Up Goes The Tree...............Finally!!

Hi Guys,

It took 4 days, but Monday night we finally managed to finish putting our Christmas decorations up!

After we put the children to bed on Friday, I put the tree and lights up, but decided not to decorate it properly so that our children could help us.

Saturday morning we all went downstairs together, Jake wondered into the living room and suddenly stopped in his tracks, his hand then went to his mouth and the loudest gasp came from his mouth! He then pointed to the tree and said “Dadda, look!” At this point I think that Mia was more interested in a cushion on the sofa!

After this we had our daily dosage of Christmas songs and managed to put our novelty decorations up around the house. This included a singing teddy in a Santa suit, a singing penguin, a singing Santa and a toy Rudolf and an over excited 2 year old, unfortunately we were unable to put up the tree decorations.

Josh, on the other hand, is getting to the age where he still likes Christmas, but at 12 is to cool to get over excited about it. At one point Jake had Josh trapped in the living room, surrounded by all the novelty toys and set them all off at the same time, poor Josh just didn’t know what was happening!

Sunday we were still unable to put the decorations up as we went down to visit Louise’s Dad. Jake decided he wanted to bring Rudolf with him, who Louise’s Dad mistook for a pig!

Monday evening when I got back from work, we were finally able to put the decorations up. I asked Jake if he wanted to help and he told me that he wants to put tomatoes on the tree! I’ve still no idea where that came from!!

To keep Mia involved, she helped me put the star on at the end!!

I am starting to get really excited about Christmas now, it’s just a shame that my work colleagues tell me to be quiet every time I start singing!

Snow is falling, all around me………………….

Thanks

Darren

All I want for Christmas!!

Hi Guys

With Christmas fast approaching, I thought I’d use this week’s blog to talk about some of the Christmas fun that I’ve already had with my Children.

I was sitting down with Jake, talking to him about what’s going to happen on Christmas Eve. I asked him, “Providing you are a good boy, who’s going to be visiting you Christmas Eve?”

He stopped, bit his bottom lip in thought and replied “Reindeer!”

“Is anyone else going to be visiting you?”

“No”

“Ok, how about Santa?”

“No, Reindeer!”

At this point I thought I’d try a different tack as apparently he will be the only child having just Reindeer visit him. So I said, “Can you name any Reindeer?”

Again, he bit his bottom lip in-thought and replied “You see it; it glows (after Rudolph the red nose reindeer song).” Again he stopped to think and then went on to say “Santa Claus is coming to town!”

At this point I knew we had let him listen to too many Christmas songs!

Also, we have already written their Christmas lists this year. With Josh it is a lot more straight forward, as he is 12 he just goes off and writes his own, but the younger 2 are a different story.

This year, I sat down with both Jake & Mia and started going through a catalogue to see the sort of things they wanted. To be fair this was more for Jake as at 6 months, Mia is too little.

Anyway, we were sitting there flicking through the book with Jake saying whether either he or Mia wanted something, when Mia would suddenly spring forward, both hands extended, mouth open trying to eat the catalogue! I then had to try and prise her off so we could continue writing the list!

Since then, every day Jake will sit down, go through the catalogue and will tell us what he and Mia wants for Christmas!

Let me know if you have any fun, family friendly Christmas stories

Thanks

Darren

Games and Garden Centres

Hi Guys,

I’m very impressed with my little boy Jake; the other day we were sitting in the car waiting for my wife and decided to play a game.

The game we decided to play was snakes and ladders, which is on my phone. What you need to do is touch the screen to get the dice up and the shake the phone to roll the dice, which to be fair; to a two year old is never that straight forward.

For the first few goes I had to help him, I directed his finger and helped him shake the phone, but by the 4^th go he had it. When it was his go he was touching the screen and saying “Daddy I did it!” Then he would shake the phone again saying to me “Daddy I did it!” He did this every time!

To my horror, my 2 year old boy then went on to beat me 2 games to 1!!!!

