I've got a brand new combine harvester.......

At the weekend we took the boys to Norfolk to visit their 2nd cousin Leyla-Grace. This was only the 2nd time Joshua and Leyla have been together and the first time to Norfolk for little Brandon. The 3 kids got on great together despite Leyla not feeling 100% well. Anyway here are some great pictures of the 3 of them.

Of course Brandon could not leave home without his cars.

Joshua and Leyla having a little toy tug of war.

Do we have a free runner in the making? Close your eyes if you are squeamish.

And he is airborne.......

After all that activity its time for a nice big burger.

Brandon and Leyla join Joshua for the barlecue!

Both boys were very well behaved for the long day in Norfolk and were absolute diamonds in the car. What a pleasure.............

The big, big, big, big, big telly

I think it is official that Joshua has become a bit spoilt and as responsible parents we need to bring some of his expectations back to reality. On Monday I decided to take him with me for the first time to collect our new car. Whilst driving up to Dagenham he was explaining to me that this ‘10’ plate car which is only 5 months old is “dirty” and “old” and we need to get a new one!!!! Anyway to cut a long story short we collect the new car and his first comments were “oh, there’s no telly Daddy” – referring to the lack of rear seat DVD screens. Then driving home I got a lecture from our 2.5 year old how he does not want this car because he wants a yellow one (I think yellow has become his favourite colour). Can you imagine a yellow Galaxy!!!!!!!!!!!

Joshua also seems to be going through some major growth spurts in terms of his height. He is out growing clothes faster than we can buy them. Due to his height we have had to start buying clothes for 4 year olds already and his latest swimming suit which is only about 3 months old no longer fits him already. So with his up and coming 3^rd birthday only 2 months away then clothes will be a welcome addition – I am sure Joshua will argue differently and prefer toys!

Brandon is now at that wonderful stage where he understands a lot more than what he can speak. You can ask him to do certain things like “tidy time”, or “put your cloth in your bed”, or “put that rubbish in the bin” and he fully understands. He has started to string a few words together like “two cars” and has also started to learn some numbers where we always count the steps when going up the stairs. So far he seems to have picked up nine, ten and thirteen very well. Brandon is also getting very fast on his feet now as he chases his brother around everywhere (the two of them are like two peas in a pod always playing together). His balance and strength is getting better everyday and he can now manage ascending and descending a flight of stairs all on his own.

On Sunday we took both boys to the cinema to watch Madagascar 2. This was Brandon’s first cinema experience ever and the first time Joshua has been in about a year or so. Joshua clearly could not remember his previous cinema experiences and was fascinated by the big, big, big, big, big telly. Brandon was pretty good for about 45 mins whilst we had a supply of food to keep him going – once the food ran out he started to lose interest a bit. Joshua lasted for about an hour and enjoyed watching all the animals on the big screen, but then became distracted by his brother’s antics. So we didn’t quite make it to the end of the movie, but still had a good time.

Hadleigh Farm

After the castle and the picnic we headed over to Hadleigh farm where the boys got to meet and greet lots of farm animals. Brandon was running around shouting “animal”, “more animal”, “two animal”……….At first neither of the boys would get too close to the animals but were intrigued by their lapping tongues as I fed them handfuls of food.

Joshua started getting braver and braver and then once we got to the pigs both boys were surprisingly very interested and started to feed the animals. They would only throw the food at the animals though and were not brave enough to hand feed them (not that I was brave enough to hand feed a pig anyway).

Brandon playing in the sand pit. In order to get to the sand pit we had to cross a wooden bridge and Joshua remembered one of our bed time stories with the 3 Billy goats and the troll. So in the spirit of the farm atmosphere we all did the “trip-trop” across the bridge………”who’s that trip tropping across my bridge?”.

Brandon showed his multilingual skills to great effect during the farm visit and was very fluent in sheep language. He seemed to enjoy having a chat with some of them by replicating the “baaaaaa” sounds.

A Castle Fit for a King

At the weekend we went back to Hadleigh only this time we was more successful in finding the Castle. As we walked up the cobble path towards the historic site, Joshua was first to spot the castle. His little face lit up as he started to shout, "we found the castle!".

A bit of low level base jumping. Jumping whilst carrying Brandon and holding Joshua's hand is great for the spine (NOT!).

The castle is not fit for a King, it is fit for 3 King's.

How did the boys get all the way up there?............I wonder.

This was not one of Joshua's better ideas. Fortunately I stopped him from going any further.

If you ask me these next two pictures are absolutely stunning.

A bit of hiking.

Another very nice picture of Brandon with the castle in the background.

Boys will be boys and they will climb anything and everything.

Sitting in a medieval fireplace.

Trying to hide from Mummy, but Joshua kept popping his head up to take a peek.

Enjoying the view.

And after all the running around and climbing it was picnic time.

After the castle we went on to visit Hadleigh farm to feed some animals, but that can wait until another blog.

