Christmas Time; Santa trains and wine

For tis the season to be jolly
take a trip, it won't be folly
on a steam train, with Mummy & Dad
this is bound to make me glad

... especially if there's some sherry in it too!

West Somerset Railway
Saturday 9th December 2006 (the one sunny day in December!)

A frosty start

Our back garden
Thursday 02 November 2006
about 7.20am
First frost of the autumn


all gone by midday (mostly!)

Who needs toys .........

Baby inna Box!!



And he's as happy as ... well a baby inna box!


Wondering if he can make it go onna big adventure

Dan's Doins Vol 6

No, no crawling to report but I thought you might like to see what he looks like in his high chair. I choose this shot because - although he's got his eyes closed - you can see his two little teeth (honest! - well you can on my photo editor!) and I can tell Aunty Helen to "look at the top" !

Yes, he finally fits into the fab top Aunty Helen bought him nearly two months ago and it looks great! Trousers still a bit on the big side but I can see they might fit befor long.

He's having his hair cut on Thursday - and in the meantime is continuing to roll and squidge his way around the room.

Dan at 8 Months

So you can see how he's doin ......
I'm afraid the teeth aren't really visible unless he's crying!









but of course when vacationing with Aunty Sonia and Uncle Tim in Cornwall there's nothing better than crashing out with Daddy

....Or getting a hug with Aunty Sonia (according to our camera, this was preceded by a quick game of "airoplane")!!

Dan'sDoins Vol 5

Or, Two teeth, a cold and a cleaner

Yes we've noticed that there hasn't been an update from young Dan for a few weeks. He is now the proud owner of two little teeth (they're at the bottom in the middle) which appeared without anyone really noticing. They are now firmly established and there may be more on the way since Dan has had little bouts of unhappy discomfortness.

To add to all this, he's got a little cold which has made him a bit miserable - though generally he is still his happy chirpy self. He moves around by rolling from back, to side, to front to back again.

However, he will soon have a much cleaner floor to do it as I have engaged a cleaner. She is the granny of one of Dan's friends from my Ante-Natal group and once a week she has promised to take on this bomb site and try and make it a bit more like "other people's homes". It may be a long job! I'm now off to see if I can locate the connecting cable for the camera so that we can publish a couple of progress photos - I fear Bella may be catching up!!
happy gurgling

The End of An Era

Just felt I had to break into Dan's doins to say a word or two about the news we've all been expecting but is still so momentous.

Yes Michael Schumacher - our lovely Schumi - has finally announced that he's retiring at the end of this season. Okay maybe he's not everyone's cup of tea but if you know me you know that he's played a VERY big part in the last 12 years of my life and his going will mean a huge change.

So I'd just like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge the greatest racing driver ever (and please don't bother arguing with me!) and say Michael it's been such fun and I've loved watching every minute.

Is it the right decision? Well I think yes it is. Whilst his loss will be huge, he must have been realising that the reflexes are not quite what they were: his one mistake per season was becoming three or four; younger guys were not intimated by him and happy to drive right round him if they could. And we wouldn't want him to keep going until he was languishing in the midfield, the best of his talent gone. We always knew - deep down - that 2006 would be a swansong - but the thought of only "having" him for another three races is taking some getting used to!

It does of course leave open the question that the pundits have been completely ignoring - far more significant in my view. Will I be watching F1 next year?? I'll leave you to speculate - if you want to .........

Oh what a lovely weekend (DD Vol 4)

Hello Dan here! Mummy thought it was about time I got into this technology stuff and I thought - YEAYYYYY!!!. (Mummy helped with the spelling (though)

I'm pleased to say that the camera is back and thought you might like to see the latest shots - of me!

This was on Bank holiday Sunday. Look at me sitting up all by myself. And the tree in the background has lots of lovely pears on it which Daddy says I can eat soon!!


On Monday, Mummy and Daddy took me on the swings for the first time. It was such fun watching Daddy coming towards me and then going away again.

Dan's Doins Vol 3

Two matters to report on:

Dan's first proper trip to a coffee house* - Starbucks in this case - where he sat on one of their squashy sofas between us and drank apple juice out of a cup (that in itself a bit of a first but that's a longer story!!)
*there have been previous ones but he was usually asleep

The second of today's firsts are his first breakfast, lunch and dinner. He seemed fairly happy with the idea of three meals instead of his usual two though I'm not quite ready to report it a full success just yet. More updates will follow

Dan's Doins Vol 2

His first adventure in a high chair. Well okay it was only one of those basic wooden ones provided by service stations / cafes etc but he did sit in it (almost) without falling out and enjoyed chewing on the edges. It was situated in the restaurant at Slimbridge for those who wish to know details - and he finds geese very amusing.

He's working on the sitting and, when on his front, is definitely trying to get his feet/legs moving. Our possessions may not be safe much longer!

Unfortunately our camera is still out of action but in case you're wondering where he's at; here's a photo kindly provided by Aunty Sonia. He's not my little baby anymore!

Weather wanderings

Is it just me or is it not really summer anymore? There's a definite September feeling around Bristol at the moment - and when I was woken up at 5.15 by a rather genteel thunderstorm (it's bigger, more bullish brother came along at 10) it was dark!! Actually dark - not a bit light, not dawn-ish but dark. When did that happen?

