Craig Turns 1 (Alternative Title: Craig's Evil Dad)

It was Craig's first birthday on Saturday! The only difference to the previous two Saturdays was that he was in TGI Fridays at lunchtime instead of dinner time. He started by looking at the view while eating the food his Mum had cooked for him.


He even turned to look at the camera when his Dad asked him to.


The very young and ridiculously cheerful waitress gave Craig a balloon on a string.


He tried to pull it down to where he could play with it but his arms were a lot shorter than the string. So, he turned around to look for help.


Craig's Mum kindly pulled the balloon down to face-level but all Craig wanted to do was try to taste it!


Craig then made a long speech on a topic that, sadly, is still unknown.


Then, two special lunch guests arrived with an excellent present for Craig. A toy mobile phone that can speak in Japanese!! They also gave him some very cool looking dungarees but there's no picture of them.....


Naturally, Craig posed for a picture with Yamin. She's the girlfriend of Craig's Dad's co-worker Sam. That's Sam's arm in the left of the picture.


Craig had helped a lot with the adult food during the meal. His Mum reckons Craig ate more fish than she did.


Craig played quite happily with Sam as well. Sam was pretty good at making Craig giggle.


Fortunately, no pictures exist of Craig's evil father feeding him a sugar-coated doughnut!!!! Later that afternoon, poor Craig couldn't sleep when it became nap-time and was more than a little bit exciteable all afternoon after lunch and into the evening.

Early in the evening, Craig and his Mum and Dad went up to his grandparents house on the hill in Neihu. There was another birthday present for him there. It was very difficult to unwrap.


But, since it looked like a toy and because it was in the house where Craig's cousin Soit-Jade is the only child, she assumed it must belong to her!


It didn't matter much to Craig. He was happy playing with some plastic blocks.


Then Craig's Great Aunt from the Second Floor arrived with another present!!! It was a big day for presents.


Soit-Jade gave the toy a test run.


But it was clearly meant for someone smaller so she left it for Craig to have fun with. In the background is Craig's Granddad who had just come out of hospital that afternoon. He was probably reading about living with diabetes while Craig played with his new toy.


Then it was time for the birthday cake. Everyone gathered on one side of the big dining table with Craig and the cake on the other. Craig became a bit concerned about everyone staring at him.


But Mum was right beside him.


And his Grandma came over to help with singing Happy Birthday. That seemed to cheer Craig up quite a lot.


After the candle was blown out by Craig's Mum, Craig was given a close-up look at the cake.


And, his Great Aunt from the Second Floor let him taste a tiny bit. (It really was a tiny bit. Craig's Mum was keeping a close eye on what Craig was eating. Not surprising after the doughnut debacle in the afternoon.)


While everyone was eating their cake, Soit-Jade was doing some very unusual dancing in front of the TV. She was watching an extremely strange American children's show and she'd even learned some of the words.


On the way down the mountain in Great Aunt from the Second Floor's car, Craig fell asleep. After the sugar-effect from the doughnut wore off, he slept for 13 hours with no trouble at all. At 5:30am the next morning, when Craig's Dad was going out to a fun run, Craig looked like a little angel. It's such a shame he has such an evil father, isn't it?

Craig and his family all hope that his Granddad will get well soon.