I should begin this entry by stating that my wife didn’t have much time off work after our boy was born, not in the true sense of the phrase anyway. She had a month or so where she didn’t work, but after that she began checking work emails, making follow-up calls and then pretty soon she was doing a day a week. She never planned to do the whole ‘year off’ thing afterward anyway, so it wasn’t a great surprise.

She’s just returned to full-time work recently. Leo is 4 months old now, and is booked in to daycare from 6 months. In the interim, he gets to spend some time with his Nan! She’s taken 7 weeks long service leave and will mind Leo 3-4 days a week while his Mum goes to work.

Today I pause and remember a man no longer with us – my father.

Today is Dad’s 46th birthday, but sadly, he isn’t here for it. Eleven years ago, he succumbed to the black dog and took his own life.

Uncles come in all shapes and sizes. They can be more like friends, or just older people you know. They can even be like an extra dad sometimes.

In centuries previous, a man would offer to marry the widow of his dead brother, to provide them with a stable man in the house and a male influence for the children.

You don’t hear of that much these days, which is a bit of a nod to the whole ‘women are independent and clever thinkers, likely smart enough to find someone else is that’s what they want’ movement.

These days, uncles are more likely to be simply the fathers of your cousins, and friends to you and your parents.

Another milestone today (I suspect there will be a whole heap of them from here on in), in that we had our first family portrait taken.

I’ve always thought of family portraits as a necessary evil, and one whose long-lasting effects can be limited by not showing the result off too prominently – or not at all, as the case may be.

In years gone by in my own family growing up, we had the lovely shots of us boys and Mum gathered together around a stuffed footrest/cushion and a hideous electro-marble wallpaper in the background.

We had a bit of a milestone this weekend – our boy’s first trip out of town! We took him up to northeast Victoria to my home town, to spend the weekend with his grandma, my mother.

We headed up the Friday after work and came back on the Monday. Saturday afternoon saw a few of Grandma’s friends come over and meet the boy. My mother was in her element, glowing as she showed off her first grandchild. It was pretty nice seeing her so happy and so proud, with the next generation of her family starting to grow.