Ella Anne McDonald - born Tuesday 9th October 2012

I am over the moon.  Our little daughter Ella Anne McDonald was born on Tuesday 9th October 2012 at 20:46.  Weighing in at 7lbs 8ozs she is definitely a sleepy baby so far :-)

Everything was a bit rushed and hectic and we thought Nicky might give birth in the car at one point.  We made it to Basingstoke hospital though, just, and 1/2 hour later Ella was born.

We were home midnight that day.  Amazing!

So far we are just getting used to being a family of four, and we look forward to each time little Ella wakes up and has a look around.

I can't wait to find out what kind of little character she is.

Will is 2!

We just celebrated Wills second birthday with family and friends at the weekend.  We are in shock.  How can two years have passed ?  It was great to see everyone, and it would seem nobody was poisoned by the BBQ food.

We feel so lucky to have such a beautiful well behaved son.  He is always determined to take the next step in everything he does, and amuses us no end.  People seem to genuinely love being around him as he is nearly always very smiley.

Eating and sleeping have been improving (amazingly so for sleeping), although there is still some teething to go so that could all change again!

Will is now adapting to the news that we have another one on the way due in October, (which guiltily I have not even blogged about yet!).

He thinks he will have a little sister, we have no idea as we chose not to find out at the scans.

We have started the bribery to get Will to behave at night, and to stay in his new big boy bed (which he just graduated to), all is working according to plan, for now.

Will is now regularly stringing 5+ word sentences together, and his vocabulary amazes us.

I wonder what I will be writing in a years time.

Will learns the art of deception before his 2nd year

Something very amusing happened to me in the last fortnight.  I was tricked by Will, who was at the time 23 months old.  I did not expect it, and he got me completely.  I can't believe that the little chap figured out how to trick adults.

We were sat playing with some foam alphabet characters and numbers, his favourite game before bedtime.  Now whenever we have to put these toys away ready for bedtime we usually have a little clash of wills (yes he is aptly named) before he relents and helps me put them back on the shelf.

This time was different.  While I was trying to get hold of the alphabet shapes, in order to put them in their bag, Will started pointing to my shoulder and saying 'Daddy... shoulder' repeatedly.  I had a look at my shoulder, and turned back to Will.  Who was sat there with a big smile on his face.  I had no idea what was going on.  I looked down to start putting the letters in the bag again and they were gone.

When I looked confused, Will started laughing, massively, out of control.  It was hilarious.

I thought I'd get Will back and played my own trick on him.  He thought it was just as hilarious :-)  We both ended up in tears.  Amazing.

Beginning of 2012

Last year really raced by. Will evolved into a little amusing blonde headed fairy creature who now chats away and moves everything round in the house in unexpected ways. I founded a tech startup with a colleague from my last permanent position. Nicky is back at work first two days a week, and now since Christmas three days a week.

It is hard to keep track of everything really, but I intend to blog to make sure I can always remember what was going on.

Things I really enjoyed last year:

- all the time I spent with my family, Nicky, Will and the wider family

- watching Will develop as a little person

- watching Will play and socialise, in particular he seems to get on brilliantly with his cousin Ethan

- watching Poirot with my Gran on Christmas Eve

- Sherlock series one