Nanny Fran

A rainy Bank Holiday May Day

Monday 7th May 2012Thursday 9th August 2012Baggie

So after the wettest April in recorded history the drought continues and May doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement. Indeed with the May Bank holiday looming we are living with the threat of ground frosts killing our spring plants. Glad the Met Office predicted it all (not!) but at least they have updated their prediction for the next few months (apparently there is a great than average uncertainity, i.e. we don’t know!).

Work is still gearing up for its busiest period for me, the conclusion to all the football seasons and the inevitable last day of the season shenanigans. Hence the lack of exciting trips and a dearth of photos to delight you with this time, hopefully as my busiest period comes to an end I can begin to spend a little more time with the family.

Work was in the way of seeing Nanny Fran for her birthday but not so the following weekend. So although Lucinda was working until the afternoon the house was full of travelling Bagnalls, as Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz made their way down from West Bromwich and Auntie Mary across county from Woking. Éowyn is always exciting when Nanny Fran and her Aunties visit and this was no exception. She even tidied her toys away before they came. I think as soon as Amélie comprehends the notion that people can plan a visit, (i.e. grasp the idea of the future) then she, too, will get over-excited at the proposal of a visit from Nanny Fran. With Nanny Fran retiring at the end of the year then it is quite possible that those visitis will become more frequent.

Éowyn entertained her elder relatives with Amélie as support act. Éowyn even let Auntie Liz plait her hair, something that she will not let Mommy or Daddy do, but it is Auntie Liz! They also cheated Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz at snakes and ladders, you have to watch them!

Amélie is going through one of those rapid learning phases. A couple of weeks ago it seems that her vocabulary was limited to the usual half a dozen or so words, but that is rapidly increasing and it probably will not be long before she is constructing complex sentences, ‘Mater, pray tell your opinion on Boris Johnson retaining the Mayorship of London?‘ Perhaps not that complex. The current favourite sentence (if you can call it that) is ‘Dad, dad, dad, dad: look!‘ Which is usually followed by her taking a large bite out of what ever she is eating and making a real show of finishing her mouthful.

She has also begun to enjoy playing with Éowyn, not that Éowyn appreciated it all the time! Although one game that they both enjoy playing is hide and seek. Although Amélie’s notion of hiding is to stand by the wall and close her eyes and giggle when you find her. When it is her turn to hide, she will stand there counting up to 10 (more of a long continuous word onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten than what strictly could be called counting) but with her hands over her mouth rather than over her eyes. She then runs around giggling while trying to catch you. She is very good at hide and seek, for an nineteen month old.

Amélie is also very good at eating her food and it is rare that she refuses food or doesn’t finish her meals – unlike her big sister at the moment. We have been introducing her to the Alpro Soya Milk for Toddlers, mainly with her breakfast. She doesn’t seem overkeen but neither is she rejecting it out of hand. It is to be expected and the nutritionist has told us that even if she grows out of her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance the chances are that she will never be that keen on milk or dairy products. We just have to ensure that she gets her required calcium from other foods.

Éowyn is back at pre-school and seems to be enjoying herself. We think she is really going to miss her friends at the start of next term when many of them going up into the infant school, while she has to wait another year. One can understand why there is a cut off date but surely a staggered start to school would be better, Éowyn is only 6 weeks younger than some of the children that will be going to infant school in September and is equally on a par in terms of development to most (if not all) of the children that will be leaving. We fear that there will be more displays of naughty behaviour as she will be bored and not challenged, however on the other hand it might do her good for I think she is part of a little gang. Not that we think that she is being influenced by them, indeed on the contrary it wouldn’t surprise me that she is the ringleader and at the very least there is a lot of mutual influencing. So breaking that little clique may be a very good thing. We shall see.

She thoroughly enjoys herself there and I asked her the other days what is her favourite thing that she does at school. ‘Dressing up,‘ she replied. So what do you like dressing up as then I inquired. ‘A Unicorn,‘ came the surprising reply. Although given her name maybe not that surprising.

