Sorry, I got your hopes up then didn’t I? No we are still waiting for his arrival, the new addition to the family of which I speak is the new car. Bertie Beast (as the girls have named it) is now a part of our family. Nellie Bug (Lucinda’s Nissan Micra) has been replace by Bertie Beast (Lucinda’s new-ish S-Max). It was a sad day to see Nellie Bug emptied of all personal possessions and left on a strange garage forecourt. This was tempered by actually driving the Beast away and playing with all the gadgets that it has. It took a while to make the decision as to which MPV (7-seater) to buy; we decided that the S-Max was the best fit. It then has taken a while (Lucinda’s appendicitis put pay to the first attempt at buying a car) until we found the actual car with all the extras that we wanted for the price that we could afford. We are very pleased with our new arrival.
It was the first time that the girls experienced such a change in their lives. Lucinda and I have both had the same cars for the girls’ lives and thus it must be quite a strange experience for them to see something that has been quite a big part of their lives left at a strange place while we drive off in a new car. Éowyn has experienced hire cars (and vans) and so leaving our car behind to drive off with a new one wasn’t a novel idea but not taking it back and picking up ‘our‘ car most certainly is. Éowyn is obviously a little older and so we can explain the situation to her and she takes it on board, comprehending a new experience. Amélie, on the other hand, isn’t really old enough to completely grasp the notion. It must have been playing on her mind because a couple of days after we had picked up the Beast she said ‘Mommy, I really miss Nellie-Bug.‘ It nearly broke Lucinda’s heart.
As I mentioned in the last write up the girls are now sharing the same room, in bunk beds. This is quite a change for both of them. Éowyn now sleeps five feet (1.5 metres) off the ground and needs to climb a ladder to go to sleep (or descend it to go to the toilet). Amélie has moved from a cot (with sides) to the bottom bunk of a bunk bed, a full sized bed. They both have to adapt to sharing a room and the disturbances that this brings. So far it has not been too bad. Initially they kept themselves awake talking and shining their torches at each other, but since this beginning the novelty has worn off they go to bed and for the most part of it go to sleep quite quickly and stay asleep until dawn.
That is not to say they have slept through the night every night, but then neither did they do so when they had separate rooms. Amélie, especially has woke us a number of times recently crying and visibly upset although she has been very much asleep. This, we think, is because she has started to dream vivid dreams, her subconscious attempting to make sense of the day’s experiences. Éowyn went through a very similar stage at about the same age and although they are very much reduced in frequency she still has them occasionally, then again so does Lucinda.
Although both girls have seemingly adapted to sharing a room quite quickly it would be nice, especially when they get older, for them to have separate rooms. Not that three bedrooms is a bad thing but we live in a terraced house and so the communal rooms aren’t massive either and so we are on the look out for a larger house, ideally four bedrooms, but anything with more space and room to expand into. Unfortunately, houses that fit that description in the areas we want for the price that we can afford are few and far between. Unless one has a bottomless pit of money there is always compromise whenever you buy something. For instance the S-Max was a compromise as it was a year older than we would have preferred (to be honest I would have preferred a new one but that was completely out of the question) and silver (not the colour that Lucinda wanted) but ticked the remainder of the boxes. With houses there are more boxes that need ticking and although we have been to see a number of houses lately the compromises that they have are just too great at the moment. This will probably have to be put on the back burner until junior is a little older as he will be unashamedly (and rightly) hog our attention for the next few months.
However the challenge over the next few months will be to get the balance correct and share our time with the girls. This onus will probably fall on me more than Lucinda as she will be taking more of the bulk of baby care. Not that I am a shy of doing my share and I am sure that regular readers of this website will testify. Every now and then though Lucinda will throw me by changing the goal posts. This happened at breakfast last week. I asked the girls what they wanted for breakfast and Amélie asked for ‘Crocodile feet‘. I laughed because I thought she was being funny. Now that sounds precocious for a two year old but the girls play a game where they pretend to be waitresses and take a food order from all the adults in the room. They pretend to write the order down and then return with the order a short while later. It is a good game to test their memories and I like to push the boundaries so instead of the more usual ‘ham sandwich’ or ‘spaghetti bolognese’ I try to gross them our with items such as ‘Rhinoceros Toenails’ or ‘Camel eyelash sandwiches’ which the girls find hilariously funny. Thus when Amélie said ‘Crocodile feet’ I thought she was doing the same. However when I opened the cupboard with the cereal boxes in I found a new cereal in the coco pops family called Croc prints which are crocodile feet shaped chocolate covered cereals. She knew what she wanted.
Before the snow returns (yes really!) at the weekend we have had a couple of vernal days with temperatures hitting 17ºC and so I took full advantage performing the first mow of the year. Thus the garden is ready for the next new arrival even if the house isn’t fully there yet. At least Lucinda’s bag is packed and the S-Max is fully fuelled, let’s just hope that the snow that is forecast isn’t too deep or brings the traffic to a standstill at the wrong time!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there and let us see if the little one will appear on his due date. So stand by for I believe that the next write up will be the one you are after until then
Peace and Love
Baggie
Not many photos but here are the girls saying goodbye to Nellie-Bug
