Duncan has becoming increasingly stubborn, not helped this week by having a lingering cold as side of which he’s come out in spots all over his cheeks. For example, for breakfast he currently needs to have two bowls: one for porridge and one for cereal (or breakfast as Duncan insists on calling it), and has to sit on someone’s lap to eat them. If you ask him whether he’d like a little bit of something, he always reply with ‘big bit’.

This evening we had another classic example. Half way through the first course, Duncan pushed his plate away and declared that he wanted a lollipop (which usually means an ice lolly). After a few minutes of persistence, he decided better of it and ate a bit more off his plate. Anyway, eventually Emma went to get the lollies out (ideal for possibly the coldest night of the year!) and made the mistake of first getting out the packet containing the last remaining Fab. Emma generously agreed to let Duncan have it (having had a real lollipop earlier from a birthday at school). After one bite, Duncan decided he rather have a milk lolly like Emma and tried to palm his off on me. Luckily, half way through, Emma decided she didn’t like hers and gave it to Duncan, only to then decide she’d have Duncan’s Fab instead. Fantastic – two happy children. Only then, having seen Emma biting off all the chocolate and sprinkles, Duncan decided that he really would rather have the Fab! Luck would have it that Emma then decided it was too cold for lollies. Duncan reclaimed his lolly for the third time and I got a half eaten mini milk!

After much indecision on my part, we have finally bought Emma’s new bed (her first full size bed) and it duly arrived on Friday. I managed to get the bed itself assembled by bedtime (although, as you can see from the picture, the drawers didn’t arrive until later in the evening). Emma was very excited and was suitably pleased with the bounce of her new mattress! The biggest change, however, was for Duncan who was finally able to move out of his cot and transfer to Emma’s old bed. He has been preempting that move for sometime by climbing in to Emma’s bed just before lights out, tucking himself in and shouting “my bed” on a regular basis. Much to our surprise, he didn’t take advantage of his new found freedom and went to sleep without leaving his new bed. He also doesn’t appear to be quite so prone to falling out of bed as Emma was (and sometimes still is). The best bit, of course, is that they can both get in to our room for their morning stories without either of us having to leave the warmth of our bed. Even better: Emma has taken to waiting in her bed until our alarm goes off – whatever time we might have set it for!

I had suggested that on Sunday we get the train to Brockenhurst for a walk but the day before Emma managed to get a cut between her toes by standing on the edge of the up-turned washing basket! Emma has been hopping/hobbling around ever since (except when she forgets when she runs around quite normally!). Our fallback plan was to go to nearby Lakeside Country Park and have a ride on the miniature dual gauge railway. Christine declined to join us on the train and, in the 20 minutes we had to wait for it to leave, could easily have walked the length of the line several times!

Unlike last time, Emma seemed entirely unperturbed by the smoke and noise. When we got off at the playground, Duncan spent most of the time watching the other trains go round and, as each one departed, he would shout “another train, another train”. We walked back through the park taking in the planes from the nearby airport and the r/c sailing yachts on the lake. We didn’t linger though as, despite the sunshine, the wind was bitterly cold.

At the weekend, we went to our first orienteering event of the year (and Christine’s first as a W35!). I went round the 2.9km yellow course with the children which, when combined with the 800m to/from the start/finish and the hills proved a bit of an epic and we ended up in our usual position in the results. Other than a little pre mid-course snack whining from Emma, both children seemed to enjoy themselves although Duncan only climbed out of the buggy to punch at each control. I went for a run afterwards, sticking to the paths as my ankle still hasn’t fully recovered nearly three months on. I’m now on anti-inflammatories to try and remove the last of the swelling from the joint and hopefully allow the physio and exercises to do their work properly.

