ROYAL STARS: Hands-on dad William cradles George as Kate gives him a toy bilby during their trip to [GETTY]The now nine-month-old third in line to the throne was never caught smiling but he still melted hearts around the world when he joined his parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their epic tour of New Zealand and Australia.
Those of us watching him at close quarters felt sure of one thing: this boy is going to be a character.
It was hard to take your eyes off him, whether he was snatching toys off other babies, bouncing up and down and stretching on his tiptoes to try to get into an animal enclosure or simply kicking his legs and wriggling in excitement.
The longest royal tour for a generation, 19 days of sheer bliss for fans of the monarchy and particularly the young family that have given it renewed vigour and relevance, offered the first real glimpse of Prince George in action.
But it offered an even more intriguing sight: a new side to Kate - a more confident, fun-loving joker no longer deferring to her husband at every step.
She was always perfect princess material: sporty, attractive, elegant, refined, diplomatic and discreet, straight out of central casting.
On the couple's Asia-Pacific tour in 2012 we discovered her steeliness when a protective William raged after discovering a French magazine had published topless photos of his wife and she calmed him down, telling him to smile for the cameras and all would be OK.
But motherhood and three years inside the Royal Family appear to have given her the strength and confidence to reveal just a little bit more of the real person behind the studied smile and dispel the idea she is some kind of Stepford Wife Duchess.
The Kate who beat her husband sailing in Auckland and wagged her finger at him playing cricket in Christchurch was anything but that.
The real revelation, though, came on Good Friday when she and William went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
There were 100,000 people there, a daunting prospect for anyone.
TOY STORY: George is transfixed by a cuddly bear [getty-george]I noticed that she suddenly seemed to have gained a new confidence
"I noticed that she suddenly seemed to have gained a new confidence when she got out of the car," the aide said.
"She just puffed out her chest and seemed to say, right let's do this."
At the show there was a small but significant royal first: a Kate joke.
She took the mickey out of her husband's bald patch, suggesting he could use some alpaca wool as a toupee to cover up his disappearing thatch.
"You need it more than me," she laughed, pointing to his head.
In Brisbane, that renewed confi-dence showed through when William, sitting in the front seat of the cockpit of a F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter, asked: "Do you fancy jumping in the back?"
As it happened, she didn't. She sat in the front, forcing him to retire to the rear.
William, who has fought to overcome his shyness and is now assuming a role with more gravitas as his advisers start to position him effectively as a Prince of Wales-in-waiting, laughs and takes it all in his stride.
Kissing the top of his son's head at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, he jiggled his son up and down - a happy family man putting paid to the idea that he was a hands-off dad.
It was a tour designed by him and Kate.
The couple's engagements on the tour very much reflected their priorities.
It was all about cementing their links with the people of New Zealand and Australia while promoting the couple's key interests: conservation, the welfare of military families and helping disadvantaged young people.
Under a King Charles who wants to see an active monarchy do far more than ribbon-cutting, William and Kate will be in the vanguard.
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