Delivery Room Day 2

So after a very frustrating day yesterday where Tina's waters broke late at night with lots of contractions, we spent some 13 hours in the delivery room and no baby came. So we were off and back home by 2 o'clock. However as Tina's waters are broken they will not leave the baby more than 24 hours and thus she was booked in to be induced at 8am today.

 

So we are back in the hospital today and Tina and baby are hooked up to a CTG scan. All is well and dilation has started, contractions are gaining in intensity again so fingers crossed we will finally meet Bubba today (5 days earlier than the due date).

 

Bubba's heart rate and foetal movements being monitored on the CTG scan.



 

Incidentally I have bought the CD of the current number 1 in the charts at the time when both the boys were born. For Bubba it looks like it will be the Lily Allen song, "somewhere only we know" from the John Lewis advert. I still don't think the advert was worth £7 million to produce, but the song is nice.

  

Delivery Room 9

Well it looks like Bubba is ready to make its entrance into the big wide world. Tina's waters broke at around midnight and she has been having heavy contractions ever since. So we are now in Basildon Hospital, Willow Ward preparing for the new arrival. Thanks to Auntie Lisa and Uncle Dave for coming around at a god awful hour to look after Joshua and Brandon.

 

Anyway it looks like life outside of Tina's tummy will start in delivery room 9 and as with Little B, Bubba looks set for an early arrival. Lots of mixed emotions at this time ranging from excitement and anticipation to fear and anxiety. Anyway the next blog update will formally introduce the latest member of our family.

 

Life outside of Mummy's below begins in Delivery Room 9.

Christmas Play Songs

Brandon has been hard at work learning his lines for his first Xmas school play in a week or so’s time. He is playing an Inn Keeper in a play called "The Inn Keepers Breakfast" where and has four lines to read:

“Fishy Friday for you.

Jacket potato for you.

Chicken nuggets for you.

The inn is full.”

He also has some lovely little Xmas songs which he is learning and last Friday we overheard him singing one for the very first time. It was so cute hearing him sing his song and I was amazed he remembered the words as more often than not he cannot even remember what he ate for lunch. Needless to say the video camera came out to record him rehearsing his song. The lyrics to the song are as follows:

“Mary & Joseph came to Bethlehem,

they came a long, long way,

they was looking for a place to stay,

is there any room for us inside,
is there any room today.”

Joshua is also working hard for his Xmas play called "Christmas with the Aliens!" and this year he is in the band and will be playing multiple instruments (so no lines for him to learn). He does have to dress very smart though with black trousers, white shirt and a black bow tie. He has also got to learn some songs for the play and so far the only one we have heard him practise is about a star. The lyrics to his songs are:

“A star kept shinning, over the special night,
a star kept shinning, over the special night,

a star kept shinning, over the stabled bed,

a star kept shinning, over the stabled bed,

a star kept shinning, over the special night,
a star kept shinning, over the special night.”

Speaking of songs, Joshua has also picked up his first “humorous” song from his school mates and fortunately for us it isn’t a rude one. However it is quite funny hearing him sing it. Basically the lyrics go as follows (sung to the beat of the Macarena chorus):

“Hamburger, cheeseburger, lettuce and tomato.

Hamburger, cheeseburger, lettuce and tomato.

Hamburger, cheeseburger, lettuce and tomato.

Don’t forget the ketchup!.”

Southend 2 - 1 York City Birthday Present

As usual today was a typical Saturday with the first half of the day occupied by the boys football club. We had a great training sessions today practising lots of new drills and then playing a round robin match with 4 teams at the end. Joshua performed very well on the Tiger's team and won this weeks "Player of the Week" trophy. Since we split Forest Glade Under 6's into 3 teams and recruited 3 additional coaches the sessions are flowing so well and the improvement in all of the kids is unbelievable.

 

Joshua was very pleased to win "Player of the Week".

