Ezra’s Third Birthday

Baggie

Yes, it is hardly believable but our little boy has completed three circuits around the sun and we have been a family of five for three years.  Sunday was Ezra’s actual birthday however his birthday celebrations began a few days before that.

As you are all, no doubt, aware Lucinda is a childminder and thus looks after the children that have been entrusted to her care at our home.  Therefore, our children have to share their space and their toys with these children.  There is obviously some trust that is built up between our children and these visitors, especially for the girls who are not necessarily about when Lucinda is looking after these children.  Ezra, on the other hand, has to share his space, and his mommy with these, initial, strangers.  He has acclimatised to this need to share his things and his mommy extremely well and as a bonus counts a number of these children as his friends and, indeed, looks forward to their arrival at Bagnall Manor.

As a consequence when we thought about throwing a party for Ezra for his birthday his only friends that he was interested in inviting were these children and a couple of friends’ children that he knows through our friendships.  With all these children available on the Thursday before his birthday it was an ideal day to through him his first party.  I took the day off work to help Lucinda ready the house for an invasion of little people and party games (and food) were prepared in anticipation.  The party started as soon as school had finished and we had all the traditional party games: pin the tail on the donkey, musical statues, musical bumps and a new one invented by Lucinda: hunt the party bag.  Instead of automatically receiving a party bag after attending the party (something I still don’t really understand) they had been hidden around the house and the children had to hunt them down.

So after filling themselves with party food and adorning themselves with stickers (the consolation prizes for being knocked out of the various games) the three hours were soon over and the house returned to a sense of normality and Ezra’s first party was a success.  Indeed one of the attendees said that it was the best party they had ever been to.  I suppose at that age there is not a lot of competition but still the bar has been set!

Friday saw Ezra back at school before the birthday celebrations commenced once again at the weekend.  A shift swap at work worked in my favour meaning that I was off with my boy for his birthday.

Ezra had more visitors for his birthday weekend (he is a popular boy!) starting on Saturday with his Bagnall relatives.  Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz came down from West Bromwich joined by Auntie Mary later in the day.  All three Baguettes get over excited by Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz and this weekend was no exception.  Indeed Ezra was more excited by seeing his Black Country relatives than any presents or cards that they brought down with them.  Hopefully it will stay like that.

This was all before his actually birthday on Sunday.  As usual Ezra woke up early and went downstairs while the adults dozed in their beds.  He can not just lie in bed, or play in his room if he is awake; he insists on going downstairs.  I suppose his logic is that I am awake, therefore I should be up.

Woken by the birthday boy we all found ourselves downstairs earlier than one would expect on a Sunday morning.  He was very excited, but controlled while opening his presents and it was worth the early morning call to see his eyes light up with delight with each of the presents (although I think he was expecting a Christmas Stocking equivalent with lots of little presents, rather than the big ones he received).  Of the presents that he opened Sunday morning it has to be said that his favourite was the Paw Patrol control tower.  Although he is a typical three-year old boy in the regard that his favourite toys are dinosaurs, pirates and Spiderman, his current favourite TV programme is Paw Patrol and so the Paw Patrol control tower with Chase went straight to the top of the list.

After getting washed and dressed it was time to prepare the food and the house ready for the afternoon’s guests and Ezra’s second party of the week, a gathering of the family around Bagnall Manor.  Unfortunately we had two casualties before the party had begun.  Auntie Liz was suffering from severe stomach cramps, potentially caused by an intolerance to something that she had eaten the night before, however she still hasn’t been able to identify the culprit.  In addition, Éowyn was running a temperature and was also complaining of stomach ache (although not to the severity of her auntie).  Auntie Liz was getting worse and so Nanny Fran decided to take her back to West Bromwich before the journey would have been unbearable.

Ezra’s guests started to arrive around 3pm and once again he was spoilt with more presents, including a new favourite from Adam and Lucy in the shape of Butch, the Tyrannosaurus Rex veteran rancher from the Disney film “The Good Dinosaur“.  A good time was had by all, however Éowyn was gradually getting worse and even the lure of her cousins to play with couldn’t stir her from the settee.  She was running a temperature of 39.5°C and so we dosed her up with Calpol and put her to bed.