Digger Land 2010

Yesterday I took a day off work to spend some quality time with the family and we had a very enjoyable day out at Digger Land down in Kent. Currently both boys are under 3 years of age and therefore gain entry free of charge – but then once your inside it is a different story. You see whilst it is nice for them to be under 3 to reduce the entry cost, they then need to be over 3 to get on most of the rides. So once inside we initially tried the honest(ish) approach of saying Joshua was 3 and Brandon was 2. This managed to get Joshua on all of the driving diggers and dumpers but would only enable Brandon on the static ones. So a remarkable thing happened – for 1 day only Joshua leapt forward in time to become a 4 year old enabling Brandon to advance to being a small 3 year old!!!!! Joshua’s age was rarely questioned but every single ride they asked about Brandon and when I said he was 3 we got some curious looks. But it worked, in the end Brandon got to go on just as many rides as his bigger brother.

So our day started with the big dumper trucks and this was to be Brandon’s first age kickback (don’t worry we fixed this later in the day so he got to have a go). Joshua did absolutely outstanding on this and virtually steered around the whole track with just a little guidance to tell him when to go straight and when to turn the corner.

The second attraction was this little joystick controlled vehicle and unfortunately was Brandon’s second age kickback. So this time Mummy went on with Joshua whilst I entertained Brandon. At this stage we decided that Brandon needed to age rapidly by 1.5 years in 5 mins in order to get the most out of the day – needless to say there were no more age kickbacks.

Finally Brandon gets his first ride - unfortunately it is at the hands of his younger brother who is playing "Dad" and taking all four of us for a spin (literally).

The next ride was probably a bit too fast for Brandon and as it also span backwards we decided that even though he was now 3 years old, it was best he did not go on this one. So again Mummy went on the spinning digger with Joshua whilst me and Brandon headed off to find a proper digger to drive.

Before getting to the proper digger I let Brandon have a play in this military vehicle and he absolutely loved standing on the driver’s seat and playing with the steering wheel and controls.

So the park is called Digger Land and it’s about time we did some digging. Brandon was first up in this full size digger and I have to say we did a very good job of making a great big hole. Every time we tipped the scoop out Brandon would respond with “all gone”.

This was just one of the display dumpers which the kids (and me) were allowed to climb all over. Joshua seemed to enjoy the idea of having Dad in the dumper part and tipping him out - so of course I had to play along and do a bit of stunt work.

Next up was some little ride on pedal power tractors. This is where Dad draws the short straw and ends up getting a good workout pushing the two boy’s tractors.

The little tractors were followed by some mini diggers and some stones which the children can practice digging and tipping.

Anyone who knows Joshua will be aware that him and bumper cars go together like fish and chips. So there was no keeping him away from these. Unfortunately not many pictures as me and Brandon went in one car whilst Mummy and Joshua went in the other. And we had the whole track all to ourselves which was good fun.

Lunchtime was rapidly approaching but unfortunately we had to walk past some battery operated vehicles to get to the picnic tables. Trying to walk past these without letting the boys have a go was next to impossible. So they both had a play whilst we sorted out some food. Brandon could not drive as his little legs would not reach the pedal. But Joshua had a good drive of the blue truck and was quite happily steering around the circuit on his own.

After lunch we took a family ride on the tractor type of train ride which runs from one end of the park to the other. The driver was kind enough to take a picture of all four of us.

Then it was off to the soft play area and the bouncy castle for a bit playtime and to let the boys to run wild. I have to say that Joshua is an absolute lunatic in the soft play area and is completely fearless. I can not imagine when on earth he gets it from!!!!!!!

After the boys playtime it was onto some medium sized diggers to practice our hand to eye co-ordination. Firstly me and Joshua went on the digger where you had to try and scoop 3 bricks out of the stone pit. Then me and Brandon went on the one where you had to use the jib of the digger to swing a ball and knock over all of the skittles. I have to say that I think we completed the task in record time knocking all 10 down.

Next was the moment Brandon had been waiting for since 10 o’clock this morning. Since he was now a big 3 year old he finally got to have his go on the big dumpers and then the twin track joystick controlled vehicles.

The chase is on as Joshua tries to chase down his brother.

I have to give credit to Brandon and his little legs. What a superstar he was at Digger Land. We took a gamble and only went armed with only the single buggy instead of the usual double. But instead Brandon chose to walk/run around the theme park for the entire day and did not use his buggy once. He even missed his afternoon nap. At the end of the day he was absolutely shattered and was asleep within about 5 minutes of getting into the car.

I overheard a few people at Digger Land saying that the theme park is bit small and not much to do there. I would have to disagree completely as we were there for 5 hours and barely stopped to catch our breath. During this time I would say there was probably another 6 or so attractions which we did not go on because of the boy’s size. So how on earth these people cannot fill a whole day there is beyond me. I think if we go again next year our biggest problem will be trying to drag the boys away from the theme park as I think they would happily sleep there!