Nuts

The last few months have been a hard slog at work, so when I walk out that door on Christmas Eve, I know I will totally deserve a couple of days off.

In fact, I'm fairly sure I could put last week's bout of Flu down to work; the kids being poorly with it at the same time was coincidental.

So, it will be with relief more than anything that I greet the festive break.

And after a couple of days recharging batteries, I will be raring to go again in the new year.

Step....One

Yay!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday Ben took his first steps on his own. For ages he's happily held on to fingers or trousers or used various toys to walk along, however he's never been keen to go it alone. We've tried a few techniques to tempt him: Jaffa Cakes, toys, biscuits, chocolate, the TV remote control (that was the most likely to succeed...)

So, what worked? Well, I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Afterall, he is totally obsessed with this fella......Mickey Mouse!!! I left him standing while I put on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD and he starts clapping along as usual, then start a jigging as usual, then takes a couple of ginger steps towards the TV. Whoah! I need my camcorder (run run run, run fatty run!!!)
Okay, tape is rolling (metaphorically speaking, seeing as it's a HD camcorder) and Mickey is still appealing but Luke is now prancing around and has totally put Ben off. A minute later; eldest child politely told to stand back (he's a limelight hog) and we've ran Mickey back to the opening credits.... and the little jig starts again.
Oh yeah baby, this is dynamite. I remember to tell the camcorder that this is two days before Ben's first birthday and back up as much as I can to get him completely in shot. But that becomes a bit harder as he's on the move. One step, two steps, three steps, four, five, six, sevennnnnnnn, eight. Plonk. On his bum pointing up at Mickey (a mere two feet away) saying "tehtehhteh! isssss tehetehteh!!!!" FYI That's Ben talk for "It's Mickey Mouse!"

Can't believe the little blighter is gonna be 1 tomorrow. Man, that year has gone quick.


Source:Disney-Clipart.com

Just 'cos i want to.

I'm in a Harold Lloyd mood.

So here's some stuff I found on YouTube......."Hooray for Harold Lloyd...."

Does Obama like to get bladdered on Guiness?

Apparently somewhere in Barack Obama's family tree there's a slither of Irish.

Here's the (ahem) musical proof.

Low scoring month

2nd blog entry of the month. This has got to be one of my lowest monthly blogging volume totals - pretty poor even by my standard!

Once again....

I'm back after another enforced lay-off from the blogging scene. The last few weeks have just been a bit darn hectic and I've have no "me" time whatsoever.

I'd like to blame part of my absence on having a brother-in-law visit for a week, but apparently this was before my last blog. Shame - I could've moaned about him monopolising my PC for the whole week, and that because I'm a such a generous host he cost me a fortune in food, drink, petrol, electricity, spending money, and valuable web-site maintenance time too.

Here's a quick summary of what else has gone on over the last few weeks.

THE GOOD
- The mighty Baggies are going great in the English Football PRemiership.
-England are doing great too - yay!
- Ben has some more teeth - the top two are now through, so he has 4 chompers to bite with.
- Ben now enjoys joining in with pretend rough play (wrestling, chasing etc) with Luke and I.
- Ben's obsession with Mickey Mouse has reached feverishly funny proportions - put anything with Mickey in front of him and you get a big old beam, the finger extends towards the Mouse and squeels in delight!
- Ben has developed the ability to clap - yay Benji!
- We went to a good friend's wedding, followed by Legoland the day after.
- Luke is learning to read at school.
- Luke good loads of praise from his Teacher at parents evening - sounds like he's one of the smartest (if not the smartest in his class!)
- I had a good work trip to Cheltenham - hard work but enjoyable.

THE BAD
- A Goldfish died (a couple of days ago.)
- Roger Rabbit died - in fact I discovered his solid corpse about an hour ago when I went out to feed him. I think he must've had a bad fall down his ladder last night. RIP good bunny - you served the family well and 8 years is a decent stretch.
- I've been working my balls off at work over the last couple of weeks - absolutely shattered so looking forward to a bit of RandR and the weekend.
- Wendy had a bit of a tummy bug which she caught from Ben.