Maybe that's why we all have colds? Dan still happy chewing everything in sight - unless it's food in which case he doesn't seem too fussed!

Dan's doin's Vol I

Just a wee progress report ........
My little Dan is sitting up!! Just thought you might like to know. Unfortunately our digital camera is out of action with a flat battery and no new one yet in sight so I cannot verify his new achievement with visual images but he is sitting. Okay so he will roll over after a few seconds / minutes but you do get to play the great game of "baby left; baby right" :-)

He can also roll onto his front though he doesn't seem so keen on doing that and he's been working very hard on the letter "B" - for some reason!

Weight as of Monday 7 August: 14lbs 8oz (about 6.5 kilos). For those that remembered yes he has actually lost 2ozs in the past month which has been put down to his unwellness and not-eatingness recently (now hopefully recovered)

On the beautiful Danube

Or perhaps that should be "in the beautiful Danube"?

Yes I am of course talking about the Hungarian GP. Well Dan's not up to much that's new at the moment and Sunday's event does merit a mention or two.

What a race!!
Way to go Jenson - hooray and werrr- who ; but could anyone have predicted that things turned out the way they did!?! Fantastic stuff except for my silly Sky+ box that, for some reason, ended the recording just before the podium ceremony (ourselves having been out at a Slow Food Fair during live transmission) - DOH!!!

And do Bridgestone need to re-think their unclement weather tyres? But maybe with Michelin leaving at the end of the season they figure they don't need to. All the same does anyone know what actually happened to Schumi at the end? I didn't see any damage ......

and can Anthony Davidson give up racing and be a commentator instead - he was sooo good at it! :-)

A sort of wondering

There's a song out there at the moment; one I really like "Unfaithful" by Rhianna - I think. But there's a part in the chorus which goes

"I don't wanna take away his life .... I don't wanna be a murderer"

Everytime I hear that on the radio I just want to shout "Well Don't Kill Him Then!! Just LEAVE!"

Am I missing something or is this woman seriously suggesting that the only way out of her relationship is to kill her bloke?? Answers on a postcard please :-)

I'm an auntie!

I hope Helen & Chris won't mind me posting this on my site before they have chance to on theirs but it's just so exciting. Helen gave birth to a little girl (how surprising is that!?!) yesterday afternoon after what sounds like a very straightforward labour (albeit induced). I'll leave her to tell you all about it herself in due course.

Rik, Dan and myself are visiting at the weekend - though how thrilled Dan will be remains to be seen. He's a bit pre-occupied with teething and generally not being very happy at the moment. Can't wait! Also can't wait for Dan to be feeling better / happier etc.

People have been asking what I look like now I've had my hair chopped. For those of you that haven't seen it yet ...... this is what it looks like (or used to look like before it started growing again!)

First Day

Yes, Dan had his first full day at nursery and Alex her first day at work (well half day; we don't want to overdo things!) And everything went very well. Dan seems to be very happy at nursery - despite the heat - and has made quite a few new friends.

Alex was pleasantly surprised to find she hasn't forgotten all her planning law in the seven months since she was last in the office but I'm looking forward to getting some of my own files back again. Same again tomorrow ......

Our kitchen

We have cancelled our contract with Magnet. They didn't even want to know why! Very peculiar. My advice - don't go there unless you want an over-expensive MFI. Back to square one.

actually we have only been able to arrange to have our contract cancelled. As I said, the salesman didn't even want to talk to us. We were left with the receptionist who came back and said it would be "sorted". We shall wait and see

Dan in Devon

June 2006: Dan on holiday with his frog (and us). The mat he's lying on was made by my friend Sarah - and it's wonderful! (thanx Sarah)






Holidays are a time for snoozing - with Eddie the Elephant of course .....






or just enjoying the sunshine with Mr Whoozit

More baby pics

If you'd like to see more pictures of Dan please click on the link "Baby Pics". At the moment there's only those from his first few days of life. I will beat my IT maintenance sufficiently to get this updated!

Easter 2006: This was not my idea but yes that is a minature whisky he's clutching with his catapillar..... like Grandfather like grandson I guess

In the beginning

19 Jan 2006; Here he is - just minutes old and already so calm and accommodating (please excuse the goop!)



The first thing he ever wore! Now (nearly 6 months later) he has just about grown out of it :-(

I've included this for my mum. This was taken on Friday or Saturday morning so he'd be either 1 or 2 days old.

I'm not sure when this was taken - sometime towards the end of January or early February. The snowsuit is intended for newborns - his hands are in there somewhere!

Baby Dan

I'm now going to attempt (the operative word!) to post a selection of photos charting Dan's progress from the early days in the bleak midwinter to currently (well not that current since the camera seems to have vanished for the last couple of weeks ... I suspect Rik has it somewhere! Watch this space .........

Greetings from the Clan Kershaw-Moore. Yes I've joined the Blog revolution - sorry to be unoriginal Helen n Sonj but I was feeling left out. Besides this can hopefully be a venue for me to update you on the progress of my little Dan - you'll notice it's his visage that graces our profile. Well he's far more photogenic than me!