Work is still gearing up for its busiest period for me, the conclusion to all the football seasons and the inevitable last day of the season shenanigans.  Hence the lack of exciting trips and a dearth of photos to delight you with this time, hopefully as my busiest period comes to an end I can begin to spend a little more time with the family.

Work was in the way of seeing Nanny Fran for her birthday but not so the following weekend.  So although Lucinda was working until the afternoon the house was full of travelling Bagnalls, as Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz made their way down from West Bromwich and Auntie Mary across county from Woking.  Éowyn is always exciting when Nanny Fran and her Aunties visit and this was no exception.  She even tidied her toys away before they came.  I think as soon as Amélie comprehends the notion that people can plan a visit, (i.e. grasp the idea of the future) then she, too, will get over-excited at the proposal of a visit from Nanny Fran.  With Nanny Fran retiring at the end of the year then it is quite possible that those visitis will become more frequent.

Éowyn entertained her elder relatives with Amélie as support act.  Éowyn even let Auntie Liz plait her hair, something that she will not let Mommy or Daddy do, but it is Auntie Liz!  They also cheated Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz at snakes and ladders,  you have to watch them!

Amélie is going through one of those rapid learning phases.  A couple of weeks ago it seems that her vocabulary was limited to the usual half a dozen or so words, but that is rapidly increasing and it probably will not be long before she is constructing complex sentences, ‘Mater, pray tell your opinion on Boris Johnson retaining the Mayorship of London?‘  Perhaps not that complex.  The current favourite sentence (if you can call it that) is ‘Dad, dad, dad, dad: look!‘  Which is usually followed by her taking a large bite out of what ever she is eating and making a real show of finishing her mouthful. 

She has also begun to enjoy playing with Éowyn, not that Éowyn appreciated it all the time!  Although one game that they both enjoy playing is hide and seek.  Although Amélie’s notion of hiding is to stand by the wall and close her eyes and giggle when you find her.  When it is her turn to hide, she will stand there counting up to 10 (more of a long continuous word onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten than what strictly could be called counting) but with her hands over her mouth rather than over her eyes.  She then runs around giggling while trying to catch you.  She is very good at hide and seek, for an nineteen month old.

Amélie is also very good at eating her food and it is rare that she refuses food or doesn’t finish her meals – unlike her big sister at the moment.  We have been introducing her to the Alpro Soya Milk for Toddlers, mainly with her breakfast.  She doesn’t seem overkeen but neither is she rejecting it out of hand.  It is to be expected and the nutritionist has told us that even if she grows out of her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance the chances are that she will never be that keen on milk or dairy products.  We just have to ensure that she gets her required calcium from other foods.

Éowyn is back at pre-school and seems to be enjoying herself.  We think she is really going to miss her friends at the start of next term when many of them going up into the infant school, while she has to wait another year.  One can understand why there is a cut off date but surely a staggered start to school would be better, Éowyn is only 6 weeks younger than some of the children that will be going to infant school in September and is equally on a par in terms of development to most (if not all) of the children that will be leaving.  We fear that there will be more displays of naughty behaviour as she will be bored and not challenged, however on the other hand it might do her good for I think she is part of a little gang.  Not that we think that she is being influenced by them, indeed on the contrary it wouldn’t surprise me that she is the ringleader and at the very least there is a lot of mutual influencing.  So breaking that little clique may be a very good thing.  We shall see.

She thoroughly enjoys herself there and I asked her the other days what is her favourite thing that she does at school.  ‘Dressing up,‘ she replied.  So what do you like dressing up as then I inquired. ‘A Unicorn,‘ came the surprising reply.  Although given her name maybe not that surprising.

I will leave you now to shelter from the May cold and perhaps leave you with a timely reminder of the old English proverb: ‘Cast ne’er a clout ’til May be out.’

Peace and Love

Baggie

Since football stops for ne’er a bank holiday and indeed doth seem to multiple about these days I found myself working the Easter weekend.  However as those days are given in law to us UK citizens I moved them to the following weekend and ended up with a belated Easter at home with the family, beginning on the second Friday 13th of the year!  No sufferers of friggatriskaidekaphobia in this household, which is fortunate for there is one more left before the end of the year (in July if you are at all worried!).

Éowyn had been asking to visit the cinema again after her first visit back in February.  Aardman animations new feature length film: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! was playing the local picturehouse and she has seen the trailer and liked the look of it and I had seen the trailer and liked the looked of it and so the decision was easily made.  So 09:00 on Friday 13th April we headed off to Staines, a bag of pick ‘n’ mix and smuggled bottle of Fruit Shoot, two tickets and £17 lighter we took our seats.  Even though it was the end of the Easter school holidays there were but 15 people in the entire theatre.  I thoroughly enjoyed the film, for most of the jokes were aimed at the adults but Éowyn I think struggled with some of it and was a little scared at some of the scenes.  Although in fairness she is like that with films she knows well.  When I asked her about the film afterwards she did enjoy it and had followed the story throughout (and I always ask her to tell me the story of the films that we see so that it encourages her to remember the story and understand what was going on and why the characters did what they did – I am an evil father sometimes but I do think that there is learning to be had from every experience and by encouraging thought and asking questions is something we should all be encouraged to do).

After the cinema we met up with Lucinda and Amélie and booked our family holiday, an all inclusive resort in Tenerife.  Neither of us have been to Tenerife and the resort looked very child friendly and for the next few years that is what we will be looking for.  Although I am not really the kind of person that enjoys just sitting by the pool with a book, I like to be out and about exploring (although with my new Kindle 4 perhaps I will learn to appreciate the rest) and Tenerife seems to have a number of enticing venues, including the world’s third largest volcano.  Come back in a few months for our holiday report.

So that was day one of our belated Easter Weekend.  Day two was no less exciting.  Last year we discovered the delights of having a Merlin Pass and the fact that they can be purchased with Tesco vouchers.  Last year’s pass ran out on Easter week and so renewed.  Éowyn’s cousins also have done the same and they had planned a visit to Chessington World of Adventures so we thought that was an ideal time to renew the passes and meet up with the family.

Coincidentally Chessington was the venue to obtain last year’s tickets but on that visit we will a little disappointed and thought that there was nothing for Éowyn to go on.  Which at the time was probably true.  However, one year on and there seemed to be a lot more choice for our three year old.  Obviously the older cousins went on a lot of the bigger rides but we all piled on (even Amélie) to the ‘BubbleWorks‘ disappointing for its lack of bubbles but everyone seemed to enjoy it, all except Amélie who clinged on to Lucinda for dear life throughout the ride.  However, both chidldren (and Lucinda) thoroughly enjoyed the Madagascar live show, in fact Amélie tried to get on stage with them!

