Nanny Fran

Where's Mum and Dad?

Saturday 31st January 2009Baggie

As Middlesbrough‘s favourite son, Chris Kamara, would say, “Unbelievable, Jeff!” as the first month of 2009 draws to a close. Time seems to rush by so quickly and so it has been with this week. Why does a week’s worth of annual leave speed by compared to a working week? As Einstein would explain: that’s relativity!

What is unbelievable too, is that it seems that Éowyn is logging on and reading this blog. If you recall, I said: “After weeks of milestones, this week has been a little on the quiet side.” Well, this week she has moved forward again. She appears to be at stage two in preparation for crawling. Her T.J. Hooker rolls, have more momentum and now she tucks her legs under her body. Fortunately, for Mum and Dad, she still doesn’t have the arm strength to achieve the classic crawl stance, but it will not be long I fear. She has also begun to become very interested in toys and playing with them, as you can see from the photos below and on the Flickr page. I think she has inherited her dad’s view that if there is a button and you don’t know what it does, the best way to find out is to press it. Don’t knock it, I’m making a career out of it.

However Éowyn‘s biggest leap forward of the week is probably her increasing chatting. In truth, it is just a steady stream of random vowels and consonants but like a Rorschach inkblot test your ears convince you that she has said something coherent or relevant to your conversation. It is quite funny just to listen to her mumbling away, and it is quite amusing that she has no control over the volume of her voice; one minute it is a whisper and the next she is shouting at the top of her voice.

There was another step forward this week too: myself and Lucinda managed to go out on a date without Éowyn. We had gone up to visit Nanny Fran and asked her if she would look after Éowyn while we went out. I don’t think that it took mom a lot of convincing, in fact I think that it took us more convincing that she would be alright. New parent syndrome! We were only out a couple of hours and we spent the first hour or so, thinking how odd it was that she wasn’t with us. Nanny Fran though put our minds at rest with a couple of text messages, which meant that we could relax and watch Slumdog Millionaire, a brilliant, but in places a disturbing film. Without spoiling it for those that haven’t seen it, one of the more amusing scenes was went they were at the Taj Mahal, and the romantic in us commented on the synchronicity of this considering we were engaged at the Taj Mahal, and this was our first date since Éowyn‘s birth.

Nanny Fran, hadn’t seen Éowyn for a month so she noticed big changes, while Éowyn too was more aware of changed surroundings. I notice big differences on days when I have been working, so for those of you that haven’t seen her for a while she must come on leaps and bounds when you see her. She has been coming on leaps and bounds in the weight catergory too. We have been a little worried over the last few visits as she has not been putting on the expected weight gain, but this week she has put on 6oz and so now tips the scales at 13lb 11oz (6.209kgs). Her increased activity is slowing her weight gain but at least she is now heading in the right direction.

Please enjoy the photos (and the new ones on Flickr)

Love and peace

Baggie!

Who’s got you?

Nanny Fran’s got you

Me and Nanny Fran

Éowyn and Cath

I’m with Daddy

On Daddy’s knee

Should I press it?

I pressed it!

I’ve shopped ’til I dropped

Making lots of noise

Oooh Bubbles!

Look into my big blue eyes

Happy New Year!

Wednesday 7th January 2009Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

OK, a little belated but as you can see, I have been working on the website. It was getting a little cumbersome so I have tried to streamline it a little, and I will probably be tinkering with it over the next couple of weeks, until I am happy. There are also some new photos on our Flickr site, so feel free to have a little look there too.

So how was Éowyn’s first Christmas? As you can appreciate she was only 10 weeks old and so had no understanding of what was going on. As long she gets fed, is entertained and has her nappy changed she is happy. However, we have kept all her Christmas cards so that when she can appreciate them she can read all the messages that you have all sent. Again we have to say a big thank you to all of you that sent cards and pressies, she is one lucky lady.

We were invited around our friends, Danny and Andrea’s for a Christmas Eve party, which was great to catch up with our friends, as since Éowyn has been born we have not met up with them as often as we used to. In fact I have not, as yet, arranged a night out with the lads to wet Éowyn’s head, apologies all around, I will pull my finger out I promise.

Christmas Day was spent around Lucinda’s parents along with Lucinda’s immediate family, so John and Jenny had all their descendants, quite a houseful, but really enjoyable and relaxing, as Lucinda’s parents looked after us all very well. Éowyn was very well behaved, waking only for some food and a cuddle from Nan and Granddad (see photos below) after we had all eaten to bursting point.

Working in sports related TV means that Boxing day is not a day off, in fact it is one of our busiest days and so my Christmas holiday was over before it started. However, it means that I don’t suffer from the back to work blues that is possibly affecting many of you this week, and at least I am back at work which is more than can be said for a great deal of people in these economic climes.

We paid a visit to Nanny Fran on the Monday and Tuesday after Christmas. Mom was supposed to have been at work on those days but on Christmas Eve she had passed out in the kitchen, cutting her forehead quite badly and knocking herself out. She was taken to hospital and after a barrage of tests was released that evening with 5 days worth of antibiotics. She spent most of the Christmas period convalescing being looked after by my sisters. I think Éowyn’s visit cheered her up, but it was evident that mom was ill as she was not putting up a fight when we waited on her, not like her.