THE UGLY
- Ben had a really bad bug for about 10 days - both ends! This started when I was away overnight in Cheltenham, so I was really miffed to not get home until 10.30pm the following night due to a late finish in the office and car trouble on the way home.
- I managed to come down with the bug too - at the wedding reeption! Great time to start vomitting. Even worse both Ben and I were mega poorly while at Lego land too so we didn't get to go on anything (not quite true. We went on a train and Ben went on the Carousel with Wendy and Luke.) So Wedny had to take Luke on all the spinny rides (which she hates!!!)
- Like most people in the western world, my finances have taken a fair walloping thanks to pesky credit crunch. It's really annoying to think this is caused by really sloppy Banks, Mortgage Advisers etc. So the ole pension has probably had a bit of a hit, but it's the share-based saving that have been decimated. Even more annoying, my bank is one of the ones that the British Government have had to bail out and they haven't passed on the interest rate reductions! Great!
If I had money to spare right now might be an idea to buy shares. Oh well! Cest la vié!

Stair Master

Oh great....Guess who was found standing on the bottom step this morning? Yup. Ben.
He's been trying to clamber up onto it several times in the last few days and he finally did it today.

Shortly after achieving this feet, he then showed it was no fluke by climbing two more steps.

A short nap (dreaming of conquering the whole flight of steps, no doubt) later and his efforts were now thwarted by the arrival of stair gates.

Only thing is, he can still stand on the bottom step, and now has something to hold onto, thus standing up and shouting the odds about why we've stopped his fun.

Just for my friends in Utah...

....Here's the Utah Saints!

Well,....the dance house/sampling/dance band from Leeds, England . According to Wikipedia they weren't named after LDS; the name in fact relates to some Basketball and Grid Iron teams.

They had a few hits in the early 1990's, and are experiencing a bit of a revival at the moment. To be honest, it's not my preferred type of music (thought I recall dancing to it in the discos of my youth....)

We have a (potential) winner!

Yep - in all competitions there's a winner.


And when it comes to this years' Miss Utah I like to think I'm backing the winner -
Miss Provo (kk).

Here's her blog

FYI, kk is seeking sponsorship for her entry- so if you're a business or a website this is a could be a really good opportunity.

Disney matter

It seems ages since we got back from Florida (just over 4months ago) and I'm getting a hankering to go back again, but know I won't be able to afford it for a couple of years at least.

So, I figured I'd post some Disney stuff to cheer me up!

Here's a recent video on how they make their cartoons.

Jeez

Retinoblastoma - Having read this article on the beeb I thought "merde!" (pardon my French- Merci beaucoup) "I gotta find out more about this."

This site had a bit more explanation to it. Only trouble I'm now paranoid about any glints in my boy's eyes on recent photos.

Shocking Stuff

Even by my standards, the time between blogs has been pretty poor. And the excuse? Well I was on a course for 2 weeks away from home and although I had web access I didn't really have time for blogging. And the past weeks, well, just laziness tbh!

A lot has gone on in that time. The Olympics have come and gone. Congrats to Team GB, and boo hiss to the dodgy Chinese officiating. The Ruskies have been up to their usual tricks and invaded Georgia. Ever since Putin came to power they've been heading back to their cold-war ways. More worrying than that is the start to the Premier Football season by my beloved Baggies. 2 league games, one cup match, 3 losses. And, biggest news of all.....Ben has started crawling!!!!

Yep, the litle blighter has been trying for ages and has been getting around quite well despite not quite getting the need to keep both knees on the ground. And over the last few days he's been getting nearer then finally today, inspired by the desire to fetch Mummy's smelly trainers he crawled properly. Suddenly I'm filled with the need to hide absolutely everything because in addtion to this new skill, he already has the ability to haul himself off the ground and stand up holding on to whatever he can find.

And once he's got his balance sorted he'l be waddling around too as he's alreadt fathomed out that he needs to put one foot in front of the other (by holding his hands he'll merrily walk along with us....for a few seconds before falling on his bum!

Bewildering

We went to Bewilderwood today. Luke loved it and I gotta say I enjoyed it alot too. Although I was a bit concerned when we were about 50ft up going across a wobbly rope bridge!

