Births

Not the update you were expecting

Tuesday 21st September 2010Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

For those of you that are waiting with baited breath this is not the update you are waiting for. It is still 5 days before Lucinda’s due date and if Éowyn is anything to go by then we will still be waiting in the second week of October for our new arrival.

The manic stage at work is slowly calming down and so I am able to spend more time at home. This isn’t as relaxing as it sounds as we are frantically trying to make the house welcoming for a newborn, hence there will be a dearth of photos with this update but let’s face it, you have been spoilt lately.

Keen eyed among you will have noticed a slightly different look to the website, this is because I have moved it to a friend’s server to give me the ability to do a few more fancy things, should I need to. It may mean that some of your old links will need to be changed as I will not be updating the original after this update. I have tried to keep the look the same but there are some subtle differences and one big one. The Flickr link will randomly show one photo every 7 seconds from the Éowyn set in my Flickr account. OK, I can tell that I have lost my audience.

Éowyn is still showing signs of precociousness. Her latest skills include reading. I say ‘reading’, she recognises the dozen words that her nanny has written on flash cards. These are: Mum, Dad, Nanny, Granddad, Éowyn, Cat, Dog, Leg, Cake, Cup, Eye and Hat. Whether the recognition of words is the same as reading is debatable but we do get her to spell them out at the same time. I took her to feed the ducks this morning (Ducks! Bread!) and pointed out the difference between mommy ducks and daddy ducks and then she referred to them all, correctly, by gender, a keen ornithologist if ever I saw one. She has also acquired (borrowed) a pair of binoculars (from her childminder) and sat on the sofa watching the telly through them (the wrong way round!). Another of her favourite skills at the moment is shouting ‘Stop’ when you are approaching a red traffic light, and ‘Go’ when they turn to green. Talk about having a backseat driver! My favourite though, is that she has begun to say, “Boing, Boing! Baggies, Baggies!” I have undone all that hard work!

Congratulations to Neil and Emma on their marriage on the 10th September. An excellent couple of days (yes couple of days, ceremony on one and big party on the second!). They entrusted me with taking the photographs I hope that they have enough usable ones! And congratulations to Jenny and John on the birth of their second child Jacob. Hopefully they can give us lots of tips as their first child, Leo is only a couple of weeks older than Éowyn so the age gap is about the same.

I will bid my leave of you now, and hopefully the next time you read an update of this website will be to announce our new family member. Until then…

Peace and Love

Baggie

Mommy, Daddy and Éowyn

You have a sticker on your nose!

‘nana-nose!

On the slide!

Ducks! Bread!

Ducks! More Bread!

Like my shades?

Lookin’ cool!

Shake my hand

The Bride

The Happy Couple

The Bride with two hangers-on

Another Quick update

Sunday 5th September 2010Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

Another day off, this is becoming a habit! This time the lawn has been mown. It was starting to resemble a jungle for it has been quite a while since it was last cut and August has been good grass growing weather It is no word of a lie that I took the strimmer to it before I even attempted to use the lawnmower! I’m not proud of that but as you know I have not been at home much and I don’t think the neighbours would take too kindly to me mowing at 0100. Plus I am pretty sure that I would not do a good job in total darkness. Admittedly if you look at the lawn now you would probably say that I haven’t done a good job full stop, but at least it is of a respectable length. It is all too grown up for me!

Tuesday, the last day of August, we had our first day off together as a family for the first time since our holiday in Italy at the end of June. Throughout July Lucinda had worked each weekend while I worked each weekday and throughout August, as you know, I have worked. It was really nice to be together as a family and spend some time together as a threesome before the new baby makes its entrance. Hopefully now that the majority of the hard work has been done and the new workload becomes routine we can settle back into a routine of our own.

It has been nice for me to be able to read Éowyn her three (yes three) bedtime stories again. However, gone are the old favourites of ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘The Whale and the Snail’, ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’, and ‘Room on the Broom’ for classics like ‘The Gingerbread Man’. In fact, I am a little perturbed that she seems to favour ‘The Gingerbread Man’ it hasn’t exactly got a happy ending, unless you are the sly old fox. ‘Not my gumdrop buttons!’ At least it is better than reading the ‘In the Night Garden books’, I just can’t compete with Sir Derek Jacobi’s oration of Makka Pakka, Akka Wakka, Mikka Makka Moo, Makka Pakka Appa Yakka, Ikka Akka, Ooo!

Éowyn’s favourite pastime at the moment though is visiting mommy pig at the bottom of Nanny and Granddad’s garden. That sounds strange, but at the back of Lucinda’s parents’ garden there is, what amounts to, a small holding. There are some goats, a sheep and until recently a pig. However, the pig is now a mommy pig and has 7 little piglets. Éowyn is fascinated with them and keeps picking up windfall apples from the garden and running to the pig. When she is there she launches the apple into the pen shouting “PIG! APPLE!” It is hilarious and it is not just with the pig. Lucinda took her round the lake to feed the ducks. There she was standing at the shore throwing the bread into the water shouting “DUCKS! BREAD!” Perhaps my daughter has a future as a zookeeper. Somehow “ÉOWYN! PEAS!” doesn’t quite work.

