2013

We have a smiler!

Sunday 12th May 2013Monday 13th May 2013Baggie

Another update, another month, although a little later than I had planned, 2013 is definitely speeding by. The first couple of months seemingly dragged as a combination of cold weather and the anticipation of Ezra’s arrival apparently dilated the passage of time, somewhat like the week before Christmas when you are a child. However since his birth, time has flown and amazingly he is now eight weeks old! Eight weeks old and 12lbs 12oz (5.78kg).

Thus, as you can guess Ezra is putting on weight nicely and sitting happily on the 75th centile. The health visitors are very happy with his progress and it appears he has missed the genetic lottery and cow’s milk protein intolerance. As a coincidence we also weighed Amélie and Éowyn to compare them with their brother’s 12lb 12oz. Amélie weighed 2 stone 2 pounds (13.6kg /30 pounds) while Éowyn tipped the scales at 3 stone 3 pounds ( 20.4kg /45 pounds); a nice symmetry to their results (in imperial measurements).

You are not here for weight updates though, are you? You want to know what has been happening in the world of the Bagnalls. Fortunately we have been blessed with some seasonal weather of late (although looking out of the window at the moment you wouldn’t believe it) and so we have been able to leave the confines of chez Bagnall and take full advantage. Unfortunately I have not been on all those those adventures (work does get in the way), but there are plenty of photos to give you all (and me) the flavour of those adventures.

We have also managed to complete the adventure that is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both girls thoroughly enjoyed the book even though it took us best part of a fortnight to read it and they kept up with the story remembering (with a little help from the voice-over guy type: ‘previously on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory‘) all the names and what was going on. I have now said that since they know the story they can watch the film. Neither of them have shown too much interest in the sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator though and to be honest neither have I, it doesn’t quite have the charm of the original, it is no Empire Strikes Back.

As I mentioned above Éowyn and Amélie have been taking advantage of the good weather playing in our garden, in Nanny and Granddad’s garden and down the local park, fully sunblocked up (Lucinda and I both have delicate celtic skin that burns easily, even in the poor weather we have had so the kids have no chance) with matching sunhats (the only item of clothing that they will wear that is the same). The local park (Lammas recreation ground) has, in addition to the usual adventure playground a splash park. Great fun for little ones (and the little one in adults), water jets squirt large arcs of water over anyone in area and the girls love it. Fantastic fun on a warm day, so not that often this year.

However the weather doesn’t have to be warm for a Bagnall to go on an adventure, although if it is dry it is a bonus. The girls have been on a couple of adventures since the last update. The first was to the Great Cockcrow Railway in Lyne. It is a miniature steam railway maintained and operated by volunteers and I am a little bit jealous that I wasn’t able to go (that work thing!). Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed the trains but Amélie, being a little younger, was a initially scared of the tunnel but nevertheless when she was asked if she wanted to go on it again and seeing that her older sister was so keen to go again insisted that she went too. The Great Cockcrow Railway is only open from May through to October and so if Daddy is going to go it will have to be over the next couple of months.

Daddy did manage to go on the second adventure though a trip around Saville Garden and Virginia Water with Éowyn’s best friend Raine. It was a little insight into how live will be with three ‘mobile’ children, you really need to have eyes in the back of your head. For although both Lucinda and I were there, there were occasions when all three would run in different directions and with large bodies of water and people walking dogs you have to be one step ahead all the time. Not relaxing! Thankfully there were all well behaved so that when we told them to stop or come back they did and so thoroughly deserved their ice-creams at the end of the walk.

Ezra accompanied the girls on their adventures but obviously was very much a passenger. However his development is accelerating and he is far more alert now and will sit watching his sisters or mommy and daddy. However the biggest and most pleasing development is that he has begun to smile and even giggle. He will sit on your lap looking into your eyes and give you the biggest smile cooing gently at you. When I come home from work the girls usually run to the door to give me a kiss to welcome me home and now, in addition to that attention Ezra will turn his head and look at me and give me his cutie smile.

