2014

Ezra’s first birthday

Tuesday 18th March 2014Tuesday 18th March 2014Baggie

Spring is nearly upon us and the weather has certainly got a vernal disposition at the moment, temperatures up to 18°C not bad for what is still, technically, winter (despite what the Met Office tell you). It has been nearly three weeks since you last had your fix of the Bagnall family, so what has been happening in sunny Staines Upon Thames?

It has actually been quite a momentous time for three of us in chez Bagnall. Firstly, and most importantly Ezra has celebrated one circuit around the Sun. Yes, our little baby is one year old, how quickly time flies. His actual first birthday fell on a Thursday (a very difficult day – especially at the moment – to get the day off) but by a stroke of fate the Sunday before his birthday was a ‘Dark‘ Sunday (a Sunday without any Premier League games, due this week to various Premier League teams still on active duty in the F.A. Cup). This meant that I didn’t need to go into work and we could have a party!

Taking advantage of our four bedrooms we invited Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz down from West Bromwich for the weekend, so that they could be part of Ezra’s big day. It was also an opportunity to invite the greater Badger Clan to our home for the first time. So a quick tidy and delivery from Sainsbury’s later we had enough food to feed the masses and a chair delivery from Nanny and Granddad and we had enough chairs for everyone to sit. If we had known that the weather was going to be so glorious (18°c!) we would have dug the barbeque out of the shed and fired it up for burgers and sausages from the local butchers. Unfortunately we were not so trusting of the weather reports and decided that a buffet was a safer option.

Not sure that Ezra quite understood why so many people were in his house and why he wasn’t allowed to launch himself out of the patio doors into the garden. Éowyn and Amélie, however were beside themselves with a visit from their cousins and spent most of the day playing nicely with the girls or chasing Finley around the garden.

Overall it was a successful first party (although we did host a smaller gathering for the Cathrall clan on Christmas Eve) and a worthy celebration of our son’s first birthday and it was especially nice that all of his grandparents were down for his party.

We did not let Ezra’s actual birthday pass without a celebration though. I managed to leave work early (although the West London traffic was still a nightmare) to get home in time for dinner with the family and Nanny and Granddad. Ezra had a second birthday cake of the week and was centre of attention (more even than usual) for the second time that week.

It hasn’t all been about Ezra though. Amélie has taken a big step forward too. Amélie has been dry (i.e. hasn’t worn a nappy) in the day for a long time, but at night she has worn either a nappy or a pull-up nappy. Recently she has been waking up in the night to relieve herself and becoming a little distressed in her confused state to try and take, especially, a nappy off. Then the finger of fate intervened, we ran low of Amélie’s nappies (usually we have a packet in reserve) and instead of buying a new packet we asked Amélie if she wanted to try and go to sleep without a nappy. She was very keen to try and be a big girl, like Éowyn and so we jumped at the chance to encourage her into this brave new world.

Not that she needed it but as a reward for her to aim for, we said that when she managed 7 dry nights (we are not naïve to think that there would not be ‘accidents’) that she would earn a reward from the Disney store. We (or more accurately, I) still owe Éowyn an Elsa dressing up dress from the film Frozen as a reward for receiving 5 superstar certificates from school and Amélie has decided that she wanted the Anna dressing up dress from the same film. Fortunately, for me, unfortunately for the girls both dresses are currently out of stock at the Disney store, but I am true to my word so they will get them.

The third person going through a momentous time is Lucinda. As regular readers will know Air Canada is outsourcing ground operations at Heathrow Airport to ASIG. By the end of next week we will see a conclusion to the decisions that Lucinda has been wrestling with over the last month or so. Without overplaying the situation it is an emotional decision. As someone that has worked for 16 years for the same company it is hard to believe that your job (as you have known it) no longer exists. Obviously the work still exists but it will not be the same. The realisation, which is difficult for us creatures of habit to accept, that things change, and let us face it businesses have to in order to remain profitable, and that you are powerless to prevent that change takes a while to sink in. Although the decision is relatively easy from a logical point of view, emotions and a hankering for the ‘way it was’ cloud that decision and you really have to explore all options before you accept the inevitable. Choice is an illusion.

