Easter

So as most of you are looking forward to speaking some time with your families and taking a break from work I, somewhat contradictorily, am heading back to work after spending a fortnight with mine. Yes my paternity leave has come to an end and it is time to leave Lucinda to look after the kids alone (at least during the day) and enter the adult world again. In one of those coincidences that seem to belie an innate consciousness or at lease fortuitous planning the end of my paternal leave coincides with Easter Weekend.

Easter is quite often associated with April, although of course it can occur at any time between 22nd March and 25th April. (Easter is the only major holiday in the Western world that is moveable since it is defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox.) So although this Easter is on the early side, although it is only 5 years ago that we saw one of the earliest Easter Sundays on the 23rd March 2008 (and we will have to wait until 2285 until there is one even earlier than that – 22nd March) the weather is far from paschal. Not only is it cold but the wind is bitter and cuts right through you. Our corner has missed the major snow event that has hit other parts of the country, with only disappointing snow flurries that barely make it to the ground but last Easter we were on the tail end of an impressively hot March and had organised the first (and so far only) Great Bagnall Easter Egg hunt. There will be no repeat of it this year, with me at work and Lucinda coming to terms with looking after three children all on her tod in addition to the threat of a White Easter.

So what have we done with these final days of family time? Not a lot is the honest answer. I have been fighting some unspecified virus that has knocked me off feet a little. It is one of those viruses that gradually works its way around you body so you feel awful all over. Fortunately I seem to be coming out of the other side of it with only a hacking cough as the battle scar. Unfortunately Lucinda’s mum now has succumb to the same virus, so we wish her a speedy recovery. Obvious she is blaming me but I am blaming Amélie who has something similar last week. We are hoping that neither Lucinda, Éowyn or Ezra fall victim. However, Ezra has been fractious for the last day or so and although he is barely two weeks old this is out of character, so we hoping he is just having a bad day rather than he has the virus or worse still that it is a change in behaviour. We will keep you up to date.

So with the combination of illness and bitterly cold weather we have stayed in and let people come and visit us. So although we have been cooped up inside we have not been lonely. We have had a number of friends pay us a visit over the last week and it has been nice to see so many of our friends that we haven’t seen in a while. It is one of the fantastic things about a new child, they bring friends and relatives together. It must be some kind of deep ingrained instinct that predates human civilisations that still has the power to bring communities/ tribes/ collective noun of your choice/ together. A very powerful force indeed.

The only non-friend visitor of the week has been our first visit from the Health Visitor. She was a very friendly lady and in addition to being very pleased with Ezra’s progress she was amazed at Amélie’s elocution and could not believe that she was only two and a half. In fact because the Health Visitor wanted to check Ezra’s hearing and needed silence to do so, I had to invent a task to encourage Amélie to leave Ezra with Mommy and this strange lady and help me collect something from the car. We timed it just right and the hearing test was successfully conducted (and Ezra successfully passed). The next major test was another weigh in for Ezra and he topped the scales at 4.14kgs (9lbs 2 oz). So he has zoomed passed his birth weight in his first fortnight, the boy (and let us not forget Lucinda’s part in this) is doing well!

When I said that we have been effectively bunkered down for the last week, that is not quite strictly true. Éowyn has still had her last pre-paschal week at school. It has been nice for the last fortnight taking and picking Éowyn up from school. I quite often drop Éowyn off at school but it is rare that I pick her up. I think that she has enjoyed this little bit of extra father and daughter time too. It is nice to have a bit of time to chat in the car both before and after school looking forward to the day and then reflecting on what has happened. It is also a time for her to ask questions and on a bright morning it will quite often be, what kind of bird is that daddy? We are blessed with a number of the more unusual bird species in the village: Ring Neck Parakeets, Kingfishers, Red Kites and Herons rub wings with the more usual Collared Doves, Magpies, Chaffinches, Blue Tits and Mallards but the bird that caught her eye this week was a new visitor: a Little Egret. I mentioned that we saw one on the day that Ezra was born. It was looking a little tired and I feared that a fox might get it if it wasn’t too careful. Now it is flying quite strongly, it is obviously feeding and more than that it is one of a pair. Yes we have a pair of little egrets. I wonder if they are raising little little egretlets (I don’t think that is the technical name – but it should be!).

Obviously now that I am back at work the frequency of the updates that I have been spoiling you with will drop back to a more usual once a fortnight (if you are lucky) and for that I make no apology however I promise to post lots of photos. Also if you are at all interested and I didn’t bore you too much earlier in the update the latest Easter can be is the 25th April. This will next occur in 2038 so although my children may have missed the extremely early Easter in 2008 (although it was about the time that we announced that we were pregnant with Éowyn) with good fortune we may all see the latest possible Easter occurrence (assuming we all survive the year 2038 problem). Don’t forget to put your clocks forward at the weekend and I will see you in April.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Sleeping babe

You woke me!

Back to sleep

I am watching TV

The female Bagnalls

This is tense

Shh!

It’s my Dad!

Gerroff!

Fetch me, my shoes!

Auntie Andrea

The lay-dees!

April is here and the promise of Sunshine has disappeared in a blizzard, not a metaphorical blizzard, an actual blizzard. Admittedly not in the South East of England but across great swathes of the country, Aberdeenshire for instance which was basking in the warmest March day every recorded in Scotland a mere week ago is now under 8 inches of snow. Must be a sign that the Easter bank holidays are here and children are off school.