I'm gonna miss both my boys over the next couple of weeks; I'm going to Bournemouth on a course. Although I'm back next Saturday for the day it'll be like not being a home for 2 weeks. So, whilst D will be struggling to cope with the little monsters at least she'll be able to get a cuddle!

TCM site has been updated

I've had one of those rare chances to blog about Total Client Marketing.

See the update here

I think the addition of the google search is quite neat.

Sad

Some very sad news.

Scrabulous has finally been removed from Facebook.

Yes, Hasbro are right that it is sort of a copy of Scrabble (which they apparently have the rights to...) however, it's also provides people to play with friends far away (ain't that right, K!!) and has encouraged many people who don't play scrabble to enjoy the game too.
So, is this a case of Hasbro shooting themlseves in the foot? Yep, I think so.


Image found on Celsias.com -Hope you don't mind!

Nice Tooth See You!

At last - Ben cut his first tooth today.

Like all little boys he's fascinated by it and onstantly rubs his tongue over it -and does this to stop anyone getting a look at it.

It's early days because you only know it is there if you run your finger over it - it's pretty sharp already. In fact it's a good job he's on a bottle nowadays otherwise, well.......
Let's just say Mummy would be a it concerned if little sharp-tooth made this kind of look (below) at her!

Happy Pop

Today was a good day.

After several weeks of being sent out of the swimming pool during his weekly swimming lesson for not behaving, Luke finally went an entire session without being told off!

And before that he'd spent his first couple of hours at "Big Boys School" so he could meet his new teacher for next term. And I heard good reports back from that too!

He rang me up at work to tell me his news in his usual efficient manner.
Me: Hey Lukey. What've you got to tell me then?"
Luke (in really quiet voice): I've been good. Bye.
Mummy: He's gone.

Skool dayz

September seemed a long way away until today. Luke got bought his first pair of school trousers and seeing him wearing them made me realise it's not long until the little fella will be starting school.
He seems okay about going to school, but he's gonna miss his playschool and nursery friends because they're all going to a different school (we're out of catchment). After going to half a dozen or so different schools myself and having to make new friends I can sympathise with him but he's the sort who can make friends quick so he'll be fine.

Snot.....Funny

As hayfever is totally mucking me up at the moment I kinda feel the need to find some purpose in why the heck nature does this to us. These feelings remind me of this classic Calvin & Hobbes comic strip from 1992.



This was sourced from http://www.s-anand.net/calvin_92.html

Mark is listening to....

Emotion Lotion by "Top"

a fee weeks ago I was spending a bit of time listening to some cool retro tunes from "back in the day" - the early 1990's and wanted to reminisce about scouse band "Top" but for the life of me couldn't remember the name of their songs.

So, after a bit of searching on You Tube I found a this video, then managed to locate the album on Amazon. Sorted!

Chuffed

I just checked my TCM inbox (I don't do it as often as I should) and found I had a message from Christian from the Claytown Troupe a few months ago who was thanking me for a blog entry I did last year about his awesome band.

I totally love things like that. I remember years ago I got a letter from one of the guys from The Seers thanking me for buying one of their T-shirts. I still have the letter, tucked safely inside Peace Crazies

So, this give me an opportunity to revive the original Claytown Troupe blog entry
- click here to read

And here's the links to the Claytown Troupe Myspace and website.

Please check them out because they're great - Watch this gem I found on Youtube!


I'm totally looking forward to hearing some new material from the Troupe hopefully at some point this year.

Newsworthy

Things I liked in the news today

Prince Charles- money for old cloth

Dude, where's my plane?

Toaday's Special

Sunday night...

...I can't believe there's a football match on at 10.30pm on a Sunday night!

As it's a friendly England will probably go with a weaker team than normal to try some newbies out, which is what firendlies are for. I'm pretty sure it should be a comfortable game against Trinidad and Tobago, probably even easier than Wednesday's 2-0 stroll against the USA.

David Beckham (he of the USA's Major Football League's LA Galaxy) is captaining England tonight, which is really weird because it's nearly 2 years ago since he gave up the captaincy and lost his place in the squad under Mclaren's dodgy management.

Less Florida

Oh poo.

It's been 4 weeks since we got back Florida and I can't really remember much of what I wanted to write about, so I guess I'll just move on.

