2009

Nine months old

Thursday 23rd July 2009Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

It seems a while since I updated the blog, so apologies to all you regular readers. The heatwave has left us and the weather has returned to a more expected British summer and Éowyn has settled into a really fun phase at the moment. She is sleeping through the night (let’s hope that hasn’t jinxed it) and her teething has subsided once again, (still no teeth!) Her separation anxiety has diminished somewhat. Obviously she still likes to know where her parents are, but if there is someone entertaining her or she is engrossed in play then she is not quite as clingy until she realises that she is not sure where Mum and Dad have gone. Will keep you all up to date with how that progresses.

There are some incidences in all of our lives when there seems to be something guiding our way, or looking out for us. Some people regard it the hand of a deity, others: fate and others dismiss it entirely. I’m not sure exactly what it is but when it happens I get a warm a fuzzy feeling inside, although that could be wind. The latest example of this kind of coincidence, revolves around our choice of child minder. As you may be aware, when Lucinda returns to work we will require a small amount of child care. Unfortunately, as we both work shift patterns this will not be the same day every week and it seems that most nurseries/ child-minders only accept set days each week and we are only looking for around 4-6 days a month.

When Lucinda was a child she would quite often stay at her nanny Vera’s (after whom Éowyn takes her middle name). Lucinda obviously enjoyed the attention that she would receive from her nan but also enjoyed playing with a girl, Jo who was a neighbour of Vera’s. When nanny Vera passed away there was no reason for Lucinda to visit that part of Staines and a childhood friendship was lost. Fast forward twenty-odd years and one of Lucinda’s friends, Liz, that we met through NCT is best friends with Jo. Jo it turns out is a registered child-minder who maybe able to take Éowyn under her wing.

Liz’s son, James, was Baptised on 12th July and Jo, being a close friend of Liz, was there and so we had an opportunity to meet her. Me for the first time and Lucinda for the first time since the early 1980’s! Lucinda and Jo seemed to turn the clock back and were soon catching up on two decades of gossip. Jo impressed us with her attitude to child-minding and the activities that she does with the kids in her care and she is exactly what we were looking for in a child-minder. So whether is is the finger of fate, nanny Vera keeping an eye on her great-granddaughter or just coincidence we have hopefully found the best answer to one of the major worries when returning to work, who is going to look after your child.

Lucinda and Jenny took Éowyn and Leo to Syon house to play in the Snakes and Ladders soft play area for children and toddlers. Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed herself especially the ball pit and on the bouncy castle. Fortunately as the schools had not yet broken for the summer holiday there was space each of the areas for the little ones to play safely. I don’t think that this will be the case for the next few weeks, so I will have to wait until September until I can have a go! As you can see from the photos, Éowyn did not want to leave, although it completely wore her out and she slept soundly that afternoon.

Éowyn took charge of her first vehicle. While we were on holiday in Noss Mayo Lucinda won some Early Learning Centre vouchers and so we wanted to make good use of them. Therefore after much deliberation we decided on the Smart Trike. It will hopefully last her many years as it grows from a parent controlled fancy pushchair to a fully working pedal trike. As you can see from the photos below she loves it and that first journey to Nan and Granddad’s is one that she will make many times on her trike.

Monday marked our second wedding anniversary. Unfortunately I was working but Lucinda and Éowyn paid me a visit and we went for lunch, but not before the girls in the office got to play with Éowyn. Éowyn was a little wary, if not scared, at first. This was understandable as it has been many months since she last came to mediahouse and she has become more aware of her surroundings since then. However, after a short time of hiding on daddy she soon was entertaining the girls and demonstrating her many talents. We will endeavour not to leave it quite as long next time.

Please enjoy the new photos both below and on Flickr.

Peace and love
Baggie!

Nanny tells great stories

Shall Granddad tell you a story?

Follow me

James making a break for it

I’ve got all the red ones!

What do the blue ones taste of?

My new trike!

How do you drive this thing?

Kazaam!

They said that this is my new toy!

All I’ve got is this balloon

I am not a number!