Not only is Ezra ingratiating himself with his cute smile and cooing noises he is also giving us as much sleep as one could expect from an eight week old. He goes to bed as we go to bed and will wake once in the night (as much as seven hours later) but only cries to wake us, has his feed and then goes back to sleep quite quickly. He was even good the night he had his first set of inoculations. Obviously he cried and got upset when he had them and was quite disturbed throughout the day and we were prepared for a bad night but as soon as the lights went out and he was lain in his moses basket he went to sleep for six hours. Can we ask for any more? But now that I have told you have I put the collybosh on it? We will wait and see.

Work is building to the end of season crescendo so afterwards worklife should calm down a little and hopefully their will be more time for me to take part in the Bagnall family adventures and you dear readers will hear all about it on these pages. I will leave you now with a good selection of photos below and over 200 new ones on our Flickr (broken link now fixed) pages (I have been busy with the camera), feel free to pop by and check them out.

Peace and love

Baggie

Getting ready to smile

No photos please

Smiler

Just thinking

Into the wood

I’m watching you

What’s over yonder?

A walk in the woods

Wait for me

What are they up to?

The transformation begins

I’m a beautiful butterfly

Best friends

Sisters

Sisterly love

Not impressed

Look at me!

Not sure about this

I love my brother

Cardies are fashionable

Latest art work

Can I squeeze in here?

Rosy cheeks

Cheeky boy

You can even eat the dishes

Wednesday 24th April 2013Baggie

We are over half way through April and so it is only right and fitting that I update you with the activities of the Bagnall household. It has been a week or so of getting into routine. Éowyn is back at pre-school the first week since I have returned from paternity leave and so a new regime is in place. As Ezra is still only young (not even 6 weeks yet) and not sleeping through the night (more of that later) it seems completely unfair for Lucinda to attempt to get three children ready and loaded into the car to drop Éowyn off at school. Thankfully my working day is a little flexible so it is not an issue (most of the time) for me to head in for 09:30/ 10:00 and so we are taking full advantage of this. So we concentrate on getting Éowyn washed, dressed and fed and then I take her to pre-school before heading off to work. So far it is working and it means that should we have a bad night then Lucinda doesn’t have to struggle half asleep to herd three children into the car and ensure that Éowyn has everything that she needs, especially if Ezra has decided that 0830 is the time that he wants to go to sleep.

So how likely is it that Ezra will have a ‘bad night’? Not the easiest of questions to answer as it seems to be entirely random. It is not normally night after night but it can be two or three nights in a row followed by a good night. So what is the definition of a good night and likewise a bad night. Before children a good night’s sleep would be in the region of 10 hours, since children 8 hours would be a miracle, since the birth of Ezra 5 hours is unheard of. In fairness to Ezra he is probably a better sleeper than either Éowyn and Amélie. So the current definition of a good night would be Ezra sleeping for 3 to 4 hours, waking up crying, feeding then going back to sleep and both girls oblivious to his cries. A bad night (and we have had a few lately) would be Ezra not sleeping at all, crying for the majority of the night and his cries waking Amélie (and it is usually Amélie first – Éowyn sleeps through his cries). Amélie then gets upset and starts crying and because she is in the same room as Éowyn, Éowyn will wake up. Just what one needs before a full day during a busy period at work all three kids crying in the middle of the night!

This week it hasn’t just be the little ones that have been getting up in the middle of the night. Last Friday we decided to treat ourselves to an Indian takeaway, unfortunately it did not agree with Lucinda’s digestion. Now whether it was food poisoning, norovirus or just her body rejecting the spicy food the symptoms lasted best part of a week. Now obviously, our first concern was Lucinda but, of course as she is the only food source for Ezra out thoughts quickly turned to him. Can she pass the symptoms to him? Should she continue breastfeeding while ill? Should she be cuddling him? So what do we do in the early years of the 21st century when we don’t know something? That’s right we google it. There is very little these days that is ungoogleable (or ogooglebar as the Swedish aren’t allowed to say) and this was no different.

So, ‘should one continue breastfeeding when ill?‘ The overwhelming answer was ‘Yes!’ There are but a handful of conditions that can be passed from mother to child through breastmilk (HIV and HTLV-1 are the only infectious diseases that should prevent breastfeeding). Indeed on the contrary since the mother is fighting an infection her antibodies are in overdrive and these antibodies are passed through the milk to the child giving them a head start in any future fight they may have with a similar infection. It is just important to take care not to pass the infection on through the normal modes of infection, so avoiding coughing, sneezing over the little one and ensuring that hands are washed thoroughly before holding them are vitally important. Obviously one would do that anyway but it was comforting to know that Lucinda should still breastfeed and so she did and Ezra was fine.

