Recycle, Reuse...

…is a slogan I have on a T shirt from many years ago. Not that I own the whole thing anymore. I cut out the slogan along with the pattern, intending to sew it on to another T-shirt when the original one got shabby – in the spirit of the slogan itself.

Needless to say, like many sewing and knitting projects I have tucked away, it has not yet been accomplished. One day.

However, it’s a slogan that’s come into its own since the birth of LHW. I wrote earlier of Trigger’s Moses basket and the eco nappies, but all sorts of other things have been unearthed from storage: baby T-shirts, trousers, shorts, vests, a huge bag of tiny socks (amazingly all in pairs), and so it goes on. There are also toys: Panda, Pooh Bear, a xylophone drum, shape sorter, cuckoo clock, Webster the spider, Clatterpillar…

And that’s before we even get on to the books. Currently we only have the baby books out, simple versions of Winnie the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine among them. But for later, we have at least 500 (yes, 500!) children’s books on a bookcase on the landing. Can you tell I was keen on my children reading?

LHW takes great delight in turning the pages of his board books though he’s only interested in the pictures as yet. But soon will come a time when we can introduce him to our own children’s favourites: Mog the Cat, Postman Pat, Meg and Mog, Mrs Elephant and her brood, and oh so many more.

I used to do all the voices when my children were little, from a cackly Meg the witch through to Welsh accents in Ivor the Engine based on my great-gran’s (and so, in fact, from the wrong end of Wales!). My daughter C told me recently that whenever she read through her old books, she always heard me doing the voices in her head.

So, very soon, not only will I be reusing the books with dear little LHG, but I’ll be reusing my old voices. I only hope I’m not too out of practice. I’m sure Giovanna will be keen for him to get to know her own favourite book as a tot, Baby Goz by Steve Weatherill.

‘Are you my mar-my?’ Ahh.