Cousins

A good night’s sleep

Monday 18th March 2013Baggie

It has been a couple of days so I feel that I owe you a quick update and some more photos (OK it’s just the photos that you are here for isn’t it?). The last time you heard from me was Saturday night so what has happened over the last couple of days?

It is not very often that one of the most exciting things that happens to this family is sleep but that is exactly what happened on Saturday night. Ezra is less than a week old so we are fully prepared for sleep depravation however Ezra threw us a curved ball by sleeping for just over 5 hours on his fourth night in the big wide world. Yes, unlike his sisters Ezra simply eats and sleeps (and poops) at the moment. He seems very contented and only cries when it is food time. Now maybe this is due to the fact that we are more confident parents and he senses this; maybe it is because he is a boy or maybe it is just him.

So was this just a one-off? Perhaps a little too early to tell yet and although he didn’t last quite as long last night again he woke when he was hungry, fed, then went back to sleep. We can not ask for any more from him.

So Sunday morning we awoke feeling more human and somewhat surprised and ready to receive visitors. If Saturday was the turn of the Bagnall side then Sunday it was the ‘Badger’ side’s turn to meet the newest member of the family. Lucinda’s brother Steve and his family popped round early afternoon. This meant that Ezra had met (and had a cuddle from) all of his first cousins. This included Finley his only male cousin and the original owner of some of his clothes.

Then Lucinda’s mum’s sisters, Aunties Sally and Diana came round with Adam and Lucy and John. Again Ezra was very well behaved although his sisters were a little over-excited. It must be very difficult for them because they are no longer the centre of attention when people come round. We are trying to involve them in everything but obviously Ezra is the draw and they know that.

Both Éowyn and Amélie have been brilliant with him though. They both fight over wanting to hold him and sit with a cushion on their lap and have quickly learnt to support his head. Amélie especially will sit for an extended period holding her little brother, stroking his head and kissing him. She is very cute, if at times a little heavy handed but that is to be expected and we obviously supervise them when they have him.

We have spent a very quiet Monday at home getting used to being a family. The rain, hail and thunderstorms were a deterrent for even making it up the road to Nanny and Granddad’s. Our family enclave was only invaded once by the 5 day check up by the local midwives. They examined Ezra and took blood via the blood spot (heel prick) test. This upset Éowyn thinking that these strange people who had come into our house were hurting her little brother. Fortunately although it looked painful he was feeding and must have had his mind on better things because he didn’t even flinch.

They checked Lucinda and made sure that all was well with her and then finally weighed Ezra. He weighed in at a surprising 3.92kgs (8lbs 10oz); he had only lost 92 grams. This is excellent, it means that he is feeding well and we will be more content to let him sleep rather than fretting that he has slept for 5 hours! A new born baby can lose up to 10% of their birth weight before the medical profession get too worried. At this rate Ezra will probably surpass his birth weight on my birthday and definitely by his next weigh-in on Saturday.

So as I sit here with Ezra sleeping on my chest I will leave you to enjoy the latest crop of photos.

Love and Peace

Baggie

Cousin Megan

Another boy in the family!

Megan and Ezra

Uncle Steve and Auntie Zoe

Sleeping

Hello Uncle Steve

With my sister Amélie

In my mommy’s arms

Close up

Ezra John Bagnall

Saturday 16th March 2013Tuesday 11th June 2013Baggie

The metaphorical white smoke billows out of the non-existent chimneys of Bagnall Manor and the world breathes a sigh of relief, at last we have finally agreed on a name for our son: Ezra John Bagnall. We now have to get used to calling him it rather than boy or Bilbo (indeed I believe that this will be his nickname whether he wants it or not). It was very interesting to see the voting patterns on this website and one my Facebook page and thank you all for your input and don’t feel too bad if we didn’t pick for your personal favourite. Interestingly the voting patterns on Facebook were slightly different to those on the website with Jacob and Noah neck and neck on Facebook with Ezra sneaking ahead of Noah by one vote on the website. It was never going to be a democratic vote but it was an interesting exercise to see garner thoughts from friends and family. Despite the Facebook voting pattern the overwhelming family vote was for Ezra John; grandparents, aunties and cousins all voted Ezra and so if we include family weighting then Ezra won hands down.

So why Ezra John? Simply, we decided to name our first son after his grandfathers. Lucinda’s father’s name is John and my father’s name was Victor (I say was as he passed away in 1987). So why Ezra? Ezra Bagnall was a locally famous pianist and organist in West Bromwich when my dad was growing up and for some reason, lost in the mists of time, it became his nickname. Some people only knew him as Ezra in the same way as some people only know me by my nickname Baggie. Now since our other two children have unusual names, indeed Éowyn is extremely unusual, it would therefore be a little strange and certainly be out of character for us to have christened our son John. In addition Ezra John seemed to flow better than John Ezra and Ezra seemed to fit with his sisters’ names: Éowyn and Amélie (Éowyn, Amélie and Ezra does flow doesn’t it?). Also, his middle name has four letters to fit in with his sisters’ middle names (Vera and Iris) however his name doesn’t contain an acute accent but you can’t have everything.

