Funny

Why?

Thursday 21st February 2013Baggie

So my resolution to keep updating this website regularly is still falling by the wayside. No real reason but life is busy at the moment and these updates have the lowest priority. We have two young children and we are trying to prepare the house for a third, so ‘computer time’ is at a premium. You may, therefore, expect this update to be full of witty anecdotes and amazing adventures. You maybe disappointed. Indeed this is probably one of the shortish write-ups for many a long month, however I am attempting to write two updates in a week so please forgive me.

The girls have been, on the whole, fairly well behaved lately (hopefully that hasn’t put the collybosh on that!) and both have continued to sleep through the night which is probably going to make the return to sleepless nights, that no doubt will arrive with Baguette number three, so much harder. However they both still have their moments.

Éowyn is growing up fast (and so too is Amélie) and she is certainly becoming more worldly wise and, obviously the way you do that is by asking questions. Unfortunately she has entered the phase where the question is ‘Why?‘. I am sure all parents have children that have gone through that phase and I am sure all children start with the first ‘why?’ in an earnest quest to understand the problem at hand. However the next 7 ‘whys?’ are just there to see how far they can push their parents. And so it is with Éowyn. I like to pride myself on knowing a fair bit about a wide spectrum of topics and so I am slightly guilty of encouraging ‘why?’. I try to answer each why with a sensible and honest answer. However, there are more ‘whys?’ then answers and after the seventh ‘why?’ I begin to run short of replies.

Not only is Éowyn growing up cerebrally but also physically. She insisted on being measured a week or so ago and so with tape measure in hand I got her to stand up against the wall to measure her: 115cm (3 feet 9 inches) which is, for those of you in the know, slap bang on the 99.6th centile line. To put it another way there will very few 4 year old girls that are taller than her. We didn’t manage to measure Amélie but I wouldn’t have thought that she was far behind. She is nearly as tall as one of Éowyn’s friends (two years older than Amélie) and taller than a friend’s daughter who is a year older than Amélie.

Éowyn, however, does have a delicate constitution. One of her friends (name withheld to protect the innocent) came to dinner after school and thought it was hilarious to burp. Éowyn politely asked her to stop belching which for a four year old was like pouring petrol on a fire and so she continued louder than before. Éowyn then pleaded saying that it was making her feel sick. The burping continued and so Éowyn completed her side of the bargain and vomited in the kitchen. A one-off you may think. Not so. A couple of days later the Éowyn and Amélie were sharing their nightly bath when Amélie’s milk protein intolerance made its presence felt on her digestive system and she passed wind. ‘Mum!‘ Éowyn shouted, ‘Amélie’s farted, and it’s disgusting!‘ Lucinda obviously found this extremely amusing but then the humour changed. ‘Mum! It stinks! It’s making me feel sick!‘ Remembering the previous incident Lucinda tried to react but not quick enough and Éowyn vomited in the bath. Not quite as funny now.

So as you may have guessed Amélie still has milk protein intolerance. However, it does not seem as bad as it was and we are gradually introducing her to more and more foods with cow’s milk protein. Unfortunately, every now and then she has a bit too much and it leaves her with an upset stomach and noxious flatulence are the usual results. Poor girl, I hope she continues to grow out of it.

Amélie is a a cutey and more of a girlie-girl than her big sister. After playing with her older cousins she has developed a liking for nail varnish. Not that we endorse it as such and we try and keep her away from Lucinda’s collection. Unfortunately that isn’t always possible and I came downstairs last week to Amélie greeting me with outstretched fingers. ‘Look Daddy, I have pretty nails.‘ From her second knuckle down her fingers were purple, the tabletop was purple and there was a stench of nail varnish in the air. Fortunately it was nowhere else and was still wet and so could be cleaned up with relative ease. The nail varnish is now under lock and key!

Lucinda’s bump is still growing (2cm bigger than average) and our son is a little wiggler. I don’t think he gives Lucinda much rest and I hope that this isn’t the pattern that is going to continue into his first few months of life. He doesn’t like his environment being restrained at all. If Lucinda puts anything on her bump, he will kick it off. If you put your hand on her bump he will give you a good kick. We have encouraged the girls to touch Lucinda’s bump and Amélie will kiss the bump while Éowyn will put her hand on the bump. When she receives the obligatory kick she doesn’t get upset, she just says that is him saying hello. Which is a nice way of thinking about it.

