Yorkshire

We're just back from our first family holiday - a long weekend in North Yorkshire, where we met our new Goddaughter, Tabitha, and celebrated her baptism on the warmest April day since 1946. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Lucy and Mark's little beauty, and are really excited to be her Godparents. Ben was all smiles when he met her, but Tabitha was playing a bit hard to get - although Ben raised the stakes by lending her his dummy during the baptism service when it all got a bit too much. We stayed down on the farm at Laskill Grange
where Ben got a good introduction to the rural way of life. He was fascinated by the peacock, chickens and ducks that populated the garden in front of our cottage, and had a great time watching the calves in the field - until he scared them away with his squeals of delight.

Easter

We have been celebrating Easter in a fairly low-key way this year but on Good Friday we joined the traditional Walk of Witness that takes place each year in Kenilworth to a corner of Abbey Fields, where a large cross was planted.

The sun has shone this weekend and we've been enjoying getting out and about with Ben. There has been so much sunshine that we have had to buy him a sunhat and suncream - hence the cute picture below!

On Easter Monday Debbie's parents came across and we had our Easter meal with them and went to Charlecote Park for a gentle stroll in the afternoon sunshine. Last time we were there, Ben had about one week left in Mummy's tummy - and as we walked around Debbie had begun to wonder if she was starting contractions. Strange to think that here we are four months later with our little boy.

Get in the Swing

We thought that it was about time that we put some video footage of Ben on our blog -and so here is a first foray into this new media (with thanks to Josh for the advice!). For a little while now Ben has been playing in the swing that Uncle Stephen and Aunty Lucy gave him for Christmas and enjoying the new vantage point that gives him and the chance to use his legs. This video clip just misses the big smiles that preceded the camera being switched on, but captures nicely the raspberry-blowing that is one of his current favourite things!

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.

Ideal Man

More settled evenings with Ben have meant we've had some time to ourselves once more. Last weekend we curled up on the sofa and watched our Bridget Jones DVD, and Debbie even had time to complete the "Who is your ideal man?" quiz in the 'extras'. It turns out she chose well - she is "a Mark sort of girl". Mark is apparently the sort of man who "loves your wobbly bits", which is nice!

Manchester

It's amazing what can happen in a year: since we last saw Kay in January 2006 we conceived, Debbie was pregnant for nine months, and we now have a 12-week old little boy. Meanwhile, Kay has been working hard in Ecuador for the Baptist Missionary Society having plenty of adventures of her own. And she has even changed her name to Katty! Dave has been a bit closer, studying in Hertfordshire, but it had been quite a while since we had seen him too.
So it was quite a significant event when we met up with them both on Tuesday towards the end of Kay's fleeting visit to England. After lunch with Kay's parents, the five of us headed off to Tatton Park for a walk. Ben wanted to go to the "chaos meeting" but Debbie said they go to enough mums and babies groups already! The day went far too quickly and Ben can't wait for more cuddles from Aunty Kay next time she's home.

Weekend report

It's been another action-packed weekend for the Dawsons. Saturday we had a visit from Uncle Stephen and Aunty Lucy - luckily the worst of the snow was over, and we were able to enjoy a short walk at Hatton Locks where the remnants of the snow and ice remained to provide a skating rink for the ducks on the canal.

On Sunday we enjoyed sharing in the special occasion of Gayle and Steve's daughter's christening. Rebecca looked so beautiful in her 100 year-old Christening robe, although we think Ben was a bit in awe of her - he doesn't look too sure of himself under Rebecca's close scrutiny. Our trip home included an eventful detour to Draycote Water - ask us about it some time, particularly if you need tips on what to do when your car gets stuck in mud. Sadly no photo, but it makes for a good dinner party story... When we got back to Kenilworth, we found our way blocked by a flood caused by the melted snow, captured on Josh and Heather's blog.

Wild weekend

Yesterday we headed up to deepest Derbyshire to join Louise on her wild hen weekend. "We" means all three of us - it was the only way Debbie could manage it with feeding Ben. Mark gave up his Saturday to join Gayle's hubby Steve on babysitting duty while Debbie enjoyed some girlie time, including a blissful afternoon in the pool / spa. It was great to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones, and Ben certainly seemed to enjoy the attention from all the ladies. Ben's poor behaviour as the day went on meant he had to sit in on some of the festivities, although we whisked him away before it got too rude! One day he'll be the envy of all his friends for having gate-crashed a real life hen party...

Time flies

Ben celebrated his two month birthday on Monday - we can't believe how fast the time is passing. Debbie and Ben met up with some of their NCT group friends, and the photo shows the babies getting to know each other. The little one to the right of Ben was only 10 days old, and had the same birth weight as Ben - a striking image of just how much he has changed in these first couple of months. The little girl on the right was born just a couple of days before Ben, and we were in hospital at the same time. Two months meant it was time for the first set of immunisations on Tuesday - Ben was a very brave little boy, and Mummy cried almost as much as he did! It was hard to tell whether they affected him much as he was having a grumpy day anyway, but he made up for it yesterday by giving his Daddy some beautiful smiles when he came home from work - a rare occurence as this is usually his grumble time.