After this, we went up to a nearby garden centre to have lunch and look at the Christmas stuff (link is Dobbies garden centre); to go along with the Christmas theme, they had their decorations up and they also had people walking around in pantomime outfits.

Mia decided that she couldn’t take her eyes off of one person, who was dressed up as a cow, but Jake decided that if he didn’t look at them, they weren’t there and decided to stare in the opposite direction whenever they came near us!

Whilst we were there we had a lovely roast dinner, which Jake enjoyed (Mias still too young); but I must have visited the toilet at least 10 times with Jake, which was no mean feat as it meant going past the cow!

The other thing that they have there is an area where they have fish and lizards, for some reason every time Jake poked his tongue out at a couple of the lizards, they started running back and forth in their tank getting over excited, I think Jake thought this was the funniest thing in the world.

Thanks

Darren

Drawings and Dancing

Hi All,

Firstly, sorry for the delay in the post, my little girl has been unwell, but is on the mend now!

Jake has been very creative recently, he has been sitting at his little table, blank bit of paper in front of him and drawing.

I sat down with him the other day to look through his pictures to find out what they were all meant to be, we had Josh at school, Mummy holding Mia, Jake with a balloon, all the normal stuff.

Eventually we got to one of me at work, I was quite chuffed about this, so I asked him which part I was, so he pointed to me, I then asked him if another part of his drawing was my computer, which he said yes to. Feeling confident that I could tell what he was drawing I asked if the final part of his drawing was my desk; he promptly replied “No, cow!” So apparently I work with a computer and a cow in my office!!

On another note, after hinting to Louise what I wanted for either my birthday or Christmas, she told me out right what she wanted (Barry Manilows greatest hits) and started her own version of Copacabana. Jake witnessed this and started dancing along with her singing.

Afterwards I asked Jake if he would buy the CD for Mummy, which he quickly agreed to and than announced that he was going to buy her Madagascar! Bless him; because that song appears in Madagascar 2, he thought he would get it for Louise.

Thanks

Darren

High Chairs and Weaning

Hi All,

We recently bought a new “big boy” high chair for Jake, one that can be pushed up to the table so that he can eat at the table with the rest of us, so that Mia can have his old high chair for when she starts to be weaned.

I decided to put the “big boy” chair up on Sunday, with Jakes help. We started off by taking all the parts out of its wrapping, which Jake had fun screwing up and throwing to one side.

 When I had the chair on its side, he was helping me turn the allen key to screw the screws into place. Very helpful; but in between this he decided that it would also be helpful to keep randomly putting the screws in different holes, with a “sorry” every time I took them out again. He then kept trying to give me bits of the chair that I wasn’t ready for yet. It took my twice as long to build, but he enjoyed himself so it was worth it.

About halfway through building the chair, Peppa Pig came onto the TV and that was the end of my little helper.

Later that day, we were all sitting at the table with Jake in his new “big boy” chair and Mia sitting in Jakes old high chair when Louise brought out Mia’s first ever food, baby rice. She seemed to really like it and kept laughing as we clapped each mouthful.

Jake not wanting to be left out, decided that he didn’t want his pizza and salad, but wanted to share Mias baby rice. Strange request from my son, but I guess he also wanted the round of applause.

Thanks

Darren

Trick or Treat?

Hi Everyone,

Halloween was a funny old affair.

This year I had to go into work in fancy dress, something to do with team moral boosting.

Anyway, I put a lot of effort into this, face paint on, costume on and off to work I go as a Zombie.

When I got home later that day, I went into the house and found out the Jake had been uncharacteristically naughty all day due to lack of sleep.  So I went in to see him whilst he was in his high chair eating and to tell him to be a good boy for his mummy when he just freaked out!! All I got off him was “No, Mummy, Mummy.” Bless him, he was actually quite scared.

To calm him down I went of and picked Mia up, who was just happy to see her Daddy and didn’t give the paint a second thought and went into the kitchen.