I had a full two weeks off over Christmas so it was a nice relaxing period. We were at Christine’s parents in the run up to the day itself with her Dad’s birthday part of the festivities. Father Christmas had brought Emma a doll’s house and Duncan a balance bike (both from eBay I’m told). Needless to say, the bike is still too big for Duncan and Emma likes riding it and Duncan is probably the prime user of the doll’s house. We attempted a walk up the Skirrid in the morning. It proved far too muddy for even the off-road buggy and, although Emma surged up the hill with Granny Sue, the wind turned them back once they left the trees. Christmas Day didn’t end too well for me as I was sick – I put it down to eating too many pistachio nuts!

After a return home we then decamped to my parents but we were back home again for the New Year weekend when we attempted to get done at least a few of those things on the to-do list before returning to work. Not one of those items but Emma and I particularly enjoyed putting together and decorating the gingerbread train I’d received for Christmas – a much more successful effort than last year’s gingerbread house. On New Year’s Eve we had a bit of screaming from Emma when the first few sets of fireworks went off but, by some miracle, she slept through the half hour of fireworks that came around midnight. Although I was back at work on the Tuesday, it was an inset day for Emma and she had a very enjoyable afternoon with a few friends from school over (including starting to demolish the train!). That seemed to leave her ready to go back to school the following day.

After weeks of preparation, Christine and I finally got to endureenjoy Emma’s first school production: the obligatory nativity play. Christine went to the first showing with Duncan in tow (and the local nurseries also in attendance) and I had the pleasure of attending the adults only performance. The show was quite entertaining with each of the three classes split in to two halves and each half doing a dance routine. Emma was in the star group and I don’t think I’m being biased if I say she wasn’t the worst in her group! If nothing else it gave me a chance to give my new flash (Canon Speedlite 430EX II) a run for its money. Sadly no photos here as I don’t have any good ones with just Emma and I don’t want to suffer the wrath of any other parents. We have some amusing videos for posterity. Let’s just say, it isn’t always obvious that all of the children are doing the same routine!

Emma’s becoming a bit demanding when it comes to birthday cake decoration. For Mummy’s birthday, it was to be a castle. This proved to be an unmitigated disaster: there wasn’t really enough cake mixture and then the icing was too runny so I spent a good while spooning the icing off the plate and back over the top of the cake until it finally reached a consistency where it would stick. Thankfully there were no complaints from the children when it came to eating it!

We did manage a few purchases before heading back to the car. A decided we should pick up an IKEA catalogue on the way which required us to descend to the first floor in the lift. I mistakenly still pressed button two – the floor for our car. We let the floor pass… and then the lift ground to a halt with the doors open adjacent to a blank wall!

The buttons no longer responded so we hit the alarm. There was a series of modem like noises from the speaker and then nothing. We tried again. More noises. I had no mobile reception but one of the other people in the lift did and she phoned her Mum who phoned the number under the CCTV. After leaning on the alarm button for a couple of minutes we also eventually raised someone on the intercom who dispatched assistance. It turns out that they had been ignoring the alarm up until then – apparently people are always setting it off. So, the moral of the story is that it pays to be persistent. Mysteriously, when they finally prised the other set of doors it turned out that we were on the 10th floor! Somehow the lift must have taken us to 10 instead of 1 and consequently opened the doors on the wrong side before shutting itself down.

It being half-term, we decided to head along to the Wednesday orienteering taking place at nearby Micheldever Forest. My ankle still hasn’t recovered from the trip up to the Peak District so I went round the shortest course (the 3k Yellow) with Emma and Duncan whilst Christine ran the Blue. Duncan was already asleep by the time we had completed the 1k route march to the start which was a bit of a shame as it wasn’t the smoothest of courses. In the background of this photo you can see the ‘ride’ that we had just come along – a mixture of foot high grass/brambles, foot deep water-filled trenches, and branches! I certainly got a good upper body workout hefting Duncan over all of that and needless to say Duncan was awake when we finally arrived at this control. We didn’t complete the course but did have fun and also enjoyed the Junior Squad cakes that were on sale!