So the countdown enters it’s final phase and still Lucinda’s bag is not packed and the house feels far from ready to accept a fifth inhabitant, so I will leave you here (with a very poor number of photos) and get on with the list of tasks that I have been given.

Peace and Love

Baggie

A Princess Party

Princesses!

Boo sucks to you!

Put a smile on your face

What are we cooking big Sis?

A bowl of laughs!

Back to school, back to reality

Monday 17th September 2012Monday 17th September 2012Baggie

It has been a little while since the last update and for that I apologise but there are extenuating circumstances that will be hopefully become clear in the next few weeks. As an appetiser I thought I would do a quick update just to bring you up to speed with the current goings on at chez Bagnall.

September has started in a similar manner to how August ended for me, i.e. extremely busy at work. It is the start of the football seasons and with new clients on board my department is busier than ever, so work has be leeching my time therefore any spare time has once again been directed at family rather that cyberspace and this website, which I am sure you will agree is a much better use of my time!

September is also the start of a new school year, Éowyn’s last at pre-school (Playbox) and, come January, Amélie’s first, the family is growing up! In fact Éowyn is growing up as well as getting older. She is about 3 feet 7 inches (108cm) which puts her about the 95th centile on the UK height chart and as such is rapidly growing out of her bed. We bought her a cot bed when she was born that should last until she was 7 years old (according to the blurb). However when Éowyn lies down, there is no longer a great deal of room for her toes. With this is mind we are going to buy her a new bed in the next couple of months. We are trying to decide whether to buy her a normal single bed, a bunk bed (for her and Amélie) or a cabin bed with storage underneath. Since Éowyn is the one that is going to have to sleep in it (and probably from many years) we asked her for her input. The conversation went something like this:

‘If you had a new bed, what kind of bed would you like?‘

‘Daddy, if I had a new bed I would like a monster bed.‘

‘What’s a monster bed?‘

‘It is made of bones, with skeleton heads and ghosties on it.‘

‘Sounds cool, but why do you want a bed like that?‘

‘So that when my friends come round they will see my bed and be scared.‘

It seems that unwittingly I am raising a goth, a Satanist or possibly an evil scientist or some combination of all three. It could be possible that she is being influenced by her quasi-corporeal companion, for he is still around although I have not yet found out what he looks like. Dizzy (as you may recall is his name) doesn’t sound like a particular nice character, for the other day he was scaring away all of her other ‘pretend friends‘ (as she calls them). ‘How many pretend friends do you have?’ I asked. ‘Hundreds’ she replied. A very popular girl is our Éowyn.

Last weekend was my first weekend off since June and by some miracle the weather was glorious (a sign surely that the kids are back at school). So we organised a picnic on Barnes common with friends of mine from university Andy and Máire and their children. It was the first time that our two oldest girls (they were born within a couple of weeks of each other) had really had a chance to play with each other, for we do not meet up that often despite the fact that we do not live that far apart. Considering they do not know each other they are still of an age where they do not have that reservation that older kids and adults have and just get on and play with each other. Perhaps not bosom-buddy well and with half an eye their own possessions but nevertheless it was good to see them play together and even more so when we returned to Andy and Máire’s house and Éowyn and Amélie could really investigate other children’s toys. We can all relate to that!

As I mentioned above, Wednesday, saw Éowyn’s first day back at pre-school for what will be her last years before starting school proper. It was a family outing to take her to school on her first day. Myself, Lucinda and Amélie all stood with Éowyn in playground waiting for the school doors to open. As more and more of Éowyn’s friends turned up Éowyn left the three of us and ran off to play with her friends. Now, the games of three year olds can sometimes be a little incomprehensible to those that have left childish ways behind, but many of you will recognise the running around and screaming game. At 08:55 this seems to be a very popular game in the school playground and Éowyn and her friends were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, Amélie, does not know the rules of this game and did not seem to realise that it was actually a game and became defensive of her big sister. So when Éowyn ran to the safety of Mommy and Daddy’s legs and strange children were chasing her and screaming Amélie got all aggressive, misinterpreting the game and hugged her big sister with all her strength shouting at the other children, ‘No! My Éowyn!‘ It was very cute to see such sororal love reaffirmed to both of us that we have less worries about sending Amélie to pre-school as we did when we first sent Éowyn.

