"Grandad Duke of York"

Ben loves to sing and now he has a ready audience. It can be a great soother for baby Thomas! We couldn't resist sharing this rendition of a favourite nursery rhyme, subtley amended by Ben, on a lazy morning in bed with our boys.

Now we are Four

This post has been somewhat delayed but we've been a little bit preoccupied the last few days.

We were blessed by the arrival of another beautiful baby boy on Monday 14th September. Thomas Joseph was born at 3.44pm and weighed in at 7lb 10oz, slightly larger than Ben. Here he is.

After a bit of a rough ride at Ben's birth, everything went much more smoothly with Thomas' arrival into the world. Despite the frustrations of him being 8 days overdue, it seems that God's perfect timing was at play as we were able to be supported by a friend and midwife from church who happened to be doing her only shift of the week last Monday afternoon.

It was a special moment introducing Ben to his new baby brother later that evening. Although a bit fazed visiting Mummy and Thomas in a hospital at what would normally be his bedtime, Ben purposefully led the way into the ward, enjoyed an exchange of presents with his new little playmate and commented on his funny hair, before proudly holding Thomas on his knee. And so now we are four...

Soon after lunch the following day Mummy, Daddy and Thomas arrived home to a wonderful reception from Ben and his Nan and Grandad. Again, Ben was the doting big brother and couldn't wait to hold him again.

A week on we are still full of wonder and thankfulness to God for blessing us with this precious new life.

Birthday celebrations, summer fun and waiting...

Well, it's a day past 'due date' and about time we updated the blog. No sign of the imminent arrival as yet, but we're doing our best to wait patiently, keep busy and make the most of our time as a family of 3.

During the first week of Debbie's maternity leave, we were able to enjoy a few days to ourselves again, while Ben had a lovely holiday at Nan and Grandad's. We joined him at the weekend for a family lunch to celebrate Nan's milestone birthday.

Ben tucked in with gusto - especially enjoying his ice cream (though we attempted to disown him at this point)

We spent a relatively quiet August Bank Holiday weekend pottering around locally and treating ourselves to lunches out and picnics, though the weather wasn't quite as good as promised. Luckily it held out for a barbecue with friends on the Monday evening. Ben had lots of fun playing in the garden with Edward and Oliver, and especially trying out his new car with Edward - a recent car boot sale bargain.And now our diaries are looking fairly vacant as we wait expectantly for our new arrival, who is clearly feeling cosy and staying put for the time being...