Will at eight months

Will is hilarious. Brilliant during the day, always looking for a reaction and ready with a laugh or a smile. He is so much fun. New tricks every week, including this week just gone commando style crawling, hence his new nickname 'Sarge'.

He is now also clapping (just started yesterday), and he sometimes says 'Dada'. His progress with solids has been really good for two or three weeks now, so Nicky and I feel more confident.

While his new found mobility is great in terms of reducing his frustration, it means more work for us. He particularly likes wires, very dangerous and repetitive :-) Hence the new prison we have for him, which is currently wrapped around the TV and sound system area.

It is great watching Will interact with family and friends, and with his little baby playmates. It is kind of strange though to think that in only a couple of months now Nick will be going back to work for two days a week. That will take some getting used to.

Next steps, teach him to sit up, (currently he can only recline like a Roman), and improve the crawl action :-)

Just over six months with our little boy

It is almost Christmas, our first one with Will. The last six months have passed by so quickly, so much fun, but so challenging. We enjoy waiting for all the developmental stages, especially the real food stage which we are just entering now. As long as you remember it is just for fun at first it is easy to see the funny side when the food just gets splashed around all over the place, and when Will pulls funny faces at new flavours.

We have the usual ups and downs with small phases of cold free good health and good sleep, followed more often than not by several colds in succession and terrible nights for sleep. We are just over three weeks now where Nicky has had virtually no sleep with Will getting progressively louder in his grumping. Nobody in the house can sleep now :-(

On the flip side he smiles all the time during the day and is learning new tricks all the time. We also get to do all sorts of activities with him, a few weeks ago I went to water babies with them both and saw Will in his wetsuit :-)

I hope we all have a good Christmas and that Will's cold gets better very soon and he sleeps better so we are all rested and well again. It will be good to see all the family and let them all enjoy playing with the little lad.

So far it has been a reasonable attempt to balance work and life to ensure I see enough of Will and am around to help Nicky out enough. Its all fun!

The Words of Will

Something my dad did for us kids was to keep a book of words (or more accurately noises) we made and more or less when we made them. To keep with the family tradition I want to do the same thing. So here goes.

I actually think Will's first word was the same as my first word, 'aboo'. Not sure what it meant for me or him, but there you go.

Other words:

- agoo
- abyss
- acar
- boop

I actually have video footage of him from yesterday saying 'aboo' :-)

I will periodically update this so I don't forget things Will says.

Update (late 2010):

More words of Will, as accurately depicted as possible:

- Oh David (honestly, that is exactly what it sounded like)
- Ewooow
- Ah ah
- Hurkeekoo

Update (February 2011):

- Baa baa baa baaa (spoken as if a Lord at the House of Lords)
- Dada

Update (Feburary 2012):

- Dad dad (all the time :-) )

- Acidic Boo (sounding like a Morta Kombat finishing move)

- Ninny (meaning music) has just evolved into Didic

- M (meaning milk - pronounced Ma) has just evolved into Mutt which I find funnier

Update (October 2012):

- The moon is following me
- Loot since late Spring/early Summer (meaning look)
- Holt since late Spring/early Summer (meaning Hulk)

Update (December 2012):

[On the way back from hospital very poorly with ear infection and tonisilitis]

W: 'Daddy are you happy ?'
D: 'Yes Will I am happy, I am very proud of you, you are such a good boy.'
W: 'Daddy are you my friend ?'
D: 'Yes Will, I am your friend, I am your daddy and I love you.'
W: 'We've got everything we need.'

- Stoody [we are not sure what this means but he usually calls daddy this] he has been saying this since ~ August September 2012

Life is hectic

Somehow though I found a way to get hold of Red Dead Redemption, which turns out to be a beautiful game, in terms of scenery, and pretty good in terms of story too. My evenings generally start when Will and Nicky have gone to bed these days, which is a bit too late in all honesty :-)

Will is keeping us busy. Still feeding like a monster, and shrieking when he does not get his way. He actually slept from 9 till 5:50 on Tuesday night, we were amazed. Quickly back to his usual patterns again though the next night.

We are looking forward to a little holiday in late September. It will be good to take Will down to Bournemouth and spend some time round the beautiful South Coast.

Our little was weighed at 14lb 3 oz at nine weeks, so is still gaining plenty of weight :-) He started grabbing things about a week ago, and shakes his rattle.

Will is almost two months old

It is amazing really how fast things are happening. I thought I had better keep a log of things to help me remember all that we would want to about this time in our lives.

First of all, the photos and movies are in the usual places, I keep them up to date a little bit more often than this blog.

So, on on to things I want to remember.

- rolling from front to back at nine days old, I think he could have done it younger but I was too worried as a brand new parent to put him on his front :-)
- first smile on camera at six weeks old exactly, he had smiled before but it is difficult to catch
- at six weeks old Will was 12 lb 1 oz
- at seven and a bit weeks Will has started trying to talk to us quite often, he had made noises at us before but we did not think he was deliberately responding

All of this is great, but Nicky is still definitely having a hard time, he still wants to feed hourly, and fights sleep all day long when he really could do with getting a bit more.

