It’s Monday 20th August and tonight was my Daughters first stage 4 swimming lesson. Previously she’d been progressing well on her traditional Saturday morning stage 3 lesson. We were a little surprised, and of course delighted, when we were told she was ready to move up a stage. She’d only been in stage 3 a couple of months. The snap decisions that followed have been a source of great stress to me. Choosing a time slot. iBears stage…
I introduced Jelly nursery in a post last year and it’s still going strong. Whilst we don’t play it as often as we used to, it’s still a favourite with iBear and it’s also still giving me little insights into her school life. We have some new children in the class this year, all of them appearing around Christmas time….So in addition to the 7 kids already in attendance we now have Annabel, Rob and Robson. Say hello kids! During…
I became a parent for the first time just over five years ago and my life changed overnight. I became the one thing I’d wanted to be for as long as I can remember. A Dad. But, I also changed as a person too. My life began on that day. It happened a lot later than I originally thought. Becoming a Dad at 37 was 7 years ahead of the plan I had in my head growing up. But then life…
Today, July 6th 2018 marks 4 years since we miscarried our, would have been, second child. Emotions are high so I wanted to try and get my thoughts down on paper, so to speak. In an ideal world Two children was always the plan. Both my wife and I have one other sibling, as do our parents. So I guess that family unit was engrained on us from an early age. The plan changed somewhat when our first was born. People…
We recently attended our Daughters first ever school sports day. I’d been looking forward to this ever since I saw it appear on the school calendar. I loved sports day when I was a kid. I can still remember which house I was in, which with my memory is pretty good going I can tell you! iBear had been put in the yellow team and there would be battling it out against the reds, greens and blues. The sports day…
I don’t know how or why it happened. Recently I’ve had a couple of restless nights. My Hay Fever has been bothering me. My Daughter has been in a bit of an “emotional” state (read: Whiney or overtired!). I’ve been feeling a little down. Whatever it was, I really struggled to Dad today and it’s made me feel awful. It started with the usual early morning wake up call. iBear has been returning to her pre 6am rises of late. …
Dear Nephew I can’t wait to see you on Sunday; it’s been too long. Life has a habit of getting in the way and I’ve been guilty of not trying hard enough to find a day to come and visit you more often. I must do better. But it’s hard. We live two hours away and there’s always so much to do on a weekend. The intention is always there, in my mind. You need to know that. Just like…
My wife has been away this weekend socialising. Something she doesn’t get to do a lot. This has given me and my Daughter an opportunity to go on a road trip! iBear loves staying in hotels, it’s a real novelty for her. As soon as I asked her if she fancied doing something special this weekend she shouted “HOTEL”. She pleaded with me for a two night stay so I did a little research and came up with a road…
This weekend has seen my Daughter completely nail three separate achievements in the various activities we do with her. Everything seemed to click with her and I’m bursting with pride. It’s also a perfect opportunity to open up the blog and get it down on paper. Erm, screen….. Anyway – here’s the story: Achievement No 1 – Swimming The start of the weekend is always swimming lessons first thing on a Saturday morning. iBear is currently going through stage 2…
For Christmas we were given a voucher for some money off a meal at Blackfriars restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne. With it being Easter weekend and plenty of opportunity for a Grandparent sleepover we thought we’d give it a go last Saturday. Here’s how we got on… The venue Newcastle is full of restaurants and bars and you can feel overloaded with choice. I’ve known about Blackfriars for years but have never been. It has a reputation of being a more upmarket…