dubberdawson & sons

What a weekend.

The Dawson family utilised the warm weather and sunshine very well you could say!

We attended a friends wedding on Sat morning and didn’t get home until 7pm.  Boys played in the walled garden of Grade 1 listed Great Fosters Orangery all afternoon whilst (most) parents drank champagne, played croquet and basically lazed around.

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On Sunday we went for a nice walk in the gardens of Cannizaro House in Wimbledon, taking photos and following the boys whilst they were ‘exploring’.  In the afternoon we went to Thomas Steer’s 4th birthday party, where like Sat afternoon, lazed around and drank Pimms. Great day.

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We arrived home, bathed the boys and put them to bed (not ‘asleep’ – they chat a bit) where Kerryn then notes a soreness and uneasy feeling around 8.30pmish.  Hmm.. thought nothing of it until about 5 minutes later, “Oooh, same soreness and uneasy feeling”.

Hang on a minute..!   Someone talk to someone..

Kerryn and I decided to call our friend Catherine just in case to look after the boys.  We packed Kerryn’s bag and the boys bags (this may go on for a while) cleaned up a bit and then Catherine turned up quick smart. (thanks again – Ed)

Thankfully, the hospital is literally 5 minutes away.

“We’re gunna make it this time!”

Casually walked in, bags in hand whilst Kerryn stops every 3 minutes to second-guess why she’s doing all this again.

We sign in, whisked to a room, the midwife comes in and does the usual MOT at 10pm, then mentions that after the waters break we’re gunna have a quick baby!  Kerryn’s stoked, I’m stoked, the midwife seen it all before (but quietly stoked I reckon).

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10.39pm Sun 14-Jun-09 and Asher Dempsey Dawson arrives 11 days earlier than ‘planned’, all 6 lb 9 oz of him.

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Kerryn stayed there overnight and at 2.30am I got home, with 7.00am quickly coming around to Shay waking me up whilst I’m sprawled on the lounge.  So I guess, let the games begin.

Then there were 3.

H.

Ok, we’re back!  Spring is here and winter is behind us thankfully.

Brief update of, err..  the last 10 weeks or so.

After the successful car/train crossing with my parents to France & Belgium in Feb, the Dawson family headed back a few weeks later for our wedding anniversary staying the night in to Ghent, Belg. then headed back via Brugge for a waffle or 3.

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A week later the Parry family stayed with us for weekend, Lee & I escaped to a Wimbledon pub for the rugby whilst the  Kerryn, Bron & Kath ‘chatted’ the afternoon by.  Then had a nice trip to the Natural History Museum and lunch in the V&A Museum courtyard.

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On my birthday I did a 4.5 hour round trip to see Metallica at the O2 with a mate from work.  2x words every Londoner hates more than ‘wet weekend’ is ‘rail replacement’.  Though it tooks ages, it was absolutely worth it.

April started in the garden, first veges of the year were planted.  Shay found a small lizard and about 87 worms and was intrigued, with Zac not so. Easter came with the annual backyard Easter Egg Hunt at the King’s house this year. There were small eggs scattered in the garden and also tokens with numbers on them for larger eggs – the Dawson boys didn’t miss out on them I tell you.

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At the end of April we attended Miles & Evie Easterbrook’s Christening and lunch at a local cafe.  All the kids (14ish) played out the back peacefully, while we (well.. maybe not Kerryn) had the ‘odd’ ale.  The kids enjoyed a clown (not me) to entertain them.  Shay helped in one routine and Zac wondered the marvels of limbo with his hands in his pockets.  The clown moved the limbo stick  right to the ground when Zac came up to it and he wasn’t impressed – very funny!  I was in tears,  bloody hilarious.

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Kerryn now has 9 working days left of the year, Shay’s gone up a swimming class 2 weekends back, Zac is just a character with anything he does and I’m thinking of the 6 weeks of full nights sleep ahead of me before D-Day!

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H.

February’s been a great month for the Dawson’s with hosting my parents for a nearly 3 weeks being the highlight!

Poppy & Nana arrived on the 4th, just after the big snowfall and mainly hung out with the family and catching up after we last saw them nearly 2 years ago whilst home on our infamous 3  month trip Down Under.

I took 2 weeks leave so thankfully for me DIY with my Dad was the order of the day(s) with numerous trips to B&Q (Bunnings equiv.), the plumbing merchant and the local timber yard.  All those odd jobs around the house I’ve never had a chance to get to got done and thankfully the weather wasn’t too bad, slightly chilly at times but it is winter!  Just for something different, we tried to hire an Alfa Romeo which subsequently turned into a Vauxhall Vectra before our eyes at Europcar (it was never gunna happen) where the 3 of us then travelled to France via the Eurotunnel and then on to Brugge, Belgium for a night.  Fantastic little trip, got some cheap wine at Calais and it’s not often you get have 3 main meals in a day in 3 different countries.  Well.. especially not in Australia.