Éowyn has become much more comfortable on the phone. There was a time that she would be jabbering away but as soon as you put the phone next to her she would clam up. Not any more. She will quite happily chat to you down the phone, and has left messages on Nanny Fran’s answerphone and spoke to me at work telling me that she had drawn on her legs (see photos below).

Time is precious so I will not bore you any longer, enjoy the photos and stay tuned. Lucinda is officially on maternity leave now so the countdown has truly begun.

Peace and Love

Baggie

NOISE!

Do you know what it is yet?

I’ll have what that woman is having

I’ve got leaves!

Hiding

Another leaf

Swing!

The big wheel

Peep-Po

Wheee!

Aaahhh!

Arrrgghhhh!

Daddy, drawn on my legs!

You can’t see me

Hmm, milkshake

Heatwave!

Monday 12th July 2010Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

And so, after the excitement of a trip abroad and a couple of weeks of the family being together, life settles back to the usual rhythm relatively (and disappointingly) quickly. Work is in full flow for the changeover to HD and the foray into channel launch with associated studio and transmission build. Interesting times lie ahead. As do weeks of longs hours spent away from the family. Myself and Lucinda sat down last night and realised that we only have one day off together between now and September. So bubba nº2 better not come too early.

The weather has been fantastic over the last month with Wimbledon fortnight completed unaffected by rain, but somehow we are never satisfied. It is the summer after all but I suppose although this weather is nice when you are on holiday, when you are trying to work it is another matter. However, this is nothing; when I met up with Sanjiv in Italy he told me that he was glad to be in Italy away from the oppressive heat that they were experiencing in Delhi with temperatures over 45°C. When we were in Italy we were disappointed that the weather was so poor and that it wasn’t hot enough for us to relax by the hotel pool. After a couple of weeks of true summer weather Lucinda especially, can now appreciate the climate in Tuscany. Being heavily pregnant is no fun in hot weather and Lucinda has been suffering with night time temperatures not dropping below 20°C and with no breeze to circulate the air preventing her from getting a god night’s sleep.

Éowyn has been taking full advantage of the fine weather though to play in the garden and splash around in her new paddling pool. We are paranoid about keeping her topped up with sun tan lotion though. She is so fair skinned and both myself and Lucinda burn very easily. At least Éowyn doesn’t mind it and really enjoys wearing her hat. She really enjoys going around Nanny and Granddad’s because their garden is so big and they have a trampoline! Whenever she goes round she makes a bee line for the trampoline dragging anyone that will go with her. Fortunately when her cousins are there they will happily take her there for as they enjoy it too.

Éowyn definitely knows her own mind and will not be easily dissuaded. She has started to use the tears (doesn’t get very far with daddy) and throwing whatever she has in her hands to the ground. It is funny when she hasn’t got anything in her hands to throw for she looks for something to pick up just so that she can throw it to the ground in feigned anger.

On the whole though we are very lucky. She isn’t a naughty child and is quite content to play and learn. As I mentioned in my last update, she is able to count to 10, name her colours, name a wide circle of people, recognise my car and Lucinda’s car, recognise animals and make the sound they make. She has also started to sing a number of the nursery rhymes that we sing to her. (I do use the word ‘sing’ loosely!) When I say sing she kind of mumbles parts of the rhymes and shouts out the words she knows. In fairness to her in the right tune and to the right beat. A little like when you are singing along to a song that you like but don’t quite know the words to apart from maybe the first line of the chorus. Or, for the more religious of you, when an unfamiliar hymn is sung and you join in with the Hallelujahs at the end.

Éowyn has also showed how good a big sister she will be. One of Lucinda’s friends Vereena had her second child Olivia just about a month ago. Lucinda has been to see her a couple of times since we have been back from Italy and has taken Éowyn with her. We were unsure how she would be around a little child but, as with everything with Éowyn , we need not have worried. Vereena sat Éowyn on her settee with a cushion on her lap and placed little Olivia on the cushion. Éowyn was enthralled and kept pointing at Olivia’s eyes and ears and head and calling out the names. When Vereena took Olivia off Éowyn and gave Éowyn as biscuit, Éowyn threw it to the ground in disgust, picked up the cushion, sat back on the settee, placed the cushion on her lap, pointed at Olivia and shouted ‘Baby’. No one was going to have a munch while she was in the room. The second time she went round she wasn’t as possessive but was very helpful. Vereena gave Olivia a bottle and Éowyn wandered off and came back with the Infacol. How she knew what it was for or where it was, we have no idea. Very clever our little one. Then when Vereena was changing Olivia’s nappy Éowyn went a fetched 3 nappies for her. Hopefully she will be this helpful when her sibling arrives.

Anyhow, I have waffled enough I’m not sure how easy it will be for me to update the site over the next month or so, but I will aim for at least one update. Therefore I am placating you with another large group of photos. Enjoy and …

Peace and Love

Baggie