I'm taking 6 months away from my day job to look after my son, Archie, who is 6 months old. I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences

My mum is the 'maker' in the family - one of her hobbies is stained glass-work - and she designed and made the mobile in the picture. It's not very clear from the photo, but the glass pieces spell out Archie's name. The coloured pencils are a genius touch, the idea for which came from my sister-in-law, who was a primary school teacher.  I think it's fantastic.

This week has been relatively quiet. I went to my Monday meet-up with my Dads' group and had just got Archie settled, when along came a four year old who wanted to introduce him to her teddy bear. She was a bundle of energy and chat and Archie was enraptured, ignoring the bear and other toys around him and totally focussing on the little girl. I don't know how early you get an indication of personality in children but I do feel that Archie responds to people, particularly other young children and babies, a lot more than he does to toys and other stimulation. Perhaps he will turn out to be a little social animal? We always assumed we would have a little introvert, so it will be interesting to see how that observation plays out over time.

At the group, I also met another new dad who's taking paternity leave. His daughter is a couple of weeks older than Archie and he's been looking after her for a couple of months. She's quite slight and nimble compared to Archie (who is, by anyone's standards, a Big Unit) and was just starting to pick her body up into a proper crawl position. Archie's not quite there yet but it's kind of nice to get a little preview of what might be coming next. I'll also admit to a pang of disappointment that other babies of the same age are doing things he can't do yet - it's crazy but I can't help wanting Archie to be early on all development steps.  Perhaps I'm more competitive than I thought.

We've been having a miserable summer weather-wise in London, so this week wasn't great for getting out and about. My wife took Thursday afternoon as leave to give me a break, so I went to see the Amazing Spider-Man at the BFI IMAX theatre on London's South Bank. I've always been a fan and enjoyed Andrew Garfield's performance and his reboot of Spidey.  The BFI IMAX is a great place to watch a blockbuster and I had a fun afternoon.