We will keep you all in touch with twists and turns in Lucinda’s career that are probably still to come between now and the end of April. This will only be three weeks after she returns to work after maternity leave. Life is never boring in the Bagnall household.

Mowing the garden is not going to be boring again either. Not now that I am the proud owner of a self-propelled petrol lawnmower that makes light work of the increased lawn size that the new house has. It takes a bit of getting used to and I would be afraid to use it with the kids in the garden as I need a little bit of practise with it to become comfortable. And that is not the only gardening I have been doing! Our little veg patch now has potatoes planted and the ground has been prepared for runner beans and pumpkins. The strawberry plant and herbs are next and we are going to have a sunflower growing competition too. This must be a sign of growing old, excitement over a lawnmower and gardening, I’ll be discussing boilers and zonal central heating systems next. Too late!

So with the sun shining (and let us hope that this is a template for the rest of the spring and summer, especially with our newest acquisition but more of that next time) and the garden beckoning I will be you adieu and leave you with the latest crop of photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Cheeky chappie

Ezra!

On a swing!

What is this bright thing in the sky?

A day in the garden

I’m trying to relax!

Giving dad a cuddle

Roar!

Where is my hand?

Perfect camouflage

Where is the hookah smoking caterpillar?

You can’t see me, right!

Ponder the chocolate

Eat the chocolate

Be at one with the chocolate

I dropping a subtle hint

To you!

You will get me a rusk!

Half term at Nanny Fran’s

Wednesday 26th February 2014Wednesday 26th February 2014Baggie

As promised, the second update in a week – how I am spoiling you. So what is it that warrants a second write up. Nothing dramatic merely half-term coinciding with a non Premier League weekend meaning that I could wrangle five days off work and spend some time with my family.

Éowyn’s half term started a day early with an inset day, unfortunately we were still experiencing one of the countless Atlantic lows that have brought so much rain to this fair isle over winter. Thus the Bagnall family needed to find an indoor activity. Fortunately (well let’s think about this, not fortunately just good marketing by the film distributors) there are two child friendly movies released during half-term that appealed to Éowyn: The Lego Movie and Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy. Daddy wanted to see the Lego Movie however since Amélie is also a big fan of the Tinkerbell movies we decided that this was an opportune time to take Amélie to see her first film at the cinema. You may recall that Éowyn’s first trip to the cinema was to see the Muppet Movie at roughly the same age. This time it was Lucinda’s turn to be the first to take one of our children to the cinema. So Friday morning saw the Bagnall girls go en masse to the cinema in Staines to watch Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy, while the Bagnall boys stayed at home and talked about football (not really – Ezra slept).

Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed her cinema trip and avidly sat through the whole film. Amélie was also very good considering it was her first time and only asked to leave when there was a scary part of the film. However, Amélie doesn’t like loud noises and a cinema can be a particular noisy environment, Lucinda, being the experienced mother that she is, was prepared and took Amélie’s ear-muffs. It was not long before Amélie complained that the cinema was too loud and so on went the ear-muffs and they did not come off for the entire film. It may have looked a little strange but at least it muffled the sound enough for Amélie to enjoy the film and that’s all that matters!

Friday night saw 80mph winds and fallen trees (and a third fence panel) but Saturday saw a distinct change in the weather. With greatest threat of flood warnings peaking on the Friday and our street seemingly avoiding the worst of it (large puddles appearing out of the drains but no streams or torrents of flood waters threatening our threshold – see photo below) we felt safe to leave the confines of Staines Upon Thames. In mid-January the Badger Clan had decided that a trip to the Natural History Museum in London was called for and this first Saturday in the half-term break seemed to be the best date for all concerned. Unfortunately with threat of inclement weather most of the clan had pulled out. Undaunted the Bagnall sub-clan and Lucinda’s brother Michael, his girlfriend Cristina and eldest of the latest generation, Lauren caught the train from Staines Upon Thames to the Big Smoke.

