2016

A quick term time catch up

Friday 23rd September 2016Friday 23rd September 2016Baggie

I am really spoiling you with all these updates of late. Mostly trying to catch up on the Summer holidays, which seems a little strange as we tiptoe into Autumn (Fall – for our North American viewers). Obviously the last topic deserved an update all of its own, however I thought that a quick catch up was probably necessary to get you up to speed with the goings on over the first few weeks of term.

As alluded to in the previous posts I have been busy at work. This is always the case with the beginning of the football seasons but tagged on to that has been UHD (4k if you must – although I am inclined to argue with you that point out that you are wrong on that account), IBC and the World Cup qualifiers to name but three. The other members of the family have been busy too. All three children have returned back to school; Éowyn has returned to Brownies; Amélie to Rainbows and Lucinda has the return of the after school wards in her childminding career.

Lucinda has been given the nod that Ofsted have her in her sights for her first proper inspection since the first one when she started childminding. Ofsted puts the panic into all institutions when they announce that they are coming for an inspection, whether you are the best school in the area or a childminder trying to carve out a career that allows you to spend some time with your own family. So it is for Lucinda. Childminding isn’t just minding children, you have to demonstrate the methods that you are using to educate the children, keep them safe (including creating risk assessments for every activity type) while noting their development and any signs of abuse. The amount of paperwork involved is enormous.

Lucinda had been using an app with an external database to keep all her observations on her wards’ development in an attempt to ease the amount of paperwork that she needed to produce. Unfortunately at the end of the Summer during an update the company suffering a catastrophic corruption of its database and all work from the last 18 months (including the whole of Lucinda’s work on all her wards) was lost! Needless to say this has put more pressure on her for although Ofsted would no doubt understand, she is frantically trying to at least have some semblance of progress on good ol’ fashioned paper.

Although I am currently in the midst of six days off work – hence the avalanche of updates on this site – I have had one other day off during September. The girls had an inset day on the first Monday of September and so I took the day off work to spend some time with them, as I hadn’t all Summer. I dropped Ezra off at school (poor lad still had to go) and after a detour to the Genius Bar in the local Apple Store where Lucinda got a replacement phone we headed to the swimming pool in Windsor. We had asked the girls what they would like to do on a day off with Daddy and swimming was the unanimous reply. Both girls have swimming lessons but Amélie’s progress was being halted by her lack of confidence in ducking her head under the water. This was the first time that Lucinda and I had been swimming with them since their lessons had begun and so it was the first opportunity to attempt to give her this confidence.

Éowyn is happy to go beneath the surface and was trying her best to encourage Amélie to do the same. Lucinda and I both showed her that there was nothing to be worried about, but to no avail. So then I brought out evil Dad. I was encouraging her to jump up and down in the water with assistance from me as we jumped up I pulled her into the water with me and her head went under. I immediately jumped back up so that there was no time for panic or to be frightened and I braced myself for the reaction. It could not have been any better. ‘That’s fun!‘ she enthused, ‘Let’s do it again!‘ She then proceeded to spend more time under the water’s surface than above it and she is well and truly over that stage of swimming. Back over to the professionals.

Swimming lessons are Saturday morning and the Leisure centre is behind their school, so six days a week you will find us on our short walk through the park. It is still a delight not to have to join the mêlée that is the school run, fighting for a car park space; simply leave the house 5-10 minutes (15 minutes for poor Ezra – his school is a little further away) before you want to arrive and you are there.

All three are still enjoying school. Éowyn has had two Bronze Awards while Amélie has done slightly better with a Bronze and a Silver. Although in Éowyn’s defence, Amélie has also only effectively had two Bronze awards but because the rules are slightly different in Amélie’s class she was given a silver for the second Bronze award. In Éowyn’s class you have to move from Bronze to Silver (and then from Silver to Gold) in the same day, for Amélie you stay on Bronze for a fortnight and any subsequent Bronze awards will take you to the next level, in Amélie’s case Silver.

The other early term achievement that they both have attained is to move up a reading level each. No difference in rules here, just hard work and practise by both our girls. In addition, to the Bronze awards and upward movement in reading levels Éowyn has also received 10/10 for both of her spelling tests so far this term. The Baguettes are doing well. This is in no small part to the fact that both girls like their new teachers. It is always hard moving up a year and leaving behind a teacher that you really loved and we feared, especially for Amélie, that this would be difficult. This doesn’t seem to have happened as both seem very happy with their new tutors. The only difficulty that Amélie is currently struggling with is the lack of free time to play. In reception they have more freedom to explore learning through play and more time to simply play. In year 1 that is no longer the case. Lessons are a bit more structured and they can’t just sit in a corner and play with Sticklebricks. It is a sad indictment of what is wrong in the world.

