Friends

Nine months old

Thursday 23rd July 2009Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

It seems a while since I updated the blog, so apologies to all you regular readers. The heatwave has left us and the weather has returned to a more expected British summer and Éowyn has settled into a really fun phase at the moment. She is sleeping through the night (let’s hope that hasn’t jinxed it) and her teething has subsided once again, (still no teeth!) Her separation anxiety has diminished somewhat. Obviously she still likes to know where her parents are, but if there is someone entertaining her or she is engrossed in play then she is not quite as clingy until she realises that she is not sure where Mum and Dad have gone. Will keep you all up to date with how that progresses.

There are some incidences in all of our lives when there seems to be something guiding our way, or looking out for us. Some people regard it the hand of a deity, others: fate and others dismiss it entirely. I’m not sure exactly what it is but when it happens I get a warm a fuzzy feeling inside, although that could be wind. The latest example of this kind of coincidence, revolves around our choice of child minder. As you may be aware, when Lucinda returns to work we will require a small amount of child care. Unfortunately, as we both work shift patterns this will not be the same day every week and it seems that most nurseries/ child-minders only accept set days each week and we are only looking for around 4-6 days a month.

When Lucinda was a child she would quite often stay at her nanny Vera’s (after whom Éowyn takes her middle name). Lucinda obviously enjoyed the attention that she would receive from her nan but also enjoyed playing with a girl, Jo who was a neighbour of Vera’s. When nanny Vera passed away there was no reason for Lucinda to visit that part of Staines and a childhood friendship was lost. Fast forward twenty-odd years and one of Lucinda’s friends, Liz, that we met through NCT is best friends with Jo. Jo it turns out is a registered child-minder who maybe able to take Éowyn under her wing.

Liz’s son, James, was Baptised on 12th July and Jo, being a close friend of Liz, was there and so we had an opportunity to meet her. Me for the first time and Lucinda for the first time since the early 1980’s! Lucinda and Jo seemed to turn the clock back and were soon catching up on two decades of gossip. Jo impressed us with her attitude to child-minding and the activities that she does with the kids in her care and she is exactly what we were looking for in a child-minder. So whether is is the finger of fate, nanny Vera keeping an eye on her great-granddaughter or just coincidence we have hopefully found the best answer to one of the major worries when returning to work, who is going to look after your child.

Lucinda and Jenny took Éowyn and Leo to Syon house to play in the Snakes and Ladders soft play area for children and toddlers. Éowyn thoroughly enjoyed herself especially the ball pit and on the bouncy castle. Fortunately as the schools had not yet broken for the summer holiday there was space each of the areas for the little ones to play safely. I don’t think that this will be the case for the next few weeks, so I will have to wait until September until I can have a go! As you can see from the photos, Éowyn did not want to leave, although it completely wore her out and she slept soundly that afternoon.

Éowyn took charge of her first vehicle. While we were on holiday in Noss Mayo Lucinda won some Early Learning Centre vouchers and so we wanted to make good use of them. Therefore after much deliberation we decided on the Smart Trike. It will hopefully last her many years as it grows from a parent controlled fancy pushchair to a fully working pedal trike. As you can see from the photos below she loves it and that first journey to Nan and Granddad’s is one that she will make many times on her trike.

Monday marked our second wedding anniversary. Unfortunately I was working but Lucinda and Éowyn paid me a visit and we went for lunch, but not before the girls in the office got to play with Éowyn. Éowyn was a little wary, if not scared, at first. This was understandable as it has been many months since she last came to mediahouse and she has become more aware of her surroundings since then. However, after a short time of hiding on daddy she soon was entertaining the girls and demonstrating her many talents. We will endeavour not to leave it quite as long next time.

Please enjoy the new photos both below and on Flickr.

Peace and love
Baggie!

Nanny tells great stories

Shall Granddad tell you a story?

Follow me

James making a break for it

I’ve got all the red ones!

What do the blue ones taste of?

My new trike!

How do you drive this thing?

Kazaam!

They said that this is my new toy!

All I’ve got is this balloon

I am not a number!