Will we go back despite the airport problems? You betcha! Although not for at least 2 years (probably more like 4) and not until I'm assured that the biometric stuff has definitely been sorted!

More Florida

Gee, it seems so long ago I can hardly remember it!

I'm also strapped for time, so I'll just jot down some highlights.
Favourite rides:- The Simpsons (Me), Spiderman (Luke)
Ride Surprises: - Simpsons ride terrifying Luke, Spiderman not terrifying Luke, Luke enjoying Indiana Jones stunt show, Ben not really getting upset at much at all.
Things we didn't get to do: Tower of Terror and Rocking Rollercoaster. Bummer! I love those rides but the parks were so busy.
Wierdest moment: -Feeding Ben (bottle of milk) whilst watching Shrek 4-D and the chair is jerking all over the place because it's 4-D!!!!
Best value:- Sizzlers breakfast buffet
Most frequented restaurant:- Sizzlers!
Coolest thing bought:- Stitch as the Emperor Star Tours action figure (for me)
How come: - No one wished us a nice day?!!!

More to follow...

Holiday bullets

Okay, I promised this nearly 2 weeks ago (cripes has it been that long?!) but better late than never, right?

The kids.
Ben was an absolute little star! He was only just 5 months old on the way out so we expected big problems, but on the plane (both ways) be pretty much slept most of the time and was a happy chappy the rest of the time. In fact, on the way back he fell asleep on take off, woke up half an hour or so before landing, had a bottle of milk and fell asleep again; not waking until we had got our cases!
Luke. Well, he was pretty good on the plane, and on the whole he was okay. But the excitement of it all must've got to him because at times he was a real little monster; tantrums (which he hardly ever has), impatience, insolence and more.

Landing at Orlando.
Shocking. I've been there 4 time before, and I know what an absolute pain it can be to get through security but this was the worst ever. After a big cue we finally got to see the Security chap, who looked at me really oddly. He spent ages analysing me and my passport, telling me to scan my finger numerous times, calling some other chap over, mumbling away to himself and then staring some more. Finally he figured out that the last time I visited his colleagues had made an almighty cockup; They had got my biometric record incorrect and had somehow got my Dad's picture and fingerprint on my record and vice versa. Luckily my parents were travelling with us so he could see the error, otherwise I'd probably be in Guantanemo Bay by now! However, having figured out what the problem was Dad and I were marched off to a security room (leaving my Wife and Mum with two tired kiddies to fetch the suitcases) made to wait about 15 minutes while another security chap had another look at our records, finally confirming what his colleague had suggested was the problem. Unforutnately he could not do anything about it. All he could do was send a message to George Bush (probably) asking him if he could get Condolesa Rice to fix the records but there was no guarantee that anything would get done (i.e. it would be left as it is and I'll forever have problems entering the US of A). Sorry for my sarcasm -this really pees me off just thinking about it. Funnily enoug we weren't the only ones. There was an elderly couple where he was her and she was him apparently - I'm not kidding!

Anyway, we finally got released, our wives had the cases and we were on the move...to another security scan! And bye bye cases. They were taken away and sent to another collection conveyor belt so we could collect them upstairs. Haven't they heard of lifts?!! After this we had fun with our holiday reps (who could not be bothered to help us identify a course of actiuon to make sure the biometrics would be sorted), and even less fun with Dollar (who wanted to charge us more for the car we were supposed to have in our package - unfortunately I didn't have the brochure with me so could not prove my point. We accepted the inferior car and it wa okay, but ever so slightly less roomy than the one I ordered. And how long were we at the airport? over 4 hours before we managed to get in our car and on our way to the hotel! 5 minutes later I took a wrong turn, which took another 20+ minutes to rectify. I'm so glad the kids had been good so far!

More to follow....

Back with a Boing!

Yep, I'm back from a 2 week vacation in Florida, and "back with a boing" too. Well, I should say "back with a Boing Boing" really as my beloved West Bromwich Albion won the Championship (the 2nd tier of England's Football leagues) today! Yay!

Already I've been on You tube to find some videos to celebrate this glorious occasion.

The Throstles with the Trophy!


Here's some pictures of the season set to some dodgy music.


Players celebrate with a slide towards the fans.


