The first weeks of Alex' life were little bit difficult because he had problems with trapped wind. Nothing too serious, just a bit unfortunate as it meant he was quite unhappy for a while. As promised by all childcare books and websites, he grew out of it soon enough. The first two months of his life we had many visitors, most of them staying with us since they had come from abroad. It was great to have people coming to see us and the boys but it did mean that we did not get to start Alex on a strict sleeping and feeding schedule as early as we had wanted. With Thomas we followed the current "Eating and Sleeping on Demand" guidelines for several months and found it completely exhausting. He seemed to snack rather than take full feeds and was very difficult to put to bed. We switched to following a routine around 5 or 6 months and it made everyone much happier. So with Alex we knew we wanted to get a routine established as soon as we could. And the boy has done very well. He's been sleeping through (7pm-7am with one dream feed at 10pm) since he was about 10 weeks old. That's the greatest advantage of being second time parents: You don't necessarily do everything midwives and health visitors tell you to do!

Thomas has been a great big brother. He loves cuddling Alex and bringing him toys. Whenever Alex cries, Thomas will tell us that Alex must be hungry. Since Alex' arrival, Thomas has become more demanding, quicker to have tantrums. He's not jealous, he's just getting used to having to share our attention. Now that Alex is five months old, Thomas seems to have adjusted and is less likely to get into trouble when we're busy feeding Alex or otherwise occupied. Thomas is a great talker. He just doesn't stop. He is at the stage where he repeats everything he hears, whether it be English, Dutch or something else. He is always telling us about things that happened at nursery or snails he found in the garden. He loves talking on the phone too, telling Oma and opa that he loves them.

Mike is still working at Nokia here in Farnborough. He has recently bought a bicycle and has ridden it to work a few times. The idea is to take Thomas to nursery on it too. Thomas has been for two bike rides now and likes it quite a lot. I am still on maternity leave. I was meant to go back to work in July but I have postponed it to January 2007. Before I had Alex, I thought it would be easier to go back to work this time since I've done it all before, but I found almost the opposite was true. I felt I needed more time with him, as much as I had with Thomas. There were also some practical reasons for delaying my return so it was an easy choice.

Two weeks ago we went on holiday to Holland. We went for my dad's 70th birthday and also to get a little break from being parents by going to a 3 day rock festival. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned. Thomas had had chicken pox before our holiday and kindly gave it to Alex too. Alex came down with it one day before the start of our trip so he had it all the time we were there. He had quite a bad case and did not eat or sleep properly. So instead of going to the festival, we took turns sleeping on the sofa to care for Alex. We still had a nice time on our last day, when lots of people came to celebrate Henk's birthday and to meet Alex. Lucky for us, Alex seems to have left all chicken pox symptoms behind in Europe. He's been on perfect behaviour since the minute we got home - his sleeps and feeds are back to normal. Now his skin just needs to heal a bit more.

Hot off the press: Alex has cut his first tooth! He had been dribbling an awful lot and today it was finally there. What a proud moment. Now we'll have to think up another reason to give Thomas for not feeding Alex biscuits. "He has no teeth" will no longer do.