Registering Rory's Birth

Today we made the trip in to town to register Rory's birth. Usually we'd go to the Registry Office in Canterbury which is situated just outside of the town center but they've changed where the births and deaths are registered to the updated library on the high street.

Rory is an official person!

We had to ask a couple of times where we had to go to register a birth and finally reached our destination. It was very strange sitting in a library and can't imagine sitting there if you needed to register a death. It didn't feel very warm and welcoming it was quite cold and unfriendly in our opinion. 

We were given a little book bag with two books, Making Friends! Just Like Us by Jess Stockham and What a .. Busy Baby! by Rebecca Patterson, baby's first shapes booklet, a book start rhymes booklet and a guide to books for babies.

Once we'd registered Rory we then headed to buy something to eat and bought some pasties from the West Cornwall Pasty Co. We've had pasties from there before so know just how lovely they are. I had a Sunday Lunch pasty, Darren had a chicken and bacon pasty, Darren's mum, Trish, had an original Cornish pasty and Kellan had some mini pasties which were pork and apple. They were delicious and Kellan loved eating his mini pasties whilst sat in the park.

We then found a little bakery on the high street and bought some cakes and a biscuit for Kellan. 

Kellan attacked his before I managed to take a photo

Cerys received a post card from school today in the post. It's from her English teacher.

Cerys didn't know she was getting a post card so this cheered her up. It's nice hearing from teachers. We are so far from her school that we can't get there for parent teacher interviews so these let us know how she's doing.

Harvey came home from school with his e-safety ambassador certificate today, it's now pinned up in our hallway.

Rory Is 4 Weeks Old

Time really does fly by when you have a new baby. Rory turned 4 weeks old on Sunday and on Tuesday 24th he was weighed again.

He is now a whopping 10lb 11oz which is a gain of about 8/9oz a week.

His head control is getting better and he has started looking at people and following them when in his line of sight. He smiled for the first time at the age of 3 weeks and a day old and we've started hearing little coo's.

He's not happy unless he's being held or fed so is mostly in my arms all day. He co sleeps with us and a usual night consists of feeds every 2 hours.

Rory

What Harvey Is Up To At School

Harvey is now a year 6 and he's a favourite with his teacher and he's a busy little bee lately.

In July he visited another primary school to attend an e-safety ambassador day. He was one of five children from his class invited to be trained in e-safety.

Teachers from the primary school lead the children in making e-safety cartoons and helping the children learn about e-safety. 

The five children would then be ready to give talks and advise children and teachers in their school when they went in to year 6. They also have their own page on the school website.

Harvey also has a reception class buddy. The primary school has a system that pairs a year 6 child with a reception age child to help them get to know the school and gives them an older friend to help them with problems or to just play with at play time. Harvey's buddy is Gwen which we were all surprised about and they are loving being paired up.

Harvey has also been picked to operate the sound system and projector in the school hall during assemblies with one other child from his class.

On September 11th and 12th Harvey took his Kent Test. It's a test taken by year 6 pupils in Kent to see if they can enter grammar schools in the area. Cerys took these in year 6 but didn't pass them. If Harvey passes it opens up our school choices for him but we have told him that we won't be disappointed if he doesn't pass. We find out October 16th at 4pm via email if he has passed and then we can get his secondary school application filled in before the deadline of October 31st.

Another job that Harvey has is to order stock for the Fair Trade tuck shop the school holds every Friday at 10:45am. They order the items via a website and Harvey had his first try last Friday.

Health Visitor

As Rory is 2 weeks old the Health Visitor made a visit to our house to weigh him and see how we were doing.

Obviously with Rory being baby number seven I'm quite experienced when it comes to babies and I had no concerns about feeding or his well being. He's been weeing and pooping like a trooper and feeding a lot so I know he's ok.

She weighed him and he was 9lb 9oz. He's doing really well and obviously mummy milk is doing a brilliant job.

She is coming to our house in two weeks time.

Gwen's First Day at School

Gwen started school today. She's only doing half days until September 23rd.

We had no idea what this morning was going to bring. Would she be frightened, cry and not let us go, be excited, run in and not say bye?

Well the morning went well. We managed to get everyone ready which was fun it's not easy sorting out a newborn, a 4 year old who needs a little help getting ready and doing two girls hair because Daddy doesn't do girls hair.

We got to school on time and Gwen said bye to Harvey, Archie and Jorja as they entered the school via the juniors door. We then walked her in to the enclosed reception class area and I said bye and gave her a hug and wished her a fun morning. She then took Daddy's hand and he took her in to the classroom. I stayed outside with Kellan and Rory in their buggies.

I could see in through the windows and once her coat, pe kit bag and wellies had been put away Gwen was leading Darren around the classroom trying to decide what activity to do. She eventually sat at the drawing table and Darren then asked her if it was ok if he left her and that he'd be back after lunch to collect her to which she said yes. So Darren came out and we watched her as we walked out of the play ground and she didn't cry, didn't panic and just carried on drawing.

Gwen loved her first morning and can't wait to go back on Friday.

Gwen all ready for school

Archie's 9th Birthday

Today Archie turned 9, now that's gone by in the blink of an eye.

He didn't really know what he wanted for his birthday other than an xbox which we said was far too expensive. So we decided we'd get a PS2 and a few games for him which he loves.

I didn't have the chance to make him a birthday cake with Rory around so we bought a tray cake for him. We had a mini tea party for tea which included chocolate covered toffee popcorn, which is yummy, sausage rolls, cadbury mini rolls, sandwiches, fairy cakes and mini scotch eggs.

Our mini tea party

Blowing out his candles