We decided to take it easy on the Sunday as both kids (and both adults) were a little knackered after two busy days, plus Lucinda was back at work on the Monday morning.  Monday was an inset day and so instead of going to school it was an Éowyn and Daddy day for Amélie was already booked in at Jo’s.  As the morning started with bright sunshine and the promise of a good day we decided to use the Merlin Passes for the second time in three days and headed to our local theme park: Legoland.  Legoland is by far the best of the attractions for Éowyn (and Amélie’s) age range with most of the rides suitable for them.  We arrived at Legoland as it opened and headed straight for the Atlantis ride as we know that is one of the most popular.  Indeed arriving so early was great we had queued and rode on 5 of the rides before noon just as Éowyn started to get grumpy because she was tired.  Most of them were rides that she had been on before and enjoyed but because we were so early we managed to go on a new ride that she thought was fantastic which was the mini driving school known as L-Drivers.  Aimed at three to five year olds L-Drivers allows the smaller children little electric cars which they operate and drive around a circular track (not quite NASCAR!).  At the end of the session they are awarded with their own little driving licence.  She loved it and I have to say after an initial difficulty controlling the car was excellent including one incident when she had to take evasion action as the cars in front crashed.

As we were leaving the park we bumped into a colleague who was just arriving with his son.  The beauty of living around the corner from a major attaction and having a Merlin Pass, we were quite satisfied to leave when Éowyn got tired rather than attempting to get our money’s worth.  Unfortunately Éowyn was being particularly grumpy to say hello to Tim, Gill and Harrison and they were getting on the funicular train known as the Hill Train as we were getting off, so it was a quick hello, goodbye and then off to MacDonalds for a naughty lunch for us.

Amélie is still swiper in disguise, her major achievement was hiding Lucinda’s keys which took the best part of a morning to find (thank’s Éowyn!).  She also still has her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance.  We went to see the dietician for her six monthly check up and share our findings.  As we suspected she still is showing signs of intolerance but can handle cooked milk (in the form of biscuits).  She said not to challenge for a few months as we need to give her body time to grow out of the intolerance, however to wean her off her neocate as her diet sounded like it was giving her all the nutrients that she needed.  However if we wanted to replaced the milk in her diet that Alpro now do a soya milk fortified with vitamins formulated for toddlers and that they recommend it for children such as Amélie with Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance.  So, as we were parked in the Tesco car park we headed straight into the supermarket to buy some for her and try her with it.  We’ll let you know how we (or more strictly: she) get(s) on with it.  Our next appointment isn’t until the end of October but it would be a nice 2nd birthday present for Amélie if she has grown out of it by then.  Maybe she could have a chocolate birthday cake!

We have to say a belated Happy Birthday to Nanny Fran for last Friday.  Unfortunately as I was so busy at work we were unable to pop up and see her but hopefully that will change next weekend and we can wish her a happy belated birthday in person.

So a busy family week comes to an end with the promise of a busy couple of weeks at work as the football seasons (yes seasons) draw to their traditional May conclusions.  West Brom are safe with the possibility of a top half finish and Wolves already have been relegated so a successful season as far as I am concerned.

Love and Peace

Baggie

However before the Artic low pressure begun to dominate our weather we managed to squeeze in some out door fun to wit:  The First (and possibly The Last) Great Bagnall Easter Egg hunt; held at Lucinda’s parents we invited many of Éowyn’s friends, fourteen in total.  So we arrived early Sunday morning armed with chocolate eggs and buffet food.  Éowyn’s cousins Lauren and Maddie were really excited and came round to help and, of course, Lucinda’s parents helped get everything prepared.  Fortunately, although it was a little chilly to begin, the ground was dry and we could hide the eggs around the garden, in flower beds, against trees all easily accessible since their were, on average, only 3.  Amélie, the lazy monkey decided to have a morning nap and slept through the whole of the preparation – which actually was probably the most helpful thing that she could have done!

We managed to prevent the early arrivals from heading off into the garden but that involved distracting them with the variety of bikes, cars, prams, doll and balls that Nanny and Granddad have accumulated over the years of being grandparents.  Éowyn tends to regard them as hers, unless of course her cousins are there so she was a little perturbed to see so many children playing with ‘her‘ toys.  A quick father to daughter chat about sharing and then a little distraction technique and she was fine and didn’t complain for the rest of the day.

The Egg Hunt kept the little ones occupied for a good 20 minutes or so and all managed to find some eggs to fill their baskets.  We then turned our little ones and the egg hunt into a utopian communism by means of the sharing blanket.  We had bought enough eggs so that all could have one big one, three little ones and a kinder surprise egg.  Amazingly all the children loved the idea of the sharing blanket and all happily sat cross-legged around the perimeter of the blanket while the eggs were shared.  Then it was party food for everyone.  By mid-afternoon everyone had left and we were exhausted, however it was so much fun and all the children seemed to enjoy themselves that it would be nice to turn it into an annual event – I think we may have to persuade Nanny and Granddad!

Obviously, Easter isn’t just about Easter Eggs and Éowyn prouded came home from pre-school just before the holiday and announced in the car on the way home that she has learned all about Easter.  Lucinda was driving and asked what had she learned?  ‘That Jesus died on a hot cross bun.‘  Lucinda said that it was a miracle (pardon the choice of word) that she didn’t crash the car.  Poor Éowyn was none the wiser and when I arrived home from work proceded to tell me the same thing.  I haven’t actually corrected her and occasionally she still will bring it up, especially when there is an advert on the television for hot cross buns.

Amélie is still enjoying having a room to herself (and so are we!) for she is sleeping through the night and, indeed, slept through until 07:20 one morning.  Sheer bliss.  However, she is still a cheeky little madam and ‘Swiper’ in disguise.  However she gets away with it because she is so cute and will give you such a cheeky grin when she knows she is up to something naughty.  Éowyn’s Easter Egg stash was the lastest casualty of our own veritable swiper.  Éowyn and Amélie were in the lounge while Lucinda was getting showered and dressed one morning.  Lucinda came downstairs and entered the lounge, Éowyn was happily sitting watching Peppa Pig while Amélie was hiding her crime out of sight of her big sister, although the half-eaten egg in her hand and the chocolate smeared around her face betrayed her guilt.

We still believe that Amélie has her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance and the above crime seemed to confirm that assumption as she cried throughout the next night and seemed to be in pain.  Some things seem to be OK and we have introduced her to Soya products now so she can join in with the yoghurt eating and milk on her cereal.  She has an appointment to see the dietician next week so we will see where we go and what is the next step.

