The bell tolls for thee

Today is New Year's Eve. All around the world, as the various bells toll midnight, people will be kissing their loved ones, or a random stranger, wishing a happy new year to one and all, and making resolutions. For most people these resolutions will be unrealistic, unattainable goals and they will have failed almost before they started. For a select few they will be realistic, but challenging, and they stand a very good chance of achieving them.

For me it is to be the best me I can be. I'd love to say I'll lose weight, but I probably won't, so I'll resolve to make healthier choices to enhance my life. I'd love to say that I'll start going to the gym, but I won't, so I'll say that I'll carry on walking to work. I'd love to say that I'll be the best salesperson at work, but I probably won't, so I'll just resolve to be more consistent. In short I'm setting realistic, achievable goals to help to improve my life.

Thanks for reading

Happy New Year

Adam Edward Grant

Relaxing productivity

Today I had a day off, normally my days off go one of two ways. They're either really busy or really relaxing. Today wasn't either, we got loads done, but I didn't ever feel like I was busy. It was really nice.

Tomorrow will be a different story, it's work during the day and then New Years party at night.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Not afraid

I finally got round to watching the Christmas Day episode of Doctor Who today. It was really good, but I'm very sad. It was Matt Smith's last show as The Doctor and he has been by far my favourite Doctor. I also got over my fear of the Cybermen, thanks to a Cyberman head that The Doctor has as a personal assistant/computer.

A day off tomorrow, so lots of relaxing in store.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Charades

After a positve day at work, this evening we went round my brother & sister-in-laws. We had a lovely time and really enjoyed ourselves. Particularly when playing charades.

Watching each other flap around foolishly as we set each other harder and harder things to act out was hilarious.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Toy takeover

Today it was back to the grind. After 2 days off for Christmas, it was back to work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but if I could stay at home all day every day, I would.

When I got home, I thought I'd walked into toys'r'us by accident. My sons toys have taken over.

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Adam Edward Grant

Baby's 1st Christmas part 2

Another day, another Christmas, and another fantastic day. This time with my family.

Shame the bubble has to burst tomorrow when I go back to work.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Baby's 1st Christmas

Today, as many of you will know, is Christmas Day. It was my sons first Christmas. What a magical day. It has been fantastic all round.

The best part of it is, we get to do it all again tomorrow.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Christmas Eve

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Well not quite, my wife and I were stirring, we had a lot to do. It is my sons first Christmas, so we had to make everything perfect. First we put out a cookie and some milk for Santa, and a carrot for Rudolph. Then we laid out his stocking and went up to do bedtime, including reading A visit from St. Nicholas. Once he was in bed I gave my wife her special Christmas Eve present, then it was time to fill the stocking and put his presents under the tree.

It's a lot of effort, but he'll only have a first Christmas once.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Disaster

Today has been a bit of a disaster day. When taking stuff out to the car, the front door was caught by high speed winds, it was torn from my hand and the door actually broke. Thankfully, as bad as I am at DIY, I managed to repair it so the door could be shut and locked. Then this evening, after letting the dog out for his evening wee before bed, we tried to call him back in. He didn't come, so I went to look for him and saw that the side gate had been blown open. The dog had gone for a run down the road.

Thankfully he didn't get hurt and came running back while we were out looking for him.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Santa Claus

Today we took our son to see Father Christmas for the first time at colchester zoo. During our nearly hour journey from the back of the queue we went through a range of emotions. The first stretch of the queue was outside so the main emotion we felt was cold. Once inside we were greeted by a somewhat lacklustre Grotto, we were a bit disappointed, the further we moved through however the better it got and the more excited we became. When we eventually reached Santa, we were thoroughly impressed.

The toy he was given was fantastic too, although I do have to question how sensible it is to give an 11 month old a toy suitable for 36 months and over.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Overexcited

I love Christmas. Plain and simple, it's my favourite time of the year. I'm normally super excited. This year however I really don't feel that excited. In fact I feel a bit overwhelmed. It's my sons first Christmas and I want it to be great for him, but I'm also worried it might be a bit much for him. In my absence, my wife has taken up the role of being excited, maybe overexcited, she seems to be bouncing off the walls from morning until night.

