Rash Actions

Two days ago, for some reason, know only to himself, Ben decided to crawl full speed across the lounge with his forehead pressed to the carpet. This resulted in a rather large carpet burn on his noggin - Stupid boy !



This is how it looks today:

Haven't forgotten

Hi,
I haven't forgotten you all, it's just that Tescos screwed up one of the photo discs and I am awaiting a replacment. Once I have it, I will post a selection of the photos I took on holiday. Hopefully it will be soon.

Harry, Ben & Me and the BBC

On Monday I got a call from the local nursery group. They had been contacted by the BBC who were looking for stay at home Dads to interview them about prams. They were going to film the next day (Tuesday 13th June) and I volunteered and met up with the film crew at Thruxton Go Kart race track.

I got the boys dressed up all smart and slapped a load of sun cream on them as it was another scorcher yesterday. I was met at the track by Vivian, a very nice lady and the two cameramen. I am embarrassed to say that I have forgotten the cameramens names. It was all very relaxed and I found them all very good company. Jane turned up and she was the presenter. The idea behind the shoot was a short segment approximately 9 minutes long for the BBC program Inside Out. They wanted to interview Dads about their choice in prams, did they think that as pram companies realised that more Dads are staying at home now were they advertising prams more like cars and making them appear more macho etc. What did I want from a pram and what made me pick the particular one we bought. They took several shots of the prams from different angles, pictures of the disk brakes and alloy frame work, basically wanting to prove that the prams are high tech, sporty looking, manly prams.

The interview went well and I expected that they would film a little bit of the boys. But oh no..... they had another thing in mind.

There was another Dad there with me, a nice guy called Steve who worked at the main Thruxton race circuit. Vivian and Jane cajoled Steve and I into having a race around the Go Kart track with our prams (minus babies of course). They wanted to take several shots, one of us 'racing off' from the start line, coming round a bend at full tilt and then racing through the chicane and under a bridge.

Steve and I raced round looking like a pair of prats and you can all see how stupid we looked in September when the program airs. (I don't know the exact date yet).

Oh the shame :-(

On the upside whilst Steve was being interview I sat with Jane and chatted for a while with her. She was lovely and we got on really well, like old friends. Jane was cuddling Harry and he turned and looked at her lovingly then delved his hand down her cleavage, he is such a tart ! - Thankfully Jane thought it was hysterical and we had a good giggle about it.

So the boys weren't filmed at all and Dad made a prat of himself, which in retrospect I am sure they will be very happy about. Mind you out of all of us, I think Harry enjoyed himself the most !!!

Holiday !

Hi, We escaped off on holiday for a week down at Porth just north of Newquay. We had fab weather and the boys had a great time. Their first holiday went well the hotel was excellent it is designed for families with young children and the staff were lovely. The only criticism I have is that there is no lift and we were on the 2nd floor !!

It really was tiring having to carry the boys up and down the stairs all day and all our luggage on the first & last days. But apart from that I recommend the Sands Resort.

They have two lovely pools one in doors one out. The boys went for their first swim here and after the initial shock of being in the cold water they took to it like two little ducks. They especially liked the heated indoor pool, which has a small pool just for babies. In their little floatation seats their toes could just touch the bottom and they could move themselves about on tip toe. (see photos below)

We crammed a lot into the week, here are some of the places we visited:

National Trust Sites


Trelissick Garden

Glendurgan Garden

Trerice

Other places we went to:

Boscastle

You wouldn't recognise the place after the pictures on the news of the floods, it is almost rebuilt now, looks fantastic and the tourists were their in droves, enjoying the beauty of the place.

Here are some photos of Boscastle during the flood and just after the flood

It is a testiment to the people of Boscastle that they have rallied so well after the floods, the village is beautiful again and has survived against the odds.

Whilst there Carol & I out of curiosity visited into the Witch Museum which was erm...different.

Watergate Bay

Watergate Bay was lovely, it was only a couple of miles from our hotel and a nicer beach than the one just next to our hotel at Porth.

The beach stretches for what seems like miles and we had a lovely time there. I took loads of photos, but with my 35mm SLR so as soon as I get the photos developed I will post scans of them here.

This was the boys first time on the beach, they loved it. Harry was adventurous and wanted to taste everything, sea & sand !!!

We covered them with 60+ Sun Factor cream and I am glad to say they didn't get sunburnt (unlike their Dad, who has sun burnt forearms and tops of his feet).

Nanny & Grandpa bought them buckets and spades and they boys made sand castles, well ok, Daddy had a second child hood and made sand castles. Harry & Ben enjoyed squishing them afterwards.

Carol really enjoyed the holiday as well, it was lovely for her to rest and spend more time with the boys.

My favourite day out was to the Newquay Blue Reef Aquarium, not the best one we have been too, but it was the first one the boys have visited and they loved it. Harry & Ben kept pointing to the tanks at the brightly coloured fish inside. They really seemed to be fasinated by it all.

Oh well, enough of my ramblings, here are the photos:

Porth Beach just 1/2 mile from out hotel:



Ben enjoying a stretch of his legs after being in the pram around one of the National Trust gardens. Ben didn't like the feel of the grass on his hands, but slowly got used to it.



Trelissick Gardens





Harry was so worn out one day that I picked him up out of his car seat, carried him upstairs and laid him on our bed and he never woke up at all during this. He was spark out. I laid on the bed next to him and read my book as he slept, to make sure he didn't roll off the bed. He was such a sleepy head



The boys enjoying their swimming session in the indoor pool at our hotel.




As soon as I have my films developed I will post photos of their first time at the beach. Until then bye bye for now :-)

Cheeky Boys & Cheeky Girls

Our local council runs a scheme where residents of our town can donate their old furniture and they then renovate it and sell it on for charity, it also helps disabled people to find work. Yesterday they had a promotion called 'Twice as nice' and they threw a party for twins. So I decided that it would get me out of the house and it was something to do. Also I am starting a local twins support group soon with a lady called Kate, more on that later.

Now the council had also arranged for the Cheeky Girls to be there as part of the promo. I have to say that both Moni and Gabi where very nice and as soon as they saw Harry & Ben they came over and were fussing all over them. Moni & Gabi love babies and so it would seem Harry & Ben :-)

Here are Harry & Ben being tarts and getting friendly with the girls:



I had to crop this photo tight as I didn't want other children visible as I didn't ask for permission from their parents to publish the photos here. Which is fair enough, I wouldn't want people using Harry & Bens photos without our consent.