The football didn't stop there as today we went to Roots Hall in the afternoon to watch Southend United play York City. This was Joshua's birthday present from Uncle Michael and was also the two boys first live football game. Both Joshua and Brandon have been really excited about watching Southend all week and fortunately the game did not disappoint as the home team beat York by 2 goals to 1 with a very late injury time second goal. 

Uncle Michael sitting with Joshua at Roots Hall Stadium.

The Southend team are introduced to the 9000+ crowd at Roots Hall.

For the first half Joshua pretty much sat with Uncle Michael the entire time. This was really good as Michael got to explain everything that was going on and to answer all of Joshie's questions (at the expense of his own viewing/concentration on the game). Personally I think Joshua really needed this experience today as he has never even watched an entire football game on TV, let alone live, and for that reason I think he gets a little lost in some of the friendly games he plays with Forest Glade. Hopefully this experience will now show him how games flow and how all the different skills come together to give him more of an idea when he is playing.

Half time and Southend are 1 - 0 up after Hurst's 6th minute goal.

During half time the boys were entertained by cheerleaders and the Southend United mascots. Joshua got to high five Elvis but Brandon kept his distance from the oversize characters.

 

Mr Pizza mascot getting high fives from all of the kids.

Shrimpy cheering on the youths as they take a lap of honour before the second half begins.

Joshua gets to meet another of the Southend mascots - Elvis.

By the time the second half started it was getting very dark and they floodlights illuminated the stadium.

Good seats and plenty of action right in front of us.

With 90 minutes gone this was the free kick which set up Prosser for his very late winning goal.

During the second half both boys started to really get into the football spirit and were extremely vocal to the point where Brandon was losing his voice by the time we got home. He was absolutely screaming "Come on Southend" at the top of his voice over and over again. There were some people sitting adjacent to us in another stand who were looking over at little B in hysterics at just how loud and involved he was getting. It was so great to see both boys thoroughly enjoying the game and getting into the spirit of things. 

And how cool is this, the Southend crew celebrated the win with a bundle right in front of where we were seated.

Joshua now cannot wait for next weeks football club as he wants to score a goal so that he can celebrate with his team by having a bundle in the corner just like Southend did! Overall the football game was a very enjoyable experience and great value for money. Both boys are keen to go back for more so it looks like we could all become Southend United supporters over the coming years. Good father to son bonding time if you ask me.

Swimming Achievement

Everyone knows that both of the boys are pretty good swimmers and very competent in the water. After all they have been going swimming weekly ever since they were 10 weeks old and then earlier this summer they also started swimming lessons down the Sporting Village. Well yesterday they were both tested and I am pleased to confirm (and very, very proud) that they both passed with flying colours and now move up to the next level. So Joshua has gone from a yellow hat to a green hat and Brandon has gone from an orange hat to a yellow hat. To be honest Brandon has been ready to move up a class for weeks and weeks now, but his instructor was holding him back because of his size and that she was worried he would take  backwards step going up a class and into the big pool (clearly she doesn't know Brandon and his love of swimming and diving!). As for Joshua, well last weekend I took him swimming and he did something like 92 widths of the David Lloyd pool on his own practising his head breathing technique out to the side. So I am hardly surprised that he managed to swim 10m on a test on his front and back with good technique really. 

 

The boys proudly showing their new swimming hats ready to move up a class.

The only problem we now face is that as they have both moved up a class the Sporting Village can no longer accommodate them both on the same night! So we either need to move swimming pools or just see how it goes with the extra running around. To be honest I like the Sporting Village as they seem to be very strict on technique in the swimming classes, plus I love going out on the running track with the boys after swimming and doing a lap or two. Because other pools aren't as strict on technique, there is probably a very good chance Joshua would jump straight up into blue hat class if we were to move them to Wickford pool.

Christmas In Basildon Town Centre

So today was the big day for Basildon Town Centre to shine as the Xmas lights were turned on. We didn't specifically go in to town to see the lights but just to do a little bit of shopping. We was pleasantly surprised to see that he council had really gone to town (pardon the pun) on this event and pulled out all the stops. Not only was their all the usual fair ground rides, Xmas market stalls, roasted chestnuts, etc, but there was so much more. Who would have thought the Basildon Town Centre would feature reindeer's, camels, bag pipe players on stilts and so much more. Our usual Saturday afternoon shop became quite a festive event as you can see from the pictures.

