A Window on our World
I promised you a second update before the annual Bagnall message to the world, and here it is. I always try to keep my promises.
It seems an age since I updated you about Ezra, for some reason he has received short shrift on the pages of Baggie and Lucy over the last few months, mainly due to the changes affecting his sisters. Let me put that right.
As you may recall he has been walking since the end of August and so, as you can imagine, he is into everything. He has worked out that if he moves his little step-up that he can grasp things out of his usual reach. In that respect he is like Amélie in that he will acquire things. His favourites tend to be kitchen utensils; it is not usual to find sieves, saucepans and the potato masher ‘hidden’ around the house. However, it is not just kitchen utensils that he will swipe, I quite often find a variety of items (especially for some reason, mine) deposited around the house. There are not enough places, that are completely out of his reach, it is amazing how far he can stretch when he puts his mind to it.
He is usually quite laid-back and relatively mellow, although he occasionally has his moments. Nothing like the terrible twos, but if he is determined to do something (or not to do something) then he is a ball of furious energy. Thankfully, it is still quite rare although he has had to have timeout in his cot a couple of times. He can also be disarmed by offering to read him a book. His vocabulary is increasing daily and he seems to say a new word every day or so, but ‘book’ was one of his first words and certainly one of his favourites.
You can quite often find Ezra, sitting on the chair in his room ‘reading’ a book. If he wants you to read a book he will point for you to sit down, he will pick up a book and then back up towards you, inviting you to pick him up, put him on your lap and read the book. He knows what he wants and certainly has a way to make you do his willing. This can work to your advantage though for if he is upset or on the verge of an episode, you can disarm him, if you are quick enough, if you offer to read him a book. He will waddle off and fetch a book forgetting about whatever it was that was upsetting him two seconds earlier. Never underestimate the distraction technique.
Reading books is probably helping to contribute to his vocabulary increase. He knows his animals and the noises they make, especially when they have appeared in one of his books. It is leading to some confusion though, for every bird is a duck and of course they ‘quack’, except, of course cockerels that ‘Cock-a-doodle-do!’ I will explain the Avian family tree when he is a little older. His favourite book, however, is not about animals as such, although does have a cat, a dog, a frog and a green bird: Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. If you have not read it, I thoroughly recommend it; a classic!
Ezra, however, has missed out on a few events this past week or so. Both girls have had their ‘nativity’ (or possibly more accurately: Christmas) plays. Both had ‘named’ parts but far from starring roles. Amélie was the 3rd Inn-Keeper’s wife while Éowyn was Narrator 16.
Amélie is still at pre-school so there is no need for them to remember lines but they did learn a lot of songs and the actions to those songs. Amélie being one of the oldest of the class, was certainly one of the most vocal and also lead the actions. Being a pre-school at a Catholic school this was the ‘traditional’ nativity story, the story of Jesus’ birth, hence the 3rd Inn-Keeper, who may have had no rooms to let but wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to make a little bit extra and capitalised on the situation by selling space in a stable to a heavily pregnant woman. The true meaning of Christmas.
The pre-school were allowed to use the main school hall and as such there were plenty of seats for all the parents (and some grand-parents) indeed Nanny and Granddad managed to squeeze in with Mommy and Daddy to see their grand-daughter.
Éowyn’s play on the other hand was more secular, the story of Ralph The Reindeer. ‘Ralph?’ I hear you cry. Yes, Ralph the green-nosed freelance reindeer that steps in one Christmas when Rudolph has a cold. It was very enjoyable and with nigh on 180 pupils across the two years a serious amount of choreography had gone on to ensure that every child felt part of the production and at some point during the play was on stage. Relatively, there were very few speaking parts so although Éowyn was Narrator 16 the five lines that she had been give was a significant percentage of the script. Éowyn’s play had two performances to ensure that all parents had an opportunity to see their children, with Lucinda at work on the Thursday and Daddy looking after Amélie and Ezra, Nanny and Granddad went to the first performance while Mommy and Daddy waited until the Friday to see their eldest child’s performance. We were all very impressed with her. She pronounced her lines very clearly and although a little on the fast side – you could definitely tell what she was saying.