I will leave you now to shelter from the May cold and perhaps leave you with a timely reminder of the old English proverb: ‘Cast ne’er a clout ’til May be out.’

Peace and Love

Baggie

A kiss for Nanny Fran

Snakes and Ladders with Auntie Liz

Hello!

Helping Mommy wrap the presents

Éowyn Vera Bagnall

Mommy and Amélie

Mommy and her daughters

‘Hello!’

Just in case we get a summer

Sisterly love

It’s a bit cold for summer dresses

Right, I’m off!

Drip, drip, drop, little April Shower

Monday 23rd April 2012Thursday 26th April 2012Baggie

After the glorious weather that greeted the end of March and the subsequent hose pipe bad that has been imposed on our corner of the world, the climate gods have once again shown their sense of irony and since that hose pipe ban has come into force it has rained everyday. However, it is something us Bagnalls are used to and it does not stop us enjoying ourselves.

Since football stops for ne’er a bank holiday and indeed doth seem to multiple about these days I found myself working the Easter weekend. However as those days are given in law to us UK citizens I moved them to the following weekend and ended up with a belated Easter at home with the family, beginning on the second Friday 13th of the year! No sufferers of friggatriskaidekaphobia in this household, which is fortunate for there is one more left before the end of the year (in July if you are at all worried!).

Éowyn had been asking to visit the cinema again after her first visit back in February. Aardman animations new feature length film: The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! was playing the local picturehouse and she has seen the trailer and liked the look of it and I had seen the trailer and liked the looked of it and so the decision was easily made. So 09:00 on Friday 13th April we headed off to Staines, a bag of pick ‘n’ mix and smuggled bottle of Fruit Shoot, two tickets and £17 lighter we took our seats. Even though it was the end of the Easter school holidays there were but 15 people in the entire theatre. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, for most of the jokes were aimed at the adults but Éowyn I think struggled with some of it and was a little scared at some of the scenes. Although in fairness she is like that with films she knows well. When I asked her about the film afterwards she did enjoy it and had followed the story throughout (and I always ask her to tell me the story of the films that we see so that it encourages her to remember the story and understand what was going on and why the characters did what they did – I am an evil father sometimes but I do think that there is learning to be had from every experience and by encouraging thought and asking questions is something we should all be encouraged to do).

After the cinema we met up with Lucinda and Amélie and booked our family holiday, an all inclusive resort in Tenerife. Neither of us have been to Tenerife and the resort looked very child friendly and for the next few years that is what we will be looking for. Although I am not really the kind of person that enjoys just sitting by the pool with a book, I like to be out and about exploring (although with my new Kindle 4 perhaps I will learn to appreciate the rest) and Tenerife seems to have a number of enticing venues, including the world’s third largest volcano. Come back in a few months for our holiday report.

So that was day one of our belated Easter Weekend. Day two was no less exciting. Last year we discovered the delights of having a Merlin Pass and the fact that they can be purchased with Tesco vouchers. Last year’s pass ran out on Easter week and so renewed. Éowyn’s cousins also have done the same and they had planned a visit to Chessington World of Adventures so we thought that was an ideal time to renew the passes and meet up with the family.

Coincidentally Chessington was the venue to obtain last year’s tickets but on that visit we will a little disappointed and thought that there was nothing for Éowyn to go on. Which at the time was probably true. However, one year on and there seemed to be a lot more choice for our three year old. Obviously the older cousins went on a lot of the bigger rides but we all piled on (even Amélie) to the ‘BubbleWorks‘ disappointing for its lack of bubbles but everyone seemed to enjoy it, all except Amélie who clinged on to Lucinda for dear life throughout the ride. However, both chidldren (and Lucinda) thoroughly enjoyed the Madagascar live show, in fact Amélie tried to get on stage with them!

