Category Archives: Personal

Posts about me and what has been going on in my life.

A Look Back at 2017

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2017 is going to be a tough year to top! The main highlight was taking 9 weeks parental leave to spend with Owen – I’m not sure I’ll get another chance to take such a long break from work again and it was great bonding time with the wee man at such a key point in his development. If any fathers to be are reading this and are considering taking shared parental leave I’d seriously recommend it, and also checking out the series of blog posts I did documenting my time off!

The first few months of the year, before my paternity leave started were fairly standard, I took the MR2 to a few Pistonheads events – a visit to Prodrive and took it on track at Silverstone. I also had my annual trip to the Leisure Lakes Demo Day, which proved to be quite a key day for me.

The spring was by far the best time of year – I was on paternity leave and in addition to spending every day with Owen I managed to fit in a wedding, some climbing, a big bike ride in the Cotswolds, project managing a garden renovation, a holiday in Croyde all culminating with Owen’s first birthday party! I think it is pretty safe to say that I made the most of my paternity leave!

Summer was all about mountain biking – starting off with buying my dream bike! 15 year old Lewis would have been very excited at having an Orange mountain bike, a full suspension Orange mountain bike would have seemed other worldly! I hadn’t planned on buying one, but after demoing one at the Leisure Lakes Demo Day, I had to have one. This meant my old bike could be fitted with a child seat for Owen, and he seemed to like his rides round Draycote Water and along the Monsal Trail. Owen even managed to sneak into the GMBN Bike Vault! We also had a fun trip to North Yorkshire for Jen to run the York 10km race, me to ride my bike on the North York Moors and Owen to share his stomach bug with everyone we met. I also started to settle into my new four day week at work. It has meant a pay cut, which isn’t ideal, but getting to spend the extra time with Owen has been worth it. Fridays usually start off with mountain bike videos, then Owen’s swimming lesson followed by a nap. Then lunch, a walk to the butchers and/or the park before waiting for Jen to get back from work.

The main event in autumn was our trip to Cyprus for my best friend Partho’s wedding, after the initial stress of getting there, we had a great time, both at the wedding in Limassol and relaxing in Protaras afterwards. There were so many firsts for Owen, the big one being his first flight on aeroplane, and he coped well with all of the new experiences. After getting back from Cyprus I had my best bike ride ever, a loop of the Monkey Trail at Cannock Chase where everything just clicked. Unfortunately I had a really bad ride back at Cannock Chase a few weeks later. I came off my bike on a tricky section of trail, aggravating an old knee injury. This happened at the top of a hill, at the furthest point of the trail from the car park. I managed to gently ride back to the car, mostly annoyed that I’d done all the hard work climbing, but missed out on the fun descents. However, when I got out of the car at home my knee had swollen up and I was in a fair bit of pain. It took about a month, and a lot of exercises from the physio to get the full range of motion back, but it is on the mend now.

At least my injury coincided with the bad weather, so I didn’t feel too bad about spending my evenings at home at my computer, working on websites and generally being a geek. We also won a new project at work which has been keeping me occupied, so I’ve not missed mountain biking as much as I thought I would. I did manage to take a trip to the Ferrari exhibition at the Design Museum in London with my Dad. Christmas was an extra special time now that Owen can appreciate what is going on, I don’t think he understood exactly what was happening, but he certainly liked having an advent calendar, the brightly coloured tree in our living room and seeing Santa Claus in the run up to Christmas. He also enjoyed being the centre of attention throughout the festive period, spending time with his aunts and uncle and especially all the new toys that arrived for him! I’m sure next year will be even more special again, as Owen starts to understand what is going on. After Christmas I was able to get back on my bike for a short local ride but mostly enjoyed spending time at home with Jen and Owen.

