A new year's message to our babies

Dearest Noah and Scout,

How odd it seems to be writing to you both. I hope, Scout, that you can appreciate that Noah's name comes first in this address purely because of habit. This is a habit borne out of Noah being born first and therefore it seems only natural for us to say his name first. Perhaps it is unfair. It has no bearing on who is our favourite child. Our favourite varies on a day to day basis. Today, it happens to be Noah, by the way - he made your mummy and I laugh when we were cheering on Eddie Hall in World's Strongest Man.

There is a number of reasons that we haven't been writing on here, many of them spurious. One of the true ones is that having a second baby is diff-ic-ult! Or rather, much more difficult that just one. The difficulty is the amount of time raising you takes. We happen to want to do a good job and, sadly, this takes a huge amount of time, The teeny weeny bits of spare time we had before was spent on keeping this blog shiny and up to date. If we wanted to keep up that level of detail, the sacrifice, ironically, would have to be to compromise how well we bring you up, which would reflect badly on the blog either way. For example, in order to begin this entry, Noah is in bed - has been since 8pm - and you cannot yet hold a bottle yourself so I fashioned a bottle holder out of the duvet your were wrapped in so you could be fed and I could have a free hand to type. Your mum was throwing some lovely supper together for us - meat and cheese sandwiches with pickled onions, pork pie and chutney, thanks for asking.

It's been a spectacular year for us all. Your grandma and grandad moved to Earl Shilton. They subsequently acquired the pub that is about five doors down. (Noah, you call it, "The pehb," which makes you sound terribly well to do.) Scout was born this year which has been just incredible. Our little family is complete and when daddy get the balls (yes, pun intended) he will get the snip (ask your mummy what this means.) We have really appreciated this time how quickly you move through the gears, so to speak, when it comes to growing up through the 'baby bit' of your life so instead of wishing you through all of the arbitrary milestones as we did with Noah, we have been trying to resist them as best we can without damaging you.

We have also started a shop on Etsy selling typed quotes on the typewriter, We then introduced framed quotes. It took off really rather well considering the small size of the shop. All the money we are making for this - every penny of it - goes to you two. You're welcome. Although if, by the time you are reading this, we deny we ever made any money, we are probably lying. Either mummy spent it all with her drinking habit or daddy gambled it away at the casino. If that is the reality of the future then I'm sorry. Start your own shop if you're just going to cry about it. Jeez!

We adore you both more and more with every day that goes by as we watch you become the people you are going to be forever. This is especially true, at the minute, with Noah because your language is developing so rapidly. You are using similes: "Our ginger hair is bright like the sun, isn't it, daddy?" and you all of a sudden began to use the adverb, "Suddenly," which is somehow hilarious.. I took to writing down all of the things you were coming out with. I will publish them here soon as many are hilarious.

We've noticed that Scout is prettier than you were at her age, Noah. Whilst this seems impossible, it is sadly true. She may well grow up to be painfully ugly but right now she is Disney perfect. You are too, don't get me wrong. Your mummy remarked about 30 minutes ago that Scout, 'has us wrapped round her little finger more than Noah did,' which is true as well. Not always in a lovely endearing way, I have to say,

Our new year's resolution (among many) is to take more care of your blog as it is something we are very proud of. We also fear a backlash when you are both older because we have far fewer photographs of Scout than Noah and the entries to this blog dried up after Scout was born. To reiterate, this is due to the luxury of time that we have precious little of - not to protest too much.

Happy new year, our babies.

Lots of love,

Mum and Dad

Mummy's birthday

We don't have many pictures but here is what we did. First of all we had a champagne breakfast (with budget champagne: Cava) then we ditched you kids at The Gees and jumped on a train to London. Daddy got first class tickets because he thought we got free booze. We didn't.

We arrived and had some brilliant burgers.

Then we went to a really cool wine bar called, Gordon's Wine Bar. They only sell wine or port and it is in what looks like an old underground cellar. It is lit only by candlelight. It was gorgeous in there. Not least because your mummy was all dressed up right nice for her birthday and looked incredibly beautiful; even moreso than she does every other day. 

