Trick or Treat

Not much to update the blog with this week. I have been a bit busy and have not given the blog much thought to be honest. Anyway Joshua had had a good week at the nursery (apart from having another bout of conjunctivitis!) and has been doing some more painting, playing in sand and having his photo taken by a photographer. He has also been swimming with Daddy twice this week after finishing work. On Thursday when I picked him up he did the most adorable thing ever. I picked him up to give him a cuddle and he placed his head on my shoulder for a hug. This was nice enough, but then I went on to talk to one of the staff to discuss his eating, sleep, nappies etc for the day. Because I was talking to her and not paying him any attention he put his hand on the side of my face, physically pulled my head around and gave me a big slobbery kiss!!!


We have also decided this week to try teaching Joshua some very basic sign language as I have read that babies can pick this up much quicker than verbal communication and it obviously helps out with understanding their needs. So we are trying a few signals for food, drink, sleep, going in the car and that kind of thing. I will keep you posted if he picks up on any of them and starts using them.

Finally here are some pictures of the little guy in his new Halloween costume - meet Count Dracula Junior!!!! Thanks to Nanny & Grandad for buying the costume for Joshua's first night out trick or treating. Be afraid, be very afraid. He may not bite you to death, but he will have a good go at kissing you to death.

And here are the spoils for one nights work, not bad eh!

And just in case you have forgotten, this was the little guy almost a year ago to the day and only a few weeks old at his very first Halloween all dressed up as a little pumpkin. My how he has changed in a year?

Monster House

Today I took Joshua to the cinema for the first time. At the Empire cinemas they run an early morning kids cartoon showing which only costs £1. We was hoping to watch Space Chimps but since it was fully booked we ended up watching Monster House (well about a 1/3rd of it). Joshua was excellent, he settled down on my lap with a bottle of milk and sat there watching the film for about 30 minutes with his thumb in his mouth. It was real nice to just have some Dad and Son time together whilst Tina went off to do some shopping. After about 30 mins or so Joshua started to get restless and so we decided to call it a day and headed off to the gym.

Joshua has also now discovered his toy box in his bedroom and realised the lid opens and inside is yet more undiscovered toys. So whats the first thing the little man wanted to do? Yes you guessed, climb inside...................

Also tonight something weird happened. For the first time ever I saw the look of fear on Joshua's face. He has never reacted in a frightened way until now. Basically what happened was we took him up to bed and I always read him a couple of stories in his cot. Well the 2nd story book I read was his 3D pop up dinosaur book which he usually loves (so do I!). When we got to the last page there is a big pop up T-Rex and Joshua was really frightened by the dinosaur and crept over to cuddle his mummy. I even tried joking around with the pop up dinosaur and tickling his chin etc, but Joshua was still frightened of it. Have I scarred the child for life by making him watch "Monster House" at the cinema????

Brave Little Soldier

Today our brave little soldier had to go to the GP for his 1 year old booster injections. Mum held the little man whilst Dad distracted him with his toy light sabre. Joshua was very brave and cried for only about 10 seconds or so, then with a few more distractions and a box of raisins as a gift from the nurse he soon forgot all about the pain.

Please vote on the new poll on Joshua's blog - this time the question is whether you think J2 will arrive early, on-time or late?

For today's piccies here are a few good snaps I took last week when me and the little man went over the park to kill some time. As you can see he is getting to be a little dare devil already by standing on the slide and trying to walk up it!!!

Note the blue mega block in hand!!! This has become his make shift mobile phone which gets carried around everywhere by the side of his ear.

Phones 4 U

Here are a few more pictures of Joshua playing with some of his birthday toys. He absolutely loves the little wooden hammer and walks around the house fixing everything (including windows). Touch wood nothing has broken yet.