New Year’s Eve was a quiet affair, again I was working on the 31st and then the 1st so even if we had wanted to we could not have had a heavy day. So we stayed up drinking champagne and went to sleep just after midnight, my how things have changed!

Over the last fortnight Éowyn has started not only to roll on to her side, but straight over on to her belly. Unfortunately, she then gets a little frustrated. She understands the mechanism behind crawling, but has neither the strength or the technique to actually move. Which we are thankful for but I don’t think that it will be too long. She also enjoys pulling herself up to a sitting position. (In truth you are doing most of the work, but she is definitely helping). However, the biggest step she has made in the last week, was made last weekend. She has started to sleep in her own room at night. She has slept through the night for quite a number of weeks now and as she is rapidly outgrowing her moses basket, we thought it was time that she got used to her own room. For the time being we put her to sleep in her moses basket in the cot, but as you can see from some of the photos below, we are trying to acclimatise her to the cot as that stage will soon be here.

The health visitor is very happy with Éowyn’s progress, she is following the weight gain curve very accurately now tipping the scales at 12lb 15oz (5.86kgs). We have just got to book her next set of immunisations in the next couple of weeks. Poor girl.

We would just like to thank everyone for their love and support of the last year and would like to wish you all the very best for 2009 and we look forward to sharing the adventure with you all.

Peace and love

Baggie, Lucinda and Éowyn xxx

Éowyn and Granddad

Éowyn and Nanny

Éowyn’s first Christmas

What’s a Christmas Tree?

I’ll get that Monkey!

Éowyn in her cot

The arms of Morpheus

I’m sleeping

This is fun

I’m only telling you once!

Smile!

Baby at C&A pose

Learning to crawl

Asleep in my big bed!

Mommy and Éowyn asleep

Don’t go to work today Daddy!

How big is this bed?

Guess?

I like laughing!

Back to work again

Sunday 7th December 2008Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

As my three weeks holiday comes to an end. It has flown by, but at the same time it seems an age since I was at work and Éowyn has grown so much and developed so much over the time. Her exact weight is, yet again, a bit of a mystery as we have not been able to get her weighed for the last two weeks, but if my arms are any kind of testimony then she is definitely continuing the weight gain that we saw previously.

Lucinda has started post-natal classes, which will last until Christmas and resume in the new year. Topics included first aid, such as dealing with a baby that is choking and CPR. It amazes me that such first aid skills aren’t taught as part of the school curriculum, imagine how many lives would be saved each year. Put away the soapbox Baggie!

This is another item on Lucinda’s weekly schedule, her standard week is rapidly filling up with Coffee mornings, Post-natal classes, Bumps and Babies, not to mention meeting up with friends. It is good to see, however I don’t think that she is going to have enough time to go back to work when that day comes. She has become a ‘Lady that Lunches’.

This week has been another busy one. We took a trip to Swindon, to get my car serviced, visit my good friend Andy and indulge in a little Christmas shopping at the retail centre there. Good shopping was had (by Lucinda) but we were mostly impressed with the baby changing and feeding stations. They included a little room with an easy chair and curtain for privacy, a changing table and a microwave for warming bottles. Top marks.

This was followed by another trip to see Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz. It also gave the opportunity for us to introduce Éowyn to her Great Uncle David (one of my Dad’s brothers). Unfortunately her Great Auntie Anne was unable to visit as she was working so we will have to make a trip in the new year to visit them. It is amazing how much stuff you need to pack to take such a little one away for a couple of days. It is not an easy task fitting it all in the car, I dread to think what it will be like to go away on holiday for any length of time.

While in West Bromwich, we opened a building society account for Éowyn so she can start saving towards her university bills, and she popped in to see Nanny Fran’s work colleagues. I think that she made an impression, as we have had a number of offers of baby sitters. You may regret that offer one day!

We also drove past the Hawthorns, home to West Bromwich Albion, to see if her baby voodoo would kick in. However she was not impressed and stayed asleep in her car seat. In fact she stayed pretty much in the land of nod for her entire trip into Birmingham to see the German Christmas market. It was just as well, as the weather was not kind and we pretty much got soaked walking round. However, we did manage to meet up with my friend Bobby and he had bought a couple of pressies for her, one of which you can see in the photos below.

We returned home on Saturday afternoon, all pretty shattered, but Éowyn was not going to let us rest. She had a very fitful night and we didn’t get more than an hour’s continuous sleep all night. After ten days or so of ideal sleep behaviour it was a bit of a shock. I hope tonight is a return to calmer nights.

So we have taken today at a much more relaxed pace. Éowyn wore her Baggies strip (and still we could not win – although she did feed at the start of the second half and then fall asleep, I reckon that interfers with her baby voodoo) and listened to the match. We also had a visit from Nan and Grandad, who battled the bitter cold to come round for a munch.

I have posted some more photos, but again it may be a couple of weeks before this blog gets added to, as I return to work.

Peace and love

Baggie!