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Spotted today as I left the M32. South Glos seems to have it in for orbital platforms – they are not welcome here.

Wednesday 15th February 2012 at 1657. This was the time that my life changed.

Today my wife Laura went shopping for my clothes, and not just in any shop – in M&S.

I have now moved from one phase of my life to the next. It’s downhill all the way to BHS from here.

This weekend I passed the 10,000 image mark with my Canon 450d.

That is quite a lot of pictures.

Being on paternity leave with a two year old to look after and a wife who has had a C-section brings a whole slant to everything as i am doing all the cooking, cleaning, washing etc. So i’d thought I’d ring the changes starting with a man-grade laundry basket from Ikea. This 11 gallon bad boy is called a Skoghall.

I’m living the dream.

We were hoping to see Cars 2 before Elliot was born, but with his early arrival that now won’t be happening (I don’t think they make 3D glasses in newborn size).

So it seemed only fitting that as Dad I got him a Lightning McQueen as he was born the day before the UK release.

Ka Chow little guy, I’m very proud of you.

You have to love the imagination of a 2 year old. I walked into the lounge today to find my mouse mat (technically a mouse rug) being utilised as a blanket for dolly who was enjoying a rest in the bouncy chair.

The bouncy chair is a Tiny Love Gymini, by the way. My parents kindly bought it for our son who has just been born. Having looked at a lot of bouncers and deciding they were a lot of money for what they are, were generally wobbly and badly built we were really impressed with this one. It has an upright and a lie back position (easily adjusted) and the unique toy arches allow them to easily move out of the way to get to baby, but equally moved in position so baby can play with the toys on them.

The toys can be moved on the arms and the light and sound crab is self contained so it can be taken out and about on a pram or car seat. The crab has a starfish under it that when pulled activates the lights and sounds. You can select 2 modes for the crab: interactive mode (pull the star) or continuous mode when it plays sound and flashes continuously. It also helpfully has a mute button which turns off the sound but leaves the lights on. This works in both modes.

You can also add other toys to the stitched in loops on the arches. Tiny Love obviously recommend you add toys from their range. We have a Tiny Love play mat with similar arches and all the toys would be compatible. I guess the nicest thing about the arches is that the toys will actually be able to be reached at all stages of our son’s growth, whereas with other bouncers we looked at the child would have no chance of ever reaching the toys to interact with them.

Knowing we were going to have a small baby we were keen that a bouncer had good support for something so tiny. Before purchase we were worried about the lack of a separate head support, but our son is fine in it and he is only 2.7kg (6lb, 2oz). One reviewer suggested it was an issue but as long as it is reclined it is not a problem at the moment.

It is available for about £50 and the cover is machine washable as well. It comes very strongly recommended.

I had my first telephone conversation with my two year old daughter today. Up to now I have always been greeted with silence when I try and speak to her.

It went like this:

Me: Hello little girl, how are you
Eloise: OK
Me: Have you had a nice day?
Eloise: Yes
Me: What have you been up to?
Eloise: Grandma’s house today

She got bored at that point and gave the phone back to Mum, but it was very cool and very cute all the same.

I will now spend the rest of my life trying to get her off the phone no doubt.

To celebrate the Royal Wedding Uncle Rob got Eloise the Happy Land Royal Wedding set for her birthday.

Star Wars and Cake, what more could you want?

More Star Wars Cakes on the Flickr Blog

…and I don’t know how to use it.

I am now starting the long and rather complicated transition from a web-based domain email and a Nokia Symbian S60 phone to Android and Google apps to host my domain email.

To say I’m scared of breaking my domain, email and sanity is somewhat of an understatement.

Angry Birds here I come.