Read All About It! - Brandon's First Picture in the Paper.

Another 1st as Brandon gets his first picture in the local paper. As with Joshua last year all of the schools in the area get a class picture taken which gets put into the Evening Echo. Brandon's teacher, Mrs Lee, is sitting in the back row on the far right. Little B really does not look very happy in this picture at all even though he is sitting next to his best bud, Zac!. 

Brandon's first picture in a newspaper.

Baby B in his Old Moses Basket

We are now well into the process of digging out all the old baby clothes and getting them washed, folded and put away in preparation for December. This has included stripping down and cleaning the old baby car seat and more importantly the moses basket which Auntie Lisa and Uncle David bought for Joshua some 6 years or so ago. Its great to see that we are getting our money's worth out of the basket as it is prep'ed and ready for child number 3.

 

Baby B reminiscing the good old days as he gets cosy in his very first bed.

Of course I call Brandon, Baby B, but he is far from a baby. To think he now goes to school, rides a bike, etc.etc. At the weekend Brandon was very keen to test out his new skills and go out for a bike ride with his friend Zac, so on Saturday afternoon I took the boys around to Zac's and the three boys tour up the neighbourhood and spent about 2 hours cycling up and down, and around the block. Having Joshua and Brandon cycling around with Brandon seemed to help bring his confidence along in leaps and bounds and before we headed home the little daredevil and mastered turning, confidently pushing off on his own, but most impressively he was bumping his bike down curbs already. Amazing considering he only learnt to ride the previous night. Zac even got his bike ramp out and had it not been for me saying "no" I think Brandon would have given that a crack as well.

 

Joshua limping gingerly over the ramp having already had one fall and grazed his knee.

Joshua, Zac and Brandon all lined up with their bikes and ready to go out cruising.

The terrible trio tearing up a neighbourhood near you!

Easy Rider

I set myself an objective to get Brandon cycling this Summer and really wanted to try and achieve this before he started school in September. I failed dismally in terms of timing as he started school 2 weeks ago, but I finally cracked the little guy tonight. It took about an hour of running up and down and getting very tired, firstly over the park on grass, then a gravel pathway and then on a quite road. He had two of three falls but nothing too serious. Once he started to get control of the steering and his balance, he was well away and even managed to do the push offs on his own without me having to hold the bike and run along side him. He is using the brakes very well to slow himself down and has also mastered the most important part - putting your foot on the floor when you come to a stop. I would say that he made more progress in his first proper session than Joshua did as it took me a couple of extra nights to get Joshua pushing off on his own.

 

Brandon mastered the push off all by himself.

Very cocky and confident considering nearly an hour ago he was still on stabilisers.

Brandon the easy rider.

Amazing picture of my two boys cycling side by side for the very first time.

And little B cycles off into the distance.............

 

I have to say I am an extremely proud Dad as I was beginning to think I would not get him riding a bike this year. Watching your child pedal a bike for the very first time without any assistance ranks right up there with watching them take their first steps. I think it is also quite an achievement that I managed to get both boys cycling before their 5th birthdays. So two down, one to go - but I have 4-5 years before I start teaching the next one!

More Pics from Brandon's First Day at School

Here are a few more class photos from Brandon's first day at School last Thursday.

11 Weeks To Go

So with only 11 weeks to go until Bubba arrives I would be lying if I said I wasn’t getting nervous and anxious. In fact I would say I am more apprehensive about baby number 3 than I ever was with Joshua or Brandon. Part of this feeling may be subconscious due to the recent passing of my Mum and Step Dad and the fact that they will never get to meet or know this new addition to the family. It could also be simply the fact that as a family you become a very tightly knit unit and settle into a routine, since it has been nearly 5 years since we added a new family member to our unit part of me worries about how this new addition to our family will change the whole dynamic. For sure Brandon is probably going to feel the biggest change as he has always been the youngest and been the focus of our attention, however he will soon become a middle child and for sure he will feel pushed aside at times with the change in focus on Bubba.