Éowyn’s behaviour has been fantastic of late.  She has been very well behaved and more than that is seemingly revelling in being good.  Whenever she is good I have been telling her that I have been proud of her and this encouragement technique seems to reap rewards.  In fact she said to Lucinda just the other day, when Lucinda dropped her off at Nanny and Granddad’s, ‘I am going to be a good girl and make Daddy proud.‘  She was and she did!  We have been a little reliant on Nanny and Granddad with pre-school shut for Easter holidays, myself and Lucinda both working and Jo, our childminder taking holiday too, it doesn’t give us too many options – apart from wasting precious leave from work.  Unfortunately we don’t get the same kind of annual leave entitlement as a teacher.

Before I leave you to the current crop of photos another amusing ancedote from the vaults of Éowyn.  We have an extensive Disney collection and Éowyn enjoys watching films, something that she inherits from her father (and grandfather Bagnall) before her.  She asked last week while at home with Lucinda, if she could watch Aladdin.  Lucinda dug the DVD out and put it in the player.  The film started and Éowyn said ‘This isn’t Aladdin!‘  Lucinda confirmed that it was but Éowyn was adamant that it wasn’t.  ‘I want the real Aladdin,‘ she said, ‘The one where there is a man on a motorbike and some cats in a basket and he throws them into the river.‘  Lucinda’s film knowledge is not as encyclopedic as mine, especially when it comes to children’s films, so Lucinda asked me when I got home if I knew what she meant.  I said that it sounded like the Aristocats.  So we put the Aristocats on and asked Éowyn if this was the film that she wanted to watch.  She confirmed it was and so I explained that it wasn’t called Aladdin (or even ‘The Real Aladdin’) but it was called The Aristocats.  I asked her to repeat it and obviously not really knowing the word repeated what she thought she heard: ‘The Embarrassing Cats‘.  Much better title in my opinion.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Éowyn gets so excited when Nanny Fran comes down that she will quite often wear herself out and so it was on Saturday.  She was so worn out that she spent much of the afternoon asleep.  This meant that Amélie managed to get a greater share of Nanny Fran cuddles.  It saved arguments.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Mary saw a huge leap in development of Amélie since their last visit and it does seem over the last few weeks that she has grown from being a baby to a toddler very quickly.  She now walks everywhere, to the point of not wanting to be picked up.  She is interacting with many more things and her vocabulary is going through that rapid increase phase where there is a new word nearly everyday.  She will quite happily sing ‘Old MacDonald’ to herself and jabber away to her toys.  On Saturday we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Auntie Mary and Amélie joined in!  She doesn’t suffer fools gladly though and Éowyn is quite often on the receiving end of her wrath if big sister is doing something that she doesn’t want her to do.  She is also a little thief.  She will ‘move’ (shall we say?) anything that isn’t out of reach and hide it somewhere.  Lucinda’s camera was found in one of the saucepans in the cupboard; the remote control was found in her toy kitchen and my watch is still A.W.O.L. hopefully it will turn up soon.  She has now earnt the name Swiper, (‘Swiper, no swiping!‘) from Éowyn after a character from Dora, the explorer.

The following day was Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) so we let Lucinda have a well deserved lie in before we made her breakfast in bed.  If you can’t treat your mother on Mother’s Day when can you treat your mother?  Now saying that, Lucinda’s mum had invited us all round for Sunday lunch (Lucinda and her brothers and all our families), which puts a bit of a nonsense on the previous sentence, especially when she prepared all the food and she wasn’t feeling very well.  Nevertheless 14 of us sat down for Sunday lunch.  It is always nice when the whole family gets together and I know Lucinda’s Mum and Dad really enjoy being surrounded by their decendants, and who wouldn’t be.

The busy week didn’t stop there.  My birthday was on the Tuesday and so we decided that we would go away for a couple of days to get away from it.  Lucinda booked us a room at the new Shoreline Hotel at Butlins in Bognor Regis (West Sussex – for those of you with poor knowledge of UK’s geography – still not helping?  About halfway between Brighton and Portsmouth.  Still not helping?  Find Staines (just west of London) and go south until you hit the sea and stop.  It is somewhere around there, if that still hasn’t helped maybe you watch a little too much CNN).

I went to Butlins with a little trepidation, it has to be said.  Never really been tempted to spend any time at a Butlins (or alternative) and I had never been to Bognor Regis (although it was good enough for King George V) but we packed the car and headed south.  I am not ashamed to say that I was pleasantly surprised by both Butlins and Bognor Regis.  The Shoreline Hotel is excellent, it has really been thought through for kids.  The room was divided into two areas, the main area that you would expect with a little seating area and a double bed with TV and DVD player (although I can proudly say that we didn’t even put the TV’s on in our stay) for Mum and Dad.  Then separated by the bathroom (that included a child’s section in the seat so little ones can use the big toilet safely, without fear of falling through) there was a kid’s bedroom with bunk bed and their own TV and DVD player.  Éowyn loved the bunk bed and immediately climbed the ladder staking her claim to the top bunk.  We were a little wary of letting her sleep up there but she was perfectly safe going up and down the ladder and so we let her sleep there.  Amélie is still a little small for a bed (even with a side on) so we hired a cot for her.

When we arrived we found that you could book a ‘Character Breakfast’ where one of the ‘Characters’ (i.e. men in big suits) would come and sit with you and have breakfast with your child.  We thought that it would be nice for Éowyn and attempted to book it but unfortunately (or fortunately as it turns out) they were all fully booked for our stay.  Nevermind we headed to breakfast the next morning and yes Billy and Bonnie Bear were there and having breakfast with a number of the children, but in between course they came and paid a visit to every child in the breakfast room.  Now you may be forgiven that this would be something that Éowyn would like, but a teddy bear bigger than daddy ambling over to you when you are eating your Coco-Pops is not what our three year old thought was a pleasant experience.  Amélie, thought it was brilliant but Éowyn cowered by her Daddy until the furry freaks had moved on to another table.  We were glad that we hadn’t shelled out for the ‘Character Breakfast’.  However, because we didn’t know that the characters would visit every child we hadn’t taken our cameras down to breakfast (why would you?) but we rectified that the next morning, when it was the turn of Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam to paid us a visit, with pretty much the same results.  Although we did have photographic evidence this time!