Emma brought the class pet home with her last Friday – a beanie dog that goes by the name of Playful Puppy! For the weekend that followed, every sentence started with ‘Playful Puppy this’ or ‘Playful Puppy that’. He comes with a diary so we had to make sure to get some good pictures of him when he accompanied us on a trip out to Farley Mount. He enjoyed the ride on Emma’s bike, climbing on the play equipment, building a den etc.. In some ways it’s a shame that Emma was only the second recipient of Playful Puppy this year as I’m sure the diary must offer a wonderful insight in to the out-of-school activities of each of the families. Thankfully Emma’s attachment to Playful Puppy waned as the week drew on and, needless to say, we left him at home the day we were supposed to return him. Thankfully I’d cycled in with Emma on the tag-along that morning so I could nip back and retrieve the errant dog.

Duncan had his second birthday this week. Leading up to the event Duncan’s stock response to any reference to the event was “No Birthday”, accompanied by a shake of the head. When the big day arrived he seemed to warm to it though. In a slightly unfair twist of fate Emma was off school with an INSET day but Duncan must have enjoyed his time an nursery as, most unusually, he was keen to go again the following day! As was to be expected, Emma was very excited and did a good job of feeding Duncan with presents for him to open. Several presents were playing catch-up with big sister: an umbrella and a big towel with a digger on for example. By far the most popular present had to be the model tractor which is now never far from his side. And the terrible twos? Perhaps not terrible but he certainly knows how to be naughty…

It was the Hursley 10K today and, being an odd year, it was my turn to run. Christine offered to cycle down after breakfast to pick up my number which meant we could arrive at the last minute for the start! The course had dried out a bit from when my recce earlier in the week but, if anything, that was probably to my disadvantage. I spent the first half of the race battling for 5th place. Unfortunately, when we hit the long track section the Hardley runner pulled away and even when back in the woods I couldn’t reel him in again. So, I had to settle for 6th place and a time of 38:52 (the winner was two minutes faster) – my slowest yet but then the course has been different every time I’ve run it.

The most nervous competitor in our house this morning was not, however, me. Emma was entered in the 750 fun run (year 2 and under) and seemed a little bit anxious. It was all very well done though with the same musical warm-up routine that the adults were treated to. Christine ran round with Emma (well, I don’t think they ran all the way). Emma looked very serious as she sprinted towards the finish line (Duncan was slightly distracted by the air ambulance taking off at this point) but was full of smiles when she received her medal. She even asked when the next one was!

Thursday was Emma’s first proper day at school (well, afternoon). After a couple of visits to the school in the past few months, we had a visit from her teachers (they job share) and teaching assistant on Wednesday where Emma got to show off the scrapbook she has been putting together over the summer (she’ll show it anyone who shows the slightest interest!). We’re still not quite sure what the purpose of this visit was: whether it’s to meet the child in the comfort of their own home, have a chance to have a quiet word with the parents, or just have a good nose at where they live!

Thursday morning was set aside for the older half of the year and so it was that, after lunch, Christine got Emma in her new uniform and walked her to school (about 3/4 of a mile). There was apparently a bit of wobbling when they parted but I’m not sure on which side this was! Anyway, when I went to pick her up she seemed to be very happy. She’d enjoyed the tracing, painting, story time, outside play… In particular, she is delighted that she gets to bring TWO new books home EVERY DAY! She was certainly happy enough to go back in again on Friday afternoon.

We now have another week of afternoons and then a week and a half or mornings that eventually stretch in to lunchtimes before we can finally settle in to some sort of routine again. In the meantime, Duncan has moved up from babies to toddlers at nursery which seems to have unsettled him a bit. Hopefully he just needs a little while to get used to a new set of faces. It does mean that he gets better toys to play with though!

At the end of the Bank Holiday week we were due to run in the SOC team for the Dorset Coast Path Relay. As the weather forecast looked set to stay dry we decide to camp the preceding two night’s on a (randomly selected) campsite on the outskirts of Charmouth. Whilst well placed for the start of the relay, it was rather too close to the A35 and we had to drive to the beach. Rather more annoying was that, despite being quite expensive (£27 per night), you were expected to also fork out for a session at the indoor pool. To be fair though, the money seemed to be well spent and there was a life-guard at the pool and the site generally appeared to be very well kept.