Pictures with more music!


And finally, someone's filmed the television, includes 1st goal today.


Although I've actually been back for 3 days I've been too I've been too tired to post. It's already gone 11pm tonight so I'll fill in some of the holiday details on another post some point this week, including all the highlights and low points.

BareNaked Ladies!

Ok that got your attention.

Whenever I put Luke to bed I sing some nursery rhymes (grand Old Duke of York, Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep etc). Now, I don't know why, but when he was really really young (we're talking weeks or months I guess (I can't remember) I started singing "Brian Wilson" by the Barenaked Ladies.
It's one of my favourite songs, and about the only one I just about know all the words to. Although any cats and dogs passing by didn't appreciate it, Luke seemed to. Not many nights go by nowadays when he demands I sing "Brian."
I guess I'm writing about one of those great parental moments because nowadays he sings the song too, without any prompting. Okay, there's a whole bunch of words missing/wrong, but as a parent it makes me chuffed to bits to make him recognise a tune and appreciate it, and even to try to understand the words.

Here's the original BNL video.


Oh, and one of Brian Wilson too!

I'm glad the weekend is over

Seriously.

Not because I'm eager to get back to work (though I love my job etc etc...)- it's just been a really cruddy weekend.

First up was the disappointment of Albion being robbed of the FA final place.
This was swifly followed by a really miserable journey down the M11 to Gatwick. A 3 hour journey took 6 hours and we're non-the-wiser as to why. For some reason the traffic snarled up and it took an hour to crawl forward to the next junction, where we wanted to get off to go and get some food. However, everyone was being forced off here by the traffic cops.
Having stopped for some food we drove back to the M11 to find it was still closed, so we were diverted way out of our way for an hour to the next junction (with no chance for stopping because of the sheer volume of traffic being sent down these B-roads.) So, we now have 2 screaming kids in the car - joy. When we get back to the M11 the next $odding junction is blocked by a traffic cop even though we can see traffic on the M11 over his shoulder! So we (and several thousand over motorists) are diverted back into the countryside for another hour (by which point someone has a smelly nappy and is screaming like nobody's business) until we finally reach the M25. I've never been so pleased to reach the Orbital.
When we finally arrive at our hotel we find that there's no cot in our room, and when I complain I'm told that all the rooms are too small to have a bed, sofa bed (for Luke) and cot (for Ben). How naff is that?!!!
So, Ben slept with Mummy, and I had to sleep on the sofa bed with Luke. This was not a bed, it was a few planks of wood strapped loosely together with a thin piece of sponge on top. Even a couple of pints at London's extortionate prices couldn't send me to sleep.

In the morning I'm grumpy. The last thing I want to do is go and sit in church while someone old enough to be my Grandma's grandad preaches, before waking up my nephew, Callum, causing him to scream when bottled water is poured on his head! Sorry everyone,no offence intended - but I'm not religious, so I kinda opted out of this stuff!

Now I like snow, however, 4 inches of the stuff in the space of 2hours made for a pretty treacherous drive to the church (in deepest darkest knowhereland) while all I can think about is wanting to get home safely. So when the Missus decides we should go on to the reception afterwards I'm getting peed off again, and by this point have consigned this to being the worse weekend ever.

Anyway, to round things off we managed to escape after an hour at the reception and was still snowing heavily. By the time we got to Dartford the snow had cleared but we had another big delay trying to get in the Dartford tunnel. So, the journey back was about 4hours. And no snow at all at home!

With hotels, petrol, food, gifts etc, it was a pretty expensive 2 hours (i.e. the time spent in the same rooms as [but no interaction with] afore mentioned nephew.)

Travesty

I hate it when the better team lose.

It's even worse when the result was settled by substandard refereeing. At 50+ minutes Albion were totally and utterly dominating crooked Harry's Portsmouth when Milan Baros (a player who should have been sent off earlier for repeat offending) handled the ball in the box in the move that resulted in the only goal of the game.

Referee Mr Webb and his linemen are supposed to be refereeing at the Euro championships in a few months time but this incident will surely change EUFA's mind.

So, two Wembley fixtures in 11 months and two 1-0 losses despite being considerably superior to the opposition.

I'm gonna be peeed off all weekend.

