If she thought throwing up in public was the pinnacle of humiliation, Sam Cowen hadn’t counted on her son having The Penis Conversation on top of his voice in the queue at Woolies. Stretch marks fade, children are forever: as Sam discovers in the follow-up to Waiting for Christopher.

Chris goes through all the milestones: starting nursery school, learning that hot plates are hot (the hard way), realising that mummy can’t make the earthmoving equipment on the side of the road perform just for him and becoming addicted to Teletubbies. Chris also develops a mind of his own, almost as sharp as his mummy’s, which makes for some amusing battles of will. On top of a growing child and a successful radio show, Sam is offered a job presenting a show on a national TV station. Soon after taking on the position as presenter for Great Expectations, Sam finds out that she is pregnant. It’s a difficult pregnancy, made harder by all Sam has to juggle professionally and personally, but eventually Gen arrives safely. Of course, Chris has something to say about that... Sam’s incisive deadpan humour has leopard-crawled through the sleepless nights, walked the minefields of temper tantrums and sidestepped sticky little hands to write this hilarious frontline account of Chris’s toddler years and the arrival Genevieve.