It was good to see the family come round for our youngest birthday, although we were a little short on numbers especially with the Bagnall contingent back in West Bromwich but hopefully it will be something that we will do more of this year.  Ezra enjoyed being the centre of attention but it was so tiring for him that at about 18:30, with his guests still here, he asked if he could go to bed because he was tired.  Hopefully he will be able to hone his party animal skills as he gets older.

I will leave you with some photos from his birthday week and the good thing about having two parties in one week is that you can have two birthday cakes!  He does, however, need to work on his candle blowing skills, sorely lacking I’m afraid.  Never mind, happy 3rd birthday son.

Peace and Love

Baggie

A despicable birthday cake
The birthday boy
Ezra’s birthday cake
Birthday cake number one
Blow!
And out they go
What is it?
This is exciting
My favourite present
And what’s this?
Nearly opened it
A pirate dinosaur
Just a little bit more
More Paw Patrol stuff
It’s fun having a birthday
A birthday card
It is just a card
The ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ results
My birthday cake?
Deep breath
And blow

Half term and a trip to Nanny Fran’s

Baggie

A little belated, and nothing to do with the fact that this year is a little longer than the usual.  Normal service has resumed with a more traditional update, in contrast with the olympiad bissextus bonus of the previous post and Ezra’s pre-school inauguration prior to that.

So let me take you back a few weeks.  The first weekend of February saw the Bagnall family in the Bride valley at Berwick Manor celebrating Uncle Bill’s 70th birthday.  That was the weekend before half-term, hence we only spent the weekend in Puncknowle returning to Staines-upon-Thames on the Sunday evening for the girls still had four days of the first half of the first term of 2016 left.  But, I hear you cry, there are 5 days in a school week.  Yes, that is indeed correct except when an inset day is tagged to the start of a half term break.

We had decided, before the knowledge of the inset day, that we would take a journey north and visit Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz for that weekend.  The baguettes were excited, as they always are when visiting Nanny Fran, and when we asked them what they would like to do in West Bromwich there was a unanimous reply:  Funky Monkeys.  Funky Monkeys is UK wide company that provide indoor soft play areas for kids under 8, and as all kids (and some adults) our three love a soft play area.  Therefore, we decided that we would take advantage of the inset day and the extended half-term and visit Funky Monkeys on the Friday hoping that the schools in Sandwell had not decided likewise.

We arrived at Nanny Fran’s around lunchtime and after sating our appetite headed into the town centre.  Funky Monkeys is aimed at under eights but in addition there is also a height restriction of 4′ 5″ (135cm).  Now Éowyn may have only just turned 7 but she is barely an inch under the maximum height restriction, so this may be last time that she can legitimately go.  However, flat shoes and a slouch may help for at least another visit.

While the Baguettes were distracted in Funky Monkeys we left them under the watchful gaze of Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz and disappeared to book a big surprise for them, something that you dear readers will have to wait until December to find out yourselves.

The Bagnall five were not the only visitors to Nanny Fran’s.  There were two others in the car on the journey North, Nanny Fran’s grand-guinea pigs.  We didn’t really have anyone to look after Toffee and Frazzle while we were in West Bromwich, so we brought them with us.  It was nice for Nanny Fran to see them as it had been a couple of months and she could see how big that they had grown (and they are still growing!).

We only stayed at Nanny Fran’s for the weekend as I had a busy work week ahead of me and so did Lucinda.  Obviously, with Lucinda’s child-minding job requiring privacy for her clients, it is not discussed on this website, however I will mention that half-term saw Lucinda settle two new clients which when coupled with our children and the fact that I was at work made it a very busy week for her.  So when Amélie and then Éowyn were separately invited for playdates at friends’ houses, there wasn’t much of a decision to be made and the invitation was welcomed with open arms by Lucinda.