At the start of the year I set myself six goals on my look ahead to 2017 blog post, I feel like I’ve done pretty well in meeting them:

Get my weight under 90kg – and keep it there

I currently weigh 87kg and have been under 90kg for over six months. When I reviewed my goals in June I set a stretch goal to keep my weight below 87.5kg, which I have just about managed.

Do a trackday at a new track in the MR2

Must try harder in 2018! I’ve barely driven the MR2, and only did one track session at Silverstone.

Ride my bike at a new trail centre

Llandegla was hard but awesome, I’m looking forward to a return trip.

Ride the full Follow The Dog and Monkey Trail loops at Cannock Chase in one ride

Yes. I also had some good rides in the Cotswolds on natural terrain.

Get out on my bike with my camera

I took my compact camera out with me on a few rides, but what I really wanted to do was a proper photography mission on my bike, which I didn’t get around to. Another one to carry over to 2018!

Make yoga a part of my weekly routine

I wouldn’t say yoga is part of my weekly routine yet, but it is getting there. I did have a few months of practicing yoga two or three times a week, but when I injured my knee at the beginning of November I let the yoga slip, as I just didn’t have the required mobility in my leg. Yoga has been replaced by knee exercises from the physio, along with some upper body weight training, but I’ll be looking to phase the yoga back in over the next few weeks.

Aside from the goals I laid out at the start of the year I feel like I have accomplished a fair amount, especially as I’ve had to balance work, family life, training and personal projects, which was an accomplishment in itself. I’m most proud of how much my fitness had improved over the first ten months of the year, I seem to notice it most at places I ride my bike occasionally, such as Cannock Chase, I found myself riding straight past places where I would have normally had to stop for a breather. Hopefully six weeks off the bike hasn’t undone all of that good work! At the start of the year I said I wanted to clock 100 active days, do at least 1x Everest climbing and log more kilometres on the bike that my best friend Partho. Even with six weeks off the bike I managed 100 active days, although two off them were swims, 1.8x Everest of climbing and most importantly rode over 400km more than Partho. Up until my knee injury I had ridden my bike at least once a week from the second week of the year, which probably had a lot to do with my improved fitness.

I have been trying to expand my technical skillset, from front end developer to full stack developer, this blog has been moved to an AWS EC2 instance, which has taught me a lot about running a web server and has lead to a few other interesting projects. I have also been brushing up my PHP and MySQL skills, which I hadn’t used since graduating from university in 2007, at the moment I’ve only been using it for a small personal project, but it is something that could expand one day…

I also feel like I’ve shared in Owen’s many accomplishments this year – he has said his first words, taken his first steps, been on his first bike rides and charmed every person he has met. He is also turning into a little petrolhead, “car” seems to be his word for anything he likes and he could happily play with cars all day. I wonder where he gets that from…

2017 Goals Update

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At the start of the year I posted my goals for 2017, as we are halfway through the year I thought I’d follow up on them and post my progress.

Get my weight under 90kg – and keep it there

My weight has been under 90kg for most of 2017 so far, I actually reset my goal to 87kg. However we went on holiday to Croyde and too much holiday food was enjoyed, so I crept back over 90kg, but I am back under now and still aiming for under 87kg.

Do a trackday at a new track in the MR2

I’ve failed on this one so far, I did a track session at Silverstone, but since then I haven’t done much with it. It really needs a suspension refresh, so I am a bit reluctant to go on track before that is done. I will see what happens over the next few months though.

Ride my bike at a new trail centre

Most of my riding has been local so far in 2017, with only a couple of trail centre visits. I went to the Leisure Lakes Demo Day at Cannock Chase in March, I also took my new bike there last weekend. I have got plans to ride at Llandegla trail centre in Wales in a few weeks time, so not too worried about missing this goal. What I have rediscovered this year is cross country riding on unknown trails, I had a really good ride from my Mum and Dad’s house, exploring the Cotswolds and tried out a fairly local route, which in future I may build into a longer ride from home. Riding on natural terrain on bridleways has opened up a whole new area of mountain biking for me, one which I should be delving into more over the coming months.