We decided to take it easy on the Sunday as both kids (and both adults) were a little knackered after two busy days, plus Lucinda was back at work on the Monday morning. Monday was an inset day and so instead of going to school it was an Éowyn and Daddy day for Amélie was already booked in at Jo’s. As the morning started with bright sunshine and the promise of a good day we decided to use the Merlin Passes for the second time in three days and headed to our local theme park: Legoland. Legoland is by far the best of the attractions for Éowyn (and Amélie’s) age range with most of the rides suitable for them. We arrived at Legoland as it opened and headed straight for the Atlantis ride as we know that is one of the most popular. Indeed arriving so early was great we had queued and rode on 5 of the rides before noon just as Éowyn started to get grumpy because she was tired. Most of them were rides that she had been on before and enjoyed but because we were so early we managed to go on a new ride that she thought was fantastic which was the mini driving school known as L-Drivers. Aimed at three to five year olds L-Drivers allows the smaller children little electric cars which they operate and drive around a circular track (not quite NASCAR!). At the end of the session they are awarded with their own little driving licence. She loved it and I have to say after an initial difficulty controlling the car was excellent including one incident when she had to take evasion action as the cars in front crashed.

As we were leaving the park we bumped into a colleague who was just arriving with his son. The beauty of living around the corner from a major attaction and having a Merlin Pass, we were quite satisfied to leave when Éowyn got tired rather than attempting to get our money’s worth. Unfortunately Éowyn was being particularly grumpy to say hello to Tim, Gill and Harrison and they were getting on the funicular train known as the Hill Train as we were getting off, so it was a quick hello, goodbye and then off to MacDonalds for a naughty lunch for us.

Amélie is still swiper in disguise, her major achievement was hiding Lucinda’s keys which took the best part of a morning to find (thank’s Éowyn!). She also still has her Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance. We went to see the dietician for her six monthly check up and share our findings. As we suspected she still is showing signs of intolerance but can handle cooked milk (in the form of biscuits). She said not to challenge for a few months as we need to give her body time to grow out of the intolerance, however to wean her off her neocate as her diet sounded like it was giving her all the nutrients that she needed. However if we wanted to replaced the milk in her diet that Alpro now do a soya milk fortified with vitamins formulated for toddlers and that they recommend it for children such as Amélie with Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance. So, as we were parked in the Tesco car park we headed straight into the supermarket to buy some for her and try her with it. We’ll let you know how we (or more strictly: she) get(s) on with it. Our next appointment isn’t until the end of October but it would be a nice 2nd birthday present for Amélie if she has grown out of it by then. Maybe she could have a chocolate birthday cake!

We have to say a belated Happy Birthday to Nanny Fran for last Friday. Unfortunately as I was so busy at work we were unable to pop up and see her but hopefully that will change next weekend and we can wish her a happy belated birthday in person.

So a busy family week comes to an end with the promise of a busy couple of weeks at work as the football seasons (yes seasons) draw to their traditional May conclusions. West Brom are safe with the possibility of a top half finish and Wolves already have been relegated so a successful season as far as I am concerned.

Love and Peace

Baggie

Mommy and Amélie

Boing!

And back on your feet

I’m off…

I’m going this way!

I am!

Come back little sister!

Just looking around

Me? Not doing anything!

This is so intense

The Madagascar show

This is brilliant

Look I’m driving!

This is great fun

Look at me!

I can see you!

A lego dinosaur

This is the way the new kids dance!

Mother’s Day and Daddy’s birthday

Monday 26th March 2012Tuesday 27th March 2012Baggie

It has been a busy week and hence a second update in just over a week. It began on 17th March which is not only St. Patrick’s Day (the Patron Saint of Ireland) but my eldest sister’s birthday. It was also the day before Mothering Sunday and a couple of days before my birthday so what better excuse for a visit from Nanny Fran. Nanny Fran made the journey on her own as Auntie Liz was heading off to a JLS concert in the evening, but she was joined at our house by the birthday girl herself, Auntie Mary.