I think we chose quite a good time to pay a visit to Butlins for it was out of school holidays, still early in the season and, for once (for one of our holidays!), the weather was fine.  This meant that we could easily get on the all the facilities in the children’s play areas and the swimming pool was relatively empty.  The swimming pool was the big hit of the holiday.  Éowyn has never been very confident in water and it is one of the things that we have promised ourselves this year to get her to enjoy the water and if possible to begin swimming lessons.  Part of Éowyn’s issue with swimming is that it gets your hair wet.  So before we entered the swimming pool this time we put her hair up with a hairband, something that she usually will not allow you to do.  Whether it was this lack of fear surrounding her hair getting wet or the fact that the pool gradually deepened from nothing to 4 feet (1.2 metres) or so (it was the toddlers’ pool) or even the confidence of holding her daddy’s hand she wading right in until the water was up to her chest.  I then supported her and slowly dragged her into the deep (relatively) water.  I got her treading water and then dogging paddling, with the support from dad and the armbands.  Initially I worried that I had done it all a bit too quickly but the next day she wanted to go swimming and grabbed my hand and said ‘Come on, Daddy, let’s go into the deep water.‘  The challenge will be to continue this, before the newly gained confidence ebbs away.

There wasn’t a lot of time to exploring the finer areas of West Sussex, although we did have a quick nose around Bognor Regis.  One place that we did find was just along the coast, east of Butlins, a small café called The Lobster Pot.  In the neighbouring town of Felpham (not to be confused with Feltham)  The Lobster Pot serves the most delicious café food, if perhaps a little pricey.  However, if you are in the vicinity I would wholeheartedly recommend the walk along the coast.  I think we went there every day and the staff were extremely friendly especially to a nosiy little three-year old.

Lucinda’s Uncle David and Auntie Sally (Lucinda’s father’s brother and his wife) live in Middleton-on-sea which is just a couple of miles from Bognor and as I had never visited their house we decided to pop in on the way home.  Éowyn and Amélie charmed them, as of course they would.  Éowyn, especially took a shine to Uncle David and had him playing in the garden with her and then started calling him Granddad.  In fairness to her, Uncle David is a lot like Lucinda’s dad, they are brothers after all and I think there was definitely some of the ‘Kin knows Kin’ subconsciousness type thing going on.  So it would be perfectly natural for her to equate them as the same, I think that it shows the love and trust that she has for Lucinda’s dad that she was so familar with a man she has hardly ever met, for she is usually so shy around people.

So back home Wednesday evening, only to prepare for my Uncle Roy’s funeral on Thursday and a round trip to West Bromwich.  We took Éowyn and Amélie for it was only a small funeral and I had not seen many of my relatives in such a long time, it is shame that it takes something like the death of a family member to bring us all together.  Something that I must try and rectify this year (if only I could get this cloning thing to work).  It was nice to introduce Éowyn and Amélie and in some case Lucinda to my wider family, especially since there doesn’t seem to be many of us left.  We were slightly delayed leaving as swiper had been up to her usual tricks and hidden mommy’s purse.  Fearing that we had left it in Bognor Regis we phoned Butlins, The Lobster Pot, Uncle David and Auntie Sally and the local Bognor Regis Police station.  Lucinda then cancelled her bank cards before she noticed where the little thief had hidden it.  We will have to watch that one.

So the clocks have sprung forward, we have warm spring-like temperatures and the lawn has finally been mown (or should that be mowed?); summer is on its way and I have detained you long enough, go and enjoy the sunshine.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Éowyn has been in our good books of late, as her behaviour continues to improve.  I am not saying for one moment that she is a little angel but there has definitely been an improvement.  However she still knows her own mind and can be extremely stubborn, if there is something that she doesn’t want to do it is extremely hard to convince her otherwise.  This is something that anyone who has to look after for any length of time will attest to.  The staff at playbox are no exception.  This week saw the equivalent of a parents’ evening, except that is was a Thursday morning.  Unfortunately I was a work so Lucinda had to go solo and without anyone to look after Éowyn and Amélie they had to go too!  The school report was nothing that we hadn’t expected, Éowyn can be stubborn and wilful but she has a good imagination, and is very clever (more of than later).  In fact her and one of her friends had built an impromptu stage and put a singing performance for the other children.  Everyone was really impressed with them because there had been no encouragement to do it, they just did it off their own backs and both enjoyed doing it and the other children enjoyed watching them.  So we have a little starlet in our home.

She also uses that imagination for other things.  One that made me laugh the other day happened just as I was putting her to bed.  Instead of me reading stories to her, she said that she would sing songs to me.  Fine I thought.  So she got a book off the shelf, turned to the index and asked me what song I would like.  I asked her what songs were in the book and she began to list the usual nursery rhymes.  ‘Sing me Humpty Dumpty, please.‘  I ask.  ‘The new version or the old version?‘ she replies.  That caught me by surprise.  ‘The new version.’ I answer.

“Humpty Dumpty, sat on a wall.  He didn’t fall off.  A man sat down beside him and they had a chat.‘  Maybe she needs to work on her rhyming but I love the thinking behind this.  Humpty Dumpty obviously only fell off the wall once, and that is all anyone remembers!  He must of sat on that wall many times before and nothing happened, but the one time you fall off someone makes a rhyme about it and you are immortalised as the idiot that fell off the wall.

The staff at Playbox though have realised that Éowyn’s stubborn streak makes reprimanding her very difficult at times.  So their new approach has been to encourage her good behaviour rather than chastise her bad behaviour.  So when she does something good (like tidying the toys away) she gets a sticker and a little certificate.  We now have a collection of them adorning our fridge.  It certainly seems to be working at the moment.  We will see how it pans out.

The encouragement method is something that we do with Éowyn quite often and at the moment she has two big projects.  Both involve posters adorning our walls.  One is a list of fruit and vegetables and the other is the numbers 1 to 100.  Éowyn used to be so good at eating and would demolish anything that was put in front of her, but lately she has been slipping into bad habits and only eating a small range of foods. Obviously it is a control thing, at three years old there is very little that you have control over in your life but eating is definitely one of them.  So instead of making it a big thing we have turned it into a game.  The poster has a number of fruit and vegetables and everytime Éowyn tries one she gets to put a tick sticker next to it.  If she likes it, she can put a star sticker next to it.  If she manages to try all of the fruit and vegetables on the poster by Easter then she gets to choose her own Easter egg.

The other poster (with the numbers 1 to 100) was brought to try and challenge her.  The idea being that we will get her to be able to count up to 100.  So we got the poster out, said that if she can learn her numbers then she will get a Susie Sheep toy to go with her other Peppa Pig characters.  ‘OK, Daddy,‘ she says, ‘let’s have a go.‘  Lo and behold she counts up to 100 without any assistance.  Too clever!  However, she still hasn’t quite earned her Susie Sheep yet because she can’t identify specific numbers.  For instance if you ask her to point to number 85, without fail she points to 58 and likewise with other numbers.  I think it is quite common that kids read numbers right to left, rather than left to right (maybe our Western numerical system is wrong) when they begin to read, so we will work on that and then she can have her Susie Sheep.