 

First the boys got to go inside one of the police riot van complete with an isolation cell in the back. All the kids seemed to have real fun climbing into the cell!!!! Lets just hope they didn't enjoy it so much that they are enticed into a life of crime to experience this again. Fingers crossed this will be the one and only time we see Joshua and Brandon locked up in the back of a Police van.

 

Finally the boys of off our hands and out of trouble (or is that in trouble?).

Around this time last year we were starting to prepare for our festive trip to the real Lapland where we experienced the most amazing reindeer ride and husky dog ride. Basildon Town Centre is not quite Lapland, but it was still amazing to see these beautiful reindeer's. 

Josh and Brandon watching Rudolph having a spot of lunch.

Check out the horns. Both boys braved stroking the reindeer's and touching the antlers.

What a beautiful animal. Brandon wanted to know why they have antlers to which I didn't have an answer. Time to hit google...

 

All in all there were four reindeer's on display and an owl in a sleigh.

The two boys in front of the large East Gate Xmas tree.

Next up was the large carousel ride.

Whilst waiting on the horses for the carousel to start we noticed the 3 camels with the wise men riding them. Joshua has obviously been paying attention at school as he knows the story about the wise men taking gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the little baby Jesus. 

Will this camel reach over for a nibble of their hair?

Josha and B with the 3 camels in the background.

The camels looked stunning and were all dressed up in bright, festive livary.

So all in all it was an eventful trip to town and I think we only saw a fraction of the events that were going on. Driving home we had lots of questions about where camels come from and why they are used in deserts and how you buy one when you need a new one etc.

Braxton Hicks or Roast Chicken

So with under 3 weeks left until the official due date for Bubba, we had our first scare on Sunday. As usual I took the boys swimming and badminton mid-afternoon and Tina stayed at home to rest. When we returned she had started to have some quite painful contractions, but no sign of her waters breaking. So I took over cooking the Sunday roast and she curled up on the sofa in rather a lot of pain.

I explained to Joshua and Brandon that this could be a sign that baby wants to come out now and that they needed to leave Mummy alone for a while. Joshua was a little diamond and kept asking if Tina wanted a drink or anything to eat. Then every time she had another contraction he would come running out to the kitchen and tell me “Mummy just had another one and its getting more painful, I think we need to take her to the hospital now!”. Bless him, he was so keen to take her to the hospital and kept saying “I don’t mind, I’ll go with you”.

However it was all a false alarm as after eating most of the Sunday roast the contractions seemed to fade away and Bubba was showing no signs of an early arrival. So was this a case of Braxton Hicks and is the baby due imminently? Or was this a cunning plan by Tina to get out of cooking the Sunday roast and then having to wash-up afterwards? All we now know after another mid wife appointment today is that the head is well and truly engaged so the birth really could be any day now.

So with the birth due any day now, why not use this time to take a guess at the sex, birth date and weight of the baby. I have added my prediction as a comment on the blog entry titled “2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks?” which was posted on 21^st October. It would be great to have everyone prediction’s logged as a comment and eventually get printed into one of my blog books for the baby. So click on add comment and make your predictions today.

Forest Glade Tigers 3 - 6 Southminster



So today our boys had their third friendly/exhibition match against Soutminster and the result was not quite as good as last week for various reasons. We had a larger squad today which meant we had to keep changing the team around frequently to give everyone some ball time. Within this larger squad we had a couple of very week players and the team never really started to gel together and understand where they should play and where their team mates would be. The conditions were pretty bad due to all of the rain and the pitch was a bit of a mud bath.

 

The Southminster team played well, however we are not sure whether they played their A-team against our Tigers and the B-team against our Lions. The reasons I say this is that the Lions won their game something line 9 - 1, and the Tigers lost 6 -3, and when you look at some of the players from Southminster in the Tigers game, there were some big tall lads there that were running circles around some of out little ones.

