2012

An extra day deserves an extra post!

Wednesday 29th February 2012Friday 2nd March 2012Baggie

It only happens once every four years, and it is the first time that it has happened while I have been writing this blog, so it deserves a whole write up to itself. 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 take into account the fact 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. 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 2012 we find that the leap day is on a Wednesday, which I suppose is statistically most likely.

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

Has Spring, sprung?

Monday 27th February 2012Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

It seems that we go from one extreme to another with our weather. After a week of freezing temperatures and snow across the land, we now have unseasonably warm weather with the mercury touching 17°C (19°C in some places!) and the news that the south east of England is in drought conditions due to lack of rainfall. Not bad for February!

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

You taking photos again?

On Mommy’s lap

Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!

Smile for Nanny Fran

Smile for Éowyn

Give it here, I’ll show you how to do it

Emotional phonecall

Emotional phonecall (part II)

This is an emotional phonecall

I’m walking!

Hello!

I’ll have this

International dog-wrestling!

You have the better of me

I yield!

Just chilling on the floor

The best way to watch telly

Oh Daddy!

The snow, it’s bin and gone and ‘ay come again!

Tuesday 14th February 2012Friday 24th February 2012Baggie

We are midway through February (frightening isn’t it?) and since the last update the fortnight seems to have been filled with many events but without a lot happening too. I can see a lot of quizzical looks at that apparent oxymoronic statement.

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