 The big news of the last couple of weeks revolve around Amélie, not only has she finally given up crawling and taken to walking full time (about time the lazy monkey!) but we have moved her out of our bedroom.  The original plan, was to wait until she slept through the night and then move her into Éowyn’s room as we thought it unfair to disturb Éowyn’s sleep.  Unfortunately, she has never been a good sleeper and after 18 months of sleepless night we noticed a pattern.  Whenever Amélie woke up disturbed she would look for Lucinda and start crying to be picked up and cuddled.  However, if Lucinda wasn’t there then she would settle herself back to sleep.  Therefore the decision was made to move her into the box room, which is my office/library.  After a day of dismantling cots/computer desks and de-rigging my technical set up Amélie now has her own room (ish).  Has it worked?  So far so good.  Even the 0600 cry for milk is no longer too early because there hasn’t been a 0100 and 0300 wake up call prior to that.  Why didn’t we do this 12 months ago?  It doesn’t matter for it is done now! 

Again, I must end this update on a sad note.  My Uncle Roy (my Dad’s youngest brother) passed away last Wednesday succumbing to the cancer he has been fighting for the last few months.  He is the third of the five brothers to pass away (after my Dad and Uncle Pete).  Our thoughts are with my Auntie, my cousins and their children.

Peace and Love

Baggie

This is also Éowyn and Amélie’s first leap day and thus the first one I have celebrated as a father.  I have celebrated nine previous leap days and have not given them much thought but as I enter double figures and because this website is all about our children and our growing pains of parenthood, momentous occasions, like a leap day should be celebrated.

So what happened on Wednesday 29th February 2012?

Our first family Leap Day found this Bagnall enclave in four different places.  Lucinda at work (Heathrow airport), Amélie at Nanny and Granddad’s (Stanwell Moor), Éowyn at pre-school (Staines) and once I had dropped the girls off I headed to work (Chiswick).  Lucinda had a 0530 shift start so was up at 0430 and out the house by 0500.  Amélie decided that the house should all be awake at 0400 so Lucinda missed out on 30 minutes of sleep and I on 3 hours.  Amélie seems to have fallen into the habit of waking up early and then crying.  We have tried the controlled crying (which is difficult because listening to your child crying is never easy and her cot is still in our room) but Amélie notches it up a gear when that doesn’t work and issues forth the most piercing scream that is only usually heard when you trap your fingers in a collapsing deckchair.  There is nothing wrong with her, she just wants to be cuddled.  We need to address this before the lack of sleep causes us severe problems!  We have a plan!

The dull overcast sky did nothing to help with the monotony of the drive into work and the heavy eyelids fighting those missing three hours of sleep however as I came off the M3 onto the A316 ahead I saw a Honda Civic.  I recognised part of the registration plate as one of my colleagues and a quick hands-free conversation later he realised who was tailgating him and we continued the journey in convoy.  I like the coincidental nature (possibly even synchronicity) of this seemingly mundane occurrence.  For not only were our cars half a second apart (and in the same lane), we both drive the same make of car and we sit on adjacent desks (and until recently did the same job on opposite shift patterns).  He drives in from Southampton and thus doesn’t really have a choice regarding road into Chiswick but I have 3 main roads I could chose from and the M3/A316 combination is the longest of the three.  However, I had heard that traffic was particularly bad (it is always quite heavy heading into London at rush hour) on the alternatives so I went for the long way round, trusting that it would be the quickest, I wasn’t expecting to see anyone I knew.  I have no idea of the odds involved but I would hazard a guess that they are exactly one million to one for as everybody knows (thanks to Terry Pratchett’s novel Mort) that million to one chances happen nine times out of ten.

Unfortunately nothing quite as exciting happened for the remainder of the day and after a very meeting-centric day at work I headed home really feeling the continuing lack of sleep.  So once the girls were abed (after I had to play fairies and Peppa Pig with Éowyn – she has taken to wanting us to play with her and her toys before going to bed rather than having a story read to her) myself and Lucinda sat down for about an hour before heading to bed ourselves.  It is all glamour and parties in the Bagnall household on a Leap Day, don’t you know!

This is a bit of a diversion from the usual write up and so there are no photos I’m afraid especially since it is only a couple of days since the last update and 18 photos!  (Hey, it only happens once every four years).  I will leave you now and go and put some of The Monkees’ tunes on to celebrate the life of Davy Jones, who died of a heart-attack at his Florida home on this Leap Day aged 66.  Our thoughts are with his family.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Éowyn’s behaviour has improved immensely.  Obviously it has been half-term and so we have been able to spend time with her, without her feeling that she is being dumped from one place to another.  Now she is back at school and we return to the old routine we need to be conscious of not letting the impetus and her behaviour slip.  So far, she has been very well behaved and is receiving copious amounts of encouragement from Mommy and Daddy for this, which she is responding to in the manner we would like.

Last weekend (the end of the half term break) we travelled up the M40 to West Bromwich and Nanny Fran (and Auntie Liz of course). We arrived Saturday morning, dropped the girls off with auntie Liz and headed to Great Uncle Albert’s house to help get it ready for an estate agent viewing.  As you may recall Uncle Albert passed away at the end of January and now there is the difficult task of sorting out his estate, which includes selling his house. Myself and Lucinda joined Nanny Fran, her cousin Ray and Uncle Albert’s friend Yvonne to try and sort the house out.  His house had been broken into during the week but it was difficult for us to determine what had been taken as we did not (obviously) have an inventory. It is quite upsetting to think that some burglar had been in Uncle Albert and Auntie Iris’s house and gone through their things.  We found it very difficult looking through someone’s personal effects but nevertheless fascinating at the same time, especially looking through the effects of someone who has lived for so long and through many interesting times.  One of the most interesting things that we found was an old newspaper (The Birmingham Mail) that was lining one of his drawers.  It was from Friday 28th March 1958 and there was an article bemoaning the fact that televising football matches was having a detrimental effect on attendances.  Specifically, the F.A. Cup semi-final replay at Highbury (it doesn’t mention the teams but I believe it to be Manchester United (who won the game 5-3 but lost to Bolton Wanderers in the Final 2-0) v Fulham and was actually played on the 26th March 1958) where there were only 38,000 supporters in a ground that could hold 68,000.  It is only a small article but it mentions the fact that the grounds are poorly constructed without a thought for the fans so a ‘lukewarm soccer supporter‘ will stay at home if he has a TV set and the clubs will miss his two shillings!  The article concludes that ‘Big games belong to the nation and television is a link.  It must not become the game’s ball and chain.‘ So the arguments between television rights and the fan that turns up every week to watch his (or her) team haven’t changed that much in 54 years!

