Category Archives: Owen

Posts about my little boy.

Owen’s First Day of Year Three

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This year Owen and Henry are starting school on different days, so I am doing separate back-to-school posts. Stay tuned for Henry’s tomorrow – in the meantime, Jen and I are taking Henry for a special day out in Birmingham, before he starts school tomorrow.

Once again, the school holidays have flown by and Owen has gone back to school, starting in year three. Of course, after six weeks of waking up early, he decided to have a lie in this morning. I am sure that moving up to the “Junior” part of the school will be exciting for Owen, as they start to learn more exciting things, such as computer programming, there are also more options for extra curricular activities. I am sure that Owen will also be excited to see his friends again, he did see some at holiday club towards the start of the break but has not seen anyone for a couple of weeks whilst we were on our summer road trip. Towards the end of last term, there was a lot of karate talk between Owen and his friends, so we have started taking Owen to karate lessons. He has only been to a few so far, but seems to be enjoying it.

As usual, in addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Owen some questions, to record how he has changed over the years:

  • Height: 128cm
  • Shoe size: 13.5K
  • Bike: Orbea MX20 with a Haro Frontside 16 BMX for riding to school and a Vitus Nucleus 24 that he needs to grow a tiny bit more before he can ride it.
  • Favourite colour: Red
  • Favourite food: Pepperoni pizza with olives and pepper
  • Favourite book: The Beano Annual 2023
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Ninjago
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Bike ride at Sherwood Pines, completing the red-graded “Outlaw” trail
  • When I grow up I want to be a: Coder

Owen’s Sixth Birthday

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Today was Owen’s sixth birthday! Although the celebrations started yesterday, with a big party for all of his friends at Tiny Tim’s Purple Planet soft play in the city centre. After a couple of years without big parties, it was nice for Owen to be able to celebrate with his friends – especially as he had not seen them over the school holidays! Despite there being twenty-five excitable children, they all behaved well and Owen was good about greeting/thanking everyone, even though I am sure he would have rather been charging around the soft play. After the excitement of the party, it was back home for a smaller party, with Jen’s family – which meant lots of cake!

Unfortunately for Owen, on his actual birthday, he had to go to school, rather than play with the huge pile of presents he received from both us and his friends. Now that he is six, people, including Jen and I, have also decided that he is sensible enough to choose his own presents, so he got some birthday cash, and a wallet to keep it in. I think at the moment Owen’s wallet has more cash in it than mine! There was also a Super Mario theme with his presents – he must talk about Mario as much at school as he does at home!

This evening my parents took us to Hickory’s Smokehouse, to celebrate Owen’s birthday, and then we practised shooting targets with the Nerf guns – I bought one for Owen and had to buy one for myself too, although I think Henry is also after one now too…

Owen’s First Day of Year One

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After what felt like a long summer holiday, Owen went back to school, to start Year One. Coming into the holiday I was worried about how we would manage to fill six weeks, but Owen seemed to have had something on most days. We had some great bike rides, at 417 Bike Park and Cannock Chase and our main holiday to Bluestone. However there is an element of relief that we no longer have to find something to occupy him during the week!

Owen really flourished in his Reception year, even with a big stint of homeschooling – I am particularly impressed at how well he has learned to read and write. He can read books himself, and even to Henry (if the stars align and they both sit still)! Hopefully the more structured learning environment in Year One will bring him on even more, although I know Owen will miss playing in the building area.

Like last year, in addition to the mandatory photo by the front door, I asked Owen some questions, to record how he changes over the years:

  • Height: 115cm
  • Shoe size: 13
  • Bike: Orbea MX20
  • Favourite colour: Red
  • Favourite food: Toad in the hole
  • Favourite book: Oi Aardvark Amazon affiliate link (he generally loves all of the “Oi” series of books, and this is the latest one we got from the library)
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl iPlayer link
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Ride our bikes at Cannock Chase
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A digger driver

Owen’s Fifth Birthday

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Today was Owen’s fifth birthday. For once the boys actually gave us a bit of a lie in. Just before 7:00 we heard shouts of “it’s my birthday”, “I’m five” and “wake up Henry, it’s my birthday”. To say Owen was excited would be an understatement! Owen was a lucky boy and had lots of presents, the Lego being a firm favourite yet again (in the photo above he is using the Lego iPad app for instructions) and he spent the morning playing with some of his new toys.

Unlike last year, we were able to have a few of Owen’s friends round for a small party in the garden. There were four of Owen’s friends and a little sister who is friends with Henry, so it was good to watch them all playing together nicely. As it was the last day of the school holidays they were probably all pleased to see each other again. Jen had made another amazing birthday cake, this year with a Mario Kart theme.

After the party it was nice to hang out at home with the boys Nanny and Grandad. All the excitement had tired Henry out, so whilst he had a nap and Owen played trainsets with his Grandad I managed to see to a few jobs in the garden. With all the excitement, the boys ended up having a busy day, so I think Owen will be going back to school for a rest tomorrow, before birthday part two, with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow!

