First Father's Day

The last couple of weeks have not been so emotional as before the previous write up.  Although, in fariness I have been away, again!  I must have the most understanding wife in Christendom since this is the second time I have been away.  Every year Lucinda’s brother Michael and his friend Neil have been to the Isle of Wight music festival, since it was revived in 2002 and their merry band of hanger-ons has waxed and waned and included me for the first time last year.  This year there was five of us and although the line up was not as appealing as in recent years the weather stayed fine and a good time was had by all.  Although a weekend away with the lads was great I have to say that I missed being at home, Éowyn is changing so much and growing so quickly that I don’t really want to be away from her for too long!  ‘Soppy old git’ I know!

Éowyn is without doubt a little daddy’s girl.  On my return from the Isle of Wight I walked into the lounge and she just beamed a smile at me and as I sat on the floor to play with her she just sat a giggled at me.  The giggle turned into a full belly laugh, which made me laugh and we just sat there, on the floor, laughing at each other.

Unfortunately, nestled around the trip to the Isle of Wight I have been working and due to the long days I don’t get to see Éowyn as she is usually asleep when I leave for work and in bed when I get back.  So the weekend was a chance for us to catch up on each other.  I’m not sure who gets the most enjoyment out of those days, her or me.  Friday we spent the morning playing, mainly with her Duplo Lego bricks.  Well let me rephrase that, I build a tower out of the bricks and Éowyn knocks them down, then picks one up and starts chewing it.  Each time she knocked them down I would clap to encourage her and it wasn’t long before she began to ape me and start clapping herself.  Very exciting for her to have a new trick.  This is coupled with the lip-smacking that she does when either you say ‘Give me a kiss’ or when offering her food that she learnt while I was away in the Isle of Wight.

Friday afternoon saw the three of us at Windsor Leisure centre to take Éowyn swimming.  She loves swimming and we are encouraging this as much as possible.  It also wears her out, which was our ulterior motive as we were going out on the evening to a friend of ours, Kerry, 30th birthday party.  Mike’s (Lucinda’s brother) girlfriend Cristina had bravely offered to baby sit for us.  So for only the third time since she has been born we went out for an evening together.  Fortunately Éowyn was on her best behaviour and never stirred so Cris had a very easy night and hopefully will volunteer to babysit again!

Kerry’s party was very good especially for Lucinda who saw many of her workmates that she had not seen for a while and was a chance for her to catch up on the gossip.  She has a meeting this week in an attempt to work out when she is going back to work and in what capacity.  She is not due back until the end of September the year is zooming by and it is best to sort these things out sooner than later.  It is hardly credible that Éowyn is 8 months old but she passed that landmark in the week and it is hard to imagine life without her.

Sunday marked my first Father’s day but Éowyn did not mark it well.  She had gone to bed on Saturday night with a bit of a temperature, and a concerned newbie parents when we went to bed a few hours later we checked on her to see if she was still hot.  She was and so we tried to take some of the covers from her and she woke.  As she was still quite hot and now awake we decided it was probably best if we gave her some calpol to help bring the temperature down and hoping help her sleep.  Éowyn was having different idea.  It was 0430 before she decided that she would finally go to sleep.  Not the best of Father’s day presents.  She woke at 0800 the next morning.  The lack of sleep and slight temperature was making her crabby and she fought her morning nap, only falling asleep at 1100.  We had been invited around to Mike”s house for a barbeque to take advantage of the good weather and to celebrate Father’s day as a family with Steve and his family and Lucinda’s parents also invited. At 1330 Éowyn was still asleep and so we had to wake her and feed her so that we could get round Mike’s for 1400.

It was nice for Éowyn, even though she was still a little crabby, to see all her cousins again and they are getting more excited about her because she can now begin to play.  It will not be long before she is chasing after them and getting in their way and upsetting their games.

And finally congratulations to a friend from work Ian and his wife Debbie on the birth of their daughter Millie Jennifer on Saturday 20th June.  Welcome to fatherhood Ian.

Peace and Love

Baggie!