Paradise Wildlife Park

OK folks I am several updates behind on the blog lately as all my spare time is taken decorating the penthouse suite for the boys. Anyway the first bit of news regarding Brandon is that firstly yesterday he was 4 months and secondly, today he started on the baby rice for the first time. The first few minutes he refused it and was spitting it out, but with a bit of perseverance he soon woofed down the whole bowl.

So what have we been up too. Well on Tuesday we all went to Paradise Wildlife Park and had a great day out. Here are a few pictures from our day.

To start with we have Brandon having a nap on his first ever coach ride.

One of the first animals Joshua saw was this lioness. He was fixated on this big cat and followed her up and down with his eyes. One thing we learnt during the day is that Joshua categorises all animals into 3 groups, there are cats, dogs and ducks!

Next was one of Daddy's favourite animals - the merekat.

Whilst walking around Joshua found it most amusing ( as all kids do) to jump up and down in every puddle he came across.

For Brandon though it was confined to the buggy for now until he finds his feet.

Joshua made a pretty sand model for himself and one for Brandon. I am sure these will be on display proudly in the penthouse suite when the boys eventually get to move in.

Joshua also got to do some hunting for gold where the little chap earnt his very first medal. Fingers crossed there will be many more to come.

Did we go to Paradise Park or Jurassic Park????

A few more nice animals which we saw throughout the day.

Face to face with a zebra (or stripey horse as Dad called it).

The final picture for today is Joshua at one of the viewing stations. Not quite tall enough for the telescope.

Brandon Skywalker

At the weekend I decided to dig out some more of Joshua's baby toys from the garage and clean them up ready for Brandon to get some use of. To start with was the sea life play centre. Brandon seems to enjoy sitting in this and Joshua is more than willing to show him what all the different toys do.

Second came the baby walker. As soon as Joshua saw this he wanted to climb back in it despite being far too big now. The net result is shown below..............how funny..............

Once the novelty had worn off for Joshie we managed to get Brandon in the walker. He little feet just about touch the floor on the lowest setting and he can just about nudge himself backwards. We managed to get a great little video clip of Joshua pushing Brandon around in the walker.

Last but not least is a picture of Joshua playing cars on his new play mat which Nanny bought him for in his penthouse suite.

Airshow

Well the first thing to report today is that like his brother (and father before him), Brandon has become a thumb sucker - picture evidence below. Aside from his thumb the little dude is just starting to go through the stage where everything goes into his mouth. Since he is starting to grab hold of things and get some hand to mouth coordination, then this means literally everything heads for the mouth.

Well as promised we took the boys to Southend Airshow today and had a great day out. The boys were both very well behaved and Joshua loved watching all the helicopters and planes. Of course this was to be Brandon's first ever train ride as well. Here are the two boys on the train.

And this was a beach front spot where we pitched up to watch the airshow. Nice backdrop with a big military gun behind them.

Of course Joshua saw the sea and had to go for a little paddle around. As you all know he loves pools and the sea. Despite the sea being cold he had no fear of going in knee deep and would have gone further if I had of let him!

The airshow itself was pretty good. It all started off with the RNLI display which resulted in Joshua waving hello and goodbye to the hover craft and helicopter every time they made a pass.

Coming home on the train I took this little snap of the boys feet. Joshies big clobbers look huge compared with the dainty little feet of Brandon.

The Bouncer

I can see from the blog history that Joshua and Brandon's site has been getting plenty of hits daily despite the lack of updates. I can only apologise for the lack of updates but now that the boys penthouse suite is completed all my spare time is spent painting and decorating. Anyway as promised here are the piccies of Joshua exploring his new room - he loves it up there and charges around like a bull in a chine shop. He is also fascinated with his lights and fan. Unfortunately we cannot use the new bathroom just yet as I need to get a replacement bath filler fitted (should be next Tuesday).

Joshua keeps reminiscing about his baby days and seems to enjoy playing with his older toys which we have resurrected for Brandon. More recently he has taken to jumping back into his old moses basket (of course when Brandon isn't i it!).

Brandon is becoming a real chuckle bunny lately and is full of smiles. At times he almost bursts into a laugh now. Earlier today Tina got out the old door bouncer to try it out with Brandon for the first time. As you can see he absolutely loved it and was again full of smiles. Fortunately Joshua was at nursery as I hate to think what he would do to his little brother if he saw him hanging around in this.

Marsh Farm

Today Brandon had to visit the doc again as his eye is "mucky" yet again. Seems he is suffering the same tear duct problems with his eyes as Joshua. Also we have noticed that he has some dry skin on his face and arms which sometimes looks like a rash. Our suspicions were correct and it turns out Brandon has eczema so he now has to use skin cream as well.

As to Joshua - he just gets cheekier and cheekier every day. His new words for this week include "come on" - usually when he wants you to chase him around, and "willy" which came out of nowhere when we went swimming on Tuesday. God knows where he picked "willy" up from as we always call it his winky.

Anyway today Tina took the boys out for the day to Marsh farm. So here are a few snaps from their day out.

Face to face with a pig..............

Look at Joshua with the cow in this picture (and a big black and white animal)!!!

This rabbit was aptly named Arthur - the same as the name of our builder doing our loft conversion. Out of interest the job was finished today so Joshua got to have his first run around in his new penthouse suite. Check in for the next blog update for some pictures of this.

And here is a little sand park with some trucks etc for the little ones to play in.

Brothers in arms - Joshua does not seem very happy! Don't you think Brandon is looking more and more like Joshua each day (lucky for him Josh is such a handsome chap!).

The great escape..............

Finally for today here are some pictures of Joshua reminiscing about the days when he once fitted and slept in the moses basket now used by Brandon.