On this day.........

.......11 years ago, our first son was born. 

Here are a few more numbers........

I was 22 years old, we had been married 18 months, he was 10 days past his due date but eventually arrived, without the need for induction, at 11.28am weighing 8lb 5oz and 21 inches long.

(Incidentally, all four boys were 21 inches long at birth. I was about to go into a list of birth weights and days overdue etc but that can wait till another post!)

Back to James.

We called him James for a few reasons.

(1) It is my dad's name, and was his dad's name too. (I see another post here about family names!)

(2) It is my father-in-law's middle name.

(3) It is the name of one of my husband's closest friends, who back in those days as a lonely bachelor seemed to spend most of his spare time in our flat!

(4)It was a name we both really liked. Traditional but not too formal or fussy.

And we gave him the middle name Andrew after his daddy.

James has always been very sociable. He seems to have inherited his father's gift for connecting with people. He is kind, thoughtful and very helpful, especially with Alasdair, and really tries his best to be a good role model for his younger brothers. Of course he has times when he argues with them or sulks a little when asked to do something, but on the whole he is a delightful son and I'm proud to be his mum.

A very quick example of how thoughtful he is-

Last night before dinner he asked, 'Mum, have you got much to do tonight?'

Monday is when I clean the house from top to bottom so having completed that I answered that I didn't, that I had nothing planned.

'Oh, I was just wondering would you make some cupcakes for my class for my birthday tomorrow?' he asked.

I had thought that perhaps he was too old now to want to bring some in. So it was, that after dinner last night I made 2 dozen cupcakes for him. I really appreciated the fact that he asked about my plans before requesting his own.

He is having a few friends round on Saturday for a medieval banquet, as he planned way back in the summer, so tonight we just had a birthday tea, myself and the boys. Dad will be back home for the banquet though.

James' favourite dinner is Steak Pie and I tried out a new recipe. It was really delicious. I know I'm not supposed to say that since I made it but it really was! I loved how well the flaky pastry worked, because I haven't made it before.

 Then we had a giant cupcake cake. He wants a castle cake for his banquet. Gulp!

So, here are some food photos, followed by a video showing why you shouldn't try and light more than two sparklers on a cake because you can't get them all lit at the same time! Please ignore me frowning, those sparklers were really sparkling!, and look at Alasdair's fascination instead. Also, David sang Happy Birthday in Gaelic and we sang it in English - at the same time!

I wanted a photo of all four boys but Alasdair burst into tears when I tried to get him to sit with them here!

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