We blitzed through a bottle of lovely red wine then headed to the Playhouuse Theatre to watch a production of 1984. Your daddy read it to mummy at the start of the year. We both loved it.

Then we went to M&S in St Pancras, bought a load of junk and ate it all the way home.

A lovely day.

Happy birthday, mummy.

Your second haircut and other odd pictures (don't ask)

Twycross Zoo in the early evening

There was live music, a barbecue and animals.

Noah, when the music was playing, you went to try and dance with two girls who were about 3 times your age. They entertained you for a short while before telling you to please go away and leave you alone. You didn't fully understand when they ran away from you. You thought it was a game, so you laughed and ran after them,

Then you were pissed at us for taking you away! Well excuse me, Mr I-don't-yet-grasp-the-intricacies-of-socially-acceptable-behaviour.

We went on a merry-go-round to make up for it.

The Monster Trucks

There are some really creepy YouTube videos of animated monster trucks that you were obsessed about for a while, Noah. You completely loved them.

So what did we do? We only went and bloody booked some tickets to a monster truck show. A REAL LIFE MONSTER TRUCK SHOW! We told you about a week before and you were so excited. Every day we would remind you or you would remind us and we would all whoop round the house in a frenzy of excitement.

The bog day came. Sunday, 9th August 2015. We got in the car and drove in the baking heat the 1hr and 30 minute journey to where the monster trucks were: Wellingborough. We parked up far away in a field, but even from that distance, we could hear the sounds of the engines roaring.

Here was the shit bit:

You took one look at them, turned round, pointed to the inflatable slide they had there and said, "Can I go on that?"

We said, "No, will you kindly watch the fucking monster trucks?" You were adamant. We made you endure one of the runs of the monster trucks in the blistering heat on daddy's shoulders before mummy took you to queue to get on the slide. It was £2.50 for five minutes.

Mummy handed over her money.

You refused to get on the fucking thing.

Your five minutes ran out.

We had a picnic with the deafening sounds of monster trucks 20 yards away.

Then we went home.

What a day.

MERCEDES ALL UP IN MAH...MOOONSTERRR TRUCK!

Baby Stanley's christening...and flirting

We went to Stanley's christening a few weeks ago. Noah, you were on top form. Scout, you were just being a tiny baby.

In the church, a lady gave a reading. It was of a poem (I forget which). When we were asked to sit down afterwards, you said, "Very lovely words, Daddy," to which I smiled. You paused and then said, "She is a very good talker." We have to remind ourselves just how young you are because sometimes you come out with the most remarkable things.

On that, just a quick one, but yesterday, when we were going to football, I was in a rush to put your car seat in. Turns out I didn't do it right. Rumour has it, we went round a roundabout and your carseat fell onto its side.

Apparently you were still in it.

You didn't say any words, you just quietly made this noise, "aaaaaaaaaaaahahaaaaa, daddyyyy." I looked in the rear view mirror and there you were. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the road I was on, I had nowhere to stop until I had tackled one more roundabout. I pulled over, ran round to you, got you out and reassured you. You were crying, but that quiet, heart-breaking crying. I calmed you down, re-adjusted the seat, put you back in it, got into the driver's seat and turned the car back on. I heard you take a deep breath, exhaled and then said,

"Let's try again, shall we?"

Hilarious.

Oh yeah, here are some pictures of the christening. A couple of weeks later, Stanley came round. Scout, you and Stanley hit it off and became a lovely, eighty year old couple...

Smooth.

The Butterfly Farm

We went to the butterfly farm in Stratford. Noah, you spent the whole time running around, literally screaming with excitement. I calmed you down and one point and very solemnly knelt down next to you, cuddling you with one arm and pointing to some butterfly wings on the floor. I said, "Noah," what do you suppose it is? You answered, pretty nonchalantly, almost with a shrug of the shoulders:

"It's dead, daddy."