Halfway through the year

Wednesday 8th July 2009Baggie

And so another month passes us by; it is amazing how quickly this year is going. However, for the first time in a couple of years we are getting a summer of sorts, which makes it a little more palatable. Yes, for the first time since September 2006 we have had temperatures over 30°C. I was a little amazed when I heard that, especially with the media driven ‘science’ of anthropogenic global warming and ‘carbon pollution’. I’m not going to start bemoaning the level of science in the media and egotistical nature of our species in general but when the government start issuing heatwave warnings, telling people that 30°C is hot and they should put suntan lotion on and drink plenty of water I begin to worry about the world that Éowyn will find herself growing up in.

Lucinda’s meeting with work regarding her return appeared to go rather well. She put forward the hours that she would like when she returns and seemingly, that is possible. We wait confirmation but all looks good at the moment. It will mean that we will only need childcare 4-6 days a month when makes it more than financially viable for Lucinda to return to work and re-enter the world of adults (whether she wants to or not).

It appears that Lucinda is not the only one thinking about returning to work and for some of her friends that date is rapidly approaching whether they are ready or not. It must be a massive culture shock and all in the space of a little under a year. Your career is one of the parameters that people tend to use to define you and indeed, we define ourselves thus; for that to change, to ‘mother’ and back again tends to put it in some kind of perspective.

Éowyn is going through a couple of phases of development at the moment, some of which are not pleasant. She is constantly standing and cruising about the furniture. We think that this is fantastic but it is amazing how far her little arms can stretch and we are finding that more and more has to be moved to higher shelves. She delights in knocking over the Duplo structures that her parents build. I love playing with Lego and it gives me a great excuse to sit on the floor building whatever the limited variety of bricks, my engineering skills and my imagination allow. They don’t usually last very long though and she will quite often demolish them before the full design is realised. She has also learnt to wave goodbye, which is very cute, especially when she wants someone to leave and begins to wave goodbye to them: not very subtle our child. But funny!

With every positive, there must be a negative and she is currently exhibiting a couple of frustrating aspects. Changing her nappy or getting her dressed is becoming more and more of a struggle and more often than not full-scale war. It does not help to know that it is perfectly normal especially since she is too young to reason (or bribe) to stay still. She has also begun to start waking up in the middle of the night again. We at first thought that it was due to the heat, we were struggling ourselves and it must be harder when you have no understanding why it is so uncomfortable. However, we now think that some of it is related to her teeth and the top front teeth seem very close to breaking through the gums. Again, the tag-team combination of bonjela and calpol have been our friends. The worst of the trio of bad habits is her recently developed ‘Separation Anxiety’. Again knowing it is a normal stage doesn’t help when she become almost inconsolably apoplectic. Hopefully she will soon grow out of it otherwise it will make it difficult for Lucinda and I to have any time for ourselves as leaving her with a childminder or at nursery would be a nightmare.

Tuesday saw a visit from our friend Alistair. As you may recall Alistair was the first man to buy her a meal and knowing what a lady likes this time he bought Éowyn a dress. The plan was to go for a walk along the Thames and finish at a pub (as all good walks should) and a nice pub lunch. However, the weather was so hot, and all four of us have pale Celtic skin, we decided to forego the walk (and we didn’t need the government to tell us that!) and head straight for the pub. A good time was had by all.

This has been my short week so I only worked on Wednesday and Thursday, which means I get to see a lot of both my wife and Éowyn. Friday morning, Lucinda and her mom went shopping leaving Éowyn with me to have some father and daughter time. I’m not sure who enjoys that time the most! It will be good practise for when Lucinda goes back to work and I take on more of the childcare, and not just the fun aspects of building Duplo towers and splashing in the paddling pool.

The number of photos taken recently is slowly declining but here are a selection for you to enjoy.

Peace and Love

Baggie!

Just like that!

Wot?

Drinking like a grown up

Smash!

Ha! Ha! I knocked it down!

How do I record CBeebies?

Dad said it was fun!

Just standing, nothing else!