Ride the full Monkey Trail at Cannock Chase in one ride

Not yet! Although I’m pretty sure I could have done it last weekend, except I was running late. My excuse is that Owen slept in and didn’t wake me up. I’m sure I’ll get back to Cannock later in the year and complete the loop.

Get out on my bike with my camera

I have been taking my pocket camera – a Canon S90, with me on my bike recently. I am interested to see how photos from the old camera compare to my iPhone 7, which I will probably go into on a future blog post. I still have plenty of time left to get out with my DSLR though, ideally early one morning for some landscape photography.

Make yoga a part of my weekly routine

I’m going to claim a partial success on this one! I went for a yoga class with Jean a couple of weeks ago, and have been doing some yoga most days since. I just need to keep it going! I have also found an interesting yoga series on Pinkbike, one of the biggest mountain bike websites, so I intend to work through some of those exercises.

Overall I think I’m pretty much on track, with the exception of actually getting my MR2 out on track! The main thing is that I am doing well on the fitness ones, which are usually the new year goals that go out of the window first.

Parental Leave: Back to work

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Despite the title of this post, I didn’t go back to work on Monday morning. I had booked Monday and Tuesday off work as annual leave, due to Owen’s birthday being on the Tuesday and wanting to wait until after his birthday to return to work. This because the parental leave allocation is 52 weeks, rather than a full year. I was determined to go for a drive in the MR2 on our last day off together, even if it was raining. We drove down to Chipping Norton, with the roof up, to see my Mum and Dad. Owen had a huge lunch, then a long nap, fortunately we’d left his travel cot there from his sleepover last week. He really seems to feel at home at my Mum and Dad’s house, crawling everywhere like he owns the place! I didn’t get the roof down blast in the MR2 I’d hoped for, but we both had a good day out.

Tuesday was Owen’s birthday, I’m not sure he knew exactly what was going on, but did seem to like all the presents – he is a very lucky little boy! Later in the morning we met my Mum and Dad at the Transport Museum. I’m not sure that Owen was as interested in the old cars as I was though. We all had a big lunch at home with Jen’s Mum and sister too, then Owen’s birthday cake. After the cake my family left and more of Jen’s family arrived – with more presents (and cake). It was a busy day, but Owen seemed to enjoy himself, which is the main thing.

Wednesday was also a big day – Owen had his first full day at nursery and I was back to work. Owen had obviously recognised the nursery from his settling in session last week, as he started crying as soon as we walked through the door. Probably realising that we were going to abandon him. It was hard leaving him, especialy as he was so upset, but I had to get to work. Sitting back at my desk felt natural – I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The only indication that I had been off for two months was a bulging inbox, which I spent most of the day sorting through. When Jen picked Owen up from nursery we were told that he’d been fine most of the day, and had enjoyed playing with the sit in toy car they have there. Hopefully over the next few Wednesdays he will begin to realise that nursery is actually a fun place and not get quite so upset when we drop him off.

I was back at work on Thursday, but it was Jen’s day off to look after Owen. They went swimming, then to buggy workout – which sounded better than being stuck in an office all day! In the new regime Fridays are my day off to look after Owen, so at least I only had two days in the office this week. Our day wasn’t as exciting as Thursday – I think Owen must have picked up a cold at nursery, he had a runny nose and didn’t seem to be his usual cheeky self. So we mostly hung out at home, playing with Owen’s birthday presents. We did have one trip out, to the supermarket where Owen was his usual cute self, gaining even more admirers.