On the 8th we attended good friends ours little girl Isabella’s 1st birthday party in the City at a cool bowling alley.  Nice way to spend a Sunday and the boys absolutely loved it.  The score didn’t matter, just heaving a bowling ball down the big rack was all the fun they required.  Fair to say we’ll be doing that again with them soon enough.  Unsure if there was enough chocolate cake left at the end though which surprisingly could have fed about 100 people I reckon.

On Valentines Day we had Zac’s 2nd birthday party.  He had a great day with 6 or so of his friends and by the looks of our house afterwards we presume he (& Shay) had  great time.

A week later I went and saw Ray LaMontagne with me mate Billy at the Barbican.  Something different you could say to the usual rukus we manage to attend – he’s been compared to Van Morrison just to give you some idea of the genre and not the ‘Them’ Van but more the ‘jazz’ Van.  Very cool and we enjoyed it immensely.

So now it’s back to normality I suppose.  Kerryn is expanding by the day as her working days (for now) slowly come to another end.  The boys (me included) are looking forward to summer and we’re all looking forward to a quick return to the UK from Poppy & Nana – and any other relative that might wish to visit!

H.

We woke up this morning greeted with as much snow as an Alpine Chalet within ski season!  Most of England was and still is disrupted I think – enough that we couldn’t get into work and friends who are there now are wondering how they’ll get home with more snow forecasted this evening.

Amazing stuff, I’ve never seen it like this here in the UK and the boys think it’s absolutely brilliant.  Like most kids (myself included) they couldn’t wait to get out in it and play.  With the aid of Kerryn, they made a nice snowman complete with an Aussie cork hat, gloves and a scarf.

I then towed them up and down the street on the back of my snowboard, thankful I can get use out of it.  Was worried it’d miss another season!

Let’s hope it now stops enough for my parents to land from Perth on Wed (where it was 38d today).

To say they’re in for a shock would be an understatement – I’m thinking the scene from ‘Cool Runnings’!

H.

Christmas with a 3.5 yo & a nearly 2 year old makes you laugh.

On Xmas Eve we put out the customary biscuits & fruit pie for Santa with some water for Rudolf, and wouldn’t you know it .. when everyone woke up Xmas morning and came down stairs, all the food was eaten!  It was amazing AND he left ‘tonnes’ of presents!  Brilliant!

It was our first Christmas in our new home.  As expected, everyone loved it.  Toys for all and of course, socks for all!

In the afternoon the Dawsons were guests to the Easterbrooks who rose to the occasion and put on a spread fit for a king (and all his staff).  Wonderful feed with a quiet champers and a couple of ales, we played with all the kids and then put them to bed around 7.30 where the grown-ups had some more champers and a lovely port to finish the evening.

Great day (as Xmas always is).

H.

Zone Defence

- noun Sports

: a method of team defence where each player parent is responsible for defending a specified portion of the playing area and the opponents kids within that area.

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In case you haven’t caught on, yes, Club Dawson is expanding..  we’re expecting Number 3!

Kerryn had her 12 week scan last week and after a couple of low risk blood tests later, word is now out.

Yay us!

H.

Last week Kerryn & I had a kid free night out (yippee!) to see Coldplay in concert at the new(ish) O2.

Great gig, always entertaining and a good catalogue of tunes to sing to.

Thanks to Kath for the babysitting duties!

H.

Shay was in his nursery’s Nativity play today, playing the very challenging role of ‘Joseph’.

Being able to sing with 12 other kids were his only requirements, all very easy and they put on a great performance.

H.

Been a while since we’ve written anything.  I don’t like to complain because I know essentially I have my health, a nice family and a pretty good life and there are a gubillion people worse off than me.  But for a while there, I wasn’t having a great deal of luck.  A colleague of mine calls me Kirin (or something similar) which means sunshine and she asked me if my luck had changed as it’s a lucky Hindu name.  I guess it has really, I replied.  My pay was cut by 10% (all temps at UBS had the same cut apparently), the value of my house has plummeted, I’ve had a really bad cough for 3 weeks that I couldn’t get rid of, I reversed into a concrete pillar and smashed the back of the car, the weather has been depressingly crappy, I lost my favourite ring and Stew the rabbit died.

However, since then, I’m feeling lots better, I’m thankful I still have a job at the moment, the boot of the car still opens and closes, the guinea pigs (Jean and Paul) are doing fine and it snowed today (which kind of makes freezing cold temps worth while – almost).  We had a lovely evening with the ante-natal group at Lou’s annual fireworks evening and this Wednesday I’m out with the girls for our monthly night out. And Greg is coming around next Sunday too so that will be a nice catch up.

Shay and Zac are doing well.  Shay’s swimming lessons are going well and Zac loves the pool too.  Zac’s talking is almost too good (’I don’t want to’ is his latest phrase and kind of annoying).  Shay’s class at nursery is doing a Christmas play and Shay might be Joseph.  Even if he isn’t, the ‘maybe’ is a lot further in drama than I ever got.  He sees his friends from our ante-natal group in the weekends and really enjoys playing with them.

K.

New toy hitting the shelves soon.  Just don’t come within 50 feet.. oh yeah.