Happy Birthday Harry & Ben ! - 1 year old

21st Jan 2006 - Harry & Ben are one year old !
They were weighed last Thursday, Harry is 17lb 13.5oz and Ben is 17lb 3oz

We think Ben is lighter because he is just so active the whole time :-)

Saturday came and Carols family came round and my Mum and my nephew Cameron. Unfortunately my Sister and niece Hannah and Robin couldn't make it due to prior commitments that they couldn't escape from.

The day was very hectic and was very good fun. The boys had a great time with all the attention and they were spoilt rotten.

It is hard to believe a year has passed already. The trauma of their early birth seems so far away now and all the months we spent with the wonderful staff in the Neonatal Unit. If it wasn't for their dedication and loving care our boys wouldn't be here today and we can never thank them enough. There were times when we thought that this day would never come and to be here celebrating their 1st birthday is truly a miracle.

Here are the photos:

This first one is of Harry & Ben wearing the outfits that Carols brother John and his partner Emma bought them for Xmas.



Here is a my Mum with Harry



Uncle John with Ben



Present opening with the family



And of course the Birthday Cake:



The cake came from a bakery in Andover called Burbidges, they did us proud.

This is will be our last entry for a few weeks as we are changing ISP and we are being cut off today and will have to wait 10 days or so for a new account to start up.
Watch this space :-)

Seconds out round 2 !

Ah brotherly love is a wonderful thing. It is so nice to see Harry & Ben getting along so well and enjoying each others company. Playing nicely together and sharing toys. They are such perfectly little angels.

Yeah ok, I am lying through my teeth, introduce a mini bottle of talc and watch the fists fly !

The first photo is of them mid wrestle for the control of the much coverted talc bottle.



This second photo is brilliant, The caption should read - 'oh no, we've just been caught fighting, quick look sweet and innocent and we might get away with it'.

The Human Corkscrew

Ben is so twisty turny. It is impossible to change him without him twisting over and wriggling all over the place. It's like trying to pin down a bag of snakes !.

As an example of what I am talking about here is a photo of our little contortionist in what he thinks is a comfortable sleeping position !

Dada !

Ben is definately talking now, he says Dada. Which is excellent :-)

Unfortunately like Jack Dee says about his son, he can say Dada but has no idea what it means. Everything is Dada, the toy, his brother, the carpet, television the chair. Dada is his universal word for everything. But still it is a start and it is very cute.

The other really cute thing at the moment is that Ben is finding everything funny. He is constantly giggling to himself. He has a really infectious belly chuckle and it just cracks you up when you hear it. Ben realises he has made you laugh and loves it, so he chuckles even more. He loves making people laugh which is a great personality trait.

Harry is showing off how clever he is by crawling like made and he can sit up on his knees with his feet tucked up under his bum. He will sit like that for a while and play with things. He is also pulling himself up onto his knees against chairs etc and will soon be standing. I am sure he will be catching up with Ben soon on the 'cruising' front.

We are getting ready for their first birthday, which is not far off now. I can't believe they are almost 1 year old !!!

Cruising and Crawling for Christmas !

Well the first Christmas went well. We all went to Carols brother John's house. All of Carols family went and John and his partner Emma did us proud and we had a lovely day and meals.

Needless to say the boys had a great time and were spoilt rotten. I am glad to say that the boys are well again now. No more colds, coughs or croup.

The only major problem we have had over Christmas is the fact that with the boys being ill, they have not been sleeping well at all. They were bunged up and we had Karvel plugins to help clear their noses, humidifiers to help cure Harrys croup, in fact their nursery has looked like a science lab with all kinds of gizmos etc. But they seem to have done the trick. Being ill has totally thrown their sleep patterns and for about two weeks now we have been averaging 4-5 hrs sleep a night. We are so knackered their aren't words to describe how we feel. Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing.

There were a couple of big surprised for Christmas, Ben started 'Cruising' this is basically pulling himself up onto things and standing up hold onto furniture etc, then very wobbly walking/moving along holding onto things !!!

Harry not to be out done, decided to crawl. There was no warning, he hasn't shown any interest in crawling up to this point. He just got up onto his hands and knees and started crawling along on all fours, lightening quick !!!

Obviously my life now as a stay at home Dad has become totally none stop demanding. I have to watch Ben the whole time, because he hasn't really learned to sit down on his bum, so he just goes from being upright cruising, to falling over like a felled tree - TIMBER !!!! Needless to say he has a very nice collection of bruises at present.

Harry crawls too damn fast, by the time you've caught Ben and prevent further brain damage, I turn round and Harry has crawled across the length of the lounge squeezed down the back of the TV and is merrily trying to pull all the wires out of the system !!

Carol starts her new job tomorrow and I am sure the boys will miss her (and her them) after having gotten used to having so much time with her over the Christmas period. It has been lovely and I will miss her not being around as much as well.

I was going to write loads more but we have shut this internet account down and it will be turned off any minute. We are switching to a new service provider and this means I will be off-line for a week to two weeks. So I will write again asap.

Here are the photos taken by Carol:

Harry on Christmas Eve (caught mid crawl):



Ben on Christmas Eve (caught cruising the edges of his cot):



Harry & Ben playing with a few of their toys they got for Christmas:



I love this photo Carol took, Ben has this glazed / crazed toy overload look on his face. He is the Fisher Price Psycho !