Éowyn gets so excited when Nanny Fran comes down that she will quite often wear herself out and so it was on Saturday. She was so worn out that she spent much of the afternoon asleep. This meant that Amélie managed to get a greater share of Nanny Fran cuddles. It saved arguments.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Mary saw a huge leap in development of Amélie since their last visit and it does seem over the last few weeks that she has grown from being a baby to a toddler very quickly. She now walks everywhere, to the point of not wanting to be picked up. She is interacting with many more things and her vocabulary is going through that rapid increase phase where there is a new word nearly everyday. She will quite happily sing ‘Old MacDonald’ to herself and jabber away to her toys. On Saturday we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Auntie Mary and Amélie joined in! She doesn’t suffer fools gladly though and Éowyn is quite often on the receiving end of her wrath if big sister is doing something that she doesn’t want her to do. She is also a little thief. She will ‘move’ (shall we say?) anything that isn’t out of reach and hide it somewhere. Lucinda’s camera was found in one of the saucepans in the cupboard; the remote control was found in her toy kitchen and my watch is still A.W.O.L. hopefully it will turn up soon. She has now earnt the name Swiper, (‘Swiper, no swiping!‘) from Éowyn after a character from Dora, the explorer.

The following day was Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day) so we let Lucinda have a well deserved lie in before we made her breakfast in bed. If you can’t treat your mother on Mother’s Day when can you treat your mother? Now saying that, Lucinda’s mum had invited us all round for Sunday lunch (Lucinda and her brothers and all our families), which puts a bit of a nonsense on the previous sentence, especially when she prepared all the food and she wasn’t feeling very well. Nevertheless 14 of us sat down for Sunday lunch. It is always nice when the whole family gets together and I know Lucinda’s Mum and Dad really enjoy being surrounded by their decendants, and who wouldn’t be.

The busy week didn’t stop there. My birthday was on the Tuesday and so we decided that we would go away for a couple of days to get away from it. Lucinda booked us a room at the new Shoreline Hotel at Butlins in Bognor Regis (West Sussex – for those of you with poor knowledge of UK’s geography – still not helping? About halfway between Brighton and Portsmouth. Still not helping? Find Staines (just west of London) and go south until you hit the sea and stop. It is somewhere around there, if that still hasn’t helped maybe you watch a little too much CNN).

I went to Butlins with a little trepidation, it has to be said. Never really been tempted to spend any time at a Butlins (or alternative) and I had never been to Bognor Regis (although it was good enough for King George V) but we packed the car and headed south. I am not ashamed to say that I was pleasantly surprised by both Butlins and Bognor Regis. The Shoreline Hotel is excellent, it has really been thought through for kids. The room was divided into two areas, the main area that you would expect with a little seating area and a double bed with TV and DVD player (although I can proudly say that we didn’t even put the TV’s on in our stay) for Mum and Dad. Then separated by the bathroom (that included a child’s section in the seat so little ones can use the big toilet safely, without fear of falling through) there was a kid’s bedroom with bunk bed and their own TV and DVD player. Éowyn loved the bunk bed and immediately climbed the ladder staking her claim to the top bunk. We were a little wary of letting her sleep up there but she was perfectly safe going up and down the ladder and so we let her sleep there. Amélie is still a little small for a bed (even with a side on) so we hired a cot for her.

When we arrived we found that you could book a ‘Character Breakfast’ where one of the ‘Characters’ (i.e. men in big suits) would come and sit with you and have breakfast with your child. We thought that it would be nice for Éowyn and attempted to book it but unfortunately (or fortunately as it turns out) they were all fully booked for our stay. Nevermind we headed to breakfast the next morning and yes Billy and Bonnie Bear were there and having breakfast with a number of the children, but in between course they came and paid a visit to every child in the breakfast room. Now you may be forgiven that this would be something that Éowyn would like, but a teddy bear bigger than daddy ambling over to you when you are eating your Coco-Pops is not what our three year old thought was a pleasant experience. Amélie, thought it was brilliant but Éowyn cowered by her Daddy until the furry freaks had moved on to another table. We were glad that we hadn’t shelled out for the ‘Character Breakfast’. However, because we didn’t know that the characters would visit every child we hadn’t taken our cameras down to breakfast (why would you?) but we rectified that the next morning, when it was the turn of Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam to paid us a visit, with pretty much the same results. Although we did have photographic evidence this time!

