I have now lost count of the number of times I have driven to one of the government torcher testing centres. Tonight was probably the easiest one so far. Usually it is a big fight to insert the torcher device swab into their mouths, you get one chance, and then …
Over the weekend I enjoyed a beer with my dinner as a form of celebrating the end of another set of night shifts. One of my kids asked what I was drinking, and I was looking for a description. What I initially wanted to say was:
Beer: A drink for …
As we are nearing the end of our first week of lockdown, I notice that people will be having one of two very different experiences. Many people will be finding themselves with much more time on their hands. Perhaps they are unable to work or even if they can still …
Last night I shaved off my winter beard. It has certainly been a noticeable difference, feeling the cool air on my skin as I walk about.
This morning, when I joined the kids at breakfast time, the older one asked 'Daddy, have you had a haircut?'. I tried to explain …
I had an interesting interaction with my son this morning. He offered me a pretend cup of tea, I took it, made a comment about how hot it was and put it aside to let it cool down. He then took the cup, blew on it and told me he …
Recently, with the Queensferry Bridge being closed there has been a lot of people getting stuck in their vehicles longer than normal. Even people who would normally go nowhere near the bridge are getting feeling disruption because all the bridge traffic is now clogging up their normal route. Then there …
Despite the forecast of Storm Ciara, we decided to risk it and go on an expedition today. This was not us being cleaver, only cheap. Denise had a spare train ticket that was about to expire. So we ventured into the city to make the most of the day.
While …
I was faced with a difficult task today. The task wasn't physically or technically difficult to carry out. I just had to go down stairs and help tidy up.
What made it difficult was that my youngest child had fallen asleep in my arms. It was very tempting just to …
Tonight we went out for a family dinner. We picked a local pub/restaurant that had a soft play room at the back.
For the first hour the kids had lots of fun running back and forward, up and down the play equipment. Then disaster struck, at 6pm, the staff …
Today, at a quiet private ceremony, my wife became british. I am now the only one in our family who is not a dual citizen. The ceremony was relatively short, included a bit of local history, pledging allegiance to the queen and country and finished up with everyone standing and …
This morning we had to get ourselves ready for a trip. Rather than trying to ~~fight~~ pack with the kids, we sent them off to spend the morning in nursery like they normally would be.
So we had the house to ourselves, no kids and distraction free, for four hours …
I have stated this before, but I am a slow reader. Couple that with commitments and life in general, reducing the amount of spare time I have, it takes me a while to get through a book.
I had borrowed a book from the library that was due to be …
I was on daddy daycare duty today. Rather than locking ourselves up in the house where I would be outnumbered all day, I organised meeting up with granny for a walk in the woods with her dog.
It was lots of fun watching the boys run down the paths with …
Tonight, like most nights, we listened to CBeebies Radio while the kids were falling asleep. It is a nice mix of gentle music and bedtime stories. One of tonight's stories was the tortoise and the hare. This was a fine story right up until the end, when the tortoise tells …
I took my kids for a walk to the supermarket this morning mostly to get them out of the house. In the way there, the younger one asked to be carried. That's unusual. Then walking around the shop, he decided one but of floor made an awesome bed.
He didn't …
One of our Christmas gifts was a set of annual memberships to Historic Scotland that allows us to visit a large number of historical sites for no additional cost. This is useful when with kids that might get board after 10 minutes and want to go home. This would not …
On of the advantages of having young kids is that they don't understand the concept of sleeping in on a Sunday. They get up early regardless of the day of the week.
Normally this is a cause of frustration, but today we made the most of it and got our …
One of my colleagues suggested that Christmas should be renamed Smugmas. It is an opportunity for organised people to be smug and show off how much more they have done than you.
I certainly can't claim to be one of the organised smug ones this year. We have decided to …
As yesterday was Thanksgiving in America, and my family are American, I thought I would treat them to a roast.
Before heading out to the shops, I looked up a couple of recipes and added any ingredients that we were missing to the shopping list using an Amazon Alexa. One …
My eldest son has been attending "forest school" for the last three weeks. This has been an outing organised by his nursery where some of the kids are taken to a local wood and they get to play, explore, built a den, help make a fire and roast marshmallows.
This …
I had to stay home and look after my youngest kid who was not able to go to nursery today. I suspected that I would not get much work done, probably just an hour during nap time.
I got much more than that. For some reason, I was left to …
For the last three years, we have attempted to make it along to the local fireworks display in calendar park. For one reason or another, we kept having to cancel. But this year everything worked great. The weather was mild and dry. The kids were excited to watch.
Sometimes you wake up and just feel rubbish. I have wanted nothing more than to curl up and feel sorry for myself.
Luckily I am an adult with adulty things that get in the way of just lying around. Things like looking after the kids and doing household chores. Fulfilling …
Question from the one of the kids:
What is a channel?
We were discussing putting on cbeebies radio.