 

At half time we were holding our own and were actually 2 - 1 up. Joshua was predominantly playing in defence and doing OK. In the second half Joshua replaced Ellis as goal keeper and had some good and bad moments. He all too often wants to kick the ball out when it comes at him rather than throw himself at the ball and pick it up. As a result of this the ball ended up with the Southminster a couple of times resulting in quick goals that arguably they should not have had the chance to score. Joshua could learn a lot from little Ellis's fearless approach as a goal keeper. Having said that Joshua did have a few good saves and he did some very good goal kicks.

Some of our Tigers warming up and getting caked in mud even before the game starts.

Me trying to referee the boys in the first half. The Southminster coach took the second half.

There was some very good play from our boys and girls and as you can see they are starting to spread out on the pitch rather than all chasing the ball.

Second half and Joshua dons his new goal keepers shirt and replaces little Ellis in goal.

 

What is impressive is how all the boys and girls seem to up their game when they play against a different team from our friendly training games. Its as if the competitive spirit comes out and you see a completely different side to a lot of players that you never see in training.

 

My final thought on today's game is, who's bright idea was it to kit our boys out with white football socks and how the hell am I supposed to get these cleaned????? For the sake of £3 out of Sports Direct, I think these might just end up in the bin rather than my washing machine. For our next strip my vote is: Forest Glade ALL BLACKS!!!!

Joshua's football socks after today's very muddy game.



Yet another Birthday party.

Lately life seems to be one endless stream of kids birthday parties. Brandon had yet another one today for one of his old buddies from back in the days of Seymour House. The party was a little different from the usual ones and was held in the fun factory in Southend. Whilst the fun factory may appear to be your typical ball/play park, the thing that makes it different is that the little kids get to have a go at indoor wall climbing and ice skating.

 

Little B all geared up and ready to have his first hand at rock climbing.

Brandon and his best buddy Zac.

Final instructions and getting hooked up to the safety line,

 

 

Brandon all harnessed up and takes to the rock climbing wall.

He had fun but lacked confidence and subsequently didn't climb too high.

 

Getting higher, maybe his confidence is growing.

I wish I could have gone to parties like this at the age of 4. How cool.

 



He seemed a bit more confident with the ice skating and didn't have any falls.

But then did he ever brave it in the middle of the ice or just hold on to the side all the time? Of course he did, and he skated very well.

So unfortunately he missed today's football training, but it looks like he had good fun and seemed to enjoy his reunion with his old nursery friends.

Karate Kid

Brandon has now been going to karate for about a month and really enjoys it.  As he has stuck with it and has shown a lot of enthusiasm I bought him his first gi tonight. I have to say it really suits him and he looks so cute. Having done karate myself for close to 25 years, it is really nice to see one if my boys also taking to it. Joshua went with me to take Brandon tonight and subsequently watched the lesson, now he has decided it looks fun and wants to start! The question is that given that he already does Beavers, dodge ball, football and swimming - will karate be too much?

 

Brandon in the dojo ready to start his karate lesson in his new gi.

 



Brandon still wouldn't take his gi off even when he got home. I think given the choice he would have slept in it!

 

Paradise Wildlife Park 2013

So today the kids should have gone back to school for the first day of this term, but no it was a teacher training day. So I took the day off of work and we some cheap Groupon vouchers we took the boys to Paradise Wildlife Park. It was a little bit cold to say the least but we wrapped up well and the rain stayed away all day. So in the end we actually had a really, really fun day out and both Joshua and Brandon seemed to have so much fun.

 

Can you spot me, Josh and Little B?

Since last time we went to Paradise Wildlife Park there seems to have been a few changes. We noticed a Speedway Museum which I don't recall being there, then there was a large play train and fire engine for the kids, a new wolf walk area and a kids wet play area for those hot summer days.

This is the full size train which the kids can now climb and play on.

Brandon was confused as to why the train didn't have a steering wheel.

