2013

Daddy’s 40th Birthday Present – Poll

Saturday 23rd March 2013Baggie

With the success of my first poll, I have decided to ask your opinion once again. This time it doesn’t carry the lifetime importance of the name of my first born son but merely garnering opinion on the best car to drive. For my 40th birthday my family bought me a supercar experience day out. To take place at Chobham race track at a time and date still to be booked I will get the chance to drive a super car of my choice for 6 miles (3 laps) of the race track.

Therefore the question is do I go for the finesse of the Ferrari, the style of the Lamborghini, the elegance of the Aston Martin or the raw power of the Ariel Atom?

Which supercar should I drive?

Ariel Atom (42%, 22 Votes)
Aston Martin V8 Vantage (40%, 21 Votes)
Audi R8 (9%, 5 Votes)
Ferrari 360 (4%, 2 Votes)
Lamborghini Gallardo (4%, 2 Votes)
Porsche 997 Turbo (2%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 53

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I am leaving this to run for a couple of months, indeed until I actually go to Chobham and climb into the car, so there is no need to rush.

Many thanks for your input

Baggie

Daddy’s 40th

Thursday 21st March 2013Monday 25th March 2013Baggie

And so the Bagnall family celebrates its second momentous event of the month, indeed the week: my 40th birthday. On the vernal equinox 1973, the joyous strains of Slade were sitting at the top of the UK single charts and I made my appearance in this world. There have been plenty of ups and downs over the past four decades and anyone that has lived this long will have their own stories and this website is mine.

The day before my birthday we spent a quietish day mostly at home. We ventured as far as the other side of the village to Nanny and Granddad’s for tea and buns to allow Nanny an Ezra cuddle while I gave Granddad his latest computer lesson on his laptop. Then in the evening Ezra finally met his last Uncle and Auntie (Michael and Cristina) who had been on a snowboarding holiday when he was born. He is well and truly a fully paid up member of the Cathrall-Bagnall clan.

The next day was my birthday. So this is fortieth birthday I have celebrated, some have involved beer, some have involved tears, most have involved cake this is the first that has involved a week old baby. Quite often one has a long list of wants for their birthday, this birthday was slightly different all I really really wanted was a good night’s sleep. Thankfully Ezra is a very contented baby, he has not been too much trouble so far (I hope that hasn’t put the collybosh on that). He sleeps, he eats, he poops and he only cries when he is hungry. He is a very different newborn to both Éowyn and Amélie, in a good way.

So how did I celebrate this momentous occasion? After a relevantly good night’s sleep (thank you Ezra) and after the girls gave me my card and presents I took Éowyn to school and the little egret that we first spotted the day of Ezra’s birth saw us off. While I was taking Éowyn to school Lucinda cooked me a full English breakfast while I opened my cards and presents. The pick of my presents was from my family and it is a super car driving experience at Chobham test track. To be booked for some time this years I get to tear round a race track in one of six cars that I can only ever dream of owning. I think I know which one I hope to drive but after the success of the naming poll I may just open it up to my readers to see which one you guys would chose.

Then the excitement of my birthday moved up a notch as we left Amélie at Nanny and Granddad’s while the three of us (Lucinda, Ezra and I) headed for lunch in Windsor after buying a new vacuum cleaner (not a hoover, as some may call it, a Dyson to be accurate, a DC34 Animal to be precise). We know how to live.

The evening saw us at Nanny and Granddad’s for dinner, we were joined by Uncle Michael and Auntie Cristina and Lauren. Unfortunately the evening was cut a little short as Amélie wasn’t feeling very well. Indeed by the time we got her home she was running a temperature of 39.4ºC – scarily approaching the 40ºC when you should be heading to hospital. We put her to bed and dosed her up with Calpol and monitored her temperature every hour. The Calpol did its job. She was still hot but at least her temperature was coming down.

Ezra slept well the night of my birthday again, going 5 hours between feeds, unfortunately Amélie did not. She was still feeling the effects of her illness. This could be a precursor of our future lives. Even if the youngest member of our family sleeps there are still two older children that may not.

