February Snow

Daniel Loved The Snow!

Danny boy has really enjoyed playing in the snow. He's been leaping around the bed at 6.30am in delight when he's realised that the snow has come and he'll be playing in it later!

On Friday it was at it's worst here and it took me 75 slippery minutes to get the 5 miles to work. Daniel on the other hand was busy building snowmen and throwing snowballs. On the Thursday I did manage to get home for a half hour play out the back but Friday was much worse so we had to wait till I got home before any more snow action!



These pictures were taken on the Thursday. This morning though was very cold and more dangerous on the roads - later on we took him for a walk and an opportunity to run through yet more snow. We are forecast more for next week....

My First Ground

Daniel's Visit To Cheltenham Town

Today we had to pop over to Whaddon Road first thing to grab some tickets for the Doncaster FA Cup game. The day's game with Millwall had been called off the night before due to freezing conditions and we got there just before the ticket office opened.

We took a couple of photo's as this was Daniel's first proper visit to a football ground as he was fast asleep when we were outside Villa Park a few months back!



After noticing an open gate we asked if we could nip in and show Daniel the inside and were told that was fine. To be fair there was no-one outside the ground except us anyway! The pitch was covered in frost and a third of it was covered by a huge black cover - we told Daniel where his Grampy normally sits and then went back out to get the tickets sorted.

I was slightly surprised you had to be a "fan member" to buy tickets in advance although it does save a few quid on buying them on the day of the game. Anyway, the form only took 2 minutes and that was sorted. I initially wondered if they were worried about Villa fans coming down as purchasing a ticket for the Donny game gives you a reasonable chance of getting one for the Villa game if Town win.

Anyway, local postcode so no problems - I'm desperate for Town to win this one as it would be a dream tie for a lot of Villa fans down here who obviously have connections with The Robins too. I never thought I'd see Town play the likes of Leeds & Leicester in League games but playing Aston Villa at Whaddon Road would just be something else.



Daniel seemed to enjoy seeing a football ground and I can't wait till he's old enough to go to a game with me!

Haircut & Training

Daniel's First Proper Haircut

He actually seemed to age before our eyes!

I took him to the guy who's been looking after my little bit of hair for the last twenty years and he looked after Daniel really well.

He sat on a booster seat in the main chair and had his hair cut properly for the first time since he was born. He was very good and kept pretty still throught and got a lollipop as a treat afterwards!



Daniel continues to learn very well and picks up anything and everyting he hears.

At 3 years and 7 months, his progress is pretty amazing.

His level of speech is unbelievable at times - whilst eating tea the other night he was after some of my food and had forgotten to say please. I said "what's the magic word?" to which he replied - "Abracadabra". Couldn't really refuse could I?!

Daniel is still enjoying training on a Saturday at the club and continues to do well under Kate's watchful eye! He doesn't realise that it's an English champion training him (after Kate beat Louise Tanner in their re-match last weekend). Anyway, he got his first first official GMA t-shirt the other week which he doesn't like taking off!



We got his school application form this week (how's that for making you feel old?) - another reminder of his progress. Now Christmas is approaching and he's aware of Santa, Advent calendars and all things festive!

Daniel Training!

Daniel's First Training Session!

Last week I noticed a few very young children with Kate (one of the GMA Kick-boxing black belts) being trained in a fun and very introductory way. Mr Carter also looked after them for a while too with a bit of "Mit work"!



I was really keen to give Daniel a go yesterday just to see how he reacted - although I was training myself at the time he looked like he was doing really well. He lasted the whole hour, doing all sorts of little exercises and was rewarded at the end with 2 stickers which said "Focus" and "Control".



He'd been excited about it all week since I mentioned the possibility of it and it went really well. He even ran over to me while I was supervising some of the youngsters sparring as he was so excited!

Now he wants to do it again which I'm really chuffed about!