The other event that Ezra missed out on this last week, Daddy missed out on too, was the annual visit to the Pantomime. Ezra because he is a little too young (so he stopped with Nanny) and Daddy because, surprise, surprise, he was at work at the weekend. Last year Lucinda and Granddad took the girls to see ‘Puss In Boots’ performed by the Riverside Players at the Memorial Hall in Old Windsor. Apart from Amélie being terrified of the baddie they thoroughly enjoyed it, so this year Lucinda decided to take them again. This year’s pantomime was ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Again Amélie spent the first acts cowering into Lucinda, scared of the pantomime baddie, asking if they could go home. Éowyn on the other hand loved it and was enthralled by the story.
It is interesting how Amélie is fearless when it comes to things like roller coasters and scaling climbing frames, yet is terrified of pantomime baddies, yet Éowyn is the opposite. She may not be a fan of adrenalin fuelled fears yet is not afraid of more psychologically orientated fears that you would find in films or, in this case, pantomimes.
Amélie hasn’t been the only one cowering behind Mommy’s skirts this week. Lucinda took the kids to the local garden centre, Vermeulens, in Stanwell Moor. Like many garden centres at this time of the year, business is a little slow so they encourage the customers through the door with a Santa grotto and a chance to visit Santa. Lucinda thought as Daddy was at work that it would be nice to take them to visit Santa. Fearing that the queues would be out of the door she didn’t build their hopes up too much. She was completely surprised, however, that it was the exact opposite. It seems that word hadn’t reached the good people of Staines that their local garden centre had a grotto and there was not a soul waiting for Santa. The girls loved it and were more than happy to regale their list of toys that they would like, and apparently they are currently on the ‘nice’ list. Ezra, however, wasn’t so enamoured with Old Saint Nick. He cowered in fear but was still given a present and told he was a good boy. I trust he will grow out of it by next year!
The other great Bagnall Christmas tradition has also been performed, namely the creation of handmade Christmas Baubles at Genevieve’s Gallery in Englefield Green. This is the seventh year that we have been there to make at least one Christmas Bauble for our tree and one for Nanny Fran’s tree. They have always been a hand-print of each child and then annotated by Lucinda. That slightly changed last year as Éowyn’s hands have grown too large to decorate a bauble. So last year Éowyn was given free rein to make her own designs. Nanny Fran’s was an original Éowyn but she came up with a great idea for our tree: namely making a Mommy and Daddy bauble. This year, due to time constraints she was only able to add one more to the family, namely herself. Next year she will have to do one each to represent Amélie and Ezra.
Éowyn seems to be enjoying school a little more, maybe her first school disco helped, or maybe she is just settling down and making friends. Hopefully, with a break for Christmas and then returning after all the excitement it will just become part of the routine. I will take my leave of you here and as usual, ten sad points for you if you can recognise the Christmas ditty that the title of the update comes from. No prizes, just the smug pleasure of knowing the answer and for me, the smug pleasure of knowing that you will be humming it all day!
Peace and Love
Baggie
P.S. Four years ago our precocious first-born, Éowyn, demanded that we went to the shops to buy Toy Story 4, and it took a while to convince her that they had only made 3! Well the bods at Pixar (John Lasseter et al) have listened to their audience and Toy Story 4 is in the planning stage (you can read about it here). Personally, I am not sure that this is a good thing, the last movie ended the trilogy perfectly – indeed it is one of the best trilogies in film history with not a weak film among them – and to revisit that story feels wrong. However my fears maybe allayed when the film is released (16th June 2017), and I can guarantee that there will be a least one family of five that will be going to the cinema to see it.