Éowyn and Amélie were very well behaved for their Auntie Liz and were extremely excited to see their Nanny Fran when we returned from Great Barr.  They both like to see their Nanny Fran (and Auntie Liz) and enjoy playing with the toys that Nanny Fran has at her house (some of which were mine!).  Nanny Fran looked after Amélie over night so Lucinda and I got a little bit of a easier night, although someone should have told Éowyn!

We returned back to Middlesex Sunday afternoon (so it really was a flying visit) so that Éowyn could have an early night ready for her return to pre-school after the half term break.  And so Monday morning Éowyn returned to the routine of schooling.  I was  off work and so Lucinda, Amélie and I headed to Kingston-Upon-Thames for some shopping.  Amélie needed new shoes and I needed a new suit for a black tie event (but more of that later) as my old suit is far too big for me as I now weigh 4 stone (56 pounds for Americans or 25.5kgs for everyone else) less than I did the last time I had to wear that suit.  One successful shopping trip later we returned home with everything we had gone for and the cherry on the cake was the fact that Éowyn received glowing praise from her pre-school teachers.

As I mentioned in the last write up, Éowyn has stopped wearing nappies to bed.  This has been on the whole a great success however, whether it was worries about going to pre-school or just because she was going to bed very tired but she had accidents two nights running.  We have been lulled into a false sense of security and believed that she would just go from the safety of nappies to not wearing nappies in a heartbeat.  Obviously it is never that easy and she has done remarkably well but now we need to help her.  So, when Lucinda and I go to bed which is usually a couple or three hours after Éowyn we have taken to waking her and leading her to the potty and trying to get her to have a wee so hopefully she will then last through the night or just get into the habit of getting out of bed when she recognises the need.

Wednesday, Lucinda was working so before I headed to Chiswick and work I did the usual double drop off of Amélie to Jo’s and Éowyn to pre-school.  I also had to make sure that I had my new suit, dress shirt and dickie bow.  For IMG mediahouse were sponsoring a table at the RTS Television Journalism Awards which was held at the Hilton in Park Lane.  It was my first award ceremony and although thoroughly exciting it was also very humbling to be there.  We work in television but it puts our work into sharp perspective when you hear the stories of the embedded and uncover journalists that risk their lives daily to bring the truth to our television schedules.  Indeed the evening was somewhat overshadowed by the death of Marie Colvin an American journalist working for the Sunday Times in Syria.  Indeed the list of the those journalists that had lost their lives in the line of duty this past year was sobering as were the stories that the won many of the journalists their awards.  Sports television doesn’t seem half as important any more.

I returned home at 0100 but unfortunately didn’t manage to get the 5 hours of sleep I was hoping for.  Lucinda had called me in the afternoon to say that Amélie had been sick at Jo’s and so to prevent the spread of any possible virus that she may have she would have to be dropped at Nanny and Granddad’s, although Éowyn would still need to be dropped off at Jo’s.  Amélie’s sickness continued through the night and the next morning, and indeed throughout Friday.  Unfortunately because we have begun to test her milk protein intolerance we are unsure whether the sickness was due to a reaction to milk protein or whether it was indeed a virus.  So once she has fought this sickness we will have to go back a step on testing her milk protein intolerance and see if it happens again, that will prove whether it was the milk protein intolerance or just a virus.  However, the poor girl has been suffering, which is never good to see and it has affected her sleeping which therefore means that neither Lucinda or I got much sleep either.  But she has come out of the other side of it now and just needs to regain her strength.

Therefore, if you will excuse me I will take advantage of a day off and try and put some sleep back into the sleep bank but before I go I am afraid that I have some more bad news.  The sister of one of my Mom’s friends and my eldest sister’s god mother passed away on 20th February.  Auntie Anne (as we called her) ran a B&B in St Ives, Cornwall for many years a place that we spent a number of holidays when we were children.  She leaves her sister, Teresa and our thoughts are with her.

Peace and love

Baggie

I took the last of the last year’s holiday entitlement on the first Friday of February to give myself a long weekend.  Thus I decided to go and pick Éowyn up from playbox.  I am waiting outside with the other mothers when the door opened and I was beckoned inside.  Éowyn had been misbehaving all day, culminating it her hitting another child with a wooden piano across the head.  I felt like a child who had been summoned into the Headmaster’s office and sat there mortified at what she had done.  Éowyn can be wilful and determined but this was a step into uncharted territory and something that we obviously need to nip in the bud.

Children’s behaviour is very rarely an isolated change in their personality but more a response to an external situation however trivial that it seems to those around them (probably true of adults too!).  The trick is identifying it and neutralising it, but not allowing the crimes to go unpunished either.  (That is what we are attempting anyhow, we’ll let you know in 20 years if it works.)  So what are the stimuli that are causing Éowyn to behave the way she is.  It is her little sister.  Not directly but the attention that Amélie receives and encouragement she is getting for doing things that Éowyn can easily do is probably the first and foremost reason.  This is not to say that Éowyn does not get any attention but she has to share that attention.  So therefore when she wants the attention and she is not getting the attention she requires immediately then she is naughty: for then she gets the attention.   It might be Mommy or Daddy telling her off but it is attention and more importantly Amélie is not getting any while we are pre-occupied with her.  Knowing the psychology is easy, putting it into practise when you have two screaming kids running around; you need to get the dinner ready; you are not feeling well and the telephone is ringing is a different matter.  So stricter and fairer and more conscious of how we are treating them both is the regime going forward.

The weekend gave a good excuse to have some Daddy and Éowyn time: it snowed.  It was the first dump of snow that the South East of England had seen this winter and although it wasn’t a fall of snow that I recall from my childhood it was certainly enough snow to build a snowman.  Unfortunately Lucinda was at work and since it was cold (not as cold as it has been across Europe, where record lows were being recorded) and I wanted it to be a special time for Éowyn we had to wait until Amélie had a mid morning nap.  This meant that a number of the neighbours had already build their snowmen by the time that we got out and, also the day had warmed and then cooled so that the snow wasn’t as light and fluffy as it had been first thing.  Nevertheless, relatively happy with our snowmen (look at the photos below) and Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed making them (the heads we solely her creations).  It was amusing that the following day the temperature had warmed such that all the lying snow melted and all that was left was a scattering of snow zombies as the snowmen’s features slowly melted during the day then refroze at night.  It then turned bitterly cold for nearly a week and no further melting took place.  We then received a second (smaller) fall of snow that re-coated everything before the temperature has returned to more usual February temperatures and only the carcasses of the snow zombies remain (although I do not give them very more days of survival in these conditions).