Will goes through his tests

Today was a busy day for Will, he had his 10 day checkup at the doctors... closer to 14 day really but never mind. He passed with flying colours. Then he had his hearing screening done by the health visitor... again no problems. Nicky and I were very pleased.

We have definitely classified Will as a hungry baby though... feeding every hour. On the flip side though, although he fights sleep all day, he has had a good couple of nights... hopefully a sign of things to come :-)

Also very positive he is gaining weight nicely, at one week, he had crept back up to 7lb 5oz from his lowest of 7 lb 2oz... just 70 hours later he was 7lb 10.5oz.. amazing.

I started an all Apple web presence solution, its just the easiest way, anyhow, website on its way, and over at mobile me some movies of Will.

Our son Will was one week old today

We can't believe how fast time is flashing past, probably the lack of sleep :-) We have already had a load of worry, as first time parents I understand this is perfectly normal. The good news is he is feeding well, and starting to get back towards his birth weight. It is amazing how well Nicky has taken to motherhood. I am struggling to keep up with things but trying hard.

More photos below:

First walk and top and tail

First visitors

Will meets his cousin Ethan

Fathers day and first bathtime

Tomorrow we are going to register Will, so we need to figure out his middle name(s).

Our baby son was born today

Today at 09:55 our son Will was born. He weighed 7 lb 13 oz. The birth was quick but not easy, mother and son are recovering well. I am hopefully going to pick them up tomorrow. I can't believe this day has arrived. He is an amazing little baby, and Nicky and I are both already completely in love with him.

For Nicky and I this is a dream come true. After our sad news last summer, we have worked hard for this, and Nicky in particular has been a star. I am so proud of her. Here are some pictures.

I am looking forward to seeing them both again and I only just left the hospital :-)

The nursery is complete

Tomorrow Nicky will be 36 weeks, so after a small panic now our nursery is complete, photos at flicker. This is both exciting, and extremely scary. There are piles of tiny nappies in the wardrobe. Yep, that room used to be mine! How times are changing!

Thats about the only DIY I have ever enjoyed :-)

33 today, baby just a couple of weeks away

Life is changing rapidly. Nicky is doing just fine with the pregnancy, and we are now only 5 - 9 weeks away from the big day. We have been busy heading out to Ikea to buy cots and matresses, chests of drawers, little outfits. We have a car seat, a pram, piles of nappies. Life is definitely changing.

We had a reality check this week too when our friends Carl and Lorraine had their little baby, five weeks early, all are ok, but it made us realise we may not have as long as we think!

We are both handling things quite well, relaxed and happy, I hope everything turns out well, and the sleepless nights do not go on for as long as people say :-)

I am an uncle at 32 (almost 33)

So I became an uncle on 23rd March. First time for me. Went to meet my nephew Ethan. He is a cute little baby. Good as an angel during the day, and according to my little sister Heidi, a nightmare at night at the moment. Hopefully things will settle down for them all over the coming weeks.

This makes reality hit home, now that Nicky and I are getting closer to the big day, (14th June apparently)!

I am getting old :-)

Lucky number nine

Its been a long time since I blogged, part of that is because I have moved jobs and been involved in a very intensive first project, part of it is just laziness, oh and a fair bit of gaming on my PS3 also. Its time I shared some news, it turns out 9 is our lucky number. On the 9th October Nicky and I tested positive with a pregnancy test, then on 9th December we had a very good 13 week scan.

We are overjoyed, particularly as we went through an ectopic pregnancy in the Summer which was devastating. Now the reality of our situation is starting to sink in, and we can enjoy the whole thing. Life will be changing soon.

I have some scan pictures over on Flickr in case you are interested., showing progress over the different scans. I will post updates on this, so I can look back over it as much as anything.

Busy Weekends

We had a run of busy weekends, felt like we did not have a life of our own almost, at least six weekends in a row visiting or with visitors. Now however, we have a couple of weekends at home.. what a relief. The weather is getting better too, I am looking forward to getting the BBQ out :-)

For my birthday two weeks ago we went to the village of Lacock in Wiltshire, and I highly recommend it to anyone, it is so amazingly preserved.

I also ordered a surround sound system finally, to go with my TV I got last year. Should be here in the next week or so. I went with a German brand Teufel, which looks cool and has had some very good reviews. My AV receiver is one of the new Onkyo 507's supporting Dolby True HD.

Gaming news, Street Fighter was cool, although I am pretty bad at it, but I was hugely disappointed with the demo of Resident Evil, and never bought it.

On the plus side, Prototype is out next month and I can't wait for that :-)

Fallout 3 completed

Just finished Fallout 3 on the PS3, what a game. I am sure Nicky got completely sick of it. It is huge in scope, never had so much fun levelling up. I enjoyed Oblivion too, but somehow, taking the whole RPG thing into the future seemed to make it even more fun.

Now I just need to play more GTA 4, before Street Fighter is out next month, and Resident Evil 5 the month after!

I admit it, I let work take over

Its been a long time since I last blogged!!! I have been very busy, working all hours, not very healthy really. But then I notice Lorraines blog is also untouched. Perhaps its just that time of year, oh well... not long (5 days) until the Christmas break starts for me, cool!

