On the cusp of teenhood

Nigel celebrating his twelfth birthday at home with the family

Nigel turned twelve recently. A dozen years have gone by since he was born, that’s an entire zodiac calendar – yes he was born in the year of the goat. The next time the year of the goat comes around, he would have done his O levels, A levels, completed his NS and would be midway through university.

Somehow the last twelve years did not seem to have had as many significant milestones – maybe because he spent one year crawling around and the following six running around bumping into waiters and irritating innocent pedestrians -  which he still does to this day actually.

Next year he officially becomes a teenager – a sulky adolescent that speaks in one word sentences ("good", "no", "dunno") to parents and spends most of the time engrossed in the phone or peeling their fingernails. We need to get to use his phone less and buy him his own nail-clipper.