Year 4 - February

5th February 2008

Introducing Ryan Alex Middlebrook

We have another Middlebrook! Yes that's right, we thought there wouldn't be many of us left to continue the name but we're trying our hardest :).

My brother and his wife had their first child this week, a little boy called Ryan Alex Middlebrook. He arrived 2 weeks early weighing 5lbs 14oz. He was so tiny compared to Evan and I was very nervous holding him and he was 5 days old by then!

Evan and I went to visit Ryan and Evan wasn't really interested in his cousin. He was more interested with Izzy the dog and playing rough daddy type games with my brother Neil!

Evan loves playing at the playground!

I was interested to see if holding Ryan would make me broody. It felt nice and it was lovely to have a cuddle, but I was also happy to hand him back to his mummy and daddy. My mum keeps asking me if I'm going to start thinking about having a second and I think it's probably not the right time to think about it, even if I did have the money available for more fertility treatment. I now think that by the time you've found someone that you feel is the right person to settle down with and have children and then start the treatment, Evan will probably be about 7 by the time his new brother or sister arrives. Ideally for Evan to get the most out of a brother or sister, like a little play mate, there needs to be a closer age gap like 2-4 years.

9th February 2008

We love feeding the ducks!

Evan and I went to feed the ducks, swans and Canadian geese with my friend Craig and his family today. They live in Thatcham and have a lovely lake and play area near to their house. Evan was a little nervous at first because he'd never met them but as soon as he saw a stack of different toys to play with and yet another guy to throw him around he was all settled as if it were home!

It was somewhat mucky where the ducks were and we all got a little covered in mud. Evan almost ran into a stream but he realised that it wasn't safe and stopped before falling in! When feeding the ducks, it was really hard to keep the kids a safe distance from the edge. Craig and I almost fell in ourselves trying to make sure our children kept a safe distance - these kids have no fear...

Finally, someone to give my arms a rest - this boy loves going high!

3 bags of bread later, the ducks were well fed, so was Craig's daughter Hannah - she kept eating the bread as well. Now I know why they used fresh bread and not stale mouldy bread! :)

Craig did a great job in the play area with the children. Both our kids seem to love the swings more than anything else and we had them in the swings and Craig doing a fine job of pushing them both - saves my arms :).

It was a fun but shattering day. I was exhausted by the time we got home, all that fresh air and running around made me sleepy.

16th February 2008

Mind the slippery patches!

Today we took a long drive to Dunstable to visit our friends Mel and James and their little boy Sam who had just had his 1st birthday. Sam was about 5 months old when we last saw him and he was cruising around this time and very interested in Evan.

I've been having difficulty getting Evan to do poo's on the toilet. He's been in pull-ups for a while and he'll quite happily go to the toilet for a wee but everything else seems to still get done in the pull-up. This has been stopping me from wanting to switch him permanently over to pants. He'll sometimes just go to the toilet for a wee and then 5 minutes later do a poo in the pull-ups and it just baffles me why he couldn't have just done that on the toilet 5 minutes earlier!

We decided to take a walk in the field whilst at Mel's, they are surrounded by countryside and you can't go to the countryside without enjoying it with a nice walk! It was a lovely day, not too chilly and it gave Evan the chance to have a run. He's so fast these days that I struggle to catch him when he's had a little bit of a head start! I lost him in the overgrown grass and he fell into some spiky little bushes.

Doesn't James just look like a cool dude!

We took a detour on the way back to take Evan to the local park and to get Sam off to sleep in his push chair. Evan gets so excited sometimes that it makes him poo and well this is what happened en route to the park. By the time we got to the park he was walking like a cowboy and he smelled pretty bad too! We couldn't let him get to the park and not go on the rides, so we let him play for a little bit. We had one close call when Mel was putting him on the swing and his pull-up almost fell down - euuw yukky.. That was when we decided to walk home. I needed a peg to clear that up when we got home, it was everywhere and I had to try so hard not to gag! :)

17th February 2008

Evan attempts to make some music, well I think that's what he calls it!

We had a surprise visit from Caroline this week. She was going to come down to see us for a day but we had the pleasure of having her for the whole week because she'd had a slight falling out with her mum. It's sad that she had the falling out, but Evan and I were the beneficiaries here because we had a lovely time with her.

Caroline and I get on so well, we just slotted right back into place. We know each other so well and generally find each others company pleasant. It did feel odd that this time round we were just friends but it also meant that we didn't have to worry about relationship woes, we could just laugh and joke like the old days.

A few things have changed since she was last around us - I cook more! That's right, I had a roast dinner prepared for her on the first day and we had some meals throughout the week that she doesn't get to eat with her new girlfriend due to food differences. I got to meet her new girlfriend Angie as she stayed over on one occasion that allowed me to go to football training, the first time since Caroline and I split up. Her girlfriend was a natural with Evan and she was a very lovely lady. She had this natural charm with Evan, getting down on the floor and playing with him almost immediately - it was a joy to watch them.

Check out the bandage mummy!!

Evan had another accident at nursery this week whilst Caroline was here. Not as nasty as the first time but it was nice to have Caroline around to help me with him. I had the call at work and you always know when something isn't quite right because they don't say "He's absolutely fine" the moment you establish that it is the nursery. :) He was running around in the quiet room (boggle - a quiet room should be for calmness surely!?) the door is a stables door that splits half way, the bottom part was closed and the top part was open. Evan managed to trip and hit the underside corner of the top part of the door. It left a gash in the top of his head, luckily no stitches were required, but he was sporting a crazy looking bandage for 24 hours. We had a few tricky moments getting clothes on and off and Caroline did a great job at coaxing Evan into some buttoned PJ's - he really has a thing about buttons, he absolutely hates them on t-shirts and tops! :)

23rd February 2008

This was just the baby slide!

Evan is far more popular than I was when I was little. Today he went to his friend Joshua's birthday party at an indoor play centre called Mad House. This is the 4th party Evan has been to and he had a 5th one, but wasn't able to attend due to already having plans that day. I hope he stays a popular little chap because it's not nice having no friends at school!

He always takes a little while to get used to a new place and the same applied here. He was rather nervous to begin with and I had to accompany him to the baby area before he started to settle down. I had to get on the climbing frame and chase him around to make him feel more comfortable with the environment. I even managed to get him on the slide!

Why do we all do that with hula hoops as children? :)

I wasn't sure we'd get him on the big climbing area (where all his friends were playing) but then I spotted a little car at the top that all the kids were climbing in and I said to Evan "Lets go and play in the car!". That was that, we climbed right to the top and he played in the car. We then found some of his friends and I managed to get him to go down the big slide as well. He loved it! "That was really fast mummy, lets do it again!" he said.

We climbed again and met his friend Lara at the top and we all decided to go down the big slide together. This is where is all went horribly wrong. Me being an adult travels a little faster than a 4 year old because I am heavier. I tried to keep hold of Evan but the momentum of me going down faster made Evan flip over and bump his head. I couldn't get him on it after that, he was too scared. We're going to go to Mad House again when I have my holiday at the end of March to make sure that we get him over this little hiccup. He did have a fun day, the slide incident was just a mad mummy moment!

We had such a great time that I am determined to find a way to give Evan a birthday party this year, although it might have to be in early January because I guess most children will be busy in Christmas week :).