I worry about how I can split my free time between 3 children as I am full on with the two that we currently have. With both Joshua and Brandon I put in a lot of quality time in the early month’s to try and establish that father-son bond with the baby. I think as a Mother the bond is very natural as you spend almost 100% time together and breast feed etc, but a father has to really work on this and I need to accomplish this without compromising the quality time that I already try and devote to Joshua and Brandon. The solution here could be to involve Joshua and Brandon with my baby bonding time so that they also get to build up a relationship with the baby.

People I have spoken to assure me that all these feelings and concerns are completely normal. I have also been advised that Bubba will just slip into our family dynamic and we will all get on with our lives without even realising it. Anyway onwards and upwards, the nursery room is starting to come together and last night I got all of the boxes of new-born and 0-3 months baby clothes out of the garage. It is incredible looking through at some of the tiny clothes and thinking that Joshua and Brandon used to be that small.

Market Fruit Stall

I think I have mentioned before on the blog that when ever we go into town I always take the boys onto the market where they are allowed to pick and choose some fruit to eat or take home with them. I love encouraging them to eat healthy and think it is great when they ask me to go to the fruit stall. The ladies that work on the stall are so friendly and love seeing the boys each week. They always ask how they are doing at school etc. This week they both picked their fruit and the lady on the stall really spoilt them and just said they could take the fruit without having to pay for it. It is so nice to see that there are still some very generous people around who also want to encourage the children to eat fruit and be healthy.

 

Anyway this year we have had a really good crop of fruit in our back garden with loads and loads of plums, apples and blackberries. So yesterday I was out in the garden during a rare break in the rain to harvest some of our crop. As I was bringing it indoors Joshua was setting it up as his own little fruit shop in the conservatory. He used the black board to make an "Open" sign and on the opposite side he wrote down all the fruits he had available and the prices to buy them. What a little entrepreneur? Auntie Lisa and Uncle David came around later in the day and both bought and apple from his fruit stall. So the cheeky bugger is making money by selling my crop of garden fruit!

 

Joshua's fruit stall open for trading.

As well as selling my fruit, Joshua was also tucking in to the odd plum or two himself.

Golf Academy

We had a rare weekend where neither Joshua or Brandon was at their respective football clubs. Therefore I used the opportunity to open another door for them and decided to take them both to a Junior Golf Academy over at the Belvedere driving range. This entailed an hour long lesson with a golf instructor called Shan where both boys worked together taking it in turns. Essentially Shan worked in four things with the boys:

 

1. He had both boys swing the club with a conventional right hand grip and then with the hands the opposite way around. The idea behind this was to give the boys two options on how to hold a club and then for them to figure out which way works best. It is a clever teaching technique where you give the child various options and then they explore those options and work out what is best for them without you dictating how to do it.
2. The second thing was that both boys were moving their feet with every golf swing. Shan came up with a very simple solution to this which was to put a golf ball on the outside of each foot. Then as the boys swang the club they were not allowed to knock one of the balls, thus forcing them to keep their feet planted.
3. Thirdly the boys were often looking either at me, their coach or somewhere down the driving range. So the instructor was drilling in to them that they had to keep their eyes on the ball.
4. Finally the instructor was encouraging them to do a full swing of the club. Joshua in particular was frequently just doing little half swings and subsequently the ball was not really going up in the air. As soon as he started getting Joshua to do full swings, amazingly he was getting some reasonable loft on the club.

Overall both boys really enjoyed themselves and I ended up buying Brandon a little junior pitch wedge of his own. Joshua has now asked for a junior golf set for his birthday next month. The only problem I have now is that the golf academy runs at the same time as both their football clubs! The other problem is that with the boys getting professional coaching at such a young age and making such improvements after just one lesson - it wont be long before they are putting me to shame on a golf course. One of my dreams for later in life is that as the boys get older or even leave home, I would love for them to call up their old Dad on the odd free Sunday for a round of golf. Even before this happens it would be great father/son time to spend 4 hours out playing a round at the weekend and giving Tina time to chill at home.