Chuff Daddy

Yesterday Luke swam 4 lengths of the swimming pool (100metres) -okay no continuous but not bad for a 4 year old.

Apparently his tutor repeatedly threw a toy in front of him to encourage a straighter swim! AWE, HE'S MY PUPPY!

Also he raised a few quid for Macmillan's Nurses too, do that was nice.

As I type I have Ben asleep in my arm - Typing with one hand is a bitch and my arm (underneath Ben)is dead! Oh great - he's started snoring!

Flying Penguins

This video was aired on the BBC earlier this week....



Can you guess which day it was shown?!

Still alive!

Yeah, I'm still here! I've been a bit busy lately so websites, blogs, social networking etc have suffered big time, so I thought I'd better post a quick message to confirm my continued existence.

Woolite....it's a safetergent!

When I was getting dressed for work this morning I pulled out a blue t-shirt (Friday is dress down day -yay!) and as I went to put it on Luke pointed at it and said (ever so seriously) "Daddy, for all you dark clothes you need new Woolite to stop your clothes fading."



He's an advertiser's dream!!!!

If only TV could pass subliminal messages that improve kids behaviour!

This in NOT one of my kids....

...I found it on YouTube, and there's loads of great clips of kids absolutely laughing their socks off for no reason.

Boing Boing...Bagiies going to Wembley!

Yay! Mega-congrats to my Football team West Bromwich Albion for reaching the FA Cup Semi-Final for the first time since 1982 (and hopefully can go on to win it for the first time since 1968!)

A few days ago....

Ben seemed to be choking, or stuggling with something in throat.

Then we found out......as the sonic boom rushed outwards and I wasn deafened by the loudest baby burp I'd ever heard!

The poor little fella didn't know whether to laugh or cry; mainly because Daddy and Mummy were in hysterics.

After a second big burp he grinned. Several more aftershocks followed, not as loud, but still funny.

Cilit Bang!

The power of TV and the easily influenced nature of children.

Whilst driving in the car the other day Luke announced: "Cilit Bang. One bang and the dirt is gone!"

That's not the only TV advert he's quoted. Only afew weeks before he was humming a tune, and I thought to myself "wow, that's quite a nice tune he's made up." A few day later a TV advert came on which had a classical piece of music and Luke started humming the tune. Flippin' Nora, the little blighter had hummed the same tune a few days before and it was spot on!

Oddly enough I found this on YouTube which was quite amusing!

Disco dude!

I am absolutely pooped.

Watching Luke run around for 3 hours darting in and around all the other kids while they "dance" was really hard work. Okay, he kinda danced a bit. Well, when he saw older boys (probably 5 yr olds) trying to "breakdance" (for want of a better name) he copied them, and indeed made his own variation when he decided to do some push-ups too (his version of push-ups are missionary pelvic thrusts so.....ahem!)

Despite his high risk strategy (remember the running mentioned above) he escaped with half a dozen minor bumps, a cut lip and hopefully no loss of teeth. That last bit (the lip and the teeth) were actually caused when he wasn't moving. 3 girls were holding hands and spinning around when the back of a head smashed into Luke's face. My poor little tiger, not known for crying (except on purpose) turned to me with tears streaking down his face. Before that incident he was mega cautious about all the other "dancers" and didn't want to dance, but after some hugs he spotted one of his little mates and went nuts! Only stopping occasionally to rub his tired eyes...

Oh boy!

When putting Luke to bed tonight he came out with this gem.

"Daddy, dreams come from my poo poo. My poo poo gives me dreams."

So...

...apart from my post earlier today it's been a while since I last posted.

It's not that I haven't wanted to - unfortunately screaming babies, little boys and the day job have all combined to rob me of any free time that I might've had.

a little concerned

Ben has only put an ounce on in the last fortnight, so we need to monitor his weight over the next week.

Another year, another post!

Aaaah, my first post of 2008 - Exciting stuff!

Ben's got a spotty rash on his cheeks - just in time for his passport photos! We've got a couple of weeks before we need to send off for his passport so we're hoping they pass by then otherwise we'll have to put some makeup on him!!!

Okay, not a very exciting topic to start the year...resolution is to post better stuff!!!