So with a poorly mother it was left to Daddy to become primary carer on his two days off. It is always good to have some Daddy time and this was no different. The girls love the Disney programme Jake and the Neverland Pirates and so we played that, with yours truly playing the part of Captain Hook. Amélie took the game to heart (she was Jake) and for the last week she has no longer been calling me Daddy but Captain Hook and keeps trying to steal my treasure. Didn’t realise that my acting skills were that developed! ‘Blast those puny pirates!‘

I also begun to try and widen their taste in music it started off badly, however David Bowie, The Beach Boys and Bob Marley were definite hits but then we found a favourite that eclipsed the others: Sammy David Jnr’s version of Candy Man. I think we listened to it seven times in a row before I decided that enough was enough, I think it was the line ‘You can even eat the dishes‘ that caught Éowyn’s imagination. I told her that it was a cover of a song from a film called ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and gave her a précis of the story and told her that I had the book and if she would like I would read it to her. However because it is a big book it would take over a week to read it. This is the first time that I have read a book to them that is going to take more that a single night, indeed I normally read three short stories to them before bed. I wasn’t sure how they would take to it and whether they would have the attention span to last, no need to worry Éowyn is completely into it and even Amélie looks forward to it however being a little younger Amélie’s attention does wane a little and she has even fallen asleep before the night’s reading has finished. The girls are not the only one enjoying a little Roald Dahl, Daddy is enjoying it too!

The big news of this update is that Éowyn has been accepted at her first choice primary school: Town Farm. It was a difficult choice as Town Farm hasn’t got the best reputation in the area however it’s latest Ofsted report was by far the best in the area and when we toured around the schools it was the most impressive, with great facilities including plenty of computers, a well stocked library and good sporting facilities. Lucinda needed the most convincing for as she has been brought up in the area she is aware of the school’s reputation however the visit and the Ofsted report changed her opinion. There is still a nagging doubt in the back of her mind but we will soon find out whether we have made the correct decision.

However it is probably not the school we have to worry about influencing Éowyn but Éowyn influencing the other children. Éowyn is not only relatively clever but physically larger than the her peers and when she gets frustrated with her friends she can use both to get to own way. Her best friend Raine, however is more than a match for her both physically and cerebrally and they are usually as thick as thieves. If there is something going on those two are usually there or thereabouts, encouraging each other and their peers. Last Friday was an example.

Raine’s mum had offered to bring Éowyn home as Lucinda was still feeling a little tender and as she dropped her off she said that she had been called into Playbox by the teachers. Éowyn and Raine had somehow got hold of a pair of scissors and Éowyn had cut an inch off Raine’s hair. Lucinda apologised but as Raine’s mum said, she wasn’t upset with Éowyn (or Raine for that matter who had encouraged Éowyn to do it) but with the teachers who had left scissors unaided. It could have been worse, at least Raine’s hair will grow back. Just before Easter then had both come home from pre-school with their faces covered in felt-tip pen which took a couple of days to wash off and fade completely. It is never boring around at Chez Bagnall.

So after a winter that seems to have dragged which ended with the coldest March for 50 years the weather has finally turned warm (21ºC and counting!). The girls have their summer dress and their sunscreen on it so it must be time to turn the computer off and play in the garden.

Peace and love

Baggie

Shhhh!

It is comfy

Sleeping babe

Fancy dress

My baby brother

They made me do it

Éowyn’s art installation

Close up

Play-Doh!

Best friends

My best friend

Asleep on Daddy

Sleeping’s for wimps!

Thursday 11th April 2013Baggie

Welcome to the first post-paternity leave update. Yes, I am back in the adult word with responsibilities to my employers as well as to the family. So as many of you are taking time off at Easter to be with your families I am somewhat contradictorily returning from time off work. Perhaps Ezra has sensed this change in circumstances for he, too has decided to change his circumstances. For the first two weeks of his life he was unbelievable as a baby. He would feed and then sleep. Wake when he was hungry, maybe cry a little and then feed and go back to sleep. Obviously there would be the regular effect of all that food and he certainly doesn’t like his nappy changed with his bits all on show. However apart from that he was an almost ideal baby. Then it changed.

