David and Katherine Goodwin

Yesterday, we took Bonzo (aka "The Beast") back to his owner (my mother) - since then he's run off twice - firstly getting almost to Presteigne (last night), and then once again this morning (although we don't know where he is yet!).

As luck would have it, Kat and I went to bed early last night, and I left my phone downstairs charging - so this morning I was greeted with about 8 answer phone messages from various people who had found him and were trying to capture him.

Aside from Rowan getting bigger and noisier over time (and he slept for a record 8 hours last night in one "sitting"), my last week has almost returned to normality with the arrival of Bonzo (my sister's dog) to our household. He's visiting in order to get trained and neutered. Unfortunately for him, he's not fit enough to run my normal running route around Bromsgrove (but I'm sure this will change with time).

This morning while on my normal morning run, Bob (who was on his elasticated lead) ran out into the road. Unfortunately a car hit him and his back legs were paralysed. Thanks to the kind builders working nearby, I was able to get him to the vets, and after an emergency call out, X-rays and so forth it was determined that his spine was broken. At around 8:30am he was put to sleep, and we took him to my mother's farm to be buried alongside Cassie.

Rest In Peace Mr Jangles, you'll be missed by us all. We had some excellent memories together.

I've finally uploaded a few pictures to our website.

See :

• Rowan on his tummy
• Our new office
• Rachel's birthday cake (cake-pod anyone?)
• Emily's photos of us camping near Bromyard

Yesterday (17th of May 2008), Cassie (the dog) died. She signed off peacefully on a campsite near Bromyard (Herefordshire) after a sudden unknown illness that started in the morning. She was subsequently buried under a blooming damsen tree on my mother's farm.

She'll be best remembered for her ability to :

• bite unsuspecting individuals (Alex) and family members (Emily),
• producing some horrible smells,
• obediance,
• loyalty
• and a night time trouble making streak (bin emptying and weeing on the fridge/freezer!)

Since Rowan was born, I've made an effort to get in touch with some people. Unfortunately for them, I have some conditions that I need met for me to be comfortable seeing them. 'Unfortunately' for me, it appears they won't accept those. 7 happy and confident years without them has taught me that I'm a better person under my terms, but still I felt that I ought to make the effort to let them see Rowan.

Today, I cooked a full roast dinner, with slight supervision ("Be careful - the knife is sharp!") as my Mothers day present. I ended up having to undergo this ordeal as I was too useless to book a table in any local restaurant in time.

Before stuffing my face with roast beef, I pre-empted my excessive calorie intake by by running nearly 13 miles.

In other news, last night, Rowan managed to sleep for 4 hours (and then 3 afterwards), which was a welcome change from his normal regular 2 hour feeds through the night.

As various family members keep asking for more photos of Rowan, try here

Well, you can't expect much else from me can you?

Rowan now weighs 8lbs 3oz, which isn't bad as he's only 12 days old. He also appears to have grown 2cm, which would be a 4% increase from birth.

Kat's started to play with him, and he appears to have grabbed his toys while she's waving them in front of him.

In other Rowan-related news:

• He has/had gunky eyes, which seem to go away though the day.
• His umbilical cord stump has fallen off
• He's very happy sleeping on our chests, not so in his cot.

We were warned (repeatedly and by everyone) that the first few weeks with Rowan would be really difficult. It seems they were right, some nights at least. Rowan is sleeping unreliably to say the least - but at this stage its to be expected. His current trick is to feed intermittently for hours and hours - the midwife says this is apparently quite normal (about 8 last night, 4 the night before). The night before last was actually good because he then proceeded to sleep for nearly 4 hours in one go.