So my resolution to keep updating this website regularly is still falling by the wayside. No real reason but life is busy at the moment and these updates have the lowest priority. We have two young children and we are trying to prepare the house for a third, so ‘computer time’ is at a premium. You may, therefore, expect this update to be full of witty anecdotes and amazing adventures. You maybe disappointed. Indeed this is probably one of the shortish write-ups for many a long month, however I am attempting to write two updates in a week so please forgive me.
The girls have been, on the whole, fairly well behaved lately (hopefully that hasn’t put the collybosh on that!) and both have continued to sleep through the night which is probably going to make the return to sleepless nights, that no doubt will arrive with Baguette number three, so much harder. However they both still have their moments.
Éowyn is growing up fast (and so too is Amélie) and she is certainly becoming more worldly wise and, obviously the way you do that is by asking questions. Unfortunately she has entered the phase where the question is ‘Why?‘. I am sure all parents have children that have gone through that phase and I am sure all children start with the first ‘why?’ in an earnest quest to understand the problem at hand. However the next 7 ‘whys?’ are just there to see how far they can push their parents. And so it is with Éowyn. I like to pride myself on knowing a fair bit about a wide spectrum of topics and so I am slightly guilty of encouraging ‘why?’. I try to answer each why with a sensible and honest answer. However, there are more ‘whys?’ then answers and after the seventh ‘why?’ I begin to run short of replies.
Not only is Éowyn growing up cerebrally but also physically. She insisted on being measured a week or so ago and so with tape measure in hand I got her to stand up against the wall to measure her: 115cm (3 feet 9 inches) which is, for those of you in the know, slap bang on the 99.6th centile line. To put it another way there will very few 4 year old girls that are taller than her. We didn’t manage to measure Amélie but I wouldn’t have thought that she was far behind. She is nearly as tall as one of Éowyn’s friends (two years older than Amélie) and taller than a friend’s daughter who is a year older than Amélie.
Éowyn, however, does have a delicate constitution. One of her friends (name withheld to protect the innocent) came to dinner after school and thought it was hilarious to burp. Éowyn politely asked her to stop belching which for a four year old was like pouring petrol on a fire and so she continued louder than before. Éowyn then pleaded saying that it was making her feel sick. The burping continued and so Éowyn completed her side of the bargain and vomited in the kitchen. A one-off you may think. Not so. A couple of days later the Éowyn and Amélie were sharing their nightly bath when Amélie’s milk protein intolerance made its presence felt on her digestive system and she passed wind. ‘Mum!‘ Éowyn shouted, ‘Amélie’s farted, and it’s disgusting!‘ Lucinda obviously found this extremely amusing but then the humour changed. ‘Mum! It stinks! It’s making me feel sick!‘ Remembering the previous incident Lucinda tried to react but not quick enough and Éowyn vomited in the bath. Not quite as funny now.
So as you may have guessed Amélie still has milk protein intolerance. However, it does not seem as bad as it was and we are gradually introducing her to more and more foods with cow’s milk protein. Unfortunately, every now and then she has a bit too much and it leaves her with an upset stomach and noxious flatulence are the usual results. Poor girl, I hope she continues to grow out of it.
Amélie is a a cutey and more of a girlie-girl than her big sister. After playing with her older cousins she has developed a liking for nail varnish. Not that we endorse it as such and we try and keep her away from Lucinda’s collection. Unfortunately that isn’t always possible and I came downstairs last week to Amélie greeting me with outstretched fingers. ‘Look Daddy, I have pretty nails.‘ From her second knuckle down her fingers were purple, the tabletop was purple and there was a stench of nail varnish in the air. Fortunately it was nowhere else and was still wet and so could be cleaned up with relative ease. The nail varnish is now under lock and key!
Lucinda’s bump is still growing (2cm bigger than average) and our son is a little wiggler. I don’t think he gives Lucinda much rest and I hope that this isn’t the pattern that is going to continue into his first few months of life. He doesn’t like his environment being restrained at all. If Lucinda puts anything on her bump, he will kick it off. If you put your hand on her bump he will give you a good kick. We have encouraged the girls to touch Lucinda’s bump and Amélie will kiss the bump while Éowyn will put her hand on the bump. When she receives the obligatory kick she doesn’t get upset, she just says that is him saying hello. Which is a nice way of thinking about it.
So the countdown enters it’s final phase and still Lucinda’s bag is not packed and the house feels far from ready to accept a fifth inhabitant, so I will leave you here (with a very poor number of photos) and get on with the list of tasks that I have been given.
Peace and Love
Baggie