Gallery to be update but it starts off like this…
Christmas is over and I trust that the festive period has been good to you. After a hectic year we were determined to make this a good Christmas. The tenth Christmas that Lucinda and I have celebrated together and the first in our new home is reason enough for it to be a good Christmas. Add to the mix that it was our first Christmas as a family of five and we were truly blessed. The fact that Lucinda’s parents were cooking Christmas dinner and that neither Lucinda or I were working (we both work in industries where that is a possibility) added to the fact that this was a good year. The only black cloud on the horizon was the fact that I had to work on Boxing Day (there were 10 Premier League games scheduled), but that was a minor blip.
Football stops not for man nor beast and indeed the Christmas period is one of the most hectic periods for Premier League football and the remainder of the English Football League. Hence the 10 days to a fortnight that many of you enjoy does not apply to me or my teams at IMG. However, I was fortunate that I had both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off and the 27th December. So a little semblance of normality could descend upon the Bagnall household for those days.
One of the Bagnall Christmas traditions is to create a Christmas bauble at Genevieve’s in Englefield Green. This started when Éowyn was a baby with a simple handprint and each year since we have created a bauble with a hand print of each of the children. This year though Éowyn asked if she could design her own, to which we agreed. Not sure what we were going to get we let her loose with the paints. We were very surprised when she decided that she would paint mommy. It was brilliant, we were very proud of her. However there was a pang of guilt in our first born and she conspired along with mommy to go back to Genevieve’s and make one of daddy as a surprise for me. It was extremely thoughtful and again brilliantly executed. These will now always have pride of place on our tree (there is a photo below).
Friday night is movie night in the Bagnall household and the girls take it in turns to choose a DVD to watch. The Friday before Christmas we decided to invite Emma’s (our new neighbour and friend from NCT) kids over to give her a bit of a break and to repay her for the help she has given us over the last month or so. Five children (and I) sat down to watch Arthur Christmas (very good by the way, thoroughly recommend it) for the last movie night of the year. They were all very well behaved and it made us all feel Christmassy putting us in the mood for the yule.
The weather wasn’t exactly Christmassy, indeed the strong wind and heavy rains have spoilt many Christmasses around the country. We got off lightly with the only damage a couple of fence panels that have blown down. Fortunately the fence is our neighbour’s responsibility and so we will have a chat with them after the Christmas period about the repair – there is no rush.
Lucinda’s parents were cooking Christmas Dinner so we decided that we would do our first bit of entertaining in Bagnall manor by inviting the Cathrall Clan to our house for a pre-Christmas buffet on Christmas Eve. Before our guests arrived we need to complete a little bit of shopping. Not for that much food (Lucinda had completed the food shop a couple days previously, with only the perishables to be bought) but for a couple of last minute presents. The most important being a Barbie Mariposa doll that Éowyn had asked Santa for a week or so ago but had only let her parents know the weekend before Christmas. Obviously she had told the most important person but it would have been nice for us to be aware of what Santa needed to provide, hence a slight detour into Staines on Christmas Eve morning to ease Santa’s burden by picking up the reserved doll that was sold out across the area.
So with the final presents, spare lightbulbs, fresh bread and the Christmas Radio Times bought, it was time to prepare the meal. Thankfully it was a minimum amount of cooking, just preparation. It was good to test the entertainment potential of the house and it was the first time that Lucinda’s brother Steve and his family had visited. The difference in size between our old house and our new home was ably demonstrated by the fact that it didn’t feel at all crowded with 8 adults and 7 children where it would have been standing room only in Stanwell Moor.
The girls were excited as ever playing with their cousins and showing them their new home and their toys, and we let them stay up late to play. We allowed them to open their presents from Uncle Steve and Auntie Zoe since they would not be at Lucinda’s parents on Christmas day. So the pre-Christmas came to a close and after the girls had been put to bed and we had tidied up we eventually crept into bed at 00:30, fearing an early morning wake up call. Fortunately the previous day’s excitement had obviously worn them out and they did not surface until 08:00. Amélie was the first to wake (as usual) but had just come into our room without checking to see if Santa had been. It was the encouragement from us and Amélie crashing about the room that had woke Éowyn up.