I think we chose quite a good time to pay a visit to Butlins for it was out of school holidays, still early in the season and, for once (for one of our holidays!), the weather was fine. This meant that we could easily get on the all the facilities in the children’s play areas and the swimming pool was relatively empty. The swimming pool was the big hit of the holiday. Éowyn has never been very confident in water and it is one of the things that we have promised ourselves this year to get her to enjoy the water and if possible to begin swimming lessons. Part of Éowyn’s issue with swimming is that it gets your hair wet. So before we entered the swimming pool this time we put her hair up with a hairband, something that she usually will not allow you to do. Whether it was this lack of fear surrounding her hair getting wet or the fact that the pool gradually deepened from nothing to 4 feet (1.2 metres) or so (it was the toddlers’ pool) or even the confidence of holding her daddy’s hand she wading right in until the water was up to her chest. I then supported her and slowly dragged her into the deep (relatively) water. I got her treading water and then dogging paddling, with the support from dad and the armbands. Initially I worried that I had done it all a bit too quickly but the next day she wanted to go swimming and grabbed my hand and said ‘Come on, Daddy, let’s go into the deep water.‘ The challenge will be to continue this, before the newly gained confidence ebbs away.

There wasn’t a lot of time to exploring the finer areas of West Sussex, although we did have a quick nose around Bognor Regis. One place that we did find was just along the coast, east of Butlins, a small café called The Lobster Pot. In the neighbouring town of Felpham (not to be confused with Feltham) The Lobster Pot serves the most delicious café food, if perhaps a little pricey. However, if you are in the vicinity I would wholeheartedly recommend the walk along the coast. I think we went there every day and the staff were extremely friendly especially to a nosiy little three-year old.

Lucinda’s Uncle David and Auntie Sally (Lucinda’s father’s brother and his wife) live in Middleton-on-sea which is just a couple of miles from Bognor and as I had never visited their house we decided to pop in on the way home. Éowyn and Amélie charmed them, as of course they would. Éowyn, especially took a shine to Uncle David and had him playing in the garden with her and then started calling him Granddad. In fairness to her, Uncle David is a lot like Lucinda’s dad, they are brothers after all and I think there was definitely some of the ‘Kin knows Kin’ subconsciousness type thing going on. So it would be perfectly natural for her to equate them as the same, I think that it shows the love and trust that she has for Lucinda’s dad that she was so familar with a man she has hardly ever met, for she is usually so shy around people.

So back home Wednesday evening, only to prepare for my Uncle Roy’s funeral on Thursday and a round trip to West Bromwich. We took Éowyn and Amélie for it was only a small funeral and I had not seen many of my relatives in such a long time, it is shame that it takes something like the death of a family member to bring us all together. Something that I must try and rectify this year (if only I could get this cloning thing to work). It was nice to introduce Éowyn and Amélie and in some case Lucinda to my wider family, especially since there doesn’t seem to be many of us left. We were slightly delayed leaving as swiper had been up to her usual tricks and hidden mommy’s purse. Fearing that we had left it in Bognor Regis we phoned Butlins, The Lobster Pot, Uncle David and Auntie Sally and the local Bognor Regis Police station. Lucinda then cancelled her bank cards before she noticed where the little thief had hidden it. We will have to watch that one.

So the clocks have sprung forward, we have warm spring-like temperatures and the lawn has finally been mown (or should that be mowed?); summer is on its way and I have detained you long enough, go and enjoy the sunshine.

Peace and Love

Baggie