We had a relativly quiet weekend, as none of us were feeling 100% – I guess this is how things will be now that Owen is going to nursery. Jen still felt well enough to do Parkrun, so Owen and I went to the park to cheer her on and have a play in the sandpit. We spent the rest of the morning in town, grabbing lunch at the food festival. Owen had a taste of my chimichanga and Jen’s paneer wrap, seeming to like both. Sunday was another important day in Owen’s childhood – his first trip to a racetrack! We went to the British GT/Formula 3 meeting at Silverstone, as part of the Pistonheads Sunday Service. Owen did have a look at all the cars, but equally enjoyed having breakfast in the paddock cafe and crawling around on the grass banking on the inside of Copse corner. We spent the afternoon back at home in the garden, Jen cracked on with jobs, whilst I played with Owen. Even though we had brought his toys out with us, Owen was most interested in playing with the fresh topsoil I’d put down, mostly trying to eat it. He was filthy when we finished, but he’d had a fun afternoon!

As my parental leave has finished and I’m now back at work, I will bring this series of blogs to an end. I feel like I have gained a lot from spending all of this quality time with Owen. I certainly feel much more in tune with him than in week 1 – when I was impressed that he could go from his belly to sitting up. Now he is trying to climb anything that he can reach and crawls behind me when I move from room to room. Hopefully Owen has benefitted from having his Dad around, I can tell that he has enjoyed it. I did miss Owen the two days I was back in the office, so I am glad that I will be having Fridays off to look after him, which I am sure will be the highlight of my week.

Owen’s First Birthday

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Owen on his first birthday

Today was Owen’s first birthday. We have spent a lovely day celebrating with family – Owen has recieved loads of presents, eaten lots of cake and done loads of cute giggling. So I’ll class that as a success.

I find it hard to believe that a year has passed since this cheeky monkey surprised us by arriving six weeks early. It has been amazing seeing him grow from a tiny little baby in an incubator to a strong little boy who knows what he wants and can crawl around the house to get it! Spending the last year with him has been great, especially the last few months whilst I have been on parental leave.

The downside to Owen being one is that I am back off to work tomorrow and Owen is off to nursery.

Parental Leave: Week 9

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Another bank holiday Monday! I’m getting poor value on my nine weeks off, as they include so many days that I would have off anyway. Having said that, this is my last week of parental leave, the nine weeks have flown by! As is traditional on bank holidays I had to fit some DIY in, more painting on veranda bits for the garden project. However the main activity for the day was a wedding reception in the evening, which meant we had to drop Owen off with my Mum and Dad – for the night! We drove down to Chipping Norton for lunch, then stayed with Owen to make sure he was settled in, not that it was a problem, as he is used to visiting them. We snuck off whilst he was having his afternoon nap…

We both had a lie in on Tuesday! The first one in almost a year! Jen had the day off, as it was an extra holiday for civil servants and I didn’t have Owen to wake me up. We were just about up and about when the builders arrived to continue work on the garden – in our defence they did get here earlier than expected. What did we do with our new found freedom? We cleaned. We cleaned the house from top to bottom, sorted out the clothes that Owen has grown out of and, after 4 years living here, I finally hung some photos on my office walls (mainly to get them off the floor so I could vacuum). Who says that having children changes people? Owen got home late morning, having enjoyed his Cotswold mini break with his grandma, grandpa and great auntie by all accounts. I was relieved that he seemed happy to see Jen and I when he got back though. We had an indoor picnic, which Owen enjoyed, as from his little chair he could drop his food on the floor, then pick it up again (and repeat…). In the afternoon we had some errands to run, collecting the last few bits for Owen going to nursery. Jen took Owen shopping with her, which I think he found a bit boring as he did a lot of screaming. I got my bits done quickly so I could get out on my bike. As Jen was off work the evening was relaxed, we both had a good play with Owen. We had chilli for dinner and, as seems to be the way these days, Owen wanted to try it. He seemed to like it, as he kept coming back for more!