I've got 2 days off now, so maybe I'll get more excited.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Christmas spirit

It's the most wonderful time of the year. I'm finally starting to get excited for Christmas but nowhere near as excited as my wife.

I'm sure she's stolen my Christmas spirit.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Laughter

Sorry for the delay in posting, I left my iPad at work.

They say that laughter is the best medicine. Well not when you're jerked awake at 4.41 by your wife laughing. She had had a dream, she had tried to make people in her dream believe she was 16, and they told her she was closer to 30.

So not even a funny dream.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

2K14

Today my copy of WWE 2K14 arrived. So this evening after my wife went to bed I did something I haven't done in a long time. I sat up and played. I created my character, his entrance and move set and then embarked on my career as a WWE superstar.

First step on the road to immortality.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Cute

I'm really having trouble getting up in the mornings. It doesn't help when I wake up in the night having had bad dreams. Once I eventually got myself going I had just enough time to have breakfast before going to work. The day at work was a good one, although staying past 4 o'clock didn't pay off today.

Once I got home from work I spent some time with my son. Sometimes he can be super cute. Tonight he was playing a game which involved pulling my face around and then pushing it towards my wife's face for a kiss.

Hopefully it'll be a bit of a better wake up tomorrow.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

It's not that difficult

This morning I looked after my son and my cousins son. Having spent the best part of 2 and a half hours looking after them, I have to say I don't know what my wife does all day to make it so difficult. She always says she never has time, but they virtually look after themselves. Ok, so that's not entirely true, I must just have had them on a good day.

I wouldn't want to do it full time.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Stock count

Yesterday was the quarterly stock count. As my store manager was running the area he left it to me to deliver a brief to our team. Other than the performance point he asked me to deliver, I had one simple message - sell as much as you can so there is less to count. They delivered and although it still takes time we were done in a reasonable time.

Unfortunately I didn't make it home before my son went to bed.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Bragging rights

Today was my son's 1st Christmas party, and my wife's hard work paid off. The party was fantastic, the food was great, and even Santa made an appearance. Can't believe I missed him. This afternoon however was a different story. Ipswich were playing Nottingham Forest, my wife's team, a win would give the victor bragging rights. Unfortunately, well probably fortunately as I'm a bad winner and a bad loser, it was a 0-0 draw.

When I woke up, my day was made great already as one of the Bengals, and a former TNA wrestler is following me on twitter.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Preparation

Tomorrow we are having a Christmas party for my son and his friends. So today my wife has been busy, busy, busy. Tonight we have been putting in some work too. My wife is such a little domestic goddess.

Tomorrow we will add the finishing touches.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Split personality

I have many sides, first and foremost I am a human. Although I am also much more. I am a Father, a Son, a Husband, a Brother, an Uncle, a Nephew, an employee and these are just the indisputable things I am, I'm not even going to start on the subjective. With all these things going on inside me, I sometimes feel like I have a split personality.

It's very tough to try and strike the right balance.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Fighting fit

So today I've had an earache, a stomachache and a headache, but as I said yesterday I'm not being ill. I'm just not. So this thing will just have to do what it has to do while I go about my usual daily business.

Just not happening.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Ignorance is bliss

So I'm also now starting to feel ill. I really don't have time for it, so I'm just going to ignore it and hope it goes away.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

I don't have time to be ill

I thought the worst had happened last night. My wife was up most of the night, and every 30 minutes or so I went and emptied the sick bowl or wet her flannel for her. Today she was still feeling terrible but on top of that my sons sickness and diarrhea decided to make a reappearance. So today has been spent almost entirely at home, aside from a Lucozade run and a trip to the Drs.

I feel like a modern day, male, Florence Nightingale. Hopefully my wife will be well enough tomorrow to be able to look after our son, as I am back at work.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Catching on

Compared to last night today was very uneventful. My son still isn't right but at least he isn't being sick everywhere. He's off his food, but fortunately he's still taking on lots of fluids and lots of dairy. He enjoyed a visit from my parents, even though my dad is a wind up. He also enjoyed an afternoon on the sofa with my wife and I. Unfortunately my wife has what my son had last night.