Thursday seemed to disappear. Again Éowyn went to school while we took Amélie to sing-song time at Staines library. She still wasn’t fully herself but she really enjoys the sing song time and so we thought it was important to take her. She seemed to perk up after that but the illness had one final twist before bedtime. Without going into all the gory details part of me was quite glad that she was wearing tights for it was contained. However part of me wished she hadn’t been wearing tights for it was contained. I cleaned her up and a quick bath followed by Calpol and she is back in bed. Hopefully she has now turned the corner and hasn’t passed it on to any of us, especially Ezra who she delights in holding and kissing.

Although Thursday did seem to vanish quickly we did manage to make a number of important appointments including organising a time for the Health Visitor to check in and at the local registry office so that we can officially make Ezra a member of our country.

So I hope I haven’t bored you, with a week old baby it was never going to be the most adventurous of birthdays but nevertheless I have probably never been more happy. Before I leave you to view the photos here is one anecdote that might raise a smile. On my birthday morning I said to Amélie, ‘Who’s Daddy’s gorgeous girl?‘

Amélie folded her arms stamped her feet and replied, ‘I am NOT a gorgeous girl! I’m a cheeky monkey!‘ This may change when she is a little older.

Peace and love

Baggie

Sleepy close up

Snow White and Ezra

A kiss for my brother

Sleeping baby

Who woke me?

No photos please

Little Egret

Cheeky Sister

Happy birthday Daddy

Auntie Cris

Rainbow baby

Daddy and his kids

A good night’s sleep

Monday 18th March 2013Baggie

It has been a couple of days so I feel that I owe you a quick update and some more photos (OK it’s just the photos that you are here for isn’t it?). The last time you heard from me was Saturday night so what has happened over the last couple of days?

It is not very often that one of the most exciting things that happens to this family is sleep but that is exactly what happened on Saturday night. Ezra is less than a week old so we are fully prepared for sleep depravation however Ezra threw us a curved ball by sleeping for just over 5 hours on his fourth night in the big wide world. Yes, unlike his sisters Ezra simply eats and sleeps (and poops) at the moment. He seems very contented and only cries when it is food time. Now maybe this is due to the fact that we are more confident parents and he senses this; maybe it is because he is a boy or maybe it is just him.

So was this just a one-off? Perhaps a little too early to tell yet and although he didn’t last quite as long last night again he woke when he was hungry, fed, then went back to sleep. We can not ask for any more from him.

So Sunday morning we awoke feeling more human and somewhat surprised and ready to receive visitors. If Saturday was the turn of the Bagnall side then Sunday it was the ‘Badger’ side’s turn to meet the newest member of the family. Lucinda’s brother Steve and his family popped round early afternoon. This meant that Ezra had met (and had a cuddle from) all of his first cousins. This included Finley his only male cousin and the original owner of some of his clothes.

Then Lucinda’s mum’s sisters, Aunties Sally and Diana came round with Adam and Lucy and John. Again Ezra was very well behaved although his sisters were a little over-excited. It must be very difficult for them because they are no longer the centre of attention when people come round. We are trying to involve them in everything but obviously Ezra is the draw and they know that.

Both Éowyn and Amélie have been brilliant with him though. They both fight over wanting to hold him and sit with a cushion on their lap and have quickly learnt to support his head. Amélie especially will sit for an extended period holding her little brother, stroking his head and kissing him. She is very cute, if at times a little heavy handed but that is to be expected and we obviously supervise them when they have him.

We have spent a very quiet Monday at home getting used to being a family. The rain, hail and thunderstorms were a deterrent for even making it up the road to Nanny and Granddad’s. Our family enclave was only invaded once by the 5 day check up by the local midwives. They examined Ezra and took blood via the blood spot (heel prick) test. This upset Éowyn thinking that these strange people who had come into our house were hurting her little brother. Fortunately although it looked painful he was feeding and must have had his mind on better things because he didn’t even flinch.

They checked Lucinda and made sure that all was well with her and then finally weighed Ezra. He weighed in at a surprising 3.92kgs (8lbs 10oz); he had only lost 92 grams. This is excellent, it means that he is feeding well and we will be more content to let him sleep rather than fretting that he has slept for 5 hours! A new born baby can lose up to 10% of their birth weight before the medical profession get too worried. At this rate Ezra will probably surpass his birth weight on my birthday and definitely by his next weigh-in on Saturday.

So as I sit here with Ezra sleeping on my chest I will leave you to enjoy the latest crop of photos.

Love and Peace

Baggie