Bridget is happy) have been chosen to refer to the male parent, and 'mama' words (made up of syllables much more likely to turn up when Bridget is cross) have been chosen for the female. ('Oh, darling, baby's saying my name - no, hang on, baby wants you now. No, really.') If Bridget is anything to go by, male and female parents are actually called something like 'pleasedhappy' and 'grumpfrown' respectively...