The fourth quarter is upon us, the nights are drawing in and the girls have completed their first month at school. In the last write up Éowyn was enjoying school while Amélie was in tears and begging us not to take her to nursery. So is that still the case?
Éowyn is still enjoying school and has got use to the fact that it is five days a week. It has not, however, been completely plain sailing since the beginning of September. There were a few days when Éowyn became upset and said that she didn’t want to go to school. Sensing that something had happened at school, Lucinda asked her what the matter was and had anyone upset her. Lucinda’s fears of something from school were soon allayed, it was something much closer to home: me. To be exact the lack of me. It has been a very busy period at work and I have spent long hours away from home. Although for Éowyn’s (and Amélie’s) first week or so at school I’d managed to trim the hours a little (a dark weekend helped – a dark weekend is a weekend with no Premier League football) the hours had begun to creep back. With Éowyn spending every weekday at school, and me working into the evening and at weekends, the girls were only seeing me in the morning. Not exactly what one might call quality time as it is all about shepherding them through breakfast, getting dressed for school and eventually out the door and into the car.
That was a wake up call and although it is difficult I have to strike the correct work/life balance and make the time I do spend with the girls special. With that in mind I asked Éowyn if there was something that she wanted to do with Daddy when she got out of school. Her first choice was to go the cinema – result! Unfortunately there were no suitable films showing at our local picturehouse (Vue Cinema, Staines). So it was the back up plan: baking some cakes. Therefore, armed with ingredients and a large mixing bowl we entered the kitchen and did not leave until we had made some fairy cakes. A simple gesture but it seems to have worked wonders; she is much happier. I can not rest on my laurels however and it was serious kick in the butt. With an imminent house move in the mix it is going to be a very stressful time for all the family and we can’t take our eye off the effects it is having on the children.
Amélie on the other hand, has gone from hating school and crying whenever we dropped her off to running into school. We are not entirely convinced that she is loving it but she knows that she has to go and is quite happy to go. There are still the questions about whether we are taking her to school but at least there are no tears when we tell her that she is going. Definitely a big step forward and just in time for her birthday.
Yes, the big news of the inter-write-up period is the news that Amélie has turned 3! Saturday saw our middle child’s third birthday. Unfortunately weekends are my busy days and so although I could push back the time I started I still had to go into work so I was unable to spend the whole day with her, which was upsetting. I was there when she opened her presents however, and was tasked with the job of extracting the toys from the packaging – not the easiest of tasks especially when you are trying not to damage the toys or indeed your own fingers! So although I wasn’t there for the bulk of the day I don’t think that she missed me too much as she had the distraction of a small family party around Nanny and Granddad’s with her cousins Lauren and Maddie. She was still awake when I got home from work (a little late – but it was her birthday!) and was full of excitement with the presents that I hadn’t seen and the fact that she had been playing with her cousins.
It was her second birthday party. The week before she had had a pirate themed birthday party around Nanny Fran’s with Nanny Fran’s other adopted grandchildren. Lucinda and I were not at the party however for we were taking advantage of Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz leaving our brood with them while we were approximately 60 miles away. One of my university friends Neil was marrying (I think the official term is entering a civil partnership – but I prefer marrying) his partner Paul and therefore when we received the invite to their big day, Nanny Fran’s services were booked. We had a great time, catching up with my university pals which was good as I rarely get to catch up with them, even the ones that live quite close. Unfortunately again the pull of work was strong and we had to leave early the next morning – before we had managed to say goodbye to them – the joys of working in television! I drove back to Nanny Fran’s, dropped Lucinda off and headed straight to work. Lucinda then drove back later with the girls.
Although it was Amélie’s birthday last Saturday, Sunday saw a third birthday party in just over a week, but not a third one for Amélie, but an early one for Éowyn. As regular readers of this website may recall Éowyn was the last of our NCT class to be born and the group of us that still keep in touch try to organise a joint birthday party for them some midway point between the beginning of September and Éowyn’s birthday on the 17th October. As fate will have it, this is usually around Amélie’s birthday, so I am sure that in her mind it is also for her. This year the venue chosen was Alice Holt. Run by the Forestry commission, Alice Holt is a few miles south of Farnham and excellent venue for the kids with plenty to do. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were full of stories of the giant woodpeckers and owls in the habitat trail. Again the call of work meant that I wasn’t able to go, but not only were the girls full of praise for the woodland so was Lucinda, so when work calms down and we have a fine day I think a trip to Alice Holt is in order.
With all work and not a lot of play when my friend Andy saw an offer for a half-day’s Owl and Eagle experience at the Birds of Prey Centre in Old Warden I jumped at the chance to do something for me! This was our second time, we took advantage of a similar offer last year, and again thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is great to be so close to such beautiful creatures and the only disappointment was that it wasn’t a full day’s experience. There are plenty of photos on our Flickr site including the moment that a moody female Bald Eagle decided to give Andy a little nibble. Well, he probably deserved it!
So before I leave you, just a quick note to say that the house move plods on but it now looks like all of our finances are in place and we could be exchanging before the next write up. That probably means there will not be a write up until November! (I am joking!)
Enjoy the photos and keep your fingers crossed for a smooth house move.
Peace and Love
Baggie