Amélie is still resisting the complete transition to bipedal locomotion.  Her attempts are more frequent and she can totter around for quite a while before gravity wins the argument but she still prefers the racing crawl method or shuffles about on her knees.  She is such a lazy tyke.  She gets away with it because she has a big sister that will do things for her and she has such a cheeky grin when she wants to get her own way.  We will have to see what we can do to encourage the full move, but at least it is a step in the right direction (see what I did there?).

Thursday 10th February was Uncle Albert’s funeral.  I had been asked to say a few words (the first time I had been asked to speak at a funeral) and in a strange way I was looking forward to it.  However fate had other ideas.  Éowyn had been under the weather for a couple of days and didn’t really think too much of it as kids are always feeling grotty as their immune systems encounter attacks for the first time and busy themselves creating defences.  However on the Tuesday Lucinda began to feel ill and then on the Wednesday I was knocked for six.  So much so that I went home early from work on Wednesday (I never go home ill) and on the Thursday could only drag myself out of bed to lie on the sofa (and Lucinda the same).  Fortunately I had the wherewithal on the Wednesday night to call Mom to tell her that we wouldn’t be attending (the funeral was at 1000 and that would mean leaving at 0700 and with all the will in the world even if I fell 100 times better there was no way it was going to happen) the fact that we were worse the next day justified that decision.  It was sad that we never managed to say goodbye to Uncle Albert (although I am sure he understood) and hello to a lot of relatives that we don’t see very often.  Uncle Albert’s death has left my Nan as the sole living representative of her generation on either side of our family.

Éowyn has taken a big step forward in growing up.  She decided last Saturday night that she didn’t want to wear a nappy to bed any more.  She has been nappy free in the day for many months but has always wanted the confidence of a nappy on at night.  Not any more.  She said that she didn’t want it so we didn’t put it on her.  We put her potty near her bed so she didn’t have to go too far in the night and prepared ourselves for wet pyjamas and changing the bedclothes.  We need not have fretted she has made the transition effortlessly so far.  She was obviously ready and waited until she knew herself that she was ready and that was it.

To reward this, and to give me an excuse to go and see it too, I took Éowyn to the cinema for the first time.  It is half-term so there are a number of films out aimed at kids (and big kids) and there are special early showtimes too.  When I was a little older than Éowyn is now, one of my favourite shows was The Muppet Show.  I own a number of DVDs of The Muppets and Éowyn has seen some of them so when I heard that the new Muppet movie was out for half term the choice of which film to go and see was made easy.  I think Éowyn was over-awed by the whole cinema experience although overall she seemed to thoroughly enjoy it (probably not as much as her dad did!).  She didn’t think much of popcorn and was frustrated by all the adverts and trails for other films (aren’t we all).  The little Toy Story short before the film was a bonus and she sat as good as gold for the entire length of the film.  I would quite happily take her to see another film again, and knowing my love of the cinema and of ‘children’s movies’ it would be no great hardship.

Anyhow, I will leave you with that (go and see the movie if only for a barbershop quartet rendition of Nirvana’s ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ – you have been warned).

Peace and Love

Baggie

However, that is not the greatest achievement since the last update.  For the greater accomplishment is that my second child can now be truly classed as bipedal.  Yes, last Thursday (19th January 2012) Amélie just decided to stand up in the middle of the floor and walk.  Not just one or two steps but half a dozen.  The encouragement that she received spurred her on.  Within minutes that total was up to 11 and by the end of the day had nudged that total up to 12.  I suppose because she has been cruising for so long her legs have the strength to support her, she has the balance to carry herself but she is just lacking the confidence to continue.  It will come, with encouragement it will not be long before she will leave her crawling days behind her.  She will happily hold your hand and walk for yards and hopefully the more we do this the more this will give her the confidence to strike out on her own.

Now usually on Thursday morning I would be at work, however I still had a number of days left over from last year’s entitlement to use by the end of January and therefore, fortunately, I was at home on annual leave for the week. It was good to spend some time at home but it wasn’t the most exciting of times (apart, obviously from Amélie’s first steps!).  Lucinda took some time off too but with Amélie already booked to go to Jo’s and with Éowyn still at playbox myself and Lucinda had time to off together but there was no time to enjoy that for we decided that we would attempt to straighten the house after the Christmas period.  Not that the house needed that much straightening but it was more an opportunity to go through the kid’s toys and either take the ones that they never play with down the local charity shop or put away the ones that they have outgrown.  Then finding space for them all, either in the toy boxes (yes plural), Éowyn’s bedroom or just tidied away.  It felt good to get back some of the house!

We also managed to take advantage of my tastecard (for the first time!) and go for lunch, which was good to spend some time as a couple rather than a mommy and daddy, although there is still that little voice in the back of your head saying, Keep an eye on the time, you have to pick Amélie and Éowyn up.  On the Thursday we also managed to invite friends of ours, Neil and Emma, around for an evening.  So we managed to put the girls to bed early (not that early but early enough for us to enjoy our evening) and to their great credit they went down and we heard not a peep out of them all evening.  It was good catching up with friends especially Neil and Emma who we hadn’t seen in over a year.  It is amazing how quickly time passes us by and if truth be told we have a long list of friends that we have not seen in over a year, something that perhaps we need to rectify in 2012.

We also took advantage of the time off to head up the M40 to West Bromwich and Nanny Fran.  Éowyn gets very excited about seeing her Nanny Fran, so much so that she didn’t take advantage of the 120 mile car journey and sleep but rather stayed awake for the entire journey asking the epitomic question ‘Are we nearly there yet?‘  They start early don’t they?  However this tiredness manifested itself as grumpiness and misbehaviour, so there were a number of trips to the re-instated Thinking Step.

In fact, there has been quite a number of trips to the Thinking Step of late.  After many months without even the threat of a trip to the Thinking Step, Éowyn has been a regular visitor of late.  There are a number of reasons for this, namely: She is doing 3 days a week at school, plus trips to her childminder’s so she is missing her afternoon nap (I know the feeling) and getting tired and when she is tired she gets grumpy and her behaviour get worse; Amélie is getting a lot of attention of late, especially with regards to the encouragement that she is getting with her walking and her increasing vocabulary, so jealousy plays a part; She gets influenced by the behaviour of other children (as all children do) so making sure that she realises that just because her friends do it, it doesn’t mean that she has to (I think that is going to be a battle for many years to come!); and I have been working some long hours so she doesn’t always see me and Lucinda has, obviously, returned to work so she is not always seeing Lucinda either.  Plus she is probably just going through one of those phases where they try to push the boundaries and see what they can get away with, which is going but it puts pressure on us to keep the boundaries well defined.