We had a great day at the beach in Charmouth on the Friday and met up with Christine’s brother and family that evening for dinner. (It was our anniversary and, after 11 years, I couldn’t wear my wedding ring as it has developed a split!)

In keeping with the tent’s previous outings this year – it was wet on the morning of our last night. However, by the time I’d been to Lyme Regis to do my short leg at the start of the relay and returned, the wind had done a reasonably job of drying it out. Having got everything back in the car we headed over to Abbotsbury where we were running the legs either side of the hill fort. We then weren’t on again until after Lulworth but sadly spent most of that time in traffic around Dorchester for the Dorset County Show. We had lunch on a windswept Povington Hill, watching the dark clouds form over the hills adjacent to the sea.

Christine ran the section from Flower’s Barrow to Kimmeridge. A hill team then brought the baton up to meet at Clavell Tower and I set off for Chapman’s Pool. With the restart at Lulworth there was, for a change, other runners around. I was fairly confident that I should be able to stay ahead of Jack Benham but as we approached Chapman’s Pool and I passed the fourth changeover for the Junior Squad team, I wasn’t sure I’d manage to hold them at bay for much longer. Thankfully the hill team weren’t quite as late as arriving as they had apparently been at some earlier handovers and I wasn’t forced to climb all the way back out of Chapman’s Pool.

We then set of for Studland where the children had a chance to play on the beach. The other members of the SOC team slowly assembled (three are required to run the beach leg to Sandbanks together) and we were greeted to the sight of Paul Whipple splashing through the water round the headland just as the Kerno team came down the hill. The blue and yellow tops therefore inter-mingled as we set off along the shoreline (where thankfully the sea was leaving some relatively firm wet sand) in the race to be third team across the line. I reached the ferry terminus ahead of the first Kerno runner but who were those next two runners? It turned out that Iain McNally (who hadn’t been there when I started) had arrived late but had caught us up which thankfully meant we had three runners home before the next Kerno runner appeared.

In the final reckoning we were fourth over the complete course and second in the handicap with a new fastest time for SOC of 8 hours 34 minutes. In addition Iain was crowned King of the Coast. And most importantly (given that I had told Christine to leave the waterproofs at home) the forecast rain didn’t return until the evening.

I took the Bank Holiday week off work and, having not booked to go away anywhere, we spent an extended weekend at my parents’. On the Monday, we took advantage of the increased proximity to London and had a family trip (my brother included) to visit the Tower of London as known to Emma through “Katie in London” and “Paddington at the Tower”. The highlight of the trip was probably not the Crown Jewels (for which there was a mercifully short queue). I’m not easily impressed – from a distance, it could easily all be cubic zirconia! The battle between knights that took place in the grounds shortly after we arrived seemed to be Emma’s favourite.

We didn’t take a guided tour from one of the Beefeaters. Whilst I was minding a sleeping Duncan in the pushchair, I did follow one tour to get a look in the chapel. After being regaled with gruesome tales for 5 minutes (the guide also does Jack the Ripper on Wednesday evenings!) I was rather glad that I didn’t have Emma with me. Having visited almost every corner of the castle, there was only time for a fleeting trip to Tower Bridge before it was time to return home (leaving Michael to enjoy his evening Prom in peace!).

The others had done a yellow course whilst I was out. Unfortunately it started to tip it down shortly after Christine set off. We repaired to the car where Duncan proceeded to insert coins in to the CD player (anyone have a set of removal keys so I can turn it upside-down and shake them out?!). By Christine’s return there was blue sky everywhere – just a shame that more people hadn’t hung on a bit for the Summer Series prize giving and club BBQ.