I was not prepared for the popularity of the Natural History Museum (not sure why being a Saturday and half-term) but we joined the queue and were quickly inside. The Natural History Museum is an impressive building without the exhibits but it was all a little too much for Amélie who was a little freaked out, especially since we said that we were going to see the dinosaurs. Nevertheless the strong arms of Daddy carrying her into the main hall was enough to allay her fears and raise her excitement levels at the wonders within.

Unfortunately we were only in the museum for 20 minutes or so (enough time to see the Diplodocus and the whale hall) before there was an evacuation and we were all ushered outside. It was a big disappointment as we hadn’t seen the dinosaurs or managed to fully take in the big wonders that are the whales. (Éowyn has a half-term project entitled ‘Under the Sea’ so we were going to use the trip to highlight some of the wonders of the sea and indeed the vast size of creatures such as the Blue Whale).

With thousands of displaced people milling about in the street waiting to go back into the museum we decided that we would wander a little way down the street and visit the Science Museum instead. Although fascinating for me, I think the girls are a little too young to appreciate the wonders inside. A skeleton of a dinosaur fills all ages with awe-inspired wonder but there needs to be a little more of an understanding to appreciate the beauty of Stevenson’s Rocket or rotative engines built by James Watt. Also, to best take advantage of the Science Museum it is worth visiting their website and planning your visit, booking timeslots to see the various exhibitions. I think that is perhaps a visit left for when they are little older. I can’t wait.

So after the culture side of our trip to London, we headed into Piccadilly on, what Éowyn described as the best part of the day, the top deck of a double decker bus for a late lunch. A quick walk around Covent Garden (including a visit to the Disney story – although nothing grabbed Éowyn’s fancy as reward for the 5 superstar certificates) before heading over Hungerford Bridge (well strictly the Eastern Golden Jubilee Footbridge) to Waterloo railway station and home. The girls were both very well behaved and considering the amount of walking that they did, did not complain for the entire day. This was probably because it was such an exciting day out and there was plenty to keep them occupied.

Both were so worn out that they slept past 0800 the next morning. This is in complete contrariety to the norm. School days usually involves dragging them (metaphorically) out of bed at 0730 to give them time to breakfast and get dressed before leaving with enough time to walk to school (rather than a sprint from a parking space half a mile away). Holidays and weekends usually involves them waking up at 0600 and waking Mommy and Daddy up when we could actually catch up on our beauty sleep (not that we need it :-)) So an opportunity to have a lie in while our children slept was a welcome, if somewhat unique occurrence.

A relaxing Sunday was followed by another adventure on Monday. Calling on the services of Lauren once again, we headed to Epsom and the delights of Hobbledown Farm. Hobbledown is a rebranded (or built out of the ashes of – depending on the rumours) Horton Park Farm based on a mystical and magical fantasy tale by A. J. Kecojevic (to be honest I had not heard of it until I started writing this update). In 50 acres of farmland it combines a farm/ petting zoo with an outdoor adventure playground and an extremely large indoor play barn. It is themed around the Hobblers, fey-like gnomic people who are based on traditional English nature spirits and their arch-enemies the Skibblers, ugly, hook-nosed goblin-like entities that have arrived in Hobbledwon intent on causing mischief.

Although it was half-term the inclement weather had put pay to baying throngs and there were no queues (although they were still operating a 90 minute time limit in the indoor play-barn). The girls enjoyed the animals and the adventure playground (there was an aerial adventure course aimed at older children that Lauren completed, which culminated in a zip-wire back to the start – our girls are a little too young (or short) for but it will not be that long before Éowyn (10 more centimetres) will be harnessed up and clambering over our heads) and an afternoon in the indoor play-barn allowed Ezra time to stretch his legs and play in the soft-play area.