Also earlier this week Joshua was a bit poorly so I had to collect him from nursery and work from home. To keep him occupied for a while I decided to teach him how to talk on a phone. As you can see he picked this up very quickly, but Dad didn't think this plan through very well. You see giving the baby your work mobile when you are working from home and getting calls from the customer is not clever. And as you know once a baby has something they like you cannot take it away without them crying. So if anyone has an old mobile phone knocking around - can Joshua claim it to play with?

"No Daddy cannot come to the phone Mr Jaguar STA, he is asleep on the sofa"

"Hello, is that Daddies office, can you pass on a message that he is not well and staying at home with his baby all day!"

"Hahaha, gotcha - adults are so gullible"

Birthday Part II

Well the house is back to normal (well its tidy after the party) - however it now resembles the first floor of Hamleys as there are so many toys around after Joshies birthday. The little lad is loving playing with all his new toys and often just runs around not knowing what to play with next.

Overall Joshua's birthday party went very well indeed and I think he really enjoyed himself. The only minor mishap was that Joshua got a little bit too close to his "Nr 1" candle on his birthday cake and knocked the candle onto the floor getting wax on his finger in the process. But no harm was done..........

Anyway for today's update here is a selection of pictures taken on Joshua's birthday.

Happy Birthday Son

Firstly I would like to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our beautiful baby boy who was 1 today. The first year has flown past but has been a complete blessing. If J2 is anything like Joshua then the next year will be absolutely wonderful. Today I was the proudest Dad in the World watching my little boy playing with his new toys and interacting with all his guests.

Secondly thank you to everyone who came along to Joshua's birthday party and made the event very memorable indeed. The little lad thoroughly enjoyed himself and was completely knackered by 6.30 after the events of the day. As expected the little guy was showered with loads of cards and some very nice presents for Dad to play with!!! The next task is to find space in the house for all his new toys.......

The all important 1st birthday cake - aptly a cheeky monkey.

Anyway in no particular order we would like to thank everyone for their gifts:

Grandad - Arsenal away kit
Nanny & Grandad - F-Car
Auntie Lorraine - Red hooded top
Matt - Wooden hammer bench
Lisa & David - My first workbench
Jan, Mike, Ollie & Alex - New outfit plus bath toy
Clare, Barry & Sophia - Dinosaur top and trousers
Nanny King - Transporter truck
Nanny & Grandad - Wooden bead table
Shahinah & Marek - Trampoline
Nik, Karren, Millie and Joeban - Matchbox lorry plus walking dinosaur
Paul, Sue and Nathan - New outfit
Amy - Iggle piggle hat and gloves plus a book
Zoe - Wooden puzzles
Mia Rose - New outfit
Michael - Arsenal European kit
Emma, Steve and Amy - Jeans, t-shirt and fleece

Nicky & Paul - Build a bear dinosaur

Apologies if I have missed anyone off of the list, but I tried my hardest to remember and to make notes of who brought what gift. Special thanks to Paul, Sue and Nathan for travelling all the way down from Sutton Coldfield for Joshua's party.

Look out for more pictures from his birthday party over the course of this week.

Ninja Warrior

Since Joshua's birthday is on Saturday then obviously he will not be at the nursery. So today we took in a birthday cake for him to share with all his little friends and in turn that all sang happy birthday to the little guy (ok so its two days early). But what has this got to do with ninja warrior? Well the girls that look after Joshua put the cake ribbon around the little guys head to look like a little ninja. He loved it and when I turned up to collect him he was happily running around terrorising everyone!



Here is another shot from the bouncy castle on Sunday with everyone in the picture (including Mummy and J2).

Whilst the adults put the bouncy castle away, Joshua practiced his bongo skills with mummy.

Bouncy Bouncy

Joshua had a very good day at nursery today. They stripped the little fellow down to his nappy and put him on the floor on a large sheet of paper with loads of pots of paints. Basically he got to roll around and make a mess with body art. Apparently the little guy absolutely loved it and was full of himself when I went to pick him up.