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to play when we are six,

With dolls, Lego and Sticklebricks.

Apologies to William Henry Davies.

We are obviously very proud of the girls academic achievements so far this academic year and poor Ezra hasn’t really begun his educational journey however that doesn’t stop him demonstrating his intellectual prowess, sometimes to the detriment of others, in the following example: me. Myself and Ezra were in the kitchen and I was getting breakfast. ‘What would you like for Breakfast, Ezra?‘ I asked. ‘I can make you toast, a crumpet, cereal,‘ and then I spied the bag of pastries by the bread bin; making an assumption regarding the contents I continued the menu: ‘or you can have a brioche.‘ (Very continental the Bagnall household!) Ezra replied that we would like a brioche and without a second thought I took one of the pastries from the bag, placed in on a plate and put in on the table before him.

In the tones of one who, not only can not believe the lack of knowledge of the other party but is thoroughly disappointed with the offering before him, Ezra dismissively said: ‘Daddy, this is not a brioche, this is a pain au chocolat!’ I have not felt so rebuked in such a long time.

Ezra has however taken a step towards full-time education not in any academical way but in terms of his pre-school booster vaccinations. He now has had his full course of recommended inoculations until he becomes a teenager – unless we decide to go anywhere exotic on holiday! We had told him that he was going and the nurse would put some special medicine into his blood to make him big and strong. We also promised him that if he was a big brave boy we would take him to the toy shop where he could choose a toy. He seemed to know exactly what he wanted, so that was a good focus for the visit to the health centre. We arrived on time but the clinic was running about 30 minutes late so the most difficult part was keeping him entertained in the waiting room. The nurse was very good and Ezra was extremely brave – I think he said ouch once (he had two injections) and only complained that his arms hurt after I had put his shirt back on. I think it might have been a ploy to extract another sticker from the nurse (he left with three across his chest and certificate of bravery). He then told the nurse he was going to go into Staines and get a dinosaur. Thoroughly deserved.

As we stepped into the toy shop he made a bee line for the toy that he wanted: a roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was on special offer and a bargain, so there were no negotiations and Daddy duly handed over the money and rewarded Ezra for being the brave boy he said he was going to be.

With Amélie’s birthday just around the corner you can probably expect another update in the not-too-distant future – I am really spoiling you this month!

Peace and Love

Baggie

Catniss wannabe

Before the glasses

Surprise!

Glasses, and a smile

Looking studious

Haven’t stopped me being cheeky

Watching Amélie

Come and join me

Sisters on the dance floor

Crazy sisters

Bundle!

Strange reflection

Puppy love

The Tiki Hut

Make a wish

Hello Toffee

A boy and his Guinea Pig

Just chilling

Aye, Eye(?) Capt’n

Thursday 22nd September 2016Baggie

The catch up of the Summer break continues, but this deserves a page all of its own. One of the many things we had been meaning to do and Lucinda finally managed to tick off the list over the summer was to take the girls to the opticians. Both Lucinda and I wear glasses so the chances that our children will need corrective lenses of some sort in the future is likely to be high. As neither of the girls had ever complained about fuzzy vision and neither have any problems watching the television, iPad or reading we never thought of it as a high priority. However two things changed our minds and hence why we took them to the opticians to have their first professional check up. The first was that Éowyn mentioned that occasionally she sees flashing lights in the corner of her eye. Obviously this concerned us and so we felt it was imperative that she received an appointment. The second was a seemingly throw away comment on Amélie’s reception year check up. All children in the reception year receive a checkup, it is a general all-purpose check up but at least it may highlight issues while they are still young. Amélie’s report said that she may have a lazy left eye. Not really knowing what this was, and it sounds innocuous enough, we dismissed it a little but thought that the optician would be able to explain it a little more.

Lucinda was unable to get both girls an appointment at the opticians at the same time so Amélie, that we were not so worried about, went first. She covered her left eye and read the whole chart with her right eye – perfect vision. Then the shock came. She covered her right eye and tried to read the chart with her left eye and couldn’t even make out the first letter on the top line, not just a lazy eye, but a bone idle eye. Amélie was upset and so was Lucinda. We had no idea that her eyesight in her left eye was so bad. She had never complained and it hadn’t affected her reading, indeed she is top of her class for reading.

