"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...

Escape

We've been fortunate enough to have several nights to ourselves in the last month or so thanks to lovely Grandparents. Back at the end of July we all enjoyed a lovely few days in Suffolk with Mark's family, including a couple of nights on our own at a hotel in Southwold - luxury! If you don't know it, Southwold is a gorgeous little seaside town on the Suffolk coast that seems to be caught in a bit of a whimsical time warp - complete with pier, lighthouse, local summer theatre and lots of beach huts.

Our stay in Suffolk included a trip to Lowestoft air show - beach and aeroplanes making it a perfect combination for Ben, although the torrential storm as we waited for the park and ride home wasn't quite what we planned, and meant that the promised Vulcan Bomber was grounded (Ben's latest obsession - aka 'Falcon Bomber' - courtesy of a trip to the air museum at Coventry with Gran).

When the weather improved Ben enjoyed playing on the new bouncy castle in Gran and Grandad's garden, and we were able to go for a lovely walk on the heath with Aunty Lucy and Uncle Stephen and their dogs.

But the escape to Southwold, and this lovely view from our hotel, was definitely the highlight, and something we will cherish with all the upheaval about to happen in our lives.

Getting ready

We've spent the last few weeks getting ready for the baby, getting the nursery painted and getting all the baby things down from the attic. Debbie is getting bigger all the time and is now on maternity leave and officially "nesting".

Ben is very interested in all the things that have appeared in the spare room and enjoyed watching Daddy doing the painting (though clearly stating that he wasn't big like Daddy so he couldn't do it). He also explained to us that the baby would sleep in the Moses Basket, and when it cries he will stroke the baby and it will stop. Oh, we hope!

The sight of the tiny baby clothes drying on the line got Debbie all gooey and maternal again, not something we've seen for a while...

And Debbie's bump, pictured on a day out with Lucy and Tabitha at White Post Farm. Tabitha and Ben are busy driving the combine harvester.

And finally, we couldn't resist adding this lovely photo of Ben and Tabitha together on the climbing frame, reunited again after not having seen each other since April.

"The Real Show"

A couple of weeks ago we went along to the last day of the last ever Royal Show at Stoneleigh Park (or the 'Real Show' as Ben rather endearingly insisted on calling it).

We enjoyed seeing all the animals, the farm machinery and the marching band. We saw some sheep shearing and Ben had a chance to sit on Fergus the Tractor. We bought him one of the books, signed there and then by the author Steve Burnside, who appears in the stories as "Steve the Handyman", much to Ben's delight.

Look out for your ice cream Ben, I think someone else has their eye on it!

We also enjoyed the events in the Grand Ring, including the exploits of the Kangaroo Kid, a motorcycle stuntman.

But best of all, Ben enjoyed the lawn mowers, which were plentiful!

Carnival time!

Last Saturday it was Carnival time in Kenilworth. Debbie was having the day off - a birthday spa day present from Mark, with Kay - and Mark and Ben were joined by Dave for a trip to the fun fair and to watch the carnival floats go by.

Ben loved the mini rollercoaster at the fair - having a go on the fire engine and the little train.

Fire engines were a bit of a theme (as they were last year), with Fireman Sam making a guest appearance later amongst all the floats of the carnival procession (along with Shrek and the Blues Brothers among others).

Ben and the Tractor

It's been a while since we put a video up on the blog, but this one of Ben eating his chocolate tractor from Easter finally made the grade, capturing a little bit of his infectious giggle. Thanks to Auntie Kay and Uncle Dave for the Easter present - which is nearly finished now! Just the cab left for Ben to munch his way through.

London in the Summer time

We recently followed up our trip to Paris in April with a weekend in London. We met up with the Paris crew of Kay and Dave, Paula and Stuart and Heather, together with Juliet, in Hyde Park on a lovely sunny afternoon for a picnic. After a little while lazing in the sun, we took Ben off to the Diana Memorial Fountain for a paddle. After initially becoming a laughing stock when it had to close because some people slipped over, the fountain, now with non-slip flooring, is very popular and really quite pleasant. Here is a picture of Ben and Debbie keeping cool with a little paddle.

And whilst the cafe society isn't quite the same as in Paris (see the photo in the link above), we did enjoy a coffee by the Serpentine a little later.

Best Daddy in the World

He's a little bit biased, but that's what Ben says his Daddy is. Mummy and Ben did their best to make Daddy feel special on Father's Day a couple of weeks ago, by "leaving him in peace" for a little bit longer than usual in the morning, and taking him for a nice family lunch out. One of Daddy's presents was a hanging basket for the garden, and Ben's highlight of the day was "helping" him fix it to the wall.

Wales

We're back from a lovely holiday in Dyffryn Ardudwy, half way between Barmouth and Harlech on the north west coast of Wales. We stayed with Debbie's parents in a lovely cottage just 1 mile from the sea and had a great time - the best of the British seaside holiday - with fantastic sunny weather, sand, sea and ice cream. Ben had a great time by the seaside, building sandcastles and digging moats, splashing in the water, getting covered in sand, looking for crabs and starfish in the rock pools at Shell Island.