Mum (to me) Could you line up BBC sounds
Kid But I want to listen to cbeebies radio
Mum it's ok, cbeebies radio is a channel on BBC sounds
Kid what is …
We have now been asked by two seperate people what our youngest son wants for his birthday (later this month) and more widely, what everyone in the family wants for Christmas. In previous years, I have always had a fairly extensive ‘I want’ list. A list of things that I …
One of our bedtime stories involves a mermaid. This prompted the question "what is a mermaid?"
We thought that the answer is easy: half person, half fish. But then our son told us that he thought that we were wrong. He thought that they were half person and half whale …
Kids love watching TV. My eldest son could quite happily watch TV all day everyday. And he is not happy with us when we turn it off.
We know that too much screen time is bad for them and we have tried to minimise the amount of time that the …
My wife's phone has been on its last legs for a while now. When the fairphone 3 was announced, we decided to purchase one. It still hasn't arrived and yet the old phone has completely died now, the screen has completely shattered. It will be a particularly frustrating wait until …
The distance between the kids nursery and our house is 5 km. This is the same distance as a parkrun.
Tonight, I realized that the time it takes me to cycle home was almost exactly 50% longer than when I ran the same distance at the weekend.
Admittedly I am …
My parents have been away on holiday and while they were out, a parcel was delivered for my dad. I had been warned that this might happen and was asked to collect it from the delivery office. I agreed, that would be no problem. Until I had the delivery note …
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Both boys seem to enjoy singing Jingle bells just now, despite the time of year...
Jingle all the way
They were singing it constantly while they sat in the bike trailer as I cycled home this evening...
Oh what fun it is to ride on a …
One of the TV shows that the kids like to watch visits landmarks around the world. One of the episodes was based on Central Park, in New York.
"We've been there" I said, "do you remember?"
Of course I knew he wouldn't remember, he was just under a year old …
Usually, I prefer to commute by bike. On days that the boys are in nursery, I will cycle for about half an hour after work to get to the nursery, then cycle for another half hour home towing a trailer carrying the kids.
Usually I don't mind the weather too …
My eldest son went on a trip at nursery. The kids were invited to the birthday party of a lady at a local care home. The resident was turning 102 and so they had cake and balloons to celebrate. At the end of the party, the balloons were given to …
A couple of years ago, we found a pizza restaurant in the next town over and really liked the food there. We went quite regularly considering the journey to get there, and spent a fair amount eating out as a result.
This was one of the reasons that lead us …
The kids are in bed.
My wife has gone out for the evening.
I have the house to myself, what should I do?
So much choice. So much freedom. So many options.
Of course what I actually do is spend an hour tidying the house and then write some code …
As mentioned in yesterday's post, we cancelled the party that we had planned for today. The reason that we had cancelled was because one of the kids had been ill yesterday, nothing to do with the weather. Our parties are rain or shine. We have gotten a good run of …
This weekend, to celebrate my wife's birthday, we invited lots of friends and family over for a pizza party. To get ready for this, we both took the week off of work and have been using the days that the boys are in nursery to prepare toppings and clean the …
This morning I went to the park with my eldest son and had him practice cycling his bike while I trotted along beside him. He has only recently learnt how to cycle (with pedals and without stabilisers) and hasn’t had that many opportunities to practice.
As we made our …
When I was younger, I remember facing a dilemma more often than I would like.
If I have lost something, how long do I wait before telling my parents?
If I tell them immediately, I will probably be in trouble for not looking after my possessions. If I wait a …
My journey times were pretty quick today and so I made it home with the boys earlier than I expected. I thought I would go for maximum dad points and get food on for when my wife got home.
I did pretty well at playing referee while the boys played …
My little monkey
I see you can climb well but,
Please don't climb up there.
I love getting cuddles from my kids.
I feel bad for enjoying the cuddles when they are feeling ill.
Still out of breath having cycled up the hill, I sat down on the couch only to be immediately presented with a picture book by my one and a half year old.
Read
Do I dutifully went through the book pointing out all the animals and encouraging him to repeat …
My dad likes kayaking. He offered to take my son out in a two person boat (K2) and I decided to have another go myself.
I can't remember the last time I was in a K1 (a one person boat). I am talking about flat water racing kayaks. Unlike most …
Rather than rushing off on any big adventures today, we kept it simple and stopped by a local park. It was nice to get out on the bike without feeling like there was a need to get anywhere quickly.
The kids got to get out and run free for a …
As I am about to pack up and head home, I received a message from my sister saying that she was in the area, and asked if it would be ok for a visit. This worked out well. She made it to our house before me and was able to …
It is no surprise that we have struggled to convince our kids to consume their vegetables. On child seems determined to only eat things that are cream or white in colour (rice, pasta, bread, yogurt). Anything that looks like it may have touched a tomato or anything green gets a …
So today was our annual "4th of July Picnic" held on the closest Saturday to the 4th. As usual we invited lots of friends over and had the grill on doing burgers and sausages for most of the day.
An addition this year was a …
Now that our house is a mostly vegan one1, we have been getting takeaway much less than before. There are a few takeaway places that do have vegan options but not covering all cuisines. One that we have been missing on is the Chinese takeaway.
We have now gotten …