Amblyopia (the medical term for Lazy Eye) is relatively common and occurs when one of the yes fails to develop properly and so the brain relies on the ‘good eye’. It is difficult to detect until the child is old enough to have a sight test (around the age of 4) because the eyes are still developing. The younger a child is when treatment starts the better the chance of curing the condition. The good side of amblyopia is that it is not a physical problem, as such (although an underlying physical issue can have caused the amblyopia in the first place), it is a problem with how the brain processes the images from that eye. Therefore, it is possible to reverse the effects though non-invasive procedures.

The first part of the treatment is to be prescribed corrective lenses, to encourage the brain to use the eye because it will be receiving useful images. Amélie was at the opticians and so she was measured for glasses and they were ordered. The report from the optician was sent to the local hospital so that an appointment with an ophthalmologist can review the treatment and suggest treatments and exercises. The most likely treatment will be patch therapy where the ‘good eye’ is covered with a plaster to force the ‘lazy eye’ to work. This retrains the brain to start using the eye again and with the corrective lens in her glasses this should reaffirm that brain/eye connection.

Although Amélie is nearly six and thus may be a little older than is ideal for catching the condition, she is still young enough to respond well to treatment. We are just waiting for the hospital appointment and our chat with the ophthalmologist to fully understand the next stage.

Obviously Amélie was upset but choosing two pairs of glasses cheered her up a little. She is also concerned about the patch therapy (even though we haven’t started it yet) and whether the other children at school will laugh at her. I told her that she would be a pirate princess and that she would be able to make up some stories about her adventures on the high seas. This seemed to work but we will have to wait until she begins the therapy to see how that goes. She has begun to wear her glasses though and being five and six years old none of the other children have bothered her about them. They are all very accepting. Let’s hope the same can be said when she starts coming into school with an eye-patch.

Lucinda and I have both been on a bit of guilt trip about it because we feel as parents we should have known. I suppose one of the many gifts you are given when you have children is parental guilt. We could have, and perhaps should have taken her to the opticians earlier in the year but the outcome would have still be the same, but at least she would be further down the treatment path. We keep thinking should we have noticed. She doesn’t have any problems reading or watching screens. She can catch a ball and doesn’t show any lack of stereoscopic vision. Indeed if it wasn’t for the opticians tests we still wouldn’t know. I suppose we could have asked her to cover her eyes and ask her to read an eye chart but, and maybe we are strange here, we don’t have one hung on our living room wall. All we can do is help her through this and ensure that she follows the ophthalmologist and optician’s recommendations and hopefully in six to nine months it will be just one of those phases that has no far-reaching consequences. She has been through worse with her cow’s milk protein intolerance so she is made of stern stuff and she will no doubt come through this with hopefully 20/20 vision by her seventh birthday. As always, I will keep you updated through the medium of this website.

So, with that happening in the morning and with the Baguette that we didn’t think had a problem Lucinda was more than a little trepidatious to go back that afternoon with Éowyn. As you may recall from the top of this page, Éowyn had complained that she had seen flashing lights in the corner of her eye. This obviously rings alarm bells and the optician ran through a barrage of tests to ensure that there were no underlying causes for these lights. After nearly two hours of testing the optician could find no problems with Éowyn’s eyes. She has 20/20 vision and there were no physical reasons that she would have seen flashing lights and since it only happened once she put it down to one of those things. She did caveat this with ‘Do not hesitate to bring her straight back if she sees the lights again.‘ something that I really don’t think that she needed to say to us!

So we wait with bated breath for the hospital appointment to discover the regimen prescribed by the ophthalmologist to hopefully restore Amélie’s eyesight to 20/20, but in the meantime there will be plenty of photos of our bespectacled daughter gracing the pages of this corner of the internet. The photo below is from the day she picked them up.

Peace and Love

Baggie

A belated end to the Summer holidays

Tuesday 20th September 2016Tuesday 20th September 2016Baggie

A second update (bisected by the obligatory ‘First day back at school’ post) to try to make amends for the dearth of updates over the summer. This is the follow-up to The Pox, The Summer and a Trip to Nanny Fran’s which covered much of the six week holiday and fills in the gaps at the end of that break to allow me to show off the photos that somehow we have managed to take on the precious few days I had actually managed to be off with the Baguettes over the Summer. This was meant to have been posted a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately with a long continuous stint at work this has been further belated to the third week of term, I am hoping that the 30 photos at the bottom will allow you to forgive me!

