It seems a while since I last afforded you an update, this is in contrast with my regularity so far this year. For this I apologise but bear with me, I have a lot to fit in.
As you may guess from the title, the update starts with Mother’s Day (Mothering Sunday as it always used to be known). Mother’s Day (in the UK) is always the fourth Sunday of Lent. And as we all know Lent is the period of preparation that starts 40 days before Easter. Now what you may not know is that Easter Sunday is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. As there was a full moon just before the Vernal Equinox this year Easter (and hence Mother’s Day) was nearly as late as it can be and so Mother’s Day coincidenced with the first weekend in April. See you learn something everytime you pop by here.
Mother’s Day started off a little quiet. Éowyn (with a little help from me) made Lucinda breakfast in bed and then myself and the girls crept downstairs to allow Lucinda a well deserved lie in. Later we headed the short distance to Nanny and Grandad’s (the other end of the street) for the afternoon (and Sunday Lunch). Both of Lucinda’s brothers and their families came and so it was a house full for Lucinda’s mum on Mother’s Day – not exactly relaxing. However, it was good for everyone to be there (and I think Lucinda’s mum enjoyed it) and we didn’t see the children (Éowyn included) for the entire time we were there as the little group of cousins entertained themselves. I have said it before but it is great to see how close all the cousins are and how they include Éowyn in their games.
It has been a little eventful for Éowyn over the last couple of weeks, all of them stages of growing up. Potty training is still going slowly and we had a little set back when she suffered from an acute bout of tummy upset. I think you all know what I mean. I think that has knocked her confidence and so no big girl pants at the moment. We have also converted her cot into a bed. (For those of you not in the know. When we moved Éowyn from her moses basket we placed her in a cotbed (a cot that becomes a bed when you take the sides off) that should see her through to about her 5th year. For months we have been trying to take the side off her bed so that it was more like a big bed, however she has resisted this furiously and got quite upset whenever we did remove it.) This was mainly due to her trying to retrieve a toy that had fallen out of bed. The first we heard of her attempting to get out of bed was a loud thud followed by Éowyn crying. We rushed upstairs to find her on the floor and when we asked her what had happened she told us she was climbing out of bed. We therefore had no choice and immediately took the side off her bed. We have replaced it with a bed guard (so she is not totally exposed) but apart from a couple of half-hearted groans she has taken the change in her stride although she hasn’t yet fully taken advantage of the fact that she can get in and out of bed. We are, however, prepared for this and have fitted a child gate at her bedroom door so that she can’t sneak out of her bedroom at night.
We have also had to recently introduce the naughty step. Éowyn is not by nature a naughty child but we have had to introduce the punishment because of the seriousness of her actions. She has begun to open the front door and run off. The reasons for the escapement are numerous: ‘Just looking for some Bees, Daddy.‘ ‘I’m going fishing.‘ ‘There was a cat and I want to stroke it.‘ She has always enjoyed opening the door for guests (both arrivals and departures) and we have no problem with this as it gives her a sense of control, but obviously just opening the door and running off needs to be nipped in the bud. Hence the use of the naughty step.
Éowyn has also turned composer. She followed Lucinda into the kitchen and asked her for some crisps. Lucinda said that she had already had a packet of crisps that day so she could not have another packet. ‘But I need them.‘ she said. Lucinda again said that she couldn’t have them. ‘But I love crisps.‘ she reiterated. Again Lucinda denied the request. So Éowyn walked off to her keyboard and begun playing the keys singing: ‘I love crisps, I love crisps, I love crisps in yellow packets‘. Genius! Unfortunately we didn’t film it otherwise it may have become a bigger hit than Friday by Rebecca Black. We have recently been trying to educate Éowyn with music in an attempt to wean her off the television. Her current favourites seem to be The Beach Boys, The Monkees and Wham! (Wake me up before you go go, is her current favourite). So maybe we are nuturing a talent, one that neither Lucinda nor I have.
We do, of course have a second daughter. Amélie is now enjoying her food (well she is a Bagnall!). It was a little bit of a battle at first (which is understandable) but now she is loving the different flavours and textures and the extra intake means that she is down to four bottles of Neocate a day. She is also still sleeping through the night (no teething episodes lately – and still no teeth) which is bliss. However she is still a little lazy. She occasionally rolls, and has got herself into the crawling stance once but it is not regular and neither is she sitting. We will probably reminisce about these halycon days when she does start crawling and getting into things.
It is fortunate that she is not crawling at the moment since we are having our kitchen ripped out and replaced. There is a thin film of plaster dust that is coating everything and we are living out of one room and washing the cutley and crockery in the bathroom sink. It is not the most pleasant way to live but it is only for a couple of weeks and we are quite excited about having a new kitchen with an oven that works evenly.
Hopefully it will all be sorted by the Easter weekend and the swarm of Bank Holidays (if that is indeed the collective noun for a group of Bank Holidays) that are coming up with a late Easter, May bank holiday and a Royal Wedding. Fingers crossed the weather will stay fine and it will make the tidying up much more pleasant giving us the chance to air the house and we can send Éowyn to play in her new wendy house (photo below). For with Bank Holidays and Teacher Training Days it will be six weeks between school days for Éowyn when she returns on the 6th May!
Meanwhile enjoy the photos and look out for the milestone update next time.
Peace and Love
Baggie