Remote Learner of the Week

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The start of 2021 has been tough, we were expecting restrictions, but not another lockdown. Since the first lockdown Owen has started school, which means that in addition to our own jobs, and looking after the boys, we need to help Owen with his school work.

First off, I must say Owen’s school have been great! Despite the late announcement, and staff self isolating, there was a lesson online for Owen’s class less than twelve hours after we were told that schools would close. The PE teacher has also been using the school’s Twitter account to run a challenge for pupils to log enough exercise for a trip around the globe. It has certainly helped encourage Owen to get out on his bike.

The first week was a case of all of us learning as we went along, but Owen coped well and got settled into his new way of working. Which involves typing on his iPad, or writing/drawing and Jen or I taking a photo of it and uploading for his teacher to mark. However, with Friday being my day off work, I had a bit more time to help, so encouraged Owen to make a film for his maths work – counting the different shapes. He seemed to be a natural in front of the camera, he did not get phased when I asked him a trickier question than he expected, and did it all in the first take! He is a better presenter than I am videographer for sure – more practice needed on my part!

The second week has stated better, as we are better prepared, both with our expectations and resources – Owen now has exercise books to write in and an iPad that plays the videos from school (thanks Grandpa!). Much to Owen’s delight the iPad also works with more games than my old iPad 2, from 2011, which he has been using. I was already proud of how he had been learning, and behaving (most of the time) but then he was recognised in the school newsletter as the “remote learner of the week” for his class! A definite proud Dad moment.

Henry has also been making me proud this week! On Wednesday Jen dropped him off at nursery and for the first time ever, he did not cry! When I collected him, he even needed to be coaxed out – until he saw that I was wearing my bike helmet and worked out that we would be riding home. Then he ran across the playground towards my bike! On the way home he learned to stand on the pegs of the Mac Ride when we go over bumps. This is usually accompanied by Henry saying “bump”, another new word. As important as bike skills are, I am really glad that he has settled in to nursery and enjoys going. The day and half he is there allow us to focus on Owen’s school work and I know how nursery brought Owen on a lot socially. The friends he made at nursery he still considers to be his best friends, and soon that will be Henry too.

Owen’s First Day at School

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For Jen and I, it is hard to believe that our little boy is starting school today! It does not seem that long ago that he was a tiny baby in an incubator at the neonatal unit – now he’s a smart little dude heading off to school in his uniform!

I have no doubt that Owen will enjoy school, he is very inquisitive and enjoys learning about numbers – he can already write his name and count to one hundred! He has met his teachers a few times, and had a settling in session earlier this week, where he definitely appeared to be truly settled in – exploring the classroom and adding his own commentary to the teacher’s story at story time. He just about managed to stay on the ride side of the line between being expressive and disruptive, although he has probably identified himself to the teachers as “one to watch”.

Along with the mandatory photo in school uniform for social media, I thought that I would ask him some questions and record the answers see how his answers change each year:

  • Height: 108cm
  • Shoe size: 10.5
  • Bike: Frog 43
  • Favourite colour: Red
  • Favourite food: Yorkshire Pudding
  • Favourite book: Super Worm (Amazon affiliate link)
  • Favourite thing to watch on TV: Blippi
  • Best thing we did over the summer holiday: Trip to Dorset (blog post coming soon!)
  • What do you want to be when you grow up? A postman

Bike Ride with Owen

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Owen and I had a fun bike ride at the weekend – in our new Little Rider Co jerseys! We wanted to find the “Old MacDonald” trail, which is the latest themed trail in the woods opposite the War Memoral Park in the Earlsdon area of Coventry. I am not sure who has been making these trails in the woods, but they have certainly made lots of children happy! Henry also loves exploring in the woods, so Jen brought him along in the running buggy, as I currently do not have a bike suitable for riding with him on the front.

Owen rode really well up through the woods on the common and along the pavement to Earlsdon, so we got to the the woods on Kenilworth Road way ahead of Jen and Henry. To kill some time we went to take a look at the dirt jumps, these are only small jumps in some bomb holes, but they are fun to ride. Owen remembered having ridden them on the Mac Ride with me last year, although he did not seem to remember riding them himself on his balance bike. I asked if he wanted to give them a go, but he said he would just watch me, but after my first run through I looked behind me to see Owen dropping in! He did really well on the steep drop in, but did not quite have enough speed to get out the other side. We did a few more laps before Jen called to say she was at the trail, so we dropped in one last time, Owen followed me in and made it out of the other side – he was stoked!

We explored the “Old MacDonald” trail in the woods with Jen and Henry, finding the animals which did, or did not, belong on the farm. Then the boys had fun adding sticks to a large log pile before we set off back home. After riding really well on the dirt jumps and in the woods, Owen had a really silly fall on the way home, when he got mixed up between brakes and went over the bars at a road crossing. After a big cry, and a drink from his hydration pack he was ready continue, even bombing down the “scary hill” back to the house. At 7.7 kilometres I think this is his longest ride to date!