Joshua takes to the trains controls.

Joshua doing a bit of role playing by driving the fire engine.

The pirate ship in the kids play area is always a favourite of the boys (even if the slides were a bit wet from all the rain last night!).

Brandon climbing the cargo net on the side of the pirate ship.

Joshua playing at being Captain Hook.

Brandon cleaning the wet slide with his nice clean, dry trousers!

Joshua isn't stupid and comes down the slide only after Brandon has cleaned it for him!

Once we finally dragged the two boys out of the play area we managed to actually go and see some animals - after all that is the whole point of visiting a zoo in the first place.

Little B headed straight for the Meerkats.

We got a stunning close up view of the beautiful white tiger.

Not such a close-up with the zebras who preferred to keep their distance today.

The penguins were being cleaned and the boys loved watching them diving in and out of the water as the zoo keeper attended to their enclosure.

Willaby wolliby, bibbly, bobbly, boingy, boing, boing to the blue billabong.

The boys were fascinated by the size of this reindeer's antlers, but kept saying they needed to be cut back.

The leopards were prowling backwards and forwards along the front of their enclosure.

No signs of 70mph runs from the cheetahs who were having a lazy day.

We were fortunate enough to be at the tiger enclosure when a tiger talk was going on and Rocky (the big male tiger) and the two female sister tigers came up really close to the side of the cage. The zoo keeper was amazingly hand feeding them through the cage. The snarls, growls and general demeanour of these beasts was just awesome.

Would you out your hand that close to a tigers mouth?

Rocky and the two sister tigers giving us a good showing.

A sleeping white lion.

Brandon posing with the white lion.

And then Joshua.

Brandon hates alligators but they are still one of my favourites.

The helter skelter didn't seem to have much "slip" today probably due to the cold, damp conditions and so the boys gave up after one go of shuffling their bums down the slope.

Another new feature at the zoo is some little electric F1 cars for the kids to drive and some pedal quad bikes. The quad bikes were a bit small for the boys but the electric cars were perfect (except for the fact that Joshua and Brandon were just obsessed with crashing into each other or cutting each other up). Brandon is absolutely mad about Redbull racing cars but amazingly he didn't want the Redbull car and opted for the Lotus instead.

Joshua takes the Redbull car.

The rams Brandon's Lotus into the side wall!

Can you spot Joshua in the tree house?

Captain Hook, Joshua and Brandon.

 I keep forgetting about new additions to the zoo since our last visit. Anyway another welcome new additions is a safari themed 18-hole crazy gold course. Me and the boys slipped in a quick round but they were both cheating like mad (god knows where they get it from). There was also several arguments between them about who tee's off first each time. But we did eventually get the full 18-holes in, but it is anybodies guess what the final scores were. Me and Joshua did both hit holes in one though.

Crazy gold through the giraffe legs.

Joshua and Little B posing under the giraffe's.

Me and my boys on the zebra hole.

Brandon teeing off over the water way.

3 very cheeky monkeys.

I do worry about Brandon at times as he seems to be showing an interest in motorcycles and like any responsible parent, I really don't want him to go down that road. My fears were further confirmed when we visited the Speedway Museum and he was in his element looking at all the bikes, trophies and video clips of racing. His favourite was the ice speedway racing where the bikes were kitted out with tyres which had 2" spikes all the way around the tread.

You can't see in this picture but these are the spiked, ice speedway bikes that Brandon loved watching.

Joshua at one of the Speedway displays.

To end our day the boys wanted to go on the little train ride thought the fox, wolf and owl enclosure. You also get to see some large dinosaur displays which are scattered through the woodland area.

Tina and Joshua riding at the back of the train with two sabre toothed tigers behind them.

Brandon is very good at identifying dinosaurs and likes the T-rex.

Then he saw triceratops..

.....and finally stegosaurus which he now knows all about the plates and spiked tail etc from his various books and from watching Dino Dan and The Dinosaur Train.

Finally a nice picture of Brandon showing us his best kangaroo impression.

 

So role on the next teacher training day.