Owen woke me up at 4:30 on Wednesday morning, but I didn’t hear from him again until after Jen’s alarm clock had gone off! Naturally, Owen’s lie in coincided with him needing to be at nursery for the first of his settling in sessions at 9:00. I can tell that he will be trouble as a teenager, he seems to have inherited my sense of urgency for this sort of thing. He seemed happy to be back at nursery, until he realised that Jen and I wouldn’t be staying with him this time. He had a bit of a cry, but we were told that he was fine almost straight away. Whilst Owen was busy exploring his new surroundings, playing with toy cars and throwing balls out of the ball pit, what did I do? More cleaning, this time in the kitchen. Owen was asleep when I collected him from nursery, so he wasn’t too impressed at being woken up and had a little cry. He was happy enough by the time we got home. After his lunch I continued his Scottish food training with some Tunnocks Teacake, which went down very well! When Owen woke up after his nap, we had a frustrating afternoon, with Owen doing a lot of screaming. If he was in his high chair, I tried leaving the room for a bit and waiting for him to calm down. He seems to be getting the message, as he calms down much quicker now, but it is still frustrating. I think it will get easier when he can articulate his frustrations. When Jen got back from work we all had quick dinners, then I went climbing, at the new climbing wall in the city centre.

On Thursday morning I risked letting Owen feed himself Nutella on toast, it didn’t turn out to be the chocolate coated disaster I was kind of expecting. Owen didn’t even finish it, possibly because he’d scavenged too much of our breakfasts. There was no swimming, due to the school holidays, so I gave Owen a bath, so he could still have his Thursday morning splash. This must have tired him out, as he had a long nap, allowing me to crack on with some jobs. Jen had the afternoon off to go to buggy workout, so I took the opportunity to get out on my bike.

Owen had another settling in session at nursery on Friday morning. He obviously remembered it from Wednesday, as he realised that I was going to leave him and he had a little cry. While he was at nursery I cleaned the inside of the BMW, as it was full of mud and sand from our holiday. I had planned to clean all three of the cars, inside and out while I was on parental leave, but only managed to clean the outside of the 500 and the inside of the BMW. The guys finished the landscaping, so I sorted a few things out in the garden before collecting Owen. He was tired and grumpy when I collected him, but I was told that he’d had a good time, especially in the jumperoo. I wasn’t surprised to hear that he didn’t eat his lunch, but had eaten cake and custard for pudding! We spent the rest of the day preparing for the main event…

Saturday was Owen’s first birthday party! We started the day off with a trip to Costco to get supplies. Owen was his usual cute self and had people fussing over him. He was absolutely in his element being wheeled around the shop, especially as they were doing tastings of his two favourite foods – avocado on toast and cake! Owen seemed a bit confused when people started arriving for the party, he wasn’t used to seeing so many people at home, but he was soon crawling around seeing everyone. All the fuss must have tired him out, as he needed to have a nap – skillfully avoiding the bit of the party where both his girlfriends were there! After his nap we sang happy birthday to him, which he didn’t seem too bothered by, but certainly looked like he enjoyed the cake that Jen had made him! Towards the end of the party all of the remaining children (aged 9 months to 7 years) gathered in the tent on the lawn – it was good to see them all playing together so nicely. Some of our friends had travelled down from York with their children for the party, so we spent the rest of evening with them, visiting the city centre to catch the end of Motofest, then having a takeaway. Owen seemed much happier with a smaller group and stayed up with us well past his usual bedtime.

After a busy week and getting up at 6:00 with Owen everyday I was glad to have a Sunday lie-in! I also got out on my bike again, taking my total distance for the week over 90km! After playing with the older children at his party, Owen has gained confidence, he is exploring around the house and climbing more, this has meant a few knocks, but it is interesting to see. While he was crying after one of his falls I spotted that he’s now got a fifth tooth! As Jen had over-catered for the party, we all had party food leftovers for lunch.  I think the fact that we were all eating the same things made Owen try a few new foods, although some of them ended up on the floor. We had planned to go back into town for Motofest in the afternoon, but it was raining, so we all ended up having naps. It was good to have a day of doing nothing, it is so rare for us.