The adventures continued on Tuesday. It has been months since we paid a visit to West Bromwich and Nanny Fran’s and so it was time to rectify that. Unfortunately I was returning to work on Wednesday so we decided that Lucinda and the kids would have a extended visit and return on Thursday while I would return home on the evening. Therefore we had to take both cars up the M40. Éowyn saw this as an opportunity to spend some time alone with her daddy and asked if she could travel in Daddy’s car. So Éowyn and I set off five or ten minutes before Lucinda, Amélie and Ezra.

Fifteen minutes into the journey, I’d just made it onto the M40, my mobile rang, it was Lucinda. For some reason my handsfree didn’t work, fortunately there was service station and so concerned I turned off the motorway so that I could call her back. An ‘Engine Malfunction’ error message had flashed up on Lucinda’s dashboard and so worried headed off the motorway and headed to her parents. Unfortunately cars are controlled by computers and so it is impossible to lift the bonnet (hood – for Americans) and see if there is anything obvious. So there was nothing to do except call out our breakdown service and let them hook a computer up to interrogate the car and determine the problem. In the meantime Éowyn and I continued to Nanny Fran’s.

Not long after we arrived at Nanny Fran’s Lucinda called to say that the breakdown mechanic had been and the car behaved itself. No warning light. Nothing! The mechanic said that it is one of those things and it should be fine, just a hiccup and effectively turning it off and turning it back on had cured it. Computers! Thus Lucinda packed Amélie and Ezra in the car and headed up, so in the meantime Éowyn had Nanny Fran (and then Auntie Liz) all to herself. Éowyn enjoyed the attention but poor Auntie Liz as soon as she walked in through the door from work Éowyn assaulted her begging for her nails to be painted! Evening came and I headed back south via a friend’s in Tipton while Lucinda and the kids stayed with Nanny Fran.

I think fun was had by all (as I was at work). There was a visit to Sandwell Park Farm and something that Éowyn has been craving to do for a while a combination of two ideas in her head. As many of you know my father died when I was 14, therefore Lucinda never met my dad and my children have never met their Granddad Vic. My dad is buried in West Bromwich and, to my shame, I do not visit his grave as often as I should, and only took Éowyn as a baby to ‘introduce’ her to her granddad. Éowyn has reached that age when she is starting to ask questions and one of those questions has been about my dad, so I have been honest and open with her, as we are about all her questions.

Secondly, Éowyn has recently acquired a fascination with graveyards. Not sure why but every time we pass a church she will ask if it has a graveyard and whether we could go and visit. I have actually taken her around a couple (I quite like graveyards) but is right for a 5 year old to have such a fascination? Éowyn added these two ideas together and asked if she could visit Granddad Vic’s grave. I said I would take her the next time we went to West Bromwich but unfortunately haven’t, as yet, had enough time to take her, so I suggested that she asked Nanny Fran. So Thursday morning Nanny Fran and Éowyn headed up the road to buy some flowers to take to Granddad Vic. This made Éowyn’s trip and I think that she now has some sense of reality of Granddad Vic.

Thursday afternoon Lucinda and the kids returned home and relaxed a little over the remainder of the holiday. Éowyn visited her new best friend on Friday then spent the weekend at home. As I mentioned above Éowyn had a half-term project entitled ‘Under the Sea’ so Éowyn asked if she could make an underwater scene. So Daddy used his computer skills and printed off some pictures of sea creatures and Mommy helped Éowyn paint a cardboard box and decorate it with the images. You can see the results below.

Anyhow I have kept you long enough so will leave you to enjoy the photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Where shall we go next?

The girls’ new friend

Who lives in a place like this?

The death slide

Can we take it home?

This is my brother

Mommy taking a photo

And the result

Bounce!