With a new term came the realisation that both girls needed new shoes. So a trip to Clarks was called for and the preparation of parting with a serious wodge of cash for something that they grow out of so quickly. Nevertheless it is something that is obviously very important and not to be treated as a luxury moreover a necessity. So we headed off to Kingston and one of the larger Clarks shoe shops in the area. With hindsight probably not the best time to shop for children’s shoes. The shoe department was overrun by people with the same idea. We took our ticket and waited in line. Éowyn and Amélie looked through the shows to see what styles they liked and Amélie tried on the biggest pair of shoes that she could find and wandered around the shop! When it finally came our turn Éowyn measured a 10G and Amélie a 7F, both considerably bigger than their current footwear. We indicated the styles that we liked and waited for the assistant to return with the shoes. Not only did they not have the shoes that we wanted in either of the girls’ sizes, they didn’t have any shoes in those sizes. None of the nearby shops had shoes in those sizes either – the school rush had obviously denuded the stock of children’s shoes in the vicinity. So an order was placed and the girls will have to squeeze their feet in their current shoes for another week or so.

The family beckons so I will leave you here, with an apology for the paucity of photos below I promise to make amends in the next write up.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Close up

Moody

I see you

Having a laugh!

A spot of lunch

I’m living in a box

Princesses and Superheroes!

Let’s all do the conga!

The circle is complete

Catch them bubbles

Jump!

Stop taking photos!

School’s out for Summer

Sunday 22nd July 2012Wednesday 25th July 2012Baggie

A second write up in a week. When I get the opportunity I am a fast worker! The reason for this second write up is due the fact that last weekend I had managed to secure an extra long weekend off work and as this will be the last chance for an extended break from work until at least September (the joys of working for a sports-orientated television company!) so we squeezed in a number of trips. Unfortunately the weather had not improved and so raincoats and wellies were still the order of the day.

The week started with an unpleasant trip to the doctors. Éowyn needed her last set of pre-school inoculations. As we did not know how she was going to react and the fact that she is a Daddy’s girl we decided that I would take her. We prepared her for the experience as best as we could and promised her a present if she was a brave girl. Last Tuesday I took her into the nurse’s office and Éowyn walked in all bubbly and chatty, talking to the nurse. Even though we had prepared her the best that we could I still think that she did not know what was going to happen. She sat on my lap and the nurse gave her the first injection. It was think she realised it was going to hurt. Quickly before the shock could kick in, I turned her around and the nurse gave her the second. Unfortunately, she tensed up and tried to move her arm which meant that it hurt more and bruised quite badly. However, all was now over although that didn’t stop her becoming apoplectic for a couple of minutes. Even stickers from the nurse didn’t help but she did talk to the nurse afterwards and even thanked her and amazingly all was forgotten by the time we got home and as soon as she saw her Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom Magical Playset then nothing mattered. So she was a brave little soldier and deserved her present.

As I was off from Thursday to Tuesday we took full advantage and Thursday morning saw us heading down the M3 towards Peppa Pig World. As regular readers will know this isn’t the first time we have been to Peppa Pig World but as Peppa Pig is now Amélie’s favourite television programme as much as Éowyn’s, and now Amélie is more self aware it was fun to see her reaction to the park, especially to the characters dressed as Peppa and George. We managed to miss most of the wet weather although, as is the norm for this summer, the rain did begin just after lunch and so by 1400 we decided to head back home with two tired little girls.

Friday was the last day of Éowyn’s schoool year and as tradition dictates this was the time of end of year school concert. Armed with video camera as well as the more usual stills camera we were actually more impressed with the children on Friday than at the Christmas concert at the end of Winter term. Éowyn sung loudly and enthusiastically ans seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself. However we were disturbed to see just how many of Éowyn’s friends will be leaving for their first year at school proper. Éowyn has another year and not only will she be one of the oldest in her year she will also tower above the others in the class, we will have to be very conscious of this advantage of physicality and she will need to learn to deal with this herself with our (and the teacher’s) help.

