April is here and the promise of Sunshine has disappeared in a blizzard, not a metaphorical blizzard, an actual blizzard. Admittedly not in the South East of England but across great swathes of the country, Aberdeenshire for instance which was basking in the warmest March day every recorded in Scotland a mere week ago is now under 8 inches of snow. Must be a sign that the Easter bank holidays are here and children are off school.
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