This is now my paternity leave over, I’m not quite back to work yet though, so I’ll be concluding this series of posts next week.

Garden project – landscaping

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New path and patio

After painting the veranda the next phase of the project was replacing the old paving with sandstone. In addition to replacing the old patio and path, we wanted to add a second patio at the opposite end of the lawn, to be in the shade when the veranda is in the sun and vice versa. This meant losing some lawn, but I think the extra patio space is worth it. We also took a bit of lawn and veg plot to add a border to the sandstone path, which really sets of the sandstone paving.

There are some jobs best left to the professionals, and in my option hard landscaping is one of them. We used PR Fencing, who had done a great job of our fences three years ago. Although they are a predominatnly a fencing company, they also do landscaping and are great to work with. They replaced the veranda a few weeks ago, then fitted the roof alongside the landscaping work. All I had to do was make lots of drinks and make a few key decisions.

We are really pleased with how it looks, the path looks so much neater and the veranda looks much more solid. We still have a few more jobs to do, sorting out seating and planting. The lawn took a battering, so I will need to sort that out, as well as seeding the bits next to the new paths. The decorative parts of the veranda have not been refitted, mainly as we still need to refurbish them. So we are still going to have a busy summer working on the garden.

I was reminded earlier that it is three years since the garage build started, the garden has changed beyond recognition since then, which reminds me just how far we have come with the 119 project.

Climbing

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The Ballroom Climbing Wall opened in the centre of Coventry last month and I had been following the build up to the opening on their Facebook page. Although I have never climbed before, I wanted to give it a go, as it is such a good facility to have in Coventry. I also thought it would be good cross training for mountain biking – I’ve noticed that some top pros, like Rachel Atherton and Aaron Gwin include climbing in their training.

I went for one of their group introduction sessions, as I am a total beginner. I was with in a group two young kids and half expected them to pick it up really quickly and embarrass me, fortunately being a bit taller and having decent upper body strength helped. Our instructor Frances did well in balancing the different needs of the group, explaining the flow of the routes and how to visualise them before climbing. This was important as I moved up from the very basic routes (only to the next level, 1 on a 0 to 9 scale with 9 being the hardest). I wasn’t expecting the thinking element, I thought climbing would be all about strength and flexibility. I also underestimated just how much of a work out it would be! My arms were really starting to ache after an hour, I could have stayed for longer, but was conscious that I needed to leave something in the tank to cycle home.

The type of climbing is called bouldering, it is a simple form of climbing as there are no ropes! The top of the wall is only 4.5m high and the floor is a big crash mat, so falling isn’t a problem. Falling properly was one of the first things we were taught, as well as not to stand behind/under people climbing, as they could fall at any moment. Not all of the routes went up either, there are a couple of horizontal routes, which took me a bit for thinking to fathom out. Each route probably only took me a few minutes, but my body felt like it was much longer, it is a pretty intense workout!

I’ll certainly be going back to The Ballroom, as I think climbing will be a good addition to my training, which is currently mostly cycling, with the occasional swim. As The Ballroom is open until 22:00 during the week, and indoors, it will be particularly good in the winter, when it is too dark and muddy to get out on the mountain bike. It also seems to be a social sport, so I will be trying to get some of my friends to join me there.