Éowyn and Lauren

I’m trapped

This is so exciting

The new chefs in town

At the farm

Éowyn at Nanny Fran’s

Éowyn’s half-term project

Under the Sea

Close up

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail

Thursday 20th February 2014Thursday 20th February 2014Baggie

It is probably not possible for me to start this update without mentioning the big story of the last few weeks. A story that is not only of interest to our family, nor to our local community but has been headline national news. The wettest January in 200 years (depending on the news stories that you read) has led to flooding across many areas of the country. The Somerset levels have been under water since before Christmas but when the national news is anchored (no pun intended) by a reporter in waders less than half a mile from your house then it really brings it home to you (pun intended this time).

The Thames valley has seen a veritable deluge (of rain) throughout January that has led to a literal deluge through a number of local towns including our very own Staines Upon Thames. The River Thames has been setting new record levels and has been flowing four times faster than usual flooding nearby towns of Datchet, Wraysbury, and Chertsey as well as Staines. However our corner of Staines was not just under the threat of old Father Thames. Our house has three other threats: The River Ash is slightly closer than the Thames and also running at record levels, and a third river, closest of all, is a tributary of the Thames called Sweep’s Ditch; the final threat isn’t as obvious as a swollen river but is more ubiquitous, the ground and the drains can literally handle no more water. Thus every rain shower brings a threat of more flooding.

According to the Environment agency maps it indicated that our house is on a 1,000 year flood plain. In reality, that means that there is 0.1% chance of flooding, I like those odds but there is still a chance. As the flood waters encroached and friends were being evacuated from their homes I took a walk around the area to investigate how close it was getting and to take some photos (see here for the results) of, hopefully this generational flood event. The Blitz spirit is a phrase often evoked at times of crisis and although this is more often that not hyperbole, there was definitely a sense of community with strangers stopping for a chat to discuss the sense of foreboding. Among the people who I chatted with were a couple that have lived in our street for thirty plus years. They recall chatting to neighbours when they first moved in, that, at that point, lived in the street for forty-odd years and so there are memories that stretch back over seventy years. In those decades the worst flood was in 1947.

The winter of 1947 saw significant snowfall which brought large drifts to large swathes of the country. In mid-March mild air returned to the country causing this thawing the snow. This snowmelt ran off the frozen ground straight into the rivers, including the river Thames. Much of the Thames Valley was flooded, photos from the time show much of Staines under water. However, our neighbours were told that even in this extreme flood event as water flowed in the street the houses themselves remained dry. 2014, although the worst flood in recent years, has not (as yet) come close to surpassing those floods of 67 years ago.

Oblivious to this drama the Bagnall children have their own dramas which to them are just as headline-grabbing. Amélie has probably had more drama than the others. As you may recall she had suffered from Night Terrors, thankfully they seem to becoming a thing of the past. Amélie has only had one since the last update. Her greater drama though has revolved around something as simple as washing her hair. Lucinda tried to wash her hair a couple of weeks ago and Amélie had a complete breakdown. Unfortunately I was at work and so with two other children to bathe and put to bed, Lucinda did not have the time (or mental strength) to press on with hair washing. Conscious that this could become an even bigger problem if we left it too long, it was time for Daddy to be the bad guy.

Not wishing to make it into an even bigger issue, we simply told Amélie that she was going to have her hair washed at bath-time. Amélie was happy with this until bath-time. Her issue seemed to be that water would go into her eyes. I demonstrated how water flows down, so that if her eyes are up (looking at the ceiling) then water could not go into her eyes. This seemed to make sense and she appeared to be fine with it. However, as the hair-washing was going to begin she completely freaked out, sobbing and thrashing about. I tried to calm her down but she wasn’t going to relax, so I filled the hair-washing jug with water and raised it above her head. She immediately sat down in the bath, looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. I then washed her hair praising her constantly.

The change in her has been remarkable, from freaking out at the mere mention of hair-washing she now proclaims that she likes her hair being washed and keeps requesting her hair to be washed. In order to re-enforce the innoxiousness (is that a word?) of hair-washing she has had her hair washed three times in the last week. Hopefully that is the end of this drama.

