Lullaby Hullaboo!

And still (after nearly two months) Ben has a ready audience for his singing. Here is Ben accompanying himself on Debbie's old keyboard, clearly very pleased with his typically robust rendition of a favourite "night time" song and enjoying the opportunity to perform to a placid little brother.

Spot the difference

Since Thomas was born it has felt like we've had baby Ben around again - they seem to look so similar. We've done a bit of comparing of early photos, and just for fun thought we'd post a few of them. Can you tell who's who?

The astute may notice some seasonal clues! And we've sneaked in a photo of one of Thomas' early smiles. Like Ben, he seems very ready with them, and is charming us with these little grins and accompanying gurgles more and more.

Read All About It

Mark was listening to Start the Week on Radio 4, and after listening to Victor Mayer-Schonberger discussing his new book "Delete - the dangers of remembering in the digital age" was inspired to Google his name. There are lots of Mark Dawsons in the world so at first glance not very interesting, but after a bit of refining the search, he was surprised (and, whisper it, a little pleased) to find this article on the Daily Telegraph website about the suppression of a "secret" arms report.

Mark had no idea that he had been written about in such an august publication, which included a quote from his internal memo on the release of the National Audit Office's report on the British Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia, released under Freedom of Information legislation some three years on.

More of Mark's memo is quoted on the FOIA Centre website. We wonder what other gems from our past are out there waiting to be discovered.

Getting away from it

In the past few weeks since Thomas was born, life seems to have been very full. Almost relentless. But we have had a couple of nice breaks.

Firstly, Mark's parents took Ben away to the Lake District for a long weekend. Despite the rainy weather he had a lovely time and was spoilt rotten, with steam train trips, a visit to the World of Beatrix Potter at Bowness, where he got to meet Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny in real life, climbing mountains with Grandad and playing by the river. Here he is on the train from Haverthwaite to Lakeside with Grandad.

It also gave us the chance for some precious time with our newborn and to have a little bit of a rest too.

Then last week, Debbie took the two boys off to stay with her parents, giving Mark the chance of a break to catch up on work, sleep and jobs round the house. Thomas responded to his first nights away from home by waking a little more frequently, and Ben also decided to revert to waking up at 5:00-5:30 in the morning after a blessed few weeks when he has frequently been getting up after 7:00am. Meanwhile, back at home, instead of enjoying blissful quiet, Mark was suffering with migraine! During the daytime though, Ben enjoyed wearing out his grandparents at Telford Town Park and Apley Woods, and Debbie enjoyed being looked after herself and the extra pairs of hands.