A visitor from Down Under

The weekend finished with a visit from Stephen and Lucy, and Mark's "Australian" cousin Sara, who is staying with them on her extended trip to Britain. Once he got over his initial suspicion, possibly caused by her slightly dodgy accent (a mix of Yorkshire and Sydney), Ben enjoyed playing with his first cousin once removed, and posing for photos. It was great to catch up with Sara after 4 years since we last met up on a family holiday in Cyprus. She's here for a while so we're hoping there'll be more opportunities for her to cement her friendship with Ben.

Christmas time is here again

We haven't felt very Christmassy so far. We got the tree up more than a week ago, and sorted most of the presents, got the cards written, but still haven't felt much in the Christmas spirit, what with first Ben being ill, then both of us.

After last weekend we finally feel a bit more in the Christmas mood though. We spent the weekend with Debbie's family, staying with her parents and meeting up with Val, Pete, Rob and Louise. We had a lovely tea with them all, with Ben keeping us all amused. Here he is enjoying some of Nan's special trifle, minus the sherry!

The next day we went for a walk around Wellington. Ben mostly wanted to sit in the pushchair, but we did manage to get him out for a few minutes for a 'swing' with Nan and Grandad and to feed the solitary duck at the local pond.

Christmas Carousel

On Saturday we decided to head into Birmingham. Debbie was meeting Kay and some other friends later on and we thought that the train journey and the Christmas market would be an adventure for Ben. It was very busy - not too much sign of recession on this Saturday two weeks before Christmas - but we had a good time. Ben thought the train was fun, especially when we went past the airport. In town we managed to largely avoid the shops and pottered very slowly around the German Christmas market, where we found a carousel. Having refused to let him go on merry-go-rounds a couple of times recently, we decided against our better judgement, to go on this one. We avoided the horses and all three of us sat in a carriage. Ben thought it was fantastic, waving to all the people as we passed by and didn't want to come off.

It was soon time for Debbie to meet up with her friends, so Mark took Ben back on the train, discovering when they arrived at the car park at Berkswell that he didn't have his car key with him. So they trooped back to Birmingham to collect a key from Debbie, with Ben putting up with things stoically, although not enjoying his third and fourth train journeys quite so much as the first two!

A big boy now

Last weekend we celebrated Ben's second birthday. We can hardly believe how fast he is growing up - he even announced the other week "I'm not a baby any more Mummy". We had a fun weekend with the Willshaws staying and family and friends joining us to celebrate the big day. Ben enjoyed being the centre of attention at his party - especially as he was able to show off his new rock and roll guitar - an upmarket version of the inflatable version he has been "playing" incessantly for the past two months.

It took Ben a little while to work out what his cake was ("What sort of cake is it Ben?" "A birthday cake"), but we were quite pleased when all the hard work paid off and he piped up "digger". He was most excited about the fact that it had "two candles".

After all the excitement, we had a quieter day on Sunday, braving the cold to visit the slightly disappointing Christmas market in Leamington. There was chance however, for Ben and Tabitha to cement their friendship. They were so sweet together all weekend, playing and giggling and dancing together. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a special weekend for us all.