Parental Leave: Week 8

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It was back to normal after our week in Croyde, with Jen at work (starting in a new team) and me hanging out with Owen at home. We had a quiet morning, and Owen drank all his milk and ate all his porridge, which rarely happens. When he went for his nap, I logged on to my work PC to see if I had missed anything while we were down in Devon – I hadn’t. I haven’t really been thinking about work while I’ve been off, but I don’t want to be too out of the loop when I get back. My Mum and Dad arrived in time for lunch. They hadn’t seen Owen for two weeks and they could tell that he’d grown and put on weight, he’s also learned to wave and clap since they last saw him. I don’t really notice these gradual changes, as I see Owen everyday, but how quickly he is growing hits home when other people see him. I managed to get some jobs done around the house whilst Owen was being looked after by his grandma and grandpa – things get done much quicker when I’m not wrangling Owen at the same time as trying to do something. I dropped my MR2 off for a service at Rogue Motorsport, getting a lift back (with ice cream stop) from Dad. Whilst we were out, Mum took Owen for a walk, also with an ice cream stop. With Owen being kept occupied I was free to fire up the BBQ for dinner, something I haven’t done as much as I was expecting to during my parental leave. In the evening Jen and I made a start on a photo album we are doing of Owen’s first year – he looked tiny and so fragile in the first photos, now he is so strong and climbs all over us.

Owen woke up early on Tuesday morning, so I took him downstairs so we could catch up on the WRC highlights whilst he had his milk. After almost finishing his bottle he wasn’t too interested in the rally cars, as he had discovered a box of edible hay, which had been a nest for Easter eggs. As it was edible I thought I’d let Owen play with it, as all too often he tries to eat things he shouldn’t, then gets upset when they are taken away. This was a bad judgement call on my part, by the time Jen came downstairs the lounge was covered in edible hay – I’m still not sure how a small boy, with a small box of hay could make such a mess. Owen seemed happy with his morning’s work though, so I guess that’s the important thing. We then had an unscheduled pre-breakfast trip out to drop Jen off at the station for a work trip to London. When we got home, Owen ate pretty much all of his breakfast – Weetabix with banana and strawberry, making me think that he may be having a growth spurt soon. Either the excitement, or the early start meant that Owen had a long morning nap, allowing me to get some jobs done, including converting his buggy from winter mode to summer mode (swapping the foot muff for a sun shade). When he eventually woke up, Owen had a bath, then half his lunch. In the afternoon we went to Asda to stock up on nappies and beer. As the sun was out, it would have been an ideal errand to run in the MR2, but as it was still with the garage we had to make do with the BMW. At dinner time Owen was just eating everything I offered him, toast, a whole avocado, a yoghurt and lots of strawberries. He then tried to eat some of our dinner too.

Wednesday started off with a trip to Owen’s nursery, for Owen to meet and play with the staff and us to do some paperwork. When we sat Owen down in the nursery he seemed happy enough, although apparently he did have a little cry when he realised that we’d gone and again when he got moved from the main nursery to the food room. We’d chosen a time for our visit that suited Jen’s work schedule, but on reflection it may not have been the best idea timing our visit over Owen’s breakfast and nap times. We came away with a list of things we need to get for Owen’s nursery bag by the time he goes for his two settling in sessions next week – then the week after it will be his first full day! Being out over breakfast and nap time threw the rest of our day out, so we had a quiet few hours at home before Owen’s nanny came round to look after him for a few hours whilst I did some more veranda painting. Owen had a trip out to the supermarket and DIY shop, then a ride back on the bus. Later in the afternoon I needed some more DIY supplies, so took Owen with me, unfortunately he fell asleep in the car. As I didn’t want to wake him up, I went for a drive through McDonalds to get an ice cream, which was well needed after a long afternoon toiling in the sweltering heat! Owen must have been in a deep sleep, as he didn’t detect that there was ice cream to steal! As Jen was out for the evening with her colleagues I put Owen to bed – he must have been a sleepy boy, as he was in a deep sleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow.

On Thursday, once again, Owen fell asleep just before we were about to leave for his swimming lesson. I don’t know why he only seems to have a nap at that time on Thursdays, but it is frustrating. After a short cry, due to being woken up, he enjoyed swimming. We tried a few new things, including Owen resting on my chest, whilst I swam backwards. Jen had the afternoon off work and took Owen to buggy workout, while I collected my auntie from the airport. She hadn’t seen Owen since September, so he was a lot bigger this time and much more active. He liked having someone new to make a fuss of him, especially as she’d bought him some lovely presents. After I’d collected the MR2 from the garage, thankfully with only a small bill, we sat outside for a BBQ, then after Owen was in bed I got out on my bike – pretty much a perfect evening in my book.