Despite her frequent forays to the Thinking Step Lucinda treated Éowyn to a special day out last Wednesday.  A Peppa Pig live stage show was enjoying a run at Richmond Theatre and so Lucinda and Éowyn and her friend Christine and her daughter Arabella took the short trip down the A316.  Éowyn was completely enthralled by Peppa Pig’s Treasure Hunt (a puppet show) in complete contrast to the last live show that she saw which was the In The Night Garden live show, so much so that at the interval she got a little upset that it was over.  I think this is because, unfortunately, between booking the In The Night Garden tickets and actually going Éowyn grew out of the phase and was no longer interested in the antics of Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy (not to mention the hosts of other similarly named characters).  Now, Peppa Pig is a different matter, it is by far her favourite show and with trips to Peppa Pig world and a bed full of cuddly Peppa Pig characters I think it will stay her favourite for a few years to come yet.

Unfortunately I must end this update on a sad note.  My Great Uncle Albert passed away just after 1505 on Friday 27th January 2012 aged 90.  He had been ill for a little while and while the loss of any one is always sad in some ways his passing is a blessing.  Uncle Albert was my materal grandmother’s brother and was an inspiration.  He gave me my first paid job (in the despatch department of Accles and Shelvoke packing slaughter equipment: bolt stunners and cartridges) the summer after my GCSE exams.  He also ignited my interest in genealogy, tracing his own family tree back to 1546.  He also typed (with one finger and a lot of correction fluid) his wartime memories dubbing himself (in his self-depreciating style) Churchill’s Secret Weapon on an old manual typewriter.  The reasoning behind his monicker was that shortly after he completed his training the war in Europe ended.  Then, as he set foot in Asia (he was posted in India) the war in Asia ended.  Obviously, the enemy did not want to engage Albert Wyton in battle. He is now at peace with his wife of 64 years (my Great Auntie Iris), sleep well both, reunited in love.

Peace and Love

Baggie

So what has been happening in the Bagnall household in the first part of 2012.  Well it is a case of getting back into the old routines.  Éowyn now goes to school 3 times a week.  She has only be back at school for one week so it is hard to say exactly how she is coping with this.  Unfortunately, Lucinda’s work days fell mid-week on that week so not only did Dad have to take her to school each day, she was at Jo’s (the childminders) on one of the other days and we had to ask Lucinda’s dad to pick her up on two of the days.  Therefore she has not spent too much time with Lucinda this past week (which is unusual and I think she has missed her Mommy).  Éowyn loved being picked up by her Granddad because Lucinda’s dad has a flat bed truck and so, as three year old, it was one of the most exciting things that could have to have to ride home in the cab of Granddad’s truck (she probably will not think that in 10 years time!) and when we told her that on Friday that Lucinda would pick her up from school, she said, ‘Can Granddad pick me up in his truck?‘ which no doubt delighted Lucinda’s dad but is a bit of a kick in the teeth for Lucinda and me.

The main news though from the Bagnall household is the fact that Amélie has been discharged from the paediatrician.  As you know when she was first born she had severe reflux and wasn’t feeding correctly.  With hindsight it was probably part of the same problem: cow’s milk protein intolerance but at the time both aspects were being treated.  She therefore was given drugs to help lower her stomach acid and relax the stomach to help prevent reflux and she was tried with a variety of artifical milks until we hit upon Neocate (which she is still on).  The reflux went away but was that the drugs or was it the fact that her body wasn’t being poisoned with a chemical it couldn’t handle (the cow’s milk protein!).  The Cow’s milk intolerance is being treated under the supervision of a dietician while the reflux was treated under the supervision of the paediatrician.  As we suspected, it appears that the reflux wasn’t caused by any physical issues with Amélie’s digestive tract and was more than likely due to the intolerance.  However, we are extremely grateful that we were taken seriously and she was fully investigated and now given a clean bill of health.  We just have to hope that she grows out of the Cow’s milk protein intolerance, and we will be testing her for that again soon.  The intolerance has not made her a fussy eater though and she has quite a prodigious appetite, quite often eating more than her sister!

Amélie is still not walking unaided, however Nanny Fran bought her a pushchair for Christmas and she can motor along with that at a fair pace.  It is not just in straight lines either, if she wants to turn around or take a sharp left then she swings that pushchair round and tootles off in the new direction.  I think that it is just a matter of confidence and as soon as she realises that she doesn’t need to hold onto something then she’ll be off.  However, for some reason she doesn’t like a doll being in the pushchair and a squashy green ball seems to be her favourite passenger (you can see it in the photos below).  Her vocabulary has also started to increase and I don’t think it will be long before she will start surprising us with words.  She has always been a little chatty and will gurgle and mumble away to herself quite merrily (sometimes at 0300!) but the other day she drank her milk and handed me the bottle saying ‘Here you are,‘ or as close to that for my ears to interpret it that way.  I know my place.

It is strange how the two sisters are quite different in temperament.  Amélie is far more laid back than her older sister but at the same time quite cuddly and will wander over to you give you a kiss and cuddle then go back to whatever it was that she was doing beforehand.  She doesn’t seem quite as intent on sitting down and learning but will quite happily play with you without need of the television.  Éowyn is much more independent (when she knows that you are about) and will rarely give you a spontaneous cuddle but if you are not about she can get a little anxious and is always glad when you are back.  She is always keen to learn and to impress you with what she knows (doesn’t that remind you of anyone?) but will easily waste an afternoon watching a film or just banal television (again, like anyone you know?).  Éowyn does like her home and her home comforts especially when her parents are about.  Lucinda picked Éowyn up from school last week and she said, ‘Are we going home?  I like being at home and when Daddy is there it is the best place in the world!‘  The little sweetie!

I currently have a week off work (using up the remainder of last year’s leave entitlement) and Lucinda has done the same, so it really will be the best place in the world when they get back from school and Jo’s.  It is not all that exciting for Lucinda and me though as we are trying to fit all the new toys into our already crowded house.  There is a lot of consolidation going on and toys that have not seen the light of day or they are too old for are either heading down the charity shop or being boxed up and put in the loft.  To be honest it is probably something that both Lucinda and I should be doing to our own stuff.  Kids first!

Not the most exciting set of photos below but it is January and the year has only just begun.  Hopefully none of you suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia and if you did you managed to survive last Friday unscathed!  If you do suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia (or paraskevideatriaphobia as it is also known), then 2012 is probably a bad year for you as there will be 3 this year, so keep an eye on April and July!

Peace and love

Baggie