Brandons 1st Day + Orange Class

Brandon’s first day at school seemed to go extremely well. Although as expected he had completely forgotten what he actually did at school and therefore I have no news to report about what he actually got up too or learnt! He obviously enjoyed whatever he did get up to as he was once again very keen to don his uniform and go to school when he woke up this morning. Having another child in school has already started to drain more cash within the first week of term as I have had to write out cheques for the school pantomime visit to see Rapunzel this year.

Can you find Little B in the attached picture enjoying his first day at Primary School?

Joshua seems to have settled into his new Orange class very well. The only incident was that earlier this week he got a kick in the mouth during playtime which has caused another of his front teeth to become loose. So for two days he has been complaining about how much it hurts and hardly eating anything. In fact we have only managed to get him to drink soup using a straw and eat soft foods such as yogurt and Weetabix. Hopefully the tooth will come out soon and this will then be his 4^th milk tooth to come out.

Orange class for 2013-2014, Joshua second row, 4th from left.

Brandon's First Day at Abacus Primary School

On the day when I celebrate 25 years of working for Ford/Visteon, Little B embarks upon his educational journey with his very first day at Primary School. Despite today being my working life anniversary I still took a couple of hours off this morning to make sure I was there to take him to school on his first day. Fortunately all of his uniform arrived in time (no thanks to Tesco's there!) and was pressed and name tagged ready to go. When Tina went upstairs to get Brandon up and ready for school this morning he was already awake but just laying in his bed. As soon as she mentioned "shall we get ready for school" he pretty much jumped out of bed with excitement to don his new uniform. Then it was time for breakfast and to prepare his packed lunch ready for that first walk to school.

Brandon tucking into an Actimel and a bowl of Frosties to give him his energy for the long day ahead.

How smart does Brandon look in his uniform? (Ignore the wet mark where he spilt some breakfast down his sweatshirt!).

All ready and keen to go with his Abacus coat, Abacus school bag and Angry birds lunch box.

Holding hands with Mummy on the way to school.

Brandon outside the school Abacus sign - still smiling.

He is still so titchy, yet looks so grown up.

There were lots of excited kids and nervous parents in the playground as they waved goodbye to each other for that all important first day at school. What was a really good idea is that the school allowed older siblings to take their younger brothers/sisters into their class before heading off to their own classroom. Joshua relished taking on this responsibility and showing his little brother into what was his old classroom from last year. Brandon was a little diamond and had no issues going into his class, no tears, no clinging to Mummy. He simple wandered into blue class as if he had done it a hundred times and hung up his coat, bag, and lunch box in the appropriate places.

Brandon with his best buddy Zac who is also in blue class with him.

Joshua takes the big brother role of leading Brandon and Zac into their new class.

It seems weird having the two boys both in school now. Brandon just seems so much smaller than when Joshua started at school. There is absolutely no doubt that he is ready for primary school though, if anything more so than Joshua was. I look forward to hearing all about his first day when I finish work (assuming he can remember what he actually did!). Now Tina can start to relax more throughout the day as she enters the third trimester with Bubba as both boys will be off hand and at school all day.

Diggerland 2013

All year I have been promising the two boys that I would take them on our annual visit to Diggerland down in Kent. As the year progressed this visit still had not happened and therefore I promised the boys faithfully that we would go there during the summer holidays. Well I am pleased to say I kept to my promise, however it did wait until the very last day of the school holidays, so I only just got it in. Fortunately this turned out to be a wise decision as Diggerland really wasn't that busy and the boys hardly had to queue for any of the rides.

 

Joshua is now tall enough that he can now pretty much ride on everything in the park and most of them on his own. Also for the first year ever Brandon was tall enough to go on a few of the bigger rides as well (such as Spin Dizzy). There are still a good few rides that Brandon can only go on when accompanied by an adult, but this is fine with me as I lover Diggerland just as much as the kiddies.

 

Diggerland 2013 on a gorgeous summer day.