However before the Artic low pressure begun to dominate our weather we managed to squeeze in some out door fun to wit: The First (and possibly The Last) Great Bagnall Easter Egg hunt; held at Lucinda’s parents we invited many of Éowyn’s friends, fourteen in total. So we arrived early Sunday morning armed with chocolate eggs and buffet food. Éowyn’s cousins Lauren and Maddie were really excited and came round to help and, of course, Lucinda’s parents helped get everything prepared. Fortunately, although it was a little chilly to begin, the ground was dry and we could hide the eggs around the garden, in flower beds, against trees all easily accessible since their were, on average, only 3. Amélie, the lazy monkey decided to have a morning nap and slept through the whole of the preparation – which actually was probably the most helpful thing that she could have done!

We managed to prevent the early arrivals from heading off into the garden but that involved distracting them with the variety of bikes, cars, prams, doll and balls that Nanny and Granddad have accumulated over the years of being grandparents. Éowyn tends to regard them as hers, unless of course her cousins are there so she was a little perturbed to see so many children playing with ‘her‘ toys. A quick father to daughter chat about sharing and then a little distraction technique and she was fine and didn’t complain for the rest of the day.

The Egg Hunt kept the little ones occupied for a good 20 minutes or so and all managed to find some eggs to fill their baskets. We then turned our little ones and the egg hunt into a utopian communism by means of the sharing blanket. We had bought enough eggs so that all could have one big one, three little ones and a kinder surprise egg. Amazingly all the children loved the idea of the sharing blanket and all happily sat cross-legged around the perimeter of the blanket while the eggs were shared. Then it was party food for everyone. By mid-afternoon everyone had left and we were exhausted, however it was so much fun and all the children seemed to enjoy themselves that it would be nice to turn it into an annual event – I think we may have to persuade Nanny and Granddad!

Obviously, Easter isn’t just about Easter Eggs and Éowyn prouded came home from pre-school just before the holiday and announced in the car on the way home that she has learned all about Easter. Lucinda was driving and asked what had she learned? ‘That Jesus died on a hot cross bun.‘ Lucinda said that it was a miracle (pardon the choice of word) that she didn’t crash the car. Poor Éowyn was none the wiser and when I arrived home from work proceded to tell me the same thing. I haven’t actually corrected her and occasionally she still will bring it up, especially when there is an advert on the television for hot cross buns.

Amélie is still enjoying having a room to herself (and so are we!) for she is sleeping through the night and, indeed, slept through until 07:20 one morning. Sheer bliss. However, she is still a cheeky little madam and ‘Swiper’ in disguise. However she gets away with it because she is so cute and will give you such a cheeky grin when she knows she is up to something naughty. Éowyn’s Easter Egg stash was the lastest casualty of our own veritable swiper. Éowyn and Amélie were in the lounge while Lucinda was getting showered and dressed one morning. Lucinda came downstairs and entered the lounge, Éowyn was happily sitting watching Peppa Pig while Amélie was hiding her crime out of sight of her big sister, although the half-eaten egg in her hand and the chocolate smeared around her face betrayed her guilt.

We still believe that Amélie has her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance and the above crime seemed to confirm that assumption as she cried throughout the next night and seemed to be in pain. Some things seem to be OK and we have introduced her to Soya products now so she can join in with the yoghurt eating and milk on her cereal. She has an appointment to see the dietician next week so we will see where we go and what is the next step.

Éowyn’s behaviour has been fantastic of late. She has been very well behaved and more than that is seemingly revelling in being good. Whenever she is good I have been telling her that I have been proud of her and this encouragement technique seems to reap rewards. In fact she said to Lucinda just the other day, when Lucinda dropped her off at Nanny and Granddad’s, ‘I am going to be a good girl and make Daddy proud.‘ She was and she did! We have been a little reliant on Nanny and Granddad with pre-school shut for Easter holidays, myself and Lucinda both working and Jo, our childminder taking holiday too, it doesn’t give us too many options – apart from wasting precious leave from work. Unfortunately we don’t get the same kind of annual leave entitlement as a teacher.

Before I leave you to the current crop of photos another amusing ancedote from the vaults of Éowyn. We have an extensive Disney collection and Éowyn enjoys watching films, something that she inherits from her father (and grandfather Bagnall) before her. She asked last week while at home with Lucinda, if she could watch Aladdin. Lucinda dug the DVD out and put it in the player. The film started and Éowyn said ‘This isn’t Aladdin!‘ Lucinda confirmed that it was but Éowyn was adamant that it wasn’t. ‘I want the real Aladdin,‘ she said, ‘The one where there is a man on a motorbike and some cats in a basket and he throws them into the river.‘ Lucinda’s film knowledge is not as encyclopedic as mine, especially when it comes to children’s films, so Lucinda asked me when I got home if I knew what she meant. I said that it sounded like the Aristocats. So we put the Aristocats on and asked Éowyn if this was the film that she wanted to watch. She confirmed it was and so I explained that it wasn’t called Aladdin (or even ‘The Real Aladdin’) but it was called The Aristocats. I asked her to repeat it and obviously not really knowing the word repeated what she thought she heard: ‘The Embarrassing Cats‘. Much better title in my opinion.

Peace and Love

Baggie