For a week he didn’t sleep. He fed, he cried and he pooped and that was all he did for nearly a week. I think if it wasn’t for Nanny Fran Lucinda definitely, and me, probably, would have been in a complete state since I was trying to get back in the working mentality and Lucinda would have had both girls and Ezra to look after on mere snatches of sleep. Not conducive to keep yourself compos mentis or to be in charge of small children.

So what caused Ezra’s sleepless nights? It is hard to track down. He wasn’t ill. It went on a little too long to be something that Lucinda had eaten. We are putting it down to a development leap, he was possibly becoming more aware of his surroundings and so his brain was trying to process all this new information. According to the Wonder Weeks website this was a little too early but if we ignore this little oversight then it seems to tie in quite well. One thought that did pass through our heads was whether he was developing Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance like his sister. Therefore we decided that we would take him to get him weighed at the next clinic to ensure he was putting on weight at the expecting rate.

While we were struggling with Ezra alone where were Éowyn and Amélie? There were 120 miles north-west in West Bromwich at Nanny Fran’s. Yes, Nanny Fran had offered to look after the girls for the first week of the Easter holidays and we jumped at the offer. This would tie in with my first week back at work and so, the theory went, Lucinda could get into a routine with Ezra alone before trying to get into a routine with all three children. As you can guess that idea didn’t quite go to plan but nevertheless was very convenient.

We drove up to West Bromwich in the S-Max, its first proper outing and the first time that we could use the in-car DVD in anger. Ezra was very good in the car (as were Éowyn and Amélie) and we soon arrived at Nanny Fran’s. As I have mentioned before Éowyn and Amélie love to go to Nanny Fran’s and this time was no different, they were very excited for nearly a week before the journey. I am sure that Ezra will be no different when he grows up. Indeed he realised that he was somewhere different and you could see him looking around and trying to make some sense of the new place. As a baby’s eyesight isn’t that great it is possible that it is new smells that he is reacting to but whatever it was he definitely knew he was somewhere different and he was quite happy to be there.

This was Ezra’s first trip to West Bromwich, in fairness it was his first proper journey of any note. News of his trip spread and even though we were only there for a few hours he had a number of visitors who came over to see him. He also made a visit to his Great-Grandma. It was the day after her 90th birthday and so there was a double reason to visit. Great-Grandma managed to have an extended cuddle with her first Great-Grandson and Ezra was very good just lying there in her arms relaxed in his oldest relative’s embrace.

After a meal and a couple more visitors Lucinda and I then headed back home leaving our oldest children with Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz. So while Lucinda was struggling with no sleep and I was struggling with very little sleep and getting back into work, what did Éowyn and Amélie get up to?

If you ask Éowyn then the answer would be nothing. It is always nothing as I have mentioned before, but the photos paint a different story. Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz spoilt them rotten (as a Nan and Auntie should). They went to a couple of soft play areas, the West Midlands Safari Park and Auntie Liz took Éowyn to the cinema to see her first 3D film (Finding Nemo).

They were both very well behaved (well they were at Nanny Fran’s so they had no choice!) and came back with some goodies and had but one question: When could they go back to Nanny Frans.

So before I leave you (with a good selection of photos) is Ezra Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerant? While I took Éowyn to the cinema to see her second film of the week (The Croods – in 2D, none of that 3D nonsense for me) Lucinda went to find out. Well if his current weight gain is anything to go by, no! Tuesday morning is the Baby Weigh-in clinic and so Lucinda (and Amélie) took Ezra for the first time. His last weigh-in was two weeks ago and so we were quite interested to find out how much he had put on. We were not prepared for the answer. The little bruiser now weighs 4.97kg (10lb 15oz). He has put on over two pounds (just short of a kilogram) in less than 4 weeks and now sits on the 91st centile. That’s my boy!

Please enjoy the photos below and don’t forget the photos on Flickr

Peace and love

Baggie