As regular readers will recall the return to school after the half-term break marked the start of Ezra’s education journey.  The UK government currently pay for all pre-school children to receive 15 hours of childcare per week.  They are entitled to this from the term after their third birthday.  With Ezra’s third birthday looming large on the horizon (next weekend to be exact) he will be entitled to this for the Summer term when the schools return after the Easter break.  Since Ezra has never been to school, to a childminder (for over a year) or indeed spent any amount of regular time away from Lucinda we have decided to use this half-term to ease him into the education system.

He has settled into Our Lady of the Rosary’s pre-school extremely quickly.  He is excited to go (and walks the entire way – which is a big step in itself) and doesn’t bat an eyelid when you leave him, he just finds the toys he wants to play with and starts playing.  The teachers have said that he has settled extremely well and just gets on with it.  Whenever you ask him about his day, he doesn’t really mention any of the other children or the teachers only that they have lovely toys.  At least he is happy and seemingly enjoying it.  He is only going for two mornings a week during this ‘easing-in’ period and so as a consequence it shouldn’t be too much for him, he shouldn’t get too tired but only time will tell if it will help and he will be ready for the ramp up to 15 hours after the Easter break.

Éowyn has started with an attitude to homework that we will need to change before it becomes a habit.  Her class had been learning about giraffes. Nothing too unusual about that, they often pick a subject and learn about it in-depth.  However, despite Lucinda and I both asking what she learned at school this week, giraffes were never mentioned.  As the week zoomed by without any warning at all it is nearly bedtime on Thursday when Éowyn informs us that she has to make a giraffe to take to school.  Thanks for the warning!

The combined creative juices of mum and dad sprung into action and we had a play.  A cardboard head and neck of giraffe using some packing materials from a recent delivery, some yellow paint and a sheet of brown wrapping paper.  The kitchen table, covered with newspaper, became the work bench and Éowyn’s bedtime was delayed.

An hour or two later and cardboard giraffe neck nearly 5 feet high was ready for school the next morning.  You can see the results of our handiwork can be seen in the photos below.  As you can appreciate it wasn’t the easiest of homework to carry to school on a blustery morning.

Thursday the following week was World Book Day and parents up and down the land were faced with the problem of acquiring a fancy dress costume.  Fortunately we have a large trunk of dressing up costumes and Amélie quite happily chose the Tinkerbell dress (and wings) for her character.

Éowyn was a little bit more creative.  She wanted to go dress as Summer Hammond from the Secret Kingdom series of books, and Starlight Adventure in particular.  The Secret Kingdom series introduces three girls: Summer, Jasmine and Ellie as a group of friends who find a magic box that teleports them to a fantasy land where they have magical adventures.  It is aimed at girls from around Éowyn’s age and a good way of encouraging girls to read for fun.

Éowyn looked through her wardrobe and put together an approximation of Summer’s outfit from the book’s cover.  I was proud of her being so original and not defaulting to wearing one of the many Disney princess dresses that we have or conforming to the social norms of the older kids and coming as one of the Harry Potter characters.

Again, however she left this homework to the last minute, not in the costume itself but a prop that she wanted to take.  If you look at Summer on the book’s cover (she is the one in the middle with the blonde hair – see the photo with Éowyn carrying the book if you don’t have it on your book shelf), she is carrying a golden lamp.  Fifteen minutes before we were due to leave for school she bemoaned the fact that we didn’t have a golden lamp for her to take.  Not sure where she expecting us to conjure one up from?  A five foot high giraffe is one thing and golden lamp is quite another.  As we said to her, if she had given us more notice we could have been creative and helped her make one but in this instance she would just have to go without.  As you can see it is a habit we are going to have to break.

With an early Easter looming that also means that there is an early Mother’s Day.  In the U.K. Mother’s Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, therefore with Easter Sunday falling on 27th March in 2016 it means that Mother’s Day is today.  Lucinda and I would thus like to say Happy Mother’s day to our maters and to mothers everywhere.  With three children of our own it means that I am going to have a busy day off helping the Baguettes look after their mum!

I will leave you know with a few more photos than usual to make up for the lack of photos in the previous update.  As always there are more on the flickr pages.