Owen’s Fourth Birthday

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This weekend was Owen’s fourth birthday! It was a quieter affair than last year due to lockdown, we did not get to watch any monster trucks, but he did get a monster truck cake and t-shirt! Henry woke up really early, but I could not take him downstairs, as he would have unwrapped Owen’s presents for him! When Owen woke up, he rushed in to tell us it was his birthday and asked if he could open his presents. The Lego bulldozer and wrecking ball crane set affiliate link was particularly popular! We had planned to go for a bike ride at Hicks Lodge, but the weather was horrible, so we had a quiet morning at home, building Lego.

As outdoor gatherings are now allowed, both sets of grandparents were able to come round (separately), which the boys loved, even if we were outside in the cold and rain! It was really good to catch up, and it felt like things were getting back to normal. Some of Owen’s friends also came to drop off presents on the doorstep, which was really sweet of them. After all the excitement had died down, Owen stayed up late playing with his Lego.

The weather also stopped our back-up plan for a Sunday bike ride – I got out, but got soaked! Instead we had a quiet day at home, Owen played with his Lego some more and I built the boys a castle out of an old box. After dinner, Owen got his wellies on and jumped in some muddy puddles!

It was not the weekend we had expected for Owen’s birthday, even given the lockdown, but hopefully Owen had a good day. He will be back off to preschool tomorrow – but in three months he will be starting school!!!

Owen’s Second Birthday

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Yesterday was Owen’s second birthday! Time flies – his first birthday, and four-toothed smile, don’t feel like they were that long ago! It also means that Owen has been going to nursery for a whole year, albeit only one day a week and I am half way through my reduced hours at work, although I may ask to extend them over next summer.

The last few days have been really busy, with birthday celebrations and other excitement! On Saturday we had family round for a BBQ. Owen loved being the centre of attention – especially when everyone sang him happy birthday and he got to blow out the candles on the “pigs in mud cake” Jen had made him!

On Sunday Jen went to London for the day, so in the morning Owen and I went to Coventry Motofest to look at all the cars. Then in the afternoon we went for a bike ride to the War Memorial Park (Owen on the back of my bike, rather than on his balance bike), for an ice cream. Owen showed me his new technique for eating ice cream – he starts at the bottom of the cone, then tries to eat the ice cream before it melts into a puddle at his feet. I was surprised how much he was able to eat before it fell to the floor. However his hands and face were covered! I hadn’t really planned for this, it would have been difficult to bring his changing bag on the bike anyway, so he had to make do with a hose down from my water bottle! We rode back home along Hearsall Common and through the woods and I had a very proud dad moment when we got home and Owen exclaimed “Good bike ride Daddy!”.

Owen spent Monday and Tuesday in the Cotswolds with Grandma and Grandpa, visiting Cotswold Farm Park, which he really enjoyed. Especially feeding the animals and seeing tractors, as he is currently obsessed with tractors and diggers. While Owen was away, Jen and I took the train into Birmingham to go to the Supper and Beer Club at Pure Bar, for what was billed as a five course tasting menu, but with pre dinner snacks was more like ten courses! I don’t think any of the food on the menu were things that I would usually order, but it was all really good – especially the smoked eel and turbot courses. Which was surprising as despite my old Saturday job working on the fish counter at Waitrose, I don’t really like eating fish.

We started Owen’s actual birthday by opening presents – the yellow digger and dumper trucks being instantly promoted to new favourite toys! He then had to go to nursery, where he had more birthday cake and candles to blow out. We collected him at lunchtime and spent the afternoon at Twycross Zoo, before heading back to Owen’s granddad’s house for dinner and more presents!

I am pretty sure that Owen had a good few days and he certainly likes his new digger and dumper truck! The excitement is going to continue over the next few weeks, with a bike race, Father’s Day breakfast pizzas and a holiday all to look forward to!

Owen in the MR2 and other news

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Owen enjoying the MR2

The last few weeks since my visit to Prodrive seem to have been non stop in all aspects of my life – I have a few things to blog about and others will come to light soon. However, today was an important milestone for Owen (and me) – it was Owen’s first ride in the MR2! I had been excited about sharing my love of sports cars with him ever since we found out we would be having a baby, so I was relieved that Owen seemed to enjoy it. I think he especially enjoyed being sat next to me and able to see where we were going.

One project I have been working on recently is this blog – you may be able to see a few subtle changes, but the big one is that I have moved it to a new server (Amazon EC2 for any other geeks reading), so there may be a few glitches to iron out. Once those have been sorted there will be a few more tweaks and updates.

I haven’t been doing too well on the goals I set myself in my new year post, although my weight has been less than 90kg for over a week, so I’m on my way to the first goal. Hopefully after that some of the others will start falling in to place.