Louise then got Jake down from the high chair and explained to him that because he had been naughty all day Daddy had turned into a monster, but if he was a good boy Daddy would turn back into normal Daddy. (Halloween couldn’t have been better timed)

To get his confidence back up, Louise said to him “quick, quick, monster Daddy has got Mia, quick Jake, rescue her!” Jake than came racing up to me, looking scared and took Mia off of me and ran off (Louise also had hold of Mia the whole time as it would be to risky to let a 2 year old run off with a 6 month old).

He then wouldn’t come near me until I’d washed the face paint off.

The best thing about the whole experience is that Jake has shown that he will face any fear for his sister.

Thanks

Darren

The Youngest One

Hi Everyone,

So far I have talked about both Josh and Jake, but today I want to talk a little bit about the newest member of my family, Mia.

Mia, being both the youngest and female is already learning how to get her own way, not just with my wife and myself, but also with her 2 older brothers.

The other day my wife took them shopping to our local Tesco’s, what we didn’t realise was that the seats where you put the children are really close together. This gave Mia the chance to hold onto Jake for the majority of the time; however the problem here is that Jake has fairly long hair, so Mia decided that the hair would be the easiest part of Jake to hold onto.

Against anyone else, Jake would have made a fuss and told the person holding his hair No!! Which to be fair, you wouldn’t blame him for, but because it was Mia doing it, he didn’t mind and let her hold his hair all the way around the shops with only the occasionally whimper! My wife had to keep pulling Mia off him.

Another time, my wife, Jake, Mia and I were all in bed together having a lazy Saturday morning. Jake was happily sitting in bed watching his cartoons whilst drinking his milk, when Mia decided to jump him and try to steal his beaker. I would prise Mia off of him only for her to have another attempt a couple of minutes later.

Also, nobody makes Mia laugh like Jake does, everyone else can get a small laugh out of her, but when Jake starts dancing for her, she is literally in fits of laughter! These are the moments when I stop and think to myself how lucky I am to have such a great family and how much I love them!

Already we know who’s going to be boss in my house and somehow I don’t think it will be me; but providing I’m always shown love and respect, I don’t mind!

Thanks for reading

Darren

Daddy's in charge, almost!

Hi All,

I had an interesting weekend this weekend.

It’s started off as a normal Sunday morning, with me getting Jake up at about 8 and taking him downstairs to have his cheerio’s whilst Louise got Mia fed and dressed.

Not long after this Louise told me she was popping out for a couple of hours after lunch, so I was to look after Jake and Mia by myself. No problem I told myself, they are my children; they will do what their Daddy tells them.

It all started off well, Mia was downstairs playing on her mat and I went upstairs to get Jake up from his nap. After this I got Jake some raisins and sat them both on my knee to read a story to them, thinking this is really nice!

Suddenly Mia has an explosion in her nappy and from there it all started to go downhill!!

I went upstairs to get a nappy for Mia and when I came down, Jake had climbed onto the ottoman and I caught him throwing his building blocks out of the side window. Naturally I got him down and told him off and got him to say sorry.

I then went to change Mia and found that she had gone through to her sleep suit (I won’t spell it out to you), so I had to pop upstairs yet again to get her a change of clothes. When I came down, I caught Jake climbing onto the ottoman again, so I said “Jake” and he quickly jumped down saying “oh, sorry!”

After changing Mia, I put her back on her mat and left them in the living room whilst I went and unloaded the dishwasher. I then popped out the front door to pick up the blocks. I bent down to pick up the blocks when suddenly this little hand poked through the side window and he dropped another block, this time onto me!!

I then had to put Jake into his naughty spot for 2 minutes!

After I made him apologise and as I’d managed to finish doing the jobs I’d been left with, I sat down on the rug to play with them both and really enjoyed watching Jake make Mia laugh.

Louise then came home and found us on the rug playing and asked how it went, naturally I said “it was a breeze!” But one thing I will add is that I have a new found respect for what she does for me and the children!

Thanks

Darren

Sandwichgate

Hi Everyone,

Recently I’ve been trying to think of some of the funny things my children have done over time…

One that sticks out for me happened when Josh was 10 years old.