Peace and Love

Baggie

World Book Day
Éowyn and Amélie
Éowyn, Amélie and Ezra
Ezra on a donkey
Amélie on a camel
Ready to race
Amélie on the seesaw
Round and Round
Keep going
Éowyn and Aaliyah
Amélie on the seesaw
Aaliyah and Éowyn
Fun on the swings
I’m a little dragon
Time to dig!
Relaxing with toffee
Toffee
Éowyn and toffee
A giraffe!
Look what I made
My sister made this
Who’s da chef?
Cheeky smile
Like my ‘tash?
Can I drive?
Watching the iPad
I’m covered in balls!

An extra day: a bonus post

Baggie

It only happens once every four years, and although this blog started with the birth of Éowyn in 2008, its (and, obviously, her) birth was in October, long after 2008’s leap day.   Therefore despite running for 7½ years it is only the second time that this blog has seen bissextus (the leap day).  The first leap day of the blog (and Éowyn and Amélie’s first) deigned a day specific write up so, too, does this second (and Ezra’s first) deserve a whole write up to itself; let’s make it a tradition.

As you may know the leap day is an extra day added to most years that are divisible by 4 (except, of course, ‘end of century‘ years that are not divisible by 400), this is to compensate for the reality that the Earth does not take 365 days to revolve around the Sun.  In fact, the Earth takes 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds to complete its journey around our local star hence the need for the additional day to keep our fragile grasp on notional time in sync with nature.  Therefore, our calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20,871 weeks, which includes 97 leap days.  (This extra day is entitled a ‘Leap Day’ because the usual convention is that a fixed date normally advances one day from one year to the next.  In a leap year is will advance two days, thus leaping over one of the days in the week).  These 97 days are divided thus: 13 times on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday, 14 times on a Friday or a Saturday and 15 times on a Monday or a Wednesday.  In 2016, we find that the leap day is on a Monday, which, along with Wednesday (the day on which the previous leap day fell) is statistically the most likely.

So what happened on Monday 29th February 2016, in our little enclave of the world?

The new Monday morning regime began with ensuring all three Baguettes were ready for school, on time and leaving the house by 0810 to allow Ezra enough time to walk to school.  It was a bright, crisp and frosty morning to greet the extended February.  Thus we wrapped up warm and headed off into the winter air.  The first destination was Our Lady of the Rosary where I dropped Ezra off for the start of his second week at school; before then dropping Éowyn off at her base and then Amélie off at hers before walking back home and starting my work day by driving around the edge of Heathrow to Stockley Park.  Lucinda had no children to mind and therefore was alone in the house for a couple of hours before having to return to Our Lady of the Rosary to pick Ezra after his morning session of pre-school.

Therefore, like the first bissextus of this blog the second saw the Bagnall family members apart (five now as opposed to the four as was then) each in their own environ, for the morning at least.

As usual, Lucinda collected the girls from school but bought one extra home.  Amélie had one of her new friends around for an after-school playdate.  This, coupled with inviting Nanny round for dinner and taking Éowyn to Brownies made for a busy evening for Lucinda before I walked in through the door.

I had a very meeting-centric day at work (we are going through a very busy period at work with lots of exciting projects in the planning stages).  I walked through the door with just enough time to warm my dinner up, say ‘hello’ get changed and head back out to pick Éowyn up from Brownies.

As I returned Lucinda took Nanny back home before heading to her Slimming World meeting, while I read with the kids and put them to bed.  Then it was a week’s worth of ironing (see I am a domesticated husband), a quick tidy of the lounge and then relax!  The glamour of the Bagnall household on bissextus 2016!

This is a bit of a departure from the usual fare on BaggieandLucy.com and so there are no photos today, although I am hoping (time permitting) to complete a more traditional update with photos (and there are some on our Flickr pages that have been recently added) later this week – although do not hold me to it.

Hopefully Saturday 29th February 2020 will be a little more interesting than today.  At least being a weekend there is a chance that we will be together as a family (assuming I am not in a similar role to my current one).

Peace and Love

Baggie