Anyway what do you do on a cold October Sunday in the UK? Well this Sunday actually wasn't that cold and so we got to play on Auntie Lisa's 80's themed bouncy castle which she designed and built as part of her degree. This was an absolute blast and when Joshua managed to get some of the adults (well big kids) off of the castle - he got to have a go himself.

Here is a nice shot of the 4 grand children. Matthew, Zoe, Amy and little Josh.

And finally a shot of Dad showing Joshua how not to use a bouncy castle - do you think this hurt?

Full Fat Milk

We are now under a week away from Joshua's first birthday. Don't forget if you need ideas for his birthday then take a look at http://www.whatidlove.co.uk/userhomepage.aspx and search for list nr 16158.

Last week Joshua had to go to the doctors again with another minor case of conjunctivitis. Whilst he was at home we decided to get the tool box out and do some modifications to his car. Notice in the pictures below the lack of side supports and seat cover now. Next to go will be the foot pedals to allow the little guy to scoot around on his own.


Yesterday Joshua travelled all the way to Chippenham with us as I was racing in the UKXTA X-Training Championships. Joshua was an absolute diamond all day and was super popular with everyone, they all adored him. Unfortunately me and Nik only managed 2nd this year and were beaten by a team from Scotland. But as you can see from below, Joshua still made it onto the podium with us and got to wear daddies new silver medal.

Other updates: Now that Joshua is virtually one we have today transitioned him onto full fat cows milk. Touch wood he seems to have taken to it really well and has downed about 3.5 bottles today. This is really good for us as it means we can firstly stop buying expensive follow on milk, and secondly we do not have to keep making up powdered milk bottles all the time. Also as he is nearly 1 we are at the stage where we can stop sterilising all his bottles which again saves time and makes life a bit easier for us.

J2 Scan 2

"J2 Scan 2" - sounds like a character from Star Wars doesn't it? Well today we had the follow up scan from the 20 week one which was taken just over a week ago. As you may recall the sonographer could not get all the measurements completed last time as J2 was being a bit awkward - hence the repeat visit today.

Today J2 wasn't much better and was playing hide and seek down in Tina's pelvis. The good news is that all the measurements were completed and the baby is well and healthy. Once again we got to see the head, all the spine, the heart, the little arms and legs, the beating heart and even some of the other organs.

This time around Tina really wanted to find out the sex of the baby but I didn't. Due to J2 not playing ball again the sonographer could not get a good view of the genitals and therefore I can confirm that J2 is a....................................baby! So we are all in for a surprise this time around and no one has any idea whether J2 is a boy or a girl.

So that's it for scans on J2, now it is a case of just sit back and wait 18 weeks.

Lanzarote Last Day

The last day of our holiday. Not many photo's today I am afraid. We never actually left the resort until about 7pm, but the hotel were kind enough to sort us out with a courtesy room so that we could make the most of our last day. On the flight home Joshua slept all the way right up until we got off at Gatwick. This was OK except for the fact that we did not have the luxury of a spare seat on the way back and as you can probably imagine, it is pretty uncomfortable sitting still for a 4 hour flight with a baby asleep on your lap!

Anyway for today's pictures - first we have Joshua's walk of fame (the red carpet treatment!). You see after each meal in the restaurant we would walk Joshua out holding just one hand. The little guy seemed to think he was an A-list celebrity and stopped off at each and every table for a smile, a chat, and to touch hands with his adoring fans. Needless to say it took some time to get back to our room each night. Here's the dude in action doing his "Walk of fame" - as we named it (the video clips are better, the picture's do not really capture it).


Next is the picture you have all been waiting for - yes its the Spanish bit of totty that Joshua seemed very fond of during our vacation. The two of them became very friendly over the course of the week. Still you can't question the young mans taste...............

Lastly to conclude the Lanzarote holiday reports - after all the fun and excitement the little guy was due some much needed R and R. Here he is completely zonked out on the bed in our courtesy room.