The stripy boys

Happy birthday Kirin

As most of you have seemed to remember, today is Kirin's third birthday. Thanks to all of you who sent us cards, gifts and e-mails; it is embarrassing to admit that most of our friends with children seem to have a much better calendar of our children's birthdays than we do of theirs, something which Johanna and I are both hoping to change.

The day was a pretty good one. We started (at 6am) by opening presents. Here are some pics:

From left: Aliens love underpants, from Pooa and Phoofer; A Salmon for Simon from Sara, Michael, Cole and Oliver

Part of the National Geographic Bug Barn, a set with a net (left) and a barn (right) to allow you to check out bugs at close range

A couple of cute puzzles from Sarah, Scott and Max in Sydney

And finally, our gift to Kirin: a bike and a helmet. He wore the helmet all day, from the time he put it on in the morning, for the duration of his time a nursery and all afternoon until about 6pm when he put on his pyjamas for bed.

It is hard to believe that it has been three years since our gourgeous boy arrived in the world and turned our lives upside down and back again. It's weird, but on the one hand it feels like only yesterday that we brought Kirin home from the hospital and at the same time, he seems to be growing up so fast that it is sometimes easy to forget just how young he is.

I suppose this sounds like the kind of thing my own parents would have said, but this afternoon, when I was running to try and keep up with Kirin zooming away on his bike and Johanna was pushing Malik, suited up in his fuzzy, fleecy hoodie, in his push chair, it was hard not to feel proud and happy and overwhelmed by our lovely little family. Long may the glorious adventure continue.

Post-beard post

IT'S GONE - HURRAY!!!!

The nose looks bigger but overall it's MUCH better.

Batman, Batboy, Batgirl and Batbaby

In theory, mornings are supposed to involve me getting up to give the boys breakfast while Johanna tries to catch an extra hour of sleep. In reality, most of the time things don't go quite to plan. I usually get up with Kirin, give him a bit of breakfast and soon after, we hear Malik cooing in his crib. If I go back into the room, I usually find Johanna pretending to sleep - I think parents have this strange idea that if you close your eyes the kids will somehow be put off the scent and go play by themselves or go back to sleep in their beds, but this never actually happens - and eventually she gets up and we all end up hanging out for a bit before I head off to work.

In this video, Malik was in our bed because for a bit of the night, he just didn't want to go back to sleep. He had woken up, Kirin and I heard the cooing and went in to check out the action. The quality is a bit fuzzy at the start because the curtains were drawn and it was a bit dark in the room, but I think you will get the idea. It's also a bit long but it's pretty cute. (Just in case you can't quite understand it, Kirin is asking his mummy if she wants to "snuggle in" and suggesting that they can "share the blanket". How lovely is that?)

And finally, thanks to all of you for commenting on my beard. It was good to see that shaking up the editorial content got so many people sufficiently excited and I definitely appreciated Sara's backing in philosophical/existential terms but Nisha was right that it does have to go. It is still there because although I am very keen to get a professional shave and a haircut (imagine how bad my shaggy barnet will look without the grey-haired beard to offset it?) but just haven't had the time. I will keep you faithful readers in the loop.