Another month older

Yes, it's true - Ben is yet another month older today, now a grand old 4 months old. We say it all the time, but how the time is flying by. After a grumpy week or so of battling a cold Ben was on great form today - here he is enjoying demonstrating his new skill of very nearly being able to sit up on his own. The last few weeks have seeen him try out the forward facing pushchair for the first time, from which he can sample the delights of the great outdoors - such as feeding the ducks, and grinning away at nice ladies in shops. Old age doesn't come on its own though, as they say, and Ben is now experiencing the challenges of teething. He's also learning to shout about it quite loudly. And of course, our optimism about his sleeping through the night at three months turned out to be unfounded - now he wakes several times a night. Fun!

Maternal instinct

Debbie had a helping hand today caring for Ben in the shape of 22-month-old Keziah, as the Tilleys came up from London to meet Ben for the first time. We were amazed by Keziah's keen interest in baby Ben - she was ever-attentive, and loved to stroke, cuddle, kiss and pat him on the back. Ben seemed to enjoy the attention of the older lady - especially as the two of them snuggled up on the sofa watching the cricket, much to the approval of their Dads.

Beside the seaside

Ben enjoyed his first trip to the seaside this weekend when we visited his Gran and Grandad on the Suffolk coast. It was blowing a gale and freezing cold, but we couldn't miss out on the chance to show Ben the sea for the first time. Here we are at East Lane Point, near Bawdsey. Hopefully the recent shoring up of the sea defences will mean we can come back with Ben on a sunny summer's day to look at the Martello Towers and gun emplacements when he is old enough to notice!

We also celebrated Debbie's first Mother's Day, which she enjoyed very much - although poor Ben was going down with a cold, and as a special treat gave us our first genuinely sleepless night. He wasn't quite the little angel this photo suggests, but he made up for it by giving Mummy some yummy chocolates :-)

Flood

Large quantities of rain in the past few days have caused some localised flooding in and around Kenilworth. The rain has meant that the occasional ford where Finham Brook flows past Kenilworth Castle has been in action, which together with roadworks on High Street has come close to cutting us off altogether from the rest of Kenilworth. A few cars braved their way through the water here, including a couple of 4x4s that seemed to be going through time and time again - drivers presumably egged on by young children: "do it again Daddy!". We took Ben to see it on Saturday afternoon, but he didn't seem all that interested. This spray narrowly missed him and Debbie!

Three months

Today we celebrated three months since our little boy came into the world and we can't believe how fast he is changing. In the last couple of weeks he has begun to catch hold of things, which means new opportunities and toys to play with. He smiles and giggles at all the silly things we do, and chatters away to us, without us understanding a single word. He's also graduated to his cot in his own room and, miracle of miracles, sleeps for a full 7-8 hours most nights, which is making us very happy (though we're not counting on it lasting!) Sometimes we feel nostaligic for newborn Ben, but we're also really excited about all the fun to come.