They were both unbelievably delighted that Santa had been and were jumping around the house and that was even before they opened their presents. Imagine their faces when they realised that Santa not only had been but had brought them all the things that they had asked for, including the Barbie Mariposa Doll. We had two very happy little girls and neither seemed too bothered that their brother didn’t seem to have a lot of presents to open.
As anyone with little children can testify, the packaging that modern toys are locked into requires a modicum of engineering knowledge and nerves of steel. I was fully prepared this year with my trusted Leatherman on my belt (other multi-tool devices are available). The knife, screwdriver and pliers were all useful at one stage or another to extricate various toys from razor sharp plastic, cable ties and a thicket of cardboard.
After persuading them to eat some breakfast and get dressed they played with their new toys (while Daddy built some of their other ones) until it was time to leave for Nanny and Granddad’s. Nanny and Granddad were cooking Christmas Dinner for eleven: the Bagnalls, Lucinda’s brother Mike and his family and themselves. After sating ourselves with traditional festive fare it was time for a third round of present opening.
After such an exciting day it was inevitable that the girls started to wane. So after presents were opened and played with and the discarded wrapping paper readied for recycling all were herded into the car. The journey between Lucinda’s parents and our home is less than 10 minutes but 2 of the 3 kids were asleep by the time we had pulled into the drive. Only Éowyn managed to keep awake.
The following day is known as Boxing Day in the UK and is traditionally a big sporting day so as Head of Live Operations for the World’s largest independent sports production company I was to spend the day at work. Lucinda and the kids were not to spend the day on their own. Lucinda’s Auntie Sally and Uncle Bill had invited the family over for a Boxing Day buffet. Unfortunately before I left for work I had to be ‘bad’ Daddy.
We have had an on-going battle with Éowyn sucking her thumb for comfort. We have tried many things and none has yet worked and we are getting concerned that it is affecting her teeth so we have renewed our efforts to put a stop to it. In the lead up to Christmas, we had threatened to call Santa and tell him, but after Christmas Éowyn thought that she could get away with it. She was wrong. She had promised me that she wouldn’t suck her thumb so to highlight the importance of a promise when she blatantly sucked her thumb on front of me, I told her that she had to give me something that was important to her. She tried offering me chocolate or one of Amélie’s toys. Clever, but not quite what I had in mind. Eventually I got her to give me her favourite toy: The Barbie Mariposa doll. She was distraught and to be fair I felt really bad about taking it but if she is going to understand the importance of a promise and at the same time break a bad habit it had to be harsh and something that was important to her.
After five days she got the doll back (as she did not suck her thumb – even at night! – again). She does know, however, that if she sucks her thumb again it will be 10 days of no thumb-sucking before it is returned; then the next time it will be 20 days and that will be her final chance. After that she will lose her doll. We have said that we will help her but she has to make the effort and that promises are important things.
It feels really bad to do that, especially at Christmas, but we have to break the habit and if we are to highlight the importance of a promise then when we promise to do something then we have to follow through too. Doesn’t make one feel any better about taking your daughter’s favourite present off her.
With my work schedule leaving me with Friday 27th off it seemed an ideal opportunity to have a second (third) Christmas with Nanny Fran and Aunties Mary and Liz. However, as that was my only day off I didn’t really want a round trip of 250 miles added to a hectic schedule. Therefore Nanny Fran came down and took advantage of the bigger house and stayed overnight heading back Saturday afternoon.
The girls were over excited as usual when their Bagnall relatives came down, mainly I think because they do not see them that often. They were spoilt with presents once again and even seemed happy when they opened presents containing clothes. However, they were more interested in Ezra’s presents. Isn’t that the way it is always will be?
So with three very happy children and a new home built for entertaining Lucinda and I can happily say it was a very successful Christmas and we are looking forward to 2014. I trust that you all had a great time over the yuletide and trust that you will all keep popping back for the latest updates in the Bagnall household.
Peace and Love
Baggie