Eventually, your mummy took the pushchair with Scout in it out. We were terrified we were going to cook you, Scout.

Baby Scout - the story so far

Scout, as previously mentioned, you are currently at 11 weeks. Even though your mummy and I try to be accurate about details of when you two kids accomplish certain milestones, it is amazing how much of the difficulties of bringing you up evaporate upon reflection. For example, we completely forgot how difficult it is to be tethered to a tiny baby through the day when you are having a particularly needy day.

So far, though, you have been incredible. Let's try and get a few details down as facts before they are lost to the land of exaggeration that time tends to bring.

Facts:
1. You genuinely smiled on day 3. Not just wind. We were snoozing in the morning and we looked at you. When we did, you smiled.

2. After 1 week, you were making cooey noises. These are beautiful sounds. Then we realised that you seem to want to engage in a conversation. So we talk to you and you coo back. It's incredible. Sometimes you get really, really vocal, too. And you shout.

3. At 9 weeks, we started giving you time in your cot in your own room. It seemed you never really got on with the moses basket, so we tried to cut it out. By week ten, you did your first full night without waking once - went to sleep at 8.30, woke up the next morning at 630. We thought that was pretty incredible. It certainly seems like you enjoy your sleep as much as your brother. At this point, you are now consistently going to sleep about 8.30-9 and then sleeping solidly until about 4.30 - have some milk and then sleeping until about 7.30. Awake for an hour or two and then a nice nap for a good hour. This is all music to our ears.

Whilst that above paragraph is incredibly boring, I just want to get the facts on record.

4. You have a little birthmark appearing on your right shoulder.

5. You are even more ticklish than Noah.


Anyway, here are some pictures...

A bit of a photo montage update

Your mummy and daddy have been poor bloggers of late, but we have been busy. It has been the school holidays and Scout, you were born only a little before it. Now, we had designs of doing a million and one things over this holiday and, in a kind of way, we have. However, what your mummy and I did not fully appreciate was just how difficult it is with two of you. Every task that should take five minutes, takes an hour. You are both very demanding. In the nicest possible way, of course. We have made a conscious effort to reduce your screen time (Noah) to an absolute minimum. We have all but removed the iPad from your life with the exception of bathtime when you are currently watching the following: Chuggington, Dinopaws, Bing and Storytrain. Your obsession with Peppa Pig seems to have abated for now.

Scout, you are currently at 11 weeks old. A more detailed post about you will follow. Noah is looking after you very well indeed. He is a bit heavy-handed with the dummy sometimes, but he means well. He calls you 'my baby' and, when you were just less than two months old, the nursery asked him, "Noah, how old is your little sister?" You just casually replied,

"Seven weeks." Which is an impressive reply, given the fact that you have no real concept of time yet.

It's funny when you wear your Iron Man suit: you cannot seem to get it into your brain that you are NOT Superman.

This slide was at the local park. You looked waaay too small to go on it, but the woman running the thing seemed to want the £1.50 than she wanted a 100% safe ride so she let you on. You were fearless. Our hearts were in our throats every time your tiny body got towards the bottom of the slide and you rolled about with fragile limbs flailing.

You went to a joint birthday party for Sebastian and Jackson (twins) along with some girl called Lilly apparently (you don't go to nursery on the same day as her so we haven't a clue.) You had a brilliant time throwing your hat into some wind machine thing (I can't be bothered to fully explain it here.) You also had balloon fights with a little girl. The hat you see here, you absolutely insisted on wearing every day for the summer months - until it was utterly worn to bits.

Next door had a really huge (and relatively (to you) deep) paddling pool. Even though the water was extremely cold, you were thrashing about in it like a lunatic. An ecstatic lunatic, I must add.

Daddy is having one last swan-song season at football. This was the first week of pre-season. You sat with your malt loaf, fruit and a drink. You had my t-shirt over your legs because you wanted to, "get cosy." You are always insisting on "getting cosy."