Gareth Cheeseman

Dom's very much in a tiger phase at the minute, asking to have his face painted at Lyme Park during the first wassock camping expedition of the year (thanks to Grandad for the great photo below) and doing an awful lot of roaring around the house.

Medley and Warnes

So the other morning, whilst Dom was chopping his breakfast into 'e, he asked me what i was having. I started to answer sensibly but then came over a bit wassocky -

"I'm having... (breaks into Flashdance theme) the time of my life, and I owe it all to you-ooh.."

Dominic took umbrage -

"NO daddy! You are not having the time of my life. You're having toast. Silly Daddy."

He had a point.

My, hasn't she/he grown

The twenty week scan pics, (the twelve week scan photos are here for comparison)

Not the greatest scan pics ever because the baby wassock was wriggling so much it was hard to get a clear view of anything (e.g. getting a whole leg in at once). The upside of the sonographer taking so long to get a decent view was that we got to spend much longer transfixed by the uncooperative little monkey. Just like last time, we asked not to be told the sex of the baby - mainly beacause you get to know so much nowadays, holding something back as a surprise seems right. Plus, the nursery is distressed (by Dom) trade magnolia anyway!

Hard to believe that the next time we see him/her, it'll be in person.

Lost in translation

We recently played host to Ria, Koos and their daughter Sara who stayed as part of the glorious return trip (victory lap?) of Chantatouille to English shores. We were uncertain how Dom would cope with this foreign invasion, but he was soon coaxed out of his shyness by the warmth with which he was treated and good old-fashioned bribery in the form of a fantastic hand-made wooden house that Koos had crafted for him. Inevitably, the house was immediately designated as a train shed.

As good as their English was, Dom took it upon himself to help them out a bit. When Ria gamely tried to play with his wooden cars she made the mistake of suggesting that the ambulance would go 'ner-ner ner-ner.' Dom soon put her right, "No, no, Ria, the ambulance goes nee-naw nee-naw!" Dom grew so attached to Koos that he demanded a second 'special beardy cuddle' upon his leaving and for a few days after would wail 'Koos!' when he felt hard done by and demand to know 'Where is my Ria and my Koos?' whenever he returned to a less crowded house. We all had a great time with them staying, and hope to pay a return visit (as a family of four!) in a couple of years. Oh, and the singing wasn't bad either.

Various logistical difficulties meant he disappeared with his Aunty Jobley to his Nan and Grandad's for a couple of nights, where this cracking picture was taken by Jobley. Leaving aside the weed-ridden state of Dad's garden ;-) I'm not entirely sure how happy I am about Dom being encouraged to propagate dandelion growth in my garden.

When we saw this photo we were very impressed with how Jo had caught the moment just before he blew the dandelion apart. Having recreated the scene with the Domster this weekend, we have come to realise that there is, in fact, a very large window of opportunity.