Our social lives have pretty much disappeared, we have hardly seen our friends in Newbury, they all seem to be equally busy, and I suppose the fact that the credit crunch is still biting means we are less likely to hit the pubs in town these days.

What to do to sort out the work / life balance then ? Well it seems that whether you are rewarded for your efforts or not, you are probably never rewarded enough, so its probably not worth sacrificing so much of your own time, when a minimum of 37.5 hours a week are spent in the office anyway. Also you need to ensure if you are putting in so much effort that the values of your workplace align with your own.

In particular I strive for technical excellence, probably to a somewhat autistic degree, and I am finding an unhealthy amount of focus on 'shiny' things at all levels above me, whether or not what is under the hood is rotting. I am not sure this is going to change despite any of my efforts. This is not a criticism, there are many things that require focus in the workplace, and an academic approach to everything would never make any money, it is merely an observation.

So we will see how things go, perhaps there is change in the air, I will keep you posted.

Egypt August 2008

We had the holiday of a lifetime just a few weeks ago. We decided that despite the cost, and the credit crunch in general we wanted to go to Egypt.

We both had a great time, pics are up... flickr.

The first part of our holiday was a three day stay in Cairo. Our hotel was the closest one in Cairo to the pyramids, probably only about 150 metres away. We could see the pyrmids from our window.

I was the first to succumb to the obligatory bout of 'Pharoah's Revenge' just 48 hours into the holiday, but it did not spoil any sight-seeing trips.

From Cairo we flew to Luxor, and then spent 7 days on a Nile cruise. We did just about every temple and site of note that was within stirking range, (even a flight to Abu Simbel to see Ramses II's amazing temple).

As it was the hottest part of the ear over there we saw temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celcius, some days it was over 40 degress by 9 am. We made the most of the sun, not expecting to get any back in the UK.

I highly recommend Egypt, we always felt safe, and the tour guides are very professional.

Ben and Charis came to see us

We had a great time with Ben and Charis, we went out to play in Newbury, and then took them to our favourite restaurant the 'Pot Kiln' in Frilsham, where the food and wine were excellent as always. The usual problem though, Ben and I get carried away choosing fine wines and then reap the consequences when the bill follows!

It rained all weekend, really, so Ben and I played loads of Grand Theft Auto 4, which can be a really fun game. We tend to have more fun when not playing it properly though. It seems that you can walk like a monkey, and jump on people's cars in amusing ways. The way the game world is so open, like Assassins Creed is what I love, and the graphics are not bad at all!

Wow, love the TV!

It arrived on Tuesday, and I have already got it mostly set up and configured. I have watched a DVD or two upscaled on the PS3, plenty of SD material (the quality is certainly good enough even on that), and played Assassins Creed and GTA4 on the PS3.

Finally I have the home cinema experience. I have not seen Blue Ray yet, or cranked the sound up much. We seem to have lost our arial, so I can not tinker with the integrated freeview functionality, or do the software updates yet, I will have to buy another arial.

So far I am totally impressed with both SD and higher, love the colours, and black levels, and just the look of the TV. Tosh ZF is definitely the way to go if you want LCD.

Finally completed Assassins Creed this morning too, what a great game.

Whoops, there is no excuse

I have not blogged for a long, long time. We are only as busy as we ever are, no busier. I suppose it is partially because I got me a nice PS3 round about my birthday time, end of April, and am still definitely addicted to Assassins Creed.

The house is all finished, just some tidying (boarding) to go up in garage, and we are going to have the garden done, landscaped etc. Everything inside the house is peachy though, got our sofa, and dining table.

A couple of weeks ago I finally used my BBQ (incarnation two, the first was ruined in the flood). Great fun, and I love how easy gas BBQ's make it.

We just got back last Saturday from our family holiday in Tuscany (a delayed 60th for my dad). We stayed in the most amazing villa, isolated up in the hills, with incredible views, and a nice pool. I had to buy some excellent wine, this time Nicky knows how much I spent on my special bottle! Pictures of Tuscany are up on Flickr thanks to Nicky.

Friday night we caught up with our Newbury/Thatcham friends, and had a good night out at the pub. Then yesterday Nicky and I had a delayed celebrate our anniversary day out. We went to Cliveden in Maidenhead, amazing house, walked round the grounds. Then I forced her to allow me to buy my new TV in Reading. Ended up getting the Toshiba ZF 40 inch from John Lewis. Got to wait a week now for it to be delivered... booooooo!

Will post impressions once I get hold of it. Meantime, loving the PS3, not sure if Nicky is so keen about the amount of time I spend on it though :-)

Visiting Ben and Charis in Kent

Last weekend we popped down to see Ben and Charis in Canterbury. I can't believe it had been well over a year since we visited them. As per usual we had a great time, thanks guys. Some fabulous food and wine, and what a lovely house to stay in.

We only gibbered a couple of times though, must be growing up a bit! Never did go for that run though Ben, we will have to do it next time. Next time you will have to come up here, we will have sofa's and a dining table by then. We introduced them to Achmed the Dead Terrorist which is always fun.