Mr Mischief

OK - it's not a picture of today's birthday-boy, but his little brother, Mr Mischief. Captured, as usual, charging without thought to wherever his imagination leads next... This photo is like the infamous, "what happened next" round on A Question Sport, we wait with baited breath to see what horror he will retrieve from the water - or whether he will just lose balance and roll into the pond. Mr Mischief - aka 'Norris', is creative, irrepressible, hilarious, musical, intelligent, loving, ludicrous and quite unable to make adequate links between his actions and their consequences. We always think that after each tumble he will stand up again, wiser, calmer, more contemplative, and less combustible. We continue to live in this hope!

One day when he was quite young, we urged him not to walk too close to the edge of the gorge at The Birks of Aberfeldy, over which he seemed destined to hurl himself. "what would you do if you fell over there?" we asked? "I'd turn into Buzz Lightyear and fly down to the bottom" he announced. Only of course, he wouldn't, would he? The parenting challenge we have for this daft imp, is how to channel his irrepressible energy, contain it positively without breaking his joy, sparkle and character. Parenting...? who can manage it?