People say we monkey around
29 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
Davy Jones of the Monkees died today…..So as a tribute Me, Carla and Izzy danced around this evening to their songs…
R.I.P Davy
Sofa Surfing
29 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
So any ideas how you stop a 16 month old doing something that is potentially going to hurt them?
Izzy has developed a taste for standing on the edge of the sofa and running along it before throwing herself into the cushions on the end. The problem is she doesn’t quite have the balance yet to run in a straight line and a couple of times now has nearly dived headfirst at speed onto a hard wooden floor .
Basically everytime you turn your back for a second, or sit down to eat dinner, or do anything at all that doesn’t involve her, she runs for the sofa and is up on it. It is starting to drive us a little bit mad.
She is to young to reason with and shouting or saying “no” or “you are going to hurt yourself” is met with a big giggle. She seems to think it is the funnist game in the world, but if she hits her head on the solid floor then its not going to be good…
Any ideas anyone?
Ministry
24 Feb 2012 4 Comments
I am currently as excited as a child on Christmas eve. When I was younger me and my mate Dazza were massively into a band called Ministry. The stories that surrounded Ministry were stuff of legend.
They were one of the heaviest bands around and were known for their crazy ass concerts. There lead singer was also known as a bit of crazy man. They had a song called Jesus built my hotrod that they used to play at a local club and we would often be (the only ones) going crazy on the dancefloor.
I always wanted to see them live….probably more than any other band I have ever wanted to see live…but they never toured the UK…..and then they split up.
I was gutted I never ever got a chance to see them…
But all is not lost as now 10 years later they have reformed for a 3 date UK tour…and I have tickets….I am so excited it is crazy.
I am going to see Ministry live!!!!
Here is a brief sample for you (especially for my uncle Graham who has never heard of them)
Cousins
23 Feb 2012 1 Comment
So last weekend we went up to London for Ambers 4th birthday party. It was (as always) lovely to catch up with Stu, Mel and the girls. Amber seemed very excited to be the party girl and spent the whole afternoon walking around with a big grin on her face and changed her party dress at least 12 times announcing each new dress as she did.
It is really noticeable now how much Amber has come out of her shell and how she interacts and talks with us so much more now. She often came up to me at the weekend and sat on my knee and proceeded to tell me all about some princess related thing and it was really lovely. I am not sure even a year ago she would have done that.
What was great as well was seeeing Izzy starting to interact with her cousins. While she isn’t old enough to actually play with them, she was actively interested in what they were doing and spent a lot of the party following them around (She noticeably did the same thing with Lydia a few days prior).
You can see Izzy now trying to copy the things they are doing and getting frustrated that she can’t yet do all the things she wants to. But she still had a whale of a time chasing after them and shouting as loud as she could.
Izzy really is quite an easy going child “most” of the time and we are really lucky in that respect.
This would be a longer post but I have to go to work now….
Smile
15 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
Sometimes I love my job so much…
Today there is a 4 year old girl walking around, laughing and smiling, being with her parents and looking forward to the rest of her life because of me…..
Without me being there yesterday that little girl would have died…
That is an amazing feeling….and one I am priviliged to feel.
But most of all I was just glad I could help…
NOTE: I hope this post doesn’t sound to self congratulatory, I just did what any paramedic would have been done. ..i.e my job!
Valentine extra
14 Feb 2012 2 Comments
Ok so Carla has never bought me a valentines card in ten years of being together…Now before you feel sorry for me you should know that I wouldn’t want it any other way. I hate everything about Valentines day…Its false, its pretentious and it is ludicrous. If Carla ever got me a card I would be worried as it would mean she really doesn’t know me at all..
Now this is not some deep seated emotion from when I was single, as I actually can’t remember a Valentines day when I was single, I just don’t know why Hallmark cards have to decide that this is the day we tell someone we love them!!
Don’t give me this rubbish about it being the one day of the year you can tell someone how you feel, or “oh but Rich its just nice”…No its a cynical marketing ploy desgined by companies to make more money …and by the way tell someone you love them every single day…not just on one.
So why do I adopt Carla the animal every year? Because that is doing some good, the price isn’t inflated due to the day and it is something we really believe in (animal conservation). Also as much as I am not interested in the day I am sure a bit of Carla is a little disapointed that she isn’t getting spoilt like everyone else..So this is my compromise…
Saying that though I was reading the wonderful sillywrongbutvividright blog and I saw this card she had posted on her website that she thought was funny….
I love it..and is actually about the only valentines day card I would like to receive…
Bears
14 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
For Izzy at the moment its all about the bears. Everything is bears, bears, bears.
As soon as she is up she is shouting bear and looking for one of her multitude of bears. When I come in from work she straight away gets one of her bears for me to see and then stands shouting “BEAR” at me to ensure I know what I am looking at…
It is the cutest thing ever…
Izzy is talking more and more now and really starting to develop her own personality and traits. She is starting to realise more and more who people are and will often light up now at the mention of nanny/granny or grampy. As soon as Oovoo rings her face has a big grin spread across it and she heads for the computer knowing it will probably be nanny and grampy (she was most disapointed to find it was only Uncle Stu the other day).
It is exhausting looking after her now, but is just so rewarding watching this little person develop in front of your eyes. I have said it before, but I can think of no experience in my life that remotely compares to this…..(I am not sure I would have been so awed by the experience though if I was 19 years old and having to look after her)
We keep meaning to take more video of her so we don’t miss a thing but find we are so busy just watching her and smiling that 99% of the time we forget…
So Izzy if you are reading this one day and wondering why there isn’t that much video of you at home its because me and your mum were far to busy just loving you to remember to film it all.
Great Book
14 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
I am reading an excellent book at the moment called Riding Rockets. It is an excellent book about being an astronaut. But it differs from most books as it written by a space shuttle astronaut rather than one of the Apollo astronauts.
Mike Mullane who wrote the book was in the first intake of shuttle astronauts to be recruited and he gives a great account of just what it is like being a part of NASA (warts and all) and how life as an astronaut then really was.
Mike flew on missions shortly before and after Challenger and goes into great detail about that tragedy and how he felt it could have easily been avoided.
Here is what gets me about this book though….I knew going into space was dangerous, I knew astronauts risked everything, but I didn’t realise just HOW risky it was. These people were literally putting everything on the line every single time they strapped into that cockpit. The amount of times that things “nearly” went wrong is staggering and yet these people still willingly came back for the thrill of being able to go into space.
This is the first book I have read that does away with a lot of the hype surrrounding the space programme and tells it how it really is.
If you have any interest in the shuttle at all then make sure you read it.
Valentines
14 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
So this years animal is………
Tengui the Tapir.
Tengui is one of the tapirs being cared for at Port Lympne and was born there in February 2006 – however she now weighs a more substantial 350Kg! Tengui was born with white spots which have disappeared as she has grown older. She adores swimming almost as much as she enjoys eating! Efforts are being made to find Tengui a mate and there are hopes that she will become a mother herself within the next couple of years.
Tengui is based in Kent and is part of the Aspinall Conservation project. We are going to take Izzy down there this year and hopefully my mum and dad and Stu, Mel and the kids might want to come and see her as well 