But Wales has more to offer than just the fantastic beaches and ice creams, although those did figure quite substantially in our plans. We also managed to fit in some time for castles, waterfalls, lakes, rivers, mountains, picnics and steam trains. Below are a few examples, starting with Harlech Castle.

A trip on the Llanberis Lake Railway took us along the side of Lake Padarn, with stunning views over the water to Snowdon. We stopped halfway for a picnic by the lakeside. Here is Ben with his Nan, watching the trains.

Skimming stones with Ben whilst looking up the lake towards Snowdon - the peak just peeping over the top.Some strange sights in Snowdonia - none more so than this motorbike riding bear!

Splashing in the river after the Precipice Walk overlooking the Mawddach Estuary.

One day we met with Debbie's cousin Rob at Caernarfon and after a gentle walk along the front to the Victoria Dock for lunch, we took in the grand towers and walls of Caernarfon Castle. Ben particularly enjoyed pushing his push chair up and down the grass inside "lawnmowing"!

Unfortunately it had to come to an end, but the sun kept on shining right up until the last minute - sunset from the road just up the hill from our cottage.

We took in some more trains in the rain on the way home at Llangollen.

Ben was on great form all week, even in the car, where we enjoyed many a family sing-song. He now knows all the words to 'Puff the Magic Dragon' and can even have a good stab at 'Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen by the Sea'! Here he is on the journey home pretending to be driving a Fire Engine, with his bucket restyled as a Fireman's helmet. "Fire, Fire"!

Out and about

We've been enjoying some sunny weather the last couple of weeks. Not much excuse for the paucity of updates, but we'll take any excuse going. First we had a visit from our friends Louise and David, Karen, Gayle, Steve and Rebecca and were joined by Kay and Dave for Sunday lunch.

We enjoyed sitting out in the garden in the sunshine, and then went for a walk down Chase Lane and round to the castle to see the horses in the fields. Ben and Rebecca especially enjoyed sitting in Ben's tent.

We've since had a new patio built, to make sitting out even more convivial. Ben absolutely loved watching the guys building the patio, and was very disappointed that they had finished, but we have already appreciated the big improvement.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend, we succumed to the traditional English Bank Holiday activities of going to the garden centre, planting things in the garden, visiting local tourist attractions (Charlecote, Mary Arden's Farm), and complaining about it being too hot (no, that one isn't a traditional Bank Holiday activity, but we could have justifiably done so on at least Sunday!).

Firstly, a picnic in the grounds of Charlecote House on Sunday.

Then we had a fun time at Mary Arden's Farm, where there was a weekend of Tudor activities going on, although we did run out of money which meant we weren't able to take much advantage of the Hog Roast - one sandwich between three of us didn't go very far!. Fearing that there wouldn't be any donkey rides at the seaside when we go to Barmouth, we decided to give Ben a taste of this traditional Tudor entertainment!

Finally, we had a visit from our friends Rich and Clare, this time with baby Elliott, who we met for the first time. Ben enjoyed watching Elliott have his nappy changed, and playing the role of elder brother, although he did get upset the one time Debbie had a cuddle with Elliott, so we got a little bit of insight into what it might be like in a few months time.

Baby Dawson at 22 weeks

We had our 20 (well 22 week) scan a couple of weeks ago at Warwick Hospital. Not quite sure why it's taken so long to update the blog - we seem to have been very busy recently. All was well and we enjoyed a longer and more informative view of the baby than we've done most other times we've been for a scan. Quite a clear picture of the head - which looks just like Ben's did three years ago. Looks like it is giving Mummy a bit of a kick at the time this picture was taken!

After some debate we didn't find out what the sex is. Ben is sitting with Mark as we type this blog entry and just for the moment he has now decided that he wants a baby sister.

Paris in the Springtime

The weekend before Easter we escaped for a few days in Paris with friends while Ben enjoyed his own mini-break with the Dawson family. Our friend John was running in the Paris marathon, which provided the perfect excuse for a group of us to go over to support him and enjoy a bit of Parisian life. Chasing John (no. 4423 ) en route through a whistle stop tour of the metro took its toll on us all, but admittedly the sight of John hobbling around for the next couple of days convinced us that competing was, after all, more of a challenge than supporting. He finished in an impressive time of 3hrs 15mins, and still had energy for an amble down to the Trocadero for a picnic lunch and a trip over to the beautiful Place des Voges for a well-earnt afternoon beer.


For the remainder of the trip we enjoyed the experience of being in Paris, rather than trying to 'do' any of the major sites. We wandered around Montmartre and the Ile de la Cite and generally spent lots of time (and money!) eating, drinking and soaking up the amazing sunshine.

Here's the gang in Montmartre...


And here is one of our favourite moments, a perfect Parisian scene, enjoying a drink at a pavement cafe on the Ile Saint Louis.

And finally here's our cheesy pre-anniversary shot, one for the album and a little memento of our lovely trip away.