The builders made a start on the landscaping part of the garden project on Friday morning. This was exciting for Owen, especially when they were ripping up the old patio, he sat quietly in his highchair watching them. I had to take him out for a walk so that he would have a nap, as there was too much excitement at home. Owen was helping me unload the dishwasher, handing me the cutlery etc, but then got himself into trouble by unloading cupboards and smashing one of Jen’s Royal Doulton bowls. We met Jen at KFC for lunch and then went food shopping. Owen was the star attraction, everywhere we turned in the shop there was someone fussing over Owen. I’m not sure he was too impressed with the attention as he was acting all shy. As it was such a warm day I had an ice cream Mars Bar to cool down, I offered some to Owen and, as you can tell from the photo at the top of this post, he loved it – taking after his grandpa. After Owen’s dinner we all went out for a walk to the park, as it was such a lovely evening. By the end of the day I had done over 16,000 steps.

We spent Saturday at my Mum and Dad’s house. My brother and sister in law were up from London and my auntie was down from Scotland, so the whole family was there. This was exciting for Owen as he was the centre of attention,with lots of people to fuss over him. We had a BBQ, but the weather wasn’t as warm as earlier in the week, so we ate indoors. Owen was particularly well behaved at the table, and seemed to enjoy being sat at the table with everyone else. Once the garden project is finished we will get our dining room back (it’s storing the garden chairs and DIY equipment at the moment) and make more of an effort to all eat together as a family.

Sunday was a quieter day, Owen missed his chance for a trip in to town with Jen by having a particularly long nap. I got out on my bike to ride to Warwick and back for a Flying Cows burger. When I got back I gave Owen a bath then a nap. Partho cycled over from Birmingham to see us, arriving when Owen was still asleep. When he woke up, Owen didn’t seem too sure about Partho, I’m not sure if he was grumpy because he was still sleepy, had forgotten who Partho was or simply didn’t like Partho’s lycra cycling gear, but he was a bit out of sorts. He soon warmed to Partho again, it was funny seeing Owen climbing up Partho, as it made me think back to last summer, when Owen would snuggle up on Partho’s shoulder and stay there for hours.

Owen seems to have come on a lot in the last few weeks. His temper seems to have calmed down – he went through a phase of having a melt down whenever he didn’t get his way. Mostly because he is trying to eat something he shouldn’t be and we take it away from him, but also if he can’t do something he is attempting, such as reaching an object which is a little bit too far away. Since he got the hang of clapping last week, he has been clapping at every opportunity and can clap on command, he looks so pleased with himself when he does it. He has now almost completely ditched his seal-like crawling and crawls everywhere in the traditional style.

Since we got Owen back from hospital I’ve had rough, dry skin on my knees from kneeling down to change Owen’s nappy, or playing with him on the floor. I have discovered that this ailment has the everso macho name of “Mummy knee”!

 

Garden project – painted veranda

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If you have been reading my recent parental leave posts, you will know that I have spent a lot of time painting the veranda. I’m glad to say that the frame is finished. Jen is sorting out the detail parts, although I think it looks good as it is. The concrete bases for the veranda also need a lick of paint, but I plan to do that when they are removed from the old patio, but before they are put back on the new patio. I spent a very hot afternoon in the sun with wire brushes and scrapers getting as much of the old paint off as possible, it was hard work, but given how flakey the current paint is, I was the new paint to have the best chance of sticking as possible.

Things will be moving at a much faster pace now, as the guys are starting on the landscaping tomorrow morning. They had allocated 5 days, but forgot that next Monday is a bank holiday, so are starting this week. Hopefully it will all be finished in time for Owen’s birthday party on the third of June!