For years he had been taking sandwiches to school and eating all of them; then over the period of a week he decided that he didn’t want to eat all of his sandwiches, he would take a bite out of each side and then leave the rest in his lunch box.

When we questioned him about it, he said that he didn’t eat his entire sandwich because his friends don’t and he wanted as much time as possible playing football. This of course is not good enough!

Eventually we got to Thursday evening and this issue was still going on, so we told him that if he doesn’t eat his entire sandwich, he will be in big trouble!

Friday came and when my Wife looked into his lunch box she saw that he had eaten his entire sandwich, as such we rewarded him by letting him stay up late and watch a film of his choosing!!

A couple of days later I was in Josh’s room helping to clean it when I had to call Louise in. When she came in I asked her “why is this here?” and showed her bits of a sandwich that were hidden on Josh’s windowsill.

Louise then asked Josh about it, who for about 20 minutes denied all knowledge of putting the sandwich on his windowsill and at one point he had even managed to convince Louise that I had put it there!!

It turned out that Josh’s home coming on Saturday coincided with a mail delivery and Josh quickly ran up the stairs, put the sandwich on his windowsill with the intention of throwing it away later……………..but forgot about it!!

Thanks

Darren

Birthday Fun

Hi Everyone,

It was my lovely wife’s birthday on Saturday, which led to a very enjoyable weekend.

Saturday morning, I got Jake up and he drew circles in Louise’s card, then bursting into our bedroom he says “Mumma, happy birthday Mumma!” and with a big smile on his face, hands Louise his and Mia’s card. I then gave him his present to give to Louise, which he gave to her and then proceeded to open it himself!! He spent the whole day randomly saying happy birthday to Louise.

Josh then came into the room to give Louise her present from him and he also got his entire class to sign a home made card to give to her, which was very sweet of him!

Unfortunately, Jake had a cold all weekend, but unlike most people, he won’t let that get him down. Firstly he wanted to go to football with Josh (they won 4 – 1 this week), but couldn’t because of his illness; Then he decided that we were all going to go up the Zoo to see the Monkey in the tree (which we have now promised him next weekend!). Eventually he settled for watching Disney’s Jungle Book instead, even getting up and gave Mia a little dance when King Louie started singing king of the swingers!!

One of the cutest things I’ve ever seen is when Jake and Mia interact with each other, Jake will sing and dance for Mia and Mia will just sit there laughing her little head off!!

On the Sunday, we travelled to Louise’s Dad’s house. Louise’s sister and family were there as well. They arranged a lovely lunch for us, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Jake spent the whole way there telling me “Dadda, Grandad Jim, cake!”

Watching children interact with each other is a wonderful thing; Jake took a real liking to one of his cousins, and spent the entire time following him around and telling him about everything, which included juice, cake, wall, spider and many other things….

Mia however, had there other cousin really wanting to look after her, she was giving lots of cuddles and when she went off to play, would be back 10 minutes later to make sure that she was ok.

Then there was Josh, as he is by far the oldest, all of the children just adore him, the only problem here for Josh is that he will suddenly be bundled by all of the children and because he doesn’t want to risk hurting any of them he’s normally on his back with all the children on top of him waiting for one of the adults to rescue him!

Overall a very splendid weekend!

Thanks for reading

Darren

Weekend Fun!!

Hi Everyone,

Why are children so funny? Why is it when you want to do something they totally stop you in a normally entertaining way?

The weekend for me is always a busy time, with having 3 children. This weekend was no exception!

It started on Saturday morning; my wife had very little sleep due to Mia waking every few hours for feeding, so I volunteered to take Jake with me to watch his older brother play football!

So we set out that morning, myself, Josh, Jake and Igglepiggle on what should have been a 15 minute journey, but thanks to Josh’s manager getting lost, it took about 50!! In this time, Jake told me about every single car that went past, “look Dadda, blue car Dadda, look,” and I had to keep telling him the correct colour of every single one!