With a position that requires working at the weekend, it means that my ‘weekend’ moves to mid-week. When the Baguettes are at school, that is a problem, however during the school holidays it matters not and indeed is a little bit of a godsend when planning days out. So with two days off in a row (a rarity at this time of the year for me, especially so soon after a weekend off – I am being spoilt) we decided to take full advantage.

We woke on the first of those days to a cloudless blue sky. Lucinda was working so her ward joined us on a trip to Bushy Park, near Hampton Court. It appeared to be a very popular choice and we were extremely fortunate to find a car parking space. Indeed, when we left there was almost a fight over our space. Nevertheless we parked up and took a short walk across the park to the children’s play area. Factor 50 had been duly applied and so we were good to spend time under the August sun.

The children’s play area in Bushy park is well equipped with the usual slides and swings but also has a hug sandpit. Two adults with four children should be fine but the excitement of the such a large play area with so many different things to distract the attention, it took all our effort to shepherd them in pairs, two each. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves playing on the various equipment, swings, slides and climbing frames. We took our picnic in the shade of a wall and while they all ate their picnic fittle we could see the other parents and childminders having the same battles with their wards as we had just had. As they had all eaten well and had been relatively well-behaved it was only right and proper that we had an ice cream. So we wandered into the park itself and spent a fortune at the local Mr Whippy Ice cream van. Again, searching for shade we sat down under a large oak tree in an attempt to give the children enough time to eat them before they melted in the heat.

As Brits we should know that one should not rely on the British weather, even in the Summer. The next day we decided that we would head to the seaside and meet up with Lucinda’s Uncle David and Auntie Sally in Middleton on Sea. As we know we should not rely on the weather, equally we are not put off by it and so undaunted we headed South. Uncle David and Auntie Sally live a short walk from the beach and with some uncertainty over the weather after a drink and the obligatory biscuits we headed to the beach. The tide was in and it was amazing how little of the beach was left, just a ten or so metres of pebbles. Nevertheless it did not stop us taking full advantage before heading back to Uncle David and Auntie Sally’s house for a spot of home-made lunch.

Despite signs to the contrary the weather brightened up in the afternoon so after lunch we headed back to the beach. In the couple of hours that we were away the tide had gone out and revealed a couple of hundred metres of sand. It was amazing the difference and the Baguettes took full advantage of the wet sand. Indeed it was only for the promise of cakes and drinks that they would leave the beach for Uncle David and Auntie Sally’s beach hut. It was only as we sat outside their beach hut eating Fondant Fancies and drinking tea (how very British!) that we realised the time. It was definitely time to head back home if we were going to get back at a reasonable hour. The day had just flown by and so we tidied and headed back to Uncle David and Auntie Sally’s to load the Baguettes back into the car. We had a fantastic time and promised not to leave it as long next time. We keep saying that to people, hopefully we can keep the promise.

The neighbour’s extension is nearly done. They were hoping to have it done by the beginning of September and Cath’s 40th birthday. Unfortunately, that deadline was missed however it did not stop the birthday celebrations and they had a fantastic party in their back garden to which we were invited. We have also joined in the construction party with the erection of a Tiki Hut. Officially it is a thatched wooden gazebo but the best description is a Tiki Hut. We ordered it back in May, ostensibly for the Summer, so we are a tad disappointed that it finally got installed at the beginning of September. Nevertheless it is an investment for the kids to play in and for us to entertain so it will get plenty of use, even in the winter.

We had a slight drama for a week or so when Lucinda was without her phone after throwing it down the toilet. It wasn’t out of any form of frustration but one of those one in a thousand slips. She had seen that one of the Baguettes had left the toilet lid up and went to close it, slightly lost her balance as she entered the bathroom and somehow threw her phone in the air. It flew, in seemingly slow motion, and landed straight down the bowl. Luckily the toilet water was clean but it did not stop it killing her phone. A trip to the Genius Bar, a claim on our mobile phone insurance and a £50 excess and she has a new phone.

Once again I apologise for this post arriving nearly a month later that I expected it to, but the start of the Premier League season, and the unexpected arrival of UHD has meant that I have had precious few days off. I now have nearly a week off so expect a couple of posts over the next week or so. If you cast you memory back to the antepenultimate post you may remember that we decorated the girl’s bedroom while they were at Nanny Fran’s, you can see some of the photos of the fruits of our labour below. The girls still love their room, even if the promise of keeping it tidy has long been forgotten. There are lots of other photos of our recent activities on Flickr if you are bored, but for now…

Peace and Love

Baggie