So did you miss me yesterday? I spoilt you on Thursday with two posts but then I was absent yesterday. Part of the reason was the fact that we had not fully decided on his name and part of the reason was the fact that we managed to have a quiet day with no visitors and apart from taking Éowyn to school and then filling up on groceries on the return journey we did not leave the house. It was quite nice taking Éowyn to school and then picking her up at the end of the day. It is also part of my effort to try and keep the girls foremost in my attention so that they do not feel that Ezra is pushing them out. Obviously this is more difficult for Lucinda as she is feeding Ezra and therefore has to pay him a lot of attention so I feel that the onus is on me to lavish attention on the girls. So when I picked Éowyn up from school I took her to the local supermarket to stock up for the week.

Éowyn doesn’t usually like going to the supermarket but I managed to convince her with a combination of turning it into an adventure and encouraging her by making it seem that I needed her help and bribing her with the promise of a magazine. As we entered the supermarket Éowyn saw the display of cut flowers and said ‘Can we buy Mommy some flowers?‘ How could I refuse?

So she chose a bunch and into the trolley they went. I then thought I would ask her what she felt about her new brother? ‘Is it a little weird and strange to have a baby brother?‘ I asked.

‘No Daddy,‘ she replied, ‘but what is weird,‘ she continued, ‘Is that Mommy feeds him with her boobies.‘ I tried to explain that is what boobies are for but she wasn’t having that, so we left it there.

Saturday saw the first of the visitors. Lauren (voted for Ezra) and Maddie (didn’t vote) , his cousins, were the first of the visitors. Maddie hogged the cuddles for longer than Lauren but I am sure that it will even itself out over time. Then Nanny Fran (voted for Ezra), Auntie Mary (voted for Ezra) and Auntie Liz (voted for Ezra) came down laden with presents. There were presents for Ezra, for Éowyn, for Amélie and some for me (it is my birthday – my 40th birthday – on Wednesday). The girls were very excited to see their aunties and even more excited with their presents.

So Ezra is now part of the family proper. He has a name and is beginning to meet his close relatives (and more tomorrow hopefully). He is keeping his mommy and daddy up at night but sleeps (like a baby) during the day and poor Lucinda is only getting snatches of sleep between feeds – for he is feeding every 3 hours. She is currently getting one of those snatches of sleep while I look after my son so I will leave you there and let you enjoy the photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

One proud Auntie

Sisterly love

My beautiful children

It’s my brother!

Éowyn and Ezra

Give me a kiss!

Smile for the camera

Auntie Mary

An Amélie cuddle

Auntie Liz

Cousins

Maddie and Ezra

My big sister

Our little brother

The Bagnall kids

Close up

Hang on

Sleeping Baby

November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear

Tuesday 20th November 2012Tuesday 20th November 2012Baggie

As Autumn strengthens its grip on the land the leaves are changing colour contrasting against the uninspiring greyness that has been the colour of the sky for the last couple of weeks allow the Bagnalls to bring a little colour into your life. We find ourselves sitting pretty between the girls’ birthdays and Christmas and for such a dull and usually monotonous period of the year it has been far from humdrum in the Bagnall household.

In the British calendar Halloween is closely following by Guy Fawkes night (or Bonfire night) on the 5th November. A date which commemorates an unsuccesful attempt at regicide and mass terrorism by Robert Gatesby and his fellow plotters, including the eponymous Guy Fawkes who was caught readying himself to light 36 barrels of gunpowder under the Houses of Parliament by a team lead by Lord Thomas Knyvet. (As an aside Lord Knyvet is quite reknown around our corner of the world, as he was granted the Manors of Stanwell and Staines and his effigy is in the chancel of Stanwell Parish church). Bonfire and firework displays are put on throughout the country and we decided that we would try and see one this year. Unfortunately as I was working at the weekend we had to find one that was planned for the actual date which fell on a Monday this year.

Cleves School in Weybridge appeared to be the closest display and so my friends Andy and Al joined us on a trip to Weybridge. Hats and scarves were the order of the day as the November chill had begun and positioned ourselves at the edge of the school playing field to watch the display. There was entertainment beforehand with halloween themed stilt-walkers and band knocking out covers of 80’s and 90’s rock favourites. The display was not disappointing either and lasted at least half an hour. We were very impressed, although Amélie was a little scared by the loud bangs. There are quite a lot of firework related photos here. I would definitely recommend Cleves School display if you are looking for a firework display next year.