20110820 Brockenhurst Urban Score GPX

Emma’s playgroup has now stopped for the summer and we have taken her out of nursery as well so that she can have a bit of a break before starting school in September (something that she is looking forward to immensely). Consequently, I took Monday off work to do a bit of child minding. The plan was to go to the INTECH Science Center on the outskirts of Winchester in the hope that, out of term time, it would be fairly quiet. It was a sunny start to the day and we almost changed our minds but thankfully didn’t as it soon clouded over.

I think it’s fair to say that Emma enjoyed herself – we certainly had to make sure that we visited all of the exhibits before we were allowed to leave! There was a board by each one which made a good attempt to explain the science behind what was going on but that was all pretty much lost on Emma – they were just some good toys to here.

We had booked in to see ‘Moles’ at the planetarium in which a mole called Plato, along with three earthworms called Alpha, Beta and Gamma, learnt various bits of pseudo-science. To my mind, the science was rather lost in amongst the American accents, special effects on the dome, and the singing and dancing but, once again, Emma seemed to enjoy it. All in all it was a fun day but I think we’ll leave it a couple of years before we come back.

We had visitors last Saturday and made a trip out to what I shall always know as the Owl & Otter Center but which is now called the New Forest Wildlife Park. It’s actually the first time I’ve been (despite having used the car park for numerous RR10 events). The owls and otters are still present in force but there’s a good selection of other animals to see from ferrets and foxes to bison and, the most recent addition, wolves. (It’s based in the New Forest obviously rather than containing wildlife representative of the Forest!) The highlight had to be the over friendly deer which, having nibbled my shoelaces proceeded to give the edge of someone’s silk dress a good chew much to their distress! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves but I’m not sure I’d rush back.

The following day, Christine was off visiting a friend and I took the children off to Manor Farm. We topped up our buckets with bird seed as usual although there seemed to be few in evidence in the farmyard. Duncan seems particularly wary of the animals. At one point he let out a prolonged ‘oooooooo’ which transformed in to a scream as a hen approached him. After a picnic we headed down to the playground in the park which was advertising some new equipment. Some was a bit dubious. There was one triangular piece that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a dog agility course which Duncan seemed to love as it had carpet inside and mirrored walls! There is a fantastic new swing though which is a very thick rope suspended from something resembling a Newton’s cradle which seats/stands about 10 children. After about 10 minutes of watching, Emma eventually deigned to get on. She didn’t stay on for long though!

You can’t beat a good family wedding and that of Christine’s cousin James was always set to be a good one. On the morning of the event we were a bit concerned to discover that an England vs Wales match was due to kick-off at Twickenham just half an hour before the ceremony started and only a couple of miles away. In the end, we needn’t have worried as the journey in to London was very smooth and we probably only lost about 15 minutes in the last section. We certainly fared much better than those stuck in the massive tailback on the M25!

The ceremony itself was at the Orleans House Gallery and passed off very smoothly. Emma got a laugh when she asked rather loudly ‘can you pass me a book please?’ just before the service started. At least she was polite! The gallery has some nice grounds for the kids to burn off some energy in and thankfully the rain didn’t come to anything. Duncan seemed particularly taken with the classic car in which James and Emily departed.

The festivities then moved to a hotel in Richmond. Once again, the children were well catered for in every sense of the word. When I came in from parking the car on the hotel front lawn (!) they were nowhere to be seen. I eventually found them gathered round a bald guitarist playing amusing takes on nursery rhymes! Then, at the meal, the children were given party bags much to our dismay as we had explained to Emma earlier in the day that you only get party bags at children’s birthday parties. Still, they were a welcome diversion during the speeches (for the children that is!). The food wasn’t bad either. Duncan particularly enjoyed the massive bowl of ketchup that came with his fish and chips.

The children then enjoyed racing around outside under the instruction of Granny Sue and Uncle Ian until it was time to come in again for the dancing. We finally left about 10 o’clock and, not surprisingly, it wasn’t long before Emma and Duncan went to sleep in the car. Thankfully they both transferred in to their beds without any fuss when we got home and everyone even had a reasonable lie-in the following morning.