We have seen 100 posts, we have seen 100,000 hits and now we have hit another milestone 100,000 words (total words across all posts and pages). Yes this website now has more words than the average novel. Impressive ne pas? I never realised I was so verbose or that so much has happened to this enclave of the Bagnall clan over the last 40 months or so.
However, that is not the greatest achievement since the last update. For the greater accomplishment is that my second child can now be truly classed as bipedal. Yes, last Thursday (19th January 2012) Amélie just decided to stand up in the middle of the floor and walk. Not just one or two steps but half a dozen. The encouragement that she received spurred her on. Within minutes that total was up to 11 and by the end of the day had nudged that total up to 12. I suppose because she has been cruising for so long her legs have the strength to support her, she has the balance to carry herself but she is just lacking the confidence to continue. It will come, with encouragement it will not be long before she will leave her crawling days behind her. She will happily hold your hand and walk for yards and hopefully the more we do this the more this will give her the confidence to strike out on her own.
Now usually on Thursday morning I would be at work, however I still had a number of days left over from last year’s entitlement to use by the end of January and therefore, fortunately, I was at home on annual leave for the week. It was good to spend some time at home but it wasn’t the most exciting of times (apart, obviously from Amélie’s first steps!). Lucinda took some time off too but with Amélie already booked to go to Jo’s and with Éowyn still at playbox myself and Lucinda had time to off together but there was no time to enjoy that for we decided that we would attempt to straighten the house after the Christmas period. Not that the house needed that much straightening but it was more an opportunity to go through the kid’s toys and either take the ones that they never play with down the local charity shop or put away the ones that they have outgrown. Then finding space for them all, either in the toy boxes (yes plural), Éowyn’s bedroom or just tidied away. It felt good to get back some of the house!
We also managed to take advantage of my tastecard (for the first time!) and go for lunch, which was good to spend some time as a couple rather than a mommy and daddy, although there is still that little voice in the back of your head saying, Keep an eye on the time, you have to pick Amélie and Éowyn up. On the Thursday we also managed to invite friends of ours, Neil and Emma, around for an evening. So we managed to put the girls to bed early (not that early but early enough for us to enjoy our evening) and to their great credit they went down and we heard not a peep out of them all evening. It was good catching up with friends especially Neil and Emma who we hadn’t seen in over a year. It is amazing how quickly time passes us by and if truth be told we have a long list of friends that we have not seen in over a year, something that perhaps we need to rectify in 2012.
We also took advantage of the time off to head up the M40 to West Bromwich and Nanny Fran. Éowyn gets very excited about seeing her Nanny Fran, so much so that she didn’t take advantage of the 120 mile car journey and sleep but rather stayed awake for the entire journey asking the epitomic question ‘Are we nearly there yet?‘ They start early don’t they? However this tiredness manifested itself as grumpiness and misbehaviour, so there were a number of trips to the re-instated Thinking Step.
In fact, there has been quite a number of trips to the Thinking Step of late. After many months without even the threat of a trip to the Thinking Step, Éowyn has been a regular visitor of late. There are a number of reasons for this, namely: She is doing 3 days a week at school, plus trips to her childminder’s so she is missing her afternoon nap (I know the feeling) and getting tired and when she is tired she gets grumpy and her behaviour get worse; Amélie is getting a lot of attention of late, especially with regards to the encouragement that she is getting with her walking and her increasing vocabulary, so jealousy plays a part; She gets influenced by the behaviour of other children (as all children do) so making sure that she realises that just because her friends do it, it doesn’t mean that she has to (I think that is going to be a battle for many years to come!); and I have been working some long hours so she doesn’t always see me and Lucinda has, obviously, returned to work so she is not always seeing Lucinda either. Plus she is probably just going through one of those phases where they try to push the boundaries and see what they can get away with, which is going but it puts pressure on us to keep the boundaries well defined.
Despite her frequent forays to the Thinking Step Lucinda treated Éowyn to a special day out last Wednesday. A Peppa Pig live stage show was enjoying a run at Richmond Theatre and so Lucinda and Éowyn and her friend Christine and her daughter Arabella took the short trip down the A316. Éowyn was completely enthralled by Peppa Pig’s Treasure Hunt (a puppet show) in complete contrast to the last live show that she saw which was the In The Night Garden live show, so much so that at the interval she got a little upset that it was over. I think this is because, unfortunately, between booking the In The Night Garden tickets and actually going Éowyn grew out of the phase and was no longer interested in the antics of Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy (not to mention the hosts of other similarly named characters). Now, Peppa Pig is a different matter, it is by far her favourite show and with trips to Peppa Pig world and a bed full of cuddly Peppa Pig characters I think it will stay her favourite for a few years to come yet.
Unfortunately I must end this update on a sad note. My Great Uncle Albert passed away just after 1505 on Friday 27th January 2012 aged 90. He had been ill for a little while and while the loss of any one is always sad in some ways his passing is a blessing. Uncle Albert was my materal grandmother’s brother and was an inspiration. He gave me my first paid job (in the despatch department of Accles and Shelvoke packing slaughter equipment: bolt stunners and cartridges) the summer after my GCSE exams. He also ignited my interest in genealogy, tracing his own family tree back to 1546. He also typed (with one finger and a lot of correction fluid) his wartime memories dubbing himself (in his self-depreciating style) Churchill’s Secret Weapon on an old manual typewriter. The reasoning behind his monicker was that shortly after he completed his training the war in Europe ended. Then, as he set foot in Asia (he was posted in India) the war in Asia ended. Obviously, the enemy did not want to engage Albert Wyton in battle. He is now at peace with his wife of 64 years (my Great Auntie Iris), sleep well both, reunited in love.
Peace and Love
Baggie
