the next generation

I just found out that my oldest friend is pregnant! And not just pregnant, but 8 months pregnant! How come it's been so long since I last talked to her? We have communicated by sms, but that bit of news was omitted....

Wow. I still remember having sleepovers at her house with the clown nightlight in her room so it wouldn't be completely dark - and being more scared of the clown when I needed to get up in the middle of the night. I babysat her tamagochi and her guinea-pig when she went on holiday to spain. I remember being mildly grossed out when we found out she was going to have a little brother (we were ten years old by then and thought our parents were ancient). I remember when that little brother was in a cot. And now she has a cot in her room for her own baby.

She says it's payback time for her brother - after all those years of babysitting him, he has to babysit for her now. He's only 14 though, so it might be another 2 years before he's legally allowed to babysit for her on his own.

I have other friends who have had babies, and the number of children belonging to my generation of my family seems to grow at an alarming rate. But somehow this is harder to take in. Perhaps it's because I only have a month to get used to the idea before the bump turns into an actual baby, or perhaps it's because I remember being seven years old with my friend. And the screams she made when we cycled into a (parked) car and scraped her knee. She didn't scream when she actually scraped it - she screamed because the antiseptic her mum put on stung so much.

But I think I'm looking forward to being back in manchester and saying hi to the new arrival. Perhaps I can teach him/her all the naughty tricks we did then?