Hopefully she won't be up half the night though.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Party time

I managed to get up with my alarm, well a few minutes after anyway. As I had stayed late the previous night I had a bit of extra time with my son and wife before leaving for work. I then had another fantastic day at work. After work it was back home to help get my son ready for bed before going to my work Christmas party.

As it was in Cambridge, I decided to drive rather than drink. I took two of the young boys that I work with in the car with me. We arrived fashionably late, circulated for a while, then hit the dance floor for a while. As I'm not 21 anymore I couldn't sustain the required level for too long and I had to retire back to the quieter room to circulate some more.

Just after midnight my wife called, my son had been sick. I decided that it would be best to go. I feel bad that I cut the boys night short, but I had to do what was best for my family. My son was sick for the best part of two hours from midnight until 2 and then we managed to settle him down to sleep. He slept until 6.45.

I had a great time at the party, but given the early morning I'm glad I came home when I did.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Slow start, strong finish

4.40am and my son is awake and crying, so in my zombie like state I stagger into his room, pick him up, give him a cuddle and a kiss. Once he's settled a bit I put him back down, put his musical mobile on and stroke his hair until he's back asleep. By this time I'm almost fully awake and should probably just get out of bed, but I'm weak. I chose another hour and a half sleep instead. I overslept! So once again I had to rush around to get out of the house on time.

After a disastrously slow start to the day, I managed to get to work on time. The first half of the day went by very slowly, but not long after lunch it all started to kick off. I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I managed to get so much done in one day. Looks like December is finally starting to kick off.

This evening it's time for my wife and I on the sofa, we've got through another series of Smallville so we will watch the season 6 finale and the season 7 premiere tonight. I really love spending time with her and with my son. That's why I love it when my hard work pays off.

Hopefully I will not be so slow getting up tomorrow morning and I can spend some more quality time with them then.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Lights out at 6pm

Today was our first Christmas late night opening, and it was an eventful one. Part of our new store refit was automatic lights on a timer, the timer was set for 6 o'clock. We were open until 7. It's ok though because we didn't have any customers between 6 and 7. Other than that it was a fairly normal day. I got some good pain control advice from the spinal physio. The rest of my day at work wasn't bad, if maybe a bit slow.

Hopefully we will get the problem fixed before next week.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

An evening in

Tonight my wife went out, so I was home alone. My son was still awake when she left and I fed him his bottle, read him a story and put him to bed. Then I was free to do whatever I pleased. Apparently whatever I please is eating dinner, washing up and watching wrestling.

I live such a wild life when my wife's not around, it's almost like her and my son are my only enjoyment.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

A day I never thought I'd see

Today my wife signed back up with my mobile network. I honestly never thought I'd see the day as she had a bad experience previously. With me working there I suppose it helped and the free calls to me were of course a deal sweetener. My Brother-in-law also came over to my network.

The only downside is that they both have better phones than me.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Climbing the stairs

Today at bedtime my little boy climbed all the way up the stairs. It's amazing and scary at how fast he's grown and how much he can do. He's only 10 months old and he already eats what we do, wee's on the potty every night and now climbs the stairs. This evening while I was washing up he was even playing a game where he dropped his little people toy through the stairgate so he could reach through to pick it up.

What will he be able to do next?

Who knew they grew so fast?

Why did no-one warn me they grew this fast?

Where has my little baby gone?

How do we cope?

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant

Pancakes/Advent

Today is officially the start of Christmas. This morning we did our sons first ever advent calendar. As he has not yet tried chocolate we are doing advent a bit differently. We have a cloth calendar, and on each day we have placed a piece of paper with the location of a present. We have various treats, DVDs and toys to keep him going. He was very excited later in the day when he saw the calendar, so I guess he gets what's going on.

Today was also the day we put our Christmas decorations up. Usually I'm the biggest kid at Christmas but this year I'm feeling really grown up. I think it's because I have my own child now. My wife on the other hand is really excited. I suppose I just need to crack the Christmas tunes on. Put on a Santa hat and get into the spirit.

This evening my wife had a craving for pancakes, so being the dutiful husband that I am I made her some. They were delicious if I say so myself.

Thanks for reading

Adam Edward Grant