Halfway through the year

Wednesday 8th July 2009Baggie

And so another month passes us by; it is amazing how quickly this year is going. However, for the first time in a couple of years we are getting a summer of sorts, which makes it a little more palatable. Yes, for the first time since September 2006 we have had temperatures over 30°C. I was a little amazed when I heard that, especially with the media driven ‘science’ of anthropogenic global warming and ‘carbon pollution’. I’m not going to start bemoaning the level of science in the media and egotistical nature of our species in general but when the government start issuing heatwave warnings, telling people that 30°C is hot and they should put suntan lotion on and drink plenty of water I begin to worry about the world that Éowyn will find herself growing up in.

Lucinda’s meeting with work regarding her return appeared to go rather well. She put forward the hours that she would like when she returns and seemingly, that is possible. We wait confirmation but all looks good at the moment. It will mean that we will only need childcare 4-6 days a month when makes it more than financially viable for Lucinda to return to work and re-enter the world of adults (whether she wants to or not).

It appears that Lucinda is not the only one thinking about returning to work and for some of her friends that date is rapidly approaching whether they are ready or not. It must be a massive culture shock and all in the space of a little under a year. Your career is one of the parameters that people tend to use to define you and indeed, we define ourselves thus; for that to change, to ‘mother’ and back again tends to put it in some kind of perspective.

Éowyn is going through a couple of phases of development at the moment, some of which are not pleasant. She is constantly standing and cruising about the furniture. We think that this is fantastic but it is amazing how far her little arms can stretch and we are finding that more and more has to be moved to higher shelves. She delights in knocking over the Duplo structures that her parents build. I love playing with Lego and it gives me a great excuse to sit on the floor building whatever the limited variety of bricks, my engineering skills and my imagination allow. They don’t usually last very long though and she will quite often demolish them before the full design is realised. She has also learnt to wave goodbye, which is very cute, especially when she wants someone to leave and begins to wave goodbye to them: not very subtle our child. But funny!

With every positive, there must be a negative and she is currently exhibiting a couple of frustrating aspects. Changing her nappy or getting her dressed is becoming more and more of a struggle and more often than not full-scale war. It does not help to know that it is perfectly normal especially since she is too young to reason (or bribe) to stay still. She has also begun to start waking up in the middle of the night again. We at first thought that it was due to the heat, we were struggling ourselves and it must be harder when you have no understanding why it is so uncomfortable. However, we now think that some of it is related to her teeth and the top front teeth seem very close to breaking through the gums. Again, the tag-team combination of bonjela and calpol have been our friends. The worst of the trio of bad habits is her recently developed ‘Separation Anxiety’. Again knowing it is a normal stage doesn’t help when she become almost inconsolably apoplectic. Hopefully she will soon grow out of it otherwise it will make it difficult for Lucinda and I to have any time for ourselves as leaving her with a childminder or at nursery would be a nightmare.

Tuesday saw a visit from our friend Alistair. As you may recall Alistair was the first man to buy her a meal and knowing what a lady likes this time he bought Éowyn a dress. The plan was to go for a walk along the Thames and finish at a pub (as all good walks should) and a nice pub lunch. However, the weather was so hot, and all four of us have pale Celtic skin, we decided to forego the walk (and we didn’t need the government to tell us that!) and head straight for the pub. A good time was had by all.

This has been my short week so I only worked on Wednesday and Thursday, which means I get to see a lot of both my wife and Éowyn. Friday morning, Lucinda and her mom went shopping leaving Éowyn with me to have some father and daughter time. I’m not sure who enjoys that time the most! It will be good practise for when Lucinda goes back to work and I take on more of the childcare, and not just the fun aspects of building Duplo towers and splashing in the paddling pool.

The number of photos taken recently is slowly declining but here are a selection for you to enjoy.

Peace and Love

Baggie!

Just like that!

Wot?

Drinking like a grown up

Smash!

Ha! Ha! I knocked it down!

How do I record CBeebies?

Dad said it was fun!

Just standing, nothing else!

In my seat and have my ball, ready!

Stand Up!

Monday 8th June 2009Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

It has been quite a busy and emotional week and a bit since the last update. The week started quite brightly with fine weather as befits the start of June. Éowyn took full advantage of this in her new paddling pool. Each morning we took her into the garden to have a splash, which is a very easy way to give her (and us) a wash! She thoroughly enjoys being in the water and it is something that we want to encourage.