Since the concert ended at 1030 the rest of the day was ours, so we decided to take the girls to London. As mentioned many times before we have Merlin passes, and one of the many attractions that one can use them on is the London Eye. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in London, the weather has turned cloudy and it was nearly lunchtime. Rather than queueing up (the queue was quite large) we decided to grab some lunch. The Merlin pass also gives you a discount of 20% on food at all the attractions and in the Rainforest Café. So rather than taking the girls to the usual haunts we walked across Hungerford Bridge (from Waterloo train station), skirted along the side of Trafalgar Square through Leicester Square to Shaftesbury Avenue and the Rainforest Café. The Rainforest Café lives up to its name with a jungle theme throughout the seating area and animatronic animals hiding in the bushes. Unfortunately the girls got a little freaked by the thunderstorm sound effects. The irony of seeking shelter from the rain in the Rainforest Café was not lost upon us either.

Leaving the Rainforest Café we retraced our steps to the South Bank (of the River Thames) and the London Eye. However the queue was now even longer and both girls were tired. The weather was turning even worse and with the low cloud it would not be a good view from the Eye so we decided that we would simply return to Waterloo and catch the train back to Staines (Upon Thames – as it should now be called). So it was a little unsuccessful as a trip, effectively we headed into London to have lunch and returned slightly soggy. Still it was an adventure!

We spent most of the rest of the weekend in and around home. I caught up with my friend Sanjiv who was over from India for 4 days (yes 4 days!) and his children. It was good to see him but far too short a time although the India meal that we had was delicious. Lucinda was working early on the Sunday so the girls and I stayed at home. However it did give me some Daddy and daughter time with both of the girls. the spectre of a busy August/September is looming so weekends like this are precious. Éowyn is growing into a little girl (definitely leaving the toddler days behind her) and Amélie is aping her sister in so many ways (not all of them good).

An example of the above would be from Monday. We decided to head to our local Toby Carvery for our evening meal. En route we passed my friend’s (and one of my Best men) house and so phoned to ask if he wanted to join us, which he duly did. We enjoyed our repast and were saying our goodbyes in the carpark (as the girls splashed in the puddles – the new summer sport!) Andy turned to return to his car. I was buckling Éowyn into her car seat and said ‘Say goodbye to Andy.‘ Éowyn turned to a departing Andy and shouted out ‘Bye, bye Mr Poo-Poo Pants!‘ Have no idea where that came from and it is a phrase that she has not used before but it was such a shock that I didn’t hide my smirk. Sensing this it encouraged her to say it again and turn to Amélie, ‘Say Poo-Poo Pants.‘ Which Amélie duly repeated. Obviously it is something that we do not want to encourage but it is difficult to tell her off when you are trying to surpress a laugh!

All of us have managed to avoid the current crop of summer colds but poor Amélie has been suffering. She had obviously eaten some milk protein and from her reaction over the last couple of days it is obvious that she still has her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance, so no challenging for a little while methinks!

The 2012 Summer Olympics are nearly upon us and apparently the weather is going to improve dramatically (at least for the South East of England) in the next week and we may even see 30°C. The Olympic lanes are coming into operation and I am not looking forward to the traffic chaos this will cause, fortunately the amount of traffic will drop as the schools are on holiday.

Before the Olympics begin though British sport has another hero to be proud of. Bradley Wiggins became the first British winner of the Tour De France and amazingly fellow Londoner Chris Froome finished second and to complete the perfect end to the competition Mark Cavendish claimed his fourth final stage victory. This took Mark Cavendish to the grand total of 23 stage wins past Lance Armstrong’s total of 22 into fifth place in the hall of fame a truly remarkable Tour for the British team.

It is amazing to think that 7 years ago it was confirmed that London was to host the Olympic games and now it is less than 7 days away it will be Christmas before you know it! well actually if you are worried about your Christmas shopping you can already make a start as the Harrods’ Christmas shop is now open.

Peace and Love

Baggie