No such drama with Ezra although he has taken a few more steps in his development over the last few weeks. Ezra has never been particular fussy with his food and baby-birds (a verb that we use to describe when a baby eagerly opens their mouth for the next spoonful of food) most of his meals. However at 7 months the texture of baby food changes from smooth to ‘textured’ or lumpy. This did not sit too well with him and he begun refusing his textured food. However, after his shortbread biscuit incident we started him with more finger food. This, he is happy with. Grated cheese, baby biscuits, rusks, peas and carrots are all demolished with relish (strictly speaking without relish – he isn’t old enough). I suppose that he was expecting smooth food and was surprised by the lumps in it and it caused him to heave. I can appreciate that.

Ezra’s second developmental step as been a little more dangerous. He has been crawling for months and cruising around the furniture since before Christmas however he hasn’t taken those first tentative steps yet but nevertheless is bored with where his crawling can take him. There is one frontier that is explorable though, not space but in that direction: upstairs. Yes, were sitting in the lounge and suddenly realised that Ezra wasn’t with us. We looked in the kitchen and the playroom and he wasn’t there. Going up the stairs there was giggling coming from the girls’ bedroom. Sitting in the middle of the floor was Ezra looking rather pleased with himself, playing with the girls’ toys. A new stair gate is required (our old one is too wide for the stairway) to contain our little explorer.

Éowyn is still going from strength to strength with her reading and writing. Indeed the final Monday before half term was our chance to speak with Éowyn’s teacher Miss Finbow at Parents afternoon/evening. Miss Finbow is delighted with Éowyn, she is excelling at all subjects and is always eager to learn (she is my daughter!). Miss Finbow also said that her general trivia is exceptional for one so young (again she is my daughter) and whenever she asks the class a tricky question she can always rely on Éowyn to put her hand up and give an intelligent answer. Éowyn also organises her friends and is usually the instigator of some of the more interesting games that they play. I was pleased that Miss Finbow put this down to strong leadership skills rather than saying she is bossy.

It is something as a father of daughters you realise how media portray women then chastise them for attempting to live up to those expectations. The above illustrates how language changes for girls as opposed to boys so I applaud Miss Finbow for describing Éowyn’s bossiness as strong leadership, a positive rather than the negative connotations associated with bossiness and it is something that I am going to continue with my girls and hopefully help them to break (or at least understand) the inherent sexism of society. I will get off my soapbox now.

Éowyn’s intelligence shows through with the way she deals with the unknown. If she does not know something she will make an intelligent guess and is usually right. Sometimes, however, she gets it slightly wrong with amusing results. The girls have a number of dolls (yes, I know especially in light of the previous paragraph), many are Barbies or Disney princesses (yes, I know!) and most of the time they are nude or in the process of swapping dresses. Usually this results in Mommy or Daddy dressing the dolls for them. Éowyn came up to me with her Ariel doll and Ariel’s shell bikini top. ‘Daddy, can you put Ariel’s booby-shades on?‘ Not knowing the word for Bra or Bikini top she made up her own word. I like it and thing it should become common parlance especially for ladies with the larger bosom.

Éowyn has got the last laugh with her daddy on another matter though. Miss Finbow gives out Superstar certificates to pupils when they do something impressive at school. Last term Éowyn was given three of these, which was very good. So I upped the ante and said to her that if she was given five this term I would buy her something from her favourite shop (the Disney store). Unfortunately I have been outwitted by my eldest child for she received her fifth three days before the end of half term! I will have to have a word with Miss Finbow next time. So a trip to the Disney store is looming! That will serve me right.

This update is a little delayed because we have been busy as a family for half term begun last Friday (a day early due to an inset day), and I managed to secure a weekend off and a couple of days either side but you will have to wait until the next update to find out what we got up to. The good news is that you will not have to wait so long for the next one, and indeed you will get a sneak preview of some of our half-term trips in the photos below.

Peace and Love

Baggie