When we got there, Josh was a little nervous as he was playing against Luton Academy, so he wanted to catch up with his team mates as quickly as possible, but Jake didn’t care, “Georgia (what he calls Josh as he knows it gets on his nerves), hand Georgia!” So that was my first task, to allow Josh to meet up with his teams mates! He had a little grumble, but allowed Josh to go!

My next task was to try and convince Jake to watch Josh as much as possible, oh how I failed! It started off ok, as we were playing football ourselves right next to the pitch, which he was enjoying, but then it all went wrong!! He saw a dog, and that was it, we had to go up to the dog (with the owners permission) and give the dog a stroke, well I did on Jakes orders whilst he just stood there smiling. Then he saw another dog in the distance and decided he wanted to see that dog and made a run for it, well that was it then for the rest of the match.

I think that in the end Josh was quite happy that I didn’t see much of the game, as I asked him afterwards if he had enjoyed it and he kind of gave a teenage moody grunt at me, but after a bit of cajoling I found out that they had lost 14 – 0, but he had cleared one off the line!!

On the Sunday, I had the enviable task of building a wardrobe in Josh’s room, which has turned out to be a lovely wardrobe.

As Louise was downstairs trying to get Mia off to sleep, she allowed Jake to watch Madagascar 2 in our room. It was then 2 hours that allowed me to build most of the wardrobe and also let Louise do a few bits, but then suddenly all I heard was “DADDA, look!”

Looking up Jake was standing in the doorway of Josh’s room dancing, whilst singing “gascar, move it, move it!” It was a really funny sight, until he made me join in with him and I can honestly say that when you become a Dad, you stop being able to dance!

Thanks

Darren

Zoo Days

Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I had a fantastic time with my wife and children, we went to Whipsnade Zoo. As we are members of Whipsnade Zoo, we can go there whenever we want over the year, which is really handy as my 2 year old is animal obsessed!

When we got there, we had to get a map of the Zoo, so that Jake can carry it around with him and tell us where he wants to go. This generally consists of him sitting in his car seat, saying “Dadda, hippo, hippo, Dadda!” over and over again.

Needless to say the first stop was the Hippos, so there we are, all getting out of the car when Jake decides he needs to go to the toilet; All we get is “Mumma, Dadda, wee wee, poo poo………..hold it, hold it, hold it!!” So I have to dash off with him back to the car to use his potty. Afterwards he gives us a dance, whilst singing “wee wee on the potty,” very amusing.

After the hippos, we got back in the car and drove around and went through Asia, which is where they have Bambi's (what Jake calls deer) and camels.

Next stop for us was the reptile house, the first thing we saw in there was a tarantula and some locusts, Jake preceded to shake and make me carry him swiftly past these. We then saw some reptiles and snakes, with Jake more interested in the waterfall in one of the enclosures rather than the reptiles. Mongoose were next on the agenda, apparently they were all a peep (sleeping).

We then came to the aquarium bit, where Jake decided to tell me all about Nemo, in regards to every single fish in there. He then proceeded to get upset as there was a turtle that we could only see in the water window, but had its head bobbing for air whilst doggy paddling, he thought it was drowning.

Then we went into the Crocodile enclosure, my wife decided to run straight through this as there were butterflies flying around and tried to say it’s so they wouldn’t land on Mia (my baby). We still don’t believe her!!

After this we saw some Tortoises on the floor (which Jake still tells me about by saying “Dadda, Tortoise, floor!”) and some monkeys of some description, which he surprisingly wasn’t bothered about at all!!

We then decided it was home time as we have to get back for dinner, so we left Whipsnade, with Jake pointing at his map telling us that we are going to see Meerkats next time!

Thanks

Darren

A little bit about me

Hi everyone,

This is my first blog, so hopefully I can make it interesting and make you want to come back for more!

I'm a 30 year old male living in England, I am married and have 3 children.

What I'm hoping to do here is to let you see a little bit into my life and my unique thoughts and views from any to everything. If I don't have a view on something I will make it up!!

Other than my family, my passions are football (soccer to any americans), films, books and just generally trying to have fun.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts what they want me to talk about next, feel free to let me know, otherwise speak soon.

Darren