In my seat and have my ball, ready!

First Father's Day

Wednesday 24th June 2009Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

The last couple of weeks have not been so emotional as before the previous write up. Although, in fariness I have been away, again! I must have the most understanding wife in Christendom since this is the second time I have been away. Every year Lucinda’s brother Michael and his friend Neil have been to the Isle of Wight music festival, since it was revived in 2002 and their merry band of hanger-ons has waxed and waned and included me for the first time last year. This year there was five of us and although the line up was not as appealing as in recent years the weather stayed fine and a good time was had by all. Although a weekend away with the lads was great I have to say that I missed being at home, Éowyn is changing so much and growing so quickly that I don’t really want to be away from her for too long! ‘Soppy old git’ I know!

Éowyn is without doubt a little daddy’s girl. On my return from the Isle of Wight I walked into the lounge and she just beamed a smile at me and as I sat on the floor to play with her she just sat a giggled at me. The giggle turned into a full belly laugh, which made me laugh and we just sat there, on the floor, laughing at each other.

Unfortunately, nestled around the trip to the Isle of Wight I have been working and due to the long days I don’t get to see Éowyn as she is usually asleep when I leave for work and in bed when I get back. So the weekend was a chance for us to catch up on each other. I’m not sure who gets the most enjoyment out of those days, her or me. Friday we spent the morning playing, mainly with her Duplo Lego bricks. Well let me rephrase that, I build a tower out of the bricks and Éowyn knocks them down, then picks one up and starts chewing it. Each time she knocked them down I would clap to encourage her and it wasn’t long before she began to ape me and start clapping herself. Very exciting for her to have a new trick. This is coupled with the lip-smacking that she does when either you say ‘Give me a kiss’ or when offering her food that she learnt while I was away in the Isle of Wight.

Friday afternoon saw the three of us at Windsor Leisure centre to take Éowyn swimming. She loves swimming and we are encouraging this as much as possible. It also wears her out, which was our ulterior motive as we were going out on the evening to a friend of ours, Kerry, 30th birthday party. Mike’s (Lucinda’s brother) girlfriend Cristina had bravely offered to baby sit for us. So for only the third time since she has been born we went out for an evening together. Fortunately Éowyn was on her best behaviour and never stirred so Cris had a very easy night and hopefully will volunteer to babysit again!

Kerry’s party was very good especially for Lucinda who saw many of her workmates that she had not seen for a while and was a chance for her to catch up on the gossip. She has a meeting this week in an attempt to work out when she is going back to work and in what capacity. She is not due back until the end of September the year is zooming by and it is best to sort these things out sooner than later. It is hardly credible that Éowyn is 8 months old but she passed that landmark in the week and it is hard to imagine life without her.

Sunday marked my first Father’s day but Éowyn did not mark it well. She had gone to bed on Saturday night with a bit of a temperature, and a concerned newbie parents when we went to bed a few hours later we checked on her to see if she was still hot. She was and so we tried to take some of the covers from her and she woke. As she was still quite hot and now awake we decided it was probably best if we gave her some calpol to help bring the temperature down and hoping help her sleep. Éowyn was having different idea. It was 0430 before she decided that she would finally go to sleep. Not the best of Father’s day presents. She woke at 0800 the next morning. The lack of sleep and slight temperature was making her crabby and she fought her morning nap, only falling asleep at 1100. We had been invited around to Mike”s house for a barbeque to take advantage of the good weather and to celebrate Father’s day as a family with Steve and his family and Lucinda’s parents also invited. At 1330 Éowyn was still asleep and so we had to wake her and feed her so that we could get round Mike’s for 1400.

It was nice for Éowyn, even though she was still a little crabby, to see all her cousins again and they are getting more excited about her because she can now begin to play. It will not be long before she is chasing after them and getting in their way and upsetting their games.

And finally congratulations to a friend from work Ian and his wife Debbie on the birth of their daughter Millie Jennifer on Saturday 20th June. Welcome to fatherhood Ian.

Peace and Love

Baggie!