Snow

Yesterday we woke up to Ben's first glimpse of snow. Just a slight covering, but snow nontheless. Ben was strategically positioned to give him the best view of this phenomenon, but as always was far more interested in the skylights above his head, a bit of plain wall and - well, anything else really. Debbie took him for a walk to give him first hand experience - but he just slept. Unfortunately, somewhere en route he seems to have picked up a nasty cold, and is now a very snotty little boy. Poor love.

G'day Grandparents

Ben was excited this Sunday to meet his Gran and Grandad Dawson again - it has been seven weeks since he last saw them, before they went off to Australia for Christmas and New Year. He has changed quite a bit since then, now looking quite the little boy in his dungarees. He was very pleased to have yet another opportunity to open some presents, including a genuine Australian kangaroo cuddly toy from Gran and Grandad and a lovely picture of a dolphin from his cousin Robyn. Ben says "Hi" to all his Australian relatives, including Great Uncle John and Great Aunt Jane (bet that makes you feel old!)

Keeping a sense of humour

Life's not been quite so easy in the Dawson home this week. Everyone told us that things would get better at 6 weeks, but Ben has had other ideas. We thought this picture somehow summed it up. What do you do with the boy who has everything and still isn't satisfied? We're holding on to the smiles and moments of adorable cuteness - they are like rays of sunshine breaking through the rain. A bit like the week's weather really.

Smiles

Our baby record book tells us to mark the date of Ben's first smile. We've been struggling with this as he's been teasing us with half smiles - we're never sure whether they're genuine, or just wind! However, this week we've been convinced that he's really smiling at us and responding to us. On Tuesday when Mark came home from work there was a definite smile when Mark tickled his feet. And yesterday we finally managed to capture one of these precious moments on the camera. Aaah!

Happy New Year!

A belated Happy New Year to everyone from the Dawsons! We celebrated the New Year in style this year at our friends Clare and Rich in Kenilworth. They bravely invited two couples with babies over for a top notch dinner party. One of the babies was on model behaviour, and slept the entire evening. The other wasn't quite so prepared to miss out on all the fun, and decided he would sit with us during dinner and join in the midnight celebrations (see above!) Maybe plying him with champagne would have helped on the sleep front...

Oh, and we were right about his chubbiness. Ben weighed in at almost 10lb when he visited the baby clinic on Tuesday. Must be all those mince pies Mummy has been eating. (looking at these photos, Daddy has been doing his fair share of eating too!)

Cutie!

Perhaps one day the novelty will wear off and we will stop taking hundreds of photos of our little boy, but at the moment we are desperate to capture every stage and mood. No real news to report after a fairly quiet few days at home, but we couldn't resist posting these couple of photos of Ben. Above Debbie is enjoying a cuddle with this little snugglebum - sporting his first 'grown up' dinosuar trouser and top set. We love moments like these! Below Ben is showing a decided lack of interest in trying to burp. He's not been weighed for a week or so, but we reckon the double chin is a sign that he's creeping up the chubbiness chart.

Playtime

Ben's new play gym is already proving a hit. Here he is exploring it for the first time and looking particularly cute! We don't think it will be long before he is interacting with it. Unfortunately it didn't take him long to christen it with a stomach full of milk - oh joy!
Ben's model Christmas behaviour doesn't seem to have lasted - as we write this he is stubbornly refusing to go down for a sleep and grumbling away in his cot...

First Christmas

This week we have had the joy of celebrating Ben's first Christmas. Here he is in our bed on Christmas morning surrounded by some of his presents - what a lucky boy he was! Ben is a little bit young to take in all his new toys and gifts, but Mummy and Daddy enjoyed opening them and playing with them. On Christmas morning we headed over to Gobowen for Christmas day with Debbie's family, and then spent a couple of days with Nan and Grandad in Wellington. Ben was on his best behaviour on Christmas Day, sleeping through Christmas dinner, and then waking up to charm everyone with cuddles later in the afternoon. We were very pleased with him!

Uncle and Aunty

Saturday saw a visit from Aunty Lucy and Uncle Stephen. They spent most of the day with us, plying us with food (thank you so much) and giving Ben plenty of cuddles, as well as a gorgeous pair of raindeer shoes for Christmas. A cold, grey day, but we still decided to go for a walk round to the castle and back to try to get Ben to sleep (successfully this time).

New wheels

Yesterday we picked up our new car - another Ford Focus. You can tell we've got a family now, and we're grown up, because this time it is an estate! But we're very pleased with it and Mark is a bit worried that Debbie might try to pinch it off him!

Today we took Ben for a first drive in the new car, and dressed him in his special fleecy 'digger' hat and mits for the event (-it was near freezing outside). Bless!

Tummy Time

We are trying to give Ben some 'tummy time' each day, to prevent him from getting a flat head! He sometimes seems a bit bewildered by it, but other times he quite enjoys this change of scenery and tries hard to push himself up and lift his head. We've seen quite a change in him in the last few days, as he seems more alert and responsive, and we're looking forward to playing with him properly as he starts to become more interactive.

'Tis the season to be jolly...

Christmas seems to have been a bit late arriving this year - the early arrival of our main present has been somewhat distracting! But on Sunday we finally put up our Christmas decorations. Ben seemed to be transfixed by the Christmas lights and we were pleased to find another means to pacify him. Now Ben's "My First Christmas" stocking is hanging on the mantelpiece and we feel like we're getting into the Christmas spririt.