Although today threatened to be an unsettled day as far as rain was concerned, we decided to risk the weather remaining clear and headed to Ware after lunch. Once all the bikes were loaded up in the cavernous cabin of the car, it was off to a car park near the tow path in Ware. Ewen has been riding his bicycle quite well of late, and he was particularly interested in going for a bike ride like last weekend. Ware to Hertford seemed a fair distance that we could carry a bicycle in case Ewen became too tired to cycle.

He proved us wrong! He not only rode to Hertford, played in the playground, and cycled back to the car in Ware -- a round trip of around four miles; but he continued to cycle all the way to Stanstead Abbotts, another 2 or so miles. And to top that, he cycled all through the village and along the main road leaving the village ultimately arriving at the bottom of the drive to the college, about another two miles.

Most of the latter distance was, however, done on the pavement. I don't think I'm quite confident enough to have him ride on the road with me, more because of how inconsiderate a good number of drivers are on these narrow roads.

Looking back on the day, it's a real reminder of how time is marching and there is nothing we can do to change that. Just enjoy the ride, and take pleasure in seeing the joy written on the faces of young ones as they achieve new heights. What a wonder God has given us.

It started while he was in his bath. He didn't seem to perturbed. Rather more interested in what Mummy was holding in her hands, which meant more of an effort not to make a mess with him turning his head this way and that. With his hair looking a tad skew whiff, we decided the clippers would be the best approach to achieve some semblance of a reasonable cut.

Reflecting now, he was remarkably calm even with the clippers. Observing his older brothers having their hair cut recently obviously comforted him somewhat. His interest seemed to focus on the tickling experience he felt. That suited us fine. Although, the longer the exercise progressed, the more he began to become unsettled, if not bored with our efforts.

The shock of the change came a little later when he was moving around his room. The thought was, "Where's our cute little Michael?" He looks so different. A quick glance of the boys and one could be forgiven for thinking he is a smaller Iain. Nevertheless, he is still cute.

I came downstairs to the lounge to put my socks and shoes on. The choice of the lounge was in response to Iain's plea for me to help him with his shoes. Since he had to collect his shoes from the shoe rack I asked him to bring me my brown shoes too. He complied bringing to me and placed them at my feet.

I noticed Michael followed Iain into the lounge. It was only when Iain had dropped my shoes at me feet that I noticed Michael was carrying something ... one of my sandals. He was doing exactly what Iain did -- carrying shoes for Daddy.

Isn't that CUTE!?

What am I going on about? Our lovely iMac wasn't working. The machine had been asleep when Clare tried to use it, but didn't respond to any keypresses, or mouse clicks. Normally either would revive the machine quite promptly. Not on this occasion. In fact, Clare had to force the power off to see any response. And that's when the fun started!

Today, Iain would get to participate more fully in the school run. I say, "more fully" for although Iain normally accompanies Ewen when he is dropped off at school, today he would not return home. At least, not immediately. Yes! It was Iain's first day at playgroup where he is a big boy, and stays there without Mummy or Daddy.

Mind you, for part of the half time, it seemed it was touch and go whether he would actually be going to the playgroup because his potty training had been proving to be a little challenging. However, he was REALLY good in the latter half of the week, so with that he would be allowed into the playgroup. The older playgroup only takes those children that have been potty trained.

So general excitement all round.

The towels appeared to have smudged patches of something indistinct, rather like dried blood. Perhaps one of the boys had cut themselves. However, there had not been any tears explaining such an event, and they certainly would have made demands for our sympathy; none of which was requested. So it wasn't blood. Clare then declared it to be, forbid the thought, "Poo!"

How to confirm such a declaration but smell the offending smudge. Nope! Chocolate it is was, raising bemused smiles for us both as we recalled events of last night.

Both boys had been quite tired and Ewen pretty much stayed in his bed, except for following Iain to take another sip of water. Watching NCIS a little later, we heard muffled footsteps wondering around upstairs. We both felt it was likely a loo run, and that it would stop.

It must have been about ten minutes later when the footsteps were more pronounced that I felt a need to investigate their origin. To my surprise, there was Iain just inside the bathroom. His shock at discovery was momentary, before painting a broad grin across his face. The grin had company ... a face full of chocolate and an explanation that he wanted to clean his hands and face. In other words, remove the evidence of a chocolate bar.

He had obviously tried to remove some of on the towels, hence the smudges. I was slightly bemused at his discovery of chocolate, which I thought to investigate further. It had been located on a bedside cabinet in the spare room, well within his reach. And he had taken the opportunity! He knows what he wants ... chocolate dreams.

The steps led into an area that progressively became deeper as the boys moved further away from the stairs. Both were quite brave given how far into the pool they attempted to move. Iain was even deep enough that he couldn't touch the floor, and swallowed the odd mouthful of chlorinated water. The afternoon began with them climbing in and out near the shallow end. Each of us adults took turns trying to convince Ewen to use his feet to kick to "swim" properly. He was set on keeping his feet firmly on the floor despite wearing bright yellow armbands that quite capably kept him afloat.

As time passed and other little children arrived to play in the water, we noticed one little boy was doing the doggie paddle. We pointed him out to Ewen, but he didn't seem to take the hint of copying him. A little later, we noticed splashing behind Ewen. As you can see, the splashing was caused very effectively by his feet. And resulted in good forward motion. We were all very proud and impressed with how Ewen had the confidence to realise that the armbands would help him remain afloat while he kicked his feet. It's so impressive.

Another treat for the boys took the form of taking the opportunity to play in the very good soft play area nearby the restaurant / bar area. Sally, Clare and myself settled for a coffee, and a Millionaire's Shortbread each to tide us over until dinner. Ewen and Iain came out to take their obligatory share of Clare's and Sally's shortbread biscuits. They also had the wafer biscuits that came with the coffees. Ewen then returned to the play area while Iain hovered around the table to quench his thirst with a Fruit Shoot. I, meanwhile, had started nibbling on my shortbread eventually leaving a small tidbit for eating after a gulp of hot chocolate.

My first thoughts after taking the gulp were, "I'm certain I still had a piece left! What happened to it?" It was then I became aware of Iain standing next to me, and with an expression of delight while he chewed. Obviously, he had taken the opportunity to place the remainder of my shortbread in the only obvious place it should go, his mouth. I tried vainly to chastise him for taking it without asking, but like Clare and Sally, struggled to surpress amusement of the event, particularly with Iain's expression of total innocence.

So what is it?

As soon as Ewen saw that I had responded to his calls, he declared quite loudly, "I was on the stage today!!"

Last night as I was feeding Michael, Iain came down to say goodnight. After his goodnight kiss, he went to go upstairs, stopped and turned to me and said "Love you much!"

"Love you lots too" I replied

He continued repeating "love you much" until I replied "love you much too"

(Posted by Clare)

Chimiley
Hostipal
lighter kite
melon

At 10 weeks he is smiling, sucking his hands, can see about 3 feet, has started to coo at us and in the last few days has started to reach his arms out to us. Every so often, when he does this, he seems to catch sight of his hand and gets a really quizzical look on his face as if to say "What's this thing then??"

10 weeks - such a short time, yet Michael has grown and changed so much. He is smiling at both Ewen and Iain too (who are thrilled to have their little brother respond to them)!

Both Keith and I looked at each other in amazement - our two year old can count!

Then Iain continued "five, six......"

Oh well, after hearing Ewen count so often he has picked up numbers... now we just have to get him to start at one!