Our friends Neil, Emma and Kerry met us in Chertsey for a walk along the Thames on Thursday. As with all good walks a meal at a pub was in order and we incorporated this tradition with Thames Court being the goal for the half-way stage of the stroll. We were also introduced to the hobby of geocaching by the guys. It adds an added interest to a walk and it is quite nice to be part of a secret club where muggles walk by geocaches unaware of the hidden treasures lurking in the undergrowth.

The weekend started with an invite to the evening-do of the wedding of friends of ours Stuart and Sharon Hellyer. This was Éowyn’s first wedding and she did very well considering she was in a new place, with new people and long past her bedtime. However by 10pm she was getting really grumpy and we had to say goodbye while the night was still young. We wish Stuart and Sharon all the best for their future lives together.

Monday we took full advantage of the fine weather and headed to Windsor to meet up with Lee and Caroline and their daughter Georgia. Caroline and Lucinda meet up quite regularly so the girls know each other, as well as 7 ½ month olds can. They don’t really play with each other (as yet) and Éowyn took full advantage of her advanced manoeuvrability and went in for Georgia’s dummy while she unsuspectedly sat in the sun. I suppose she has a long memory from the time that Georgia punched her in the face while they lay on our lounge floor.

Nan and Granddad took us to the Harvester in Windsor Tuesday evening where Éowyn was on her best behaviour once again, until she swallowed a large chunk of the bun that she was chewing and began to choke. Fortunately the first aid training kicked in and a swift slap to the back dislodged the offending lump but unfortunately brought up a quantity of vomit too. Not the nicest thing to happen in the middle of dinner. Éowyn was nonplussed by it all and was none the worse for her incident. This was the second time in a week that she had bitten a large chunk of food (the first was a baby ricecake last Thursday) and choked, fortunately I have been on hand both times and have not panicked but it is quite upsetting and Lucinda finds it especially so. We are being extremely careful now with the kind of foodstuffs that she is being given.

As you may recall from the last entry Éowyn’s Great-Great Auntie Iris passed away and Thursday was her funeral. So although it was nice to see the family and Éowyn got to see her Nanny Fran, it was a shame that it was under such circumstances. We were a little concerned taking Éowyn to the funeral service as she is a little young to persuade her to behave but we had needn’t fretted. She slept through the service at the crematorium, which was a little embarrassing since she takes after her dad and snores. So when the minister asked all to take a minute to reflect on Auntie Iris and pray silently, all that could be heard was the dulcet tones of Éowyn‘s snoring. I think that Auntie Iris would have found it amusing as a number of people suppressed their sniggering.

She was a good tonic for the people there and a nice distraction. During the memorial service she was as good as gold, except for continually tapping her Auntie Liz on the back causing her to turn around. Then at the wake, she crawled around the hall, trying to escape from her daddy and hoping for people to drop crumbs off their plates. She also begun to say the two words that we have longed to hear: ‘Momomomomomom’ and ‘Dadadadadadadadadadad’. Well not quite the words but definitely the sounds. She also got to meet some of the relatives that she hadn’t as yet had the opportunity to meet, including her first cousin once removed Mark and her first cousin twice removed, my first cousin once removed Ray and his wife Pat (that is if I have followed this table correctly). She also received a couple of presents a nursery rhyme book from her Great Uncle Michael and Great Auntie Yvonne and a hand-knitted doll from her first cousin twice removed Pat. She is a very lucky little girl to have such generous relatives. Thank you!

We stayed the night at Nanny Fran’s so that they could have an extended play time, which I am not sure who enjoyed the most. We also visited her Great-Grandma and for the first time took her to place some flowers on my dad’s grave, her Granddad Vic, for what would have been his 63rd birthday; not that it means anything to her at the moment but more for Lucinda and me.

To complete the triumvirate our next door neighbours, Cliff and Vicky had a baby boy in the early hours of Thursday morning. Congratulations to them and welcome to the world little one.

In this hectic week of births, deaths and marriages Éowyn has also begun to pull herself up on furniture. The first time was just before the last update on the 27th May and then nothing for a couple of days, but now she is constantly pulling herself upon and standing for quite a while. She has taken a tentative step or two but it has, so far, always thrown her off balance but nappies are great shock absorbers for little bottoms. I don’t think it will be too long before she is walking. We are not ready! Keep an eye on this space.

Peace and Love

Baggie!