As Tina is 6 months pregnant we managed to negotiate half price entrance for her as she can pretty much not go on any of the rides other than the train. 

The 5 of us at the entrance to the park.

Joshua on a Union Jack painted tank outside the park.

Whilst me and Brandon jumped on the dumpers, Joshua went for a quick lesson in dirt digging.

Brandon concentrating hard as he sits on my lap to drive the dumper around the track.

After Brandon's turn, Joshua is up next.

Carrying a heavy load of mud and grass.

I am doing the gas as Joshua's legs cannot reach the pedals, he does the rest.

How cool is it that a 4 and 5 year old can get to drive a dumper like this.

I think he enjoyed the dumper and I look pretty relaxed so his driving can't of been that bad.

Next up Joshua hit the electric go-karts.

Whilst Brandon did some off roading in a junior sized Defender.



Joshua driving one of the faster train type cars with me as passenger and Brandon in the back

Brandon now well over the1m mark and Joshua topping out at just over 1.2m. Means Dougy will let them ride most of his diggers and dumpers.

Joshua taking his turn on the Landrover Defender.

Another first for Brandon this year was that he was finally tall enough to ride on the shake, rattle and role ride (although Joshua called it shake, rattle and scream). Brandon really enjoyed getting bumped and thrown around on this ride - good job he doesn't get motion sickness. 

Me and the boys ready to ride on shake, rattle and role.

A first for Joshua was that he was tall enough to drive the full size, £52,000 tractor off road for the first time. It is absolutely incredible when you think that at 5 years of age he can drive a full size tractor around an off road track, through mud and up hills. What a blast.

Joshua driving a £52k tractor coming around the final bend.

You can just about see Joshua in the drivers seat. Me and Brandon are sitting in the passenger seats in the back.

A quick game of skittles, on the left Joshua on the right, me and B.

The train ride in the park has been changed slightly for 2013 and now features some barrel type carts at the rear of the train for the children to ride in. So the adults can relax a bit in the train carriages whilst the kids are safely strapped in and enjoying themselves in the back. 

Joshua and Brandon strapped in and ready to ride the train.

At the turn point I managed to get a picture of the boys at the back of the train.

Be afraid....

The little kids electric cars had been upgraded for 2013 with a few quad bikes added to the line-up.

But Brandon preferred the good old trucks that have been there for years.

Brandon's highlight of the day was Spin Dizzy. It was the first year he was tall enough to ride this beast and boy did he love it. I think he went on it something like 3 or 4 times in the end. The really good news is that Brandon and Joshua could ride this unaccompanied by me, this is great as  think I can only take being spun around high in the air with the smell of diesel fumes once in a day! Must be getting old.

Joshua and Brandon getting ready for another ride on Spin Dizzy.

Both boys were raising their hands as they were spun around and not holding on to the safety bars.

The stunt show was impressive as the skilled driver pushes the boundaries of what a digger can do.

How on earth has the driver still got control of this digger and not tipped it over.

I was planning to ride the Sky Shuttle with the boys but there were only two seats left on this turn. So rather than wait for the next turn I decided to send the boys up on their own whilst I stayed on the ground and enjoyed an ice cream. 

Joshua and Brandon at the back of Sky Shuttle ready to get an aerial view of Kent.

They are up there somewhere! I shouldn't be able to lose them from down on the ground.

Another favourite with the kids - Dig Around.

Brandon enjoyed this ride and like the butterfly sensation in his tummy.

The boys letting off more steam in the indoor play area.

Me and Brandon riding my favourite ride, the twin joystick mud plugger type vehicles.



Brandon was enjoying tasking the most muddy bumper route.

Finally a quick game a fishing for ducks.

As always Diggerland was a great day out and it was nice to see a few changes/upgrades made to the park from previous years. It was also great that Little B could pretty much ride everything in the park now, so its really good value for money. We also enjoyed the bumper cars and the lunchtime kids show to further fill our time. We spent something like a good 5.5 hours in the park and then headed home with two very tired little boys that were fighting against falling asleep in the car.