Wow, what can I say. I don’t blog much but having just installed ‘Coltrane’, WordPress’ latest incarnation, I can say that so far I am thoroughly impressed.

The Improvements to the dashboard are nothing short of exceptional and wholly welcome. I thought the last version was as good as you can can but the WordPress camp have certainly raised the bar beyond their chaching competitors.

Well done chaps, you might actually have succeeded in pushing me to update my site and make me blog more.

Yes, a new site is coming and this time built on WordPress. I have chose WordPress purely on the bases I have been using it a lot lately.  I still like Movable Type but I just don’t have the time to get my mitts dirty with it, although how I have ever found the time to redesign my site in the first place I don’t know, but all shall be revealed shortly.

Sneek

If you are interested, older verions can be found here;

V4

V3

V2

Rob

It seems that with the (re)birth of one, comes the death of another. Today I have taken the decision to wind down and call an official time-out on thewinterproject.com.

It has been tough decision to make as I have owned the domain for nearly 7 years and have become very precious about it but the time has come to concentrate on pastures new. I will, of course, be keeping the domain and infact a website too but not in its current form.

I have little time in my life to concentrate on one blog let alone two so in light of my current steadfast enthusiasm for Gettingitout.com and not least forgetting my relentless procrastination and sometimes short concentration span I feel it is the right time to lay it to rest.

But as the Pheonix to the flame it will arise a stronger and more confident beast. My new thoughts for The Winter Project are still purely thoughts, but one thing is certain and that is the development of The Winter Project into a marketable brand that will parent all that is creative which flows over my synapses.

Times are a’changing and we all need to change with it. A leaner, meaner Winter Project will emerge victorious and ready for action, if a little bruised and battered.

So the day finally came. We are now the parents of a one year old, it just doesn’t seem possible.

In the past 3 months leading up to this point you have grown so much. You can walk now, a little wobbly but it’s definitely walking and you take great pleasure showing off the fact you can walk and drink from your beaker at the same time. You seemed so pleased you can now move on two feet. I think ever since you suffered from colic and realised tha,t with a bit of tension in your legs, you can stand up there has been little else but walking on your mind.

You are starting to grow into such a beautiful little boy, you have a great sense of humour and are also beginning to show caring and understanding, okay so you have pinched, bitten and pulled hair the odd time but hey, haven’t we all? I can forgive you for that.

A few mumbled words have past your lips, ‘mum-mum’ and ‘dad-dad’ are almost there but your incessant fascination with the sky has given way to the more popular ‘birds’ (burbs) and ‘planes’ (paibs).

Your first birthday party went off without a hitch, considering mummy wanted to keep it close family I think there were over 30 people in the end and it was a really good day. I wont go into the amount of toys you got but, believe me, you got more than enough. Perhaps we should have saved some till Christmas!! Oh and your birthday cake, good old Costco, shame you are too young to really enjoy it and it pretty much all went although that could have been more likely due to Mummy’s brick-sized portions. Still there were no complaints about that, why be stingy with cake?

So what will the next year bring. I sure hope it’s as good as the last.

Daddy

No not the website but Thomas.

Last friday I came home to see the little man tentatively take his first proper steps. I say ‘proper’ as they were steps that didn’t involve holding on to something for dear life or a step that, in other terms, could be classed as a lunge.

In the days that have passed, nothing seems to be stopping him as he gains more confidence whilst both Rachel and I begin to put the breakable items further away from the floor.

First I get a dent in the front wing of my car, in the office car park, caused by a car parked minus its handbrake. Then in an attempt to get some air and calm down I go and get a door I had spotted down the reclaimation yard yesterday. Only to carefully and slowly put it in the car and rip a hole in the rear or the drivers seat.

Shitting marvelous.

Thank fuck its Friday!

Wow! Its the middle of October already! So much has happened in the past couple of months I really need to get down on this blog. So much shit on again though, it is probably easier to turn lead to gold than it is to find the time to update this site.

Still some interesting things on the horizon. Mattstock 2007, yep its happening again and I’m currently putting together the ‘offical’ Mattstock 2007 website which you can view here. I will endevor do a Mattstock 2006 write up at some point too if only because it was fucking awesome.

A lot more interesting stuff is happening at my day job too which will someday make its way to this site. I think I should make grand plans for the new year. Oh shit, I feel a re-design coming on.

At home things are still crazy. Mr T is changing every single day and is now begining to walk so hell will soon be unleashed and, on top over everthing else, Rachel and I have decided to do some major restructuring in the house. Just when I thought the DIY was coming to an end we decided to cause a whole load more mess.

Oh the dream of a slower pace of life…

Rob

Well, another 3 months (and a bit) have thundered by and yet you never cease to continue to amaze and captivate me. 9 Months old! That means you have been outside of mummy’s tummy as long as yor were in it!

You now have teeth! Only the front bottom two for the time being but finally something had popped out of those swollen gums and true to the Humphries form they took their time so I’m not gonna hold my breath for more any time soon.

You’re not on the move quite yet. You roll about but crawling is still eluding you at which you get super frustrated with. Either your bum is in the air, ploughing your face into the ground or your head is up with you legs frantically moving and jerking about. In light of these minor obstacles you’ve already devised two solutions, either being:

A) “Sod this for a game of soldiers, I’ll try and walk instead”. Which you attempt at any give opportunity especially if you manage to grab something and pull you self up.

or

B) “Oi, get me up NOW!” A barrage or grunts of frustration till someone sits you back up, From which a few moments later you will promptly swan dive into said face plant position again.

Talking about walking you love your baby walker, I was never a fan of them if I’m honest, but to see you charging around, laughing, flapping your arms with excitement and squeeling after Hudson, Mummy or me I can’t help but be totally charmed. It is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

Oh and the squeels! Where did they come from? And how do you get the pitch so high? So high infact, I think you’re giving Hudson a headache. Man, they really hurt, almost as much as when you try to claw at our eyes and face! Although I’m partly to blame as most are caused when I tickle you. You have such an infectious giggle and enjoy the rough and tumble until that look comes across your face like “Hey Dad, that’s enough now!”

The past three months it seems you have gained a little more independence and contentment, you can sit for ages being constantly amazed by the Sky TV remote the telephone, the house keys or mummy’s mobile. Yeah, you like mummy’s mobile cause the lights are so cool. Your ‘proper’ toys? well you can take them or leave them, they just ain’t fun enough!

We had your thanksgiving giving service this past sunday (13th). Believe me it has been a topic that has seen mummy and I discuss over and over and over again as mummy has a lot of faith and I don’t have any. But like we always do we came to a good compromise of a thanksgiving service and it was a wonderful service. A really great day with everybody absolutely spoiling the man of the moment at the party afterwards.

You are still as beautiful and golden as ever. I won’t deny you have your moments but so far the first 9 months have be wonderfull however the next time I do a quarterly update you will be 1! Now that’s frightening.