It appears that holiday to Puncknowle has had two positive effects on Amélie. The first, which in fairness was already well on its way, is the fact that she is now sleeping through the night. This means that Lucinda and I will have 6 months of uninterrupted sleep before baguette number three makes an appearance. It is amazing how much better you feel one you can get a good night’s sleep. The second is a big step forward and all off her own back.

On our return from Puncknowle we decided to buy Amélie a potty and to make her involved in the decision we encouraged her to pick one, a dinosaur potty was her choice. We put it in the lounge and thought no more. Then Monday morning she came downstairs and refused to have a nappy on. That was it. No more. Nappies in the day time are a memory. Yes, there have been a couple of accidents but to be honest the transition to nappy-free days has been rather painless. Yes, we do have to clap her everytime she goes for a wee, and she has even begun to take a bow when she receives the applause.

Lucinda is now back at work returning from her appendectomy and holiday. She had to see the company doctor and has been given a gradual restart with reduced hours. These return days have co-incided with my days off. So with our days out of sync it means no requirements for childcare, which has been doubly useful with Amélie potty training and the fact that she has come out in spots. Lucinda took her to the walk-in clinic (no appointments at the doctors) and the diagnosis came back as chicken pox. Fortunately both Lucinda (and it is not good if a pregnant woman gets chicken pox) and I have both had it as children. Éowyn has not had it so we feared the worse with both children going through it at the same time. However, Amélie’s case has been extremely mild (thankfully) and Éowyn has not succumbed to the pox. We have got away lightly. This unsynchronised days off occurs in six week patterns so the next time it will happen will be Christmas week. We both have jobs where public holidays mean nothing to whether we are at work and so it is with Christmas. Lucinda will be working on Christmas day itself and I will be working throughout the yuletide with the exception of Christmas day. The glamour of television.

Not that this will worry the girls too much. Amélie is too young to understand and Éowyn will have her imaginary parents and imaginary brother to look after her on Christmas day. Yes, Éowyn’s entourage of quasi-corporeal companions is still growing. As mentioned above she now has imaginary parents and when they are in the room Lucinda and I become Auntie and Uncle. As you can probably guess her imagination is well developed and her play is quite imaginative and quite regularly makes games up and even songs. She loves to hear stories and will ask you to tell her stories about when you were a child in addition to stories from books. Obviously she is a child of the 2010’s (whatever you call this decade) and so enjoys DVD’s and television programmes too and they all help to fire her imagination.

You may recall that in February I took Éowyn to the cinema for the first time to see the Muppets. Like her father before her she instantly became a fan. So not only do we own the film on DVD but also have the soundtrack on CD. This CD is permanently in the CD player in the car and whenever Éowyn is in the car she requests the Muppets. Not only does Éowyn now know all the words to all the songs, so does Lucinda, and I quite often find myself whistling ‘Life’s a Happy Song’ or bursting into ‘Me Party’ at inopportune moments. Now the fourth member of the family is hooked. ‘Daddy, Muppets please,‘ is the first thing that Amélie will say as you put her into the car. Although I love the Muppets and think that the soundtrack is excellent I think I have to try and find another soundtrack or album that they enjoy as much so that I can have some variety on my CD player in my car!

Julia Donaldson is rightly the Children’s Laureate and the girls enjoy many of her books, indeed Lucinda and I enjoy reading her books too. For those non-parents (and especially non-UK non-parents) her most famous book is probably The Gruffalo (a book I could probably recite by heart) which has made a successful leap to video with a 30 minute animated film. Another of her books has taken a leap into another medium: Room on the Broom , another of our favourites had been turned into a stage show. It is the story of a witch that allows a dog, a frog and a parrot join her and her cat on her broom. Doesn’t sound too interesting? Well there is a twist in the tale and you will have to buy the book to find out what happens.

We thought that Amélie was probably a little too young so we just bought tickets for Lucinda, me and Éowyn for the Sunday show at the Rose Theatre in Kingston-Upon-Thames with the other families of our NCT group. Unfortunately work is extremely busy for me at the moment and it is difficult for me to take weekends off so disappointingly I was unable to go. Rather than see the ticket go to waste we asked Éowyn who she would like to accompany her and mommy to the theatre. Her cousin Megan was the lucky recipient of the spare ticket. Éowyn was extremely excited to be going to the theatre (although I think she thought it was going to be the cinema). The show was excellent and Lucinda, Éowyn and even Megan thoroughly enjoyed it which made me even more disappointed to have missed it. The other members of our NCT group also enjoyed it and all of the children were well behaved throughout the show, which is nice to think that there are alternative ways to entertain our youngsters that does not rely on 21st century technology.

So since Lucinda is at work and it is time for some Daddy time I will leave you with a small selection of photos while I pretend to be a monster.

Peace and Love

Baggie