Register

I have been spoiling you of late with the frequency of updates and indeed this one is at least a day late. There is a good reason for the delay though, I have been suffering from a cold. Not a man cold (and certainly not man ‘flu – I would be incapacitated if it was the latter) just a heavy cold but enough of an illness that the thought of sitting down to write something just didn’t enter my bunged up head. Nevertheless I have dragged myself before the keyboard today to get you up to speed with the latest developments at Chez Bagnall.

So what has happened since last Thursday? The most important event is surely the fact that Ezra John Bagnall is now an official member of the UK population. With Éowyn at school and Amélie at Nanny and Granddad’s, Lucinda, Ezra and I headed to the local registry office in Weybridge to register his birth and obtain a birth certificate. With a birth certificate we can now open a bank account for him and obtain a passport, so quite an important day.

The snow that hit large swathes of Northern UK on Saturday completely missed our corner of the land and we woke only to a slight dusting that quickly melted. Thus Lucinda’s trip to the midwife clinic on Saturday morning wasn’t the epic journey that we were fearing when we went to bed. This was the final check up by the midwifery team before being discharged into the realm of the local health visitors. The midwife was very pleased with his progress. There was nothing that concerned them regarding his physical health and indeed they were delighted with the fact that weighing in at 4.01kg (8lbs 13oz) he had returned to his birth weight.

Although the snow has missed us it doesn’t mean that it isn’t bitterly cold. Indeed it freezing out there and so we haven’t felt like venturing out of the house preferring others to visit us. The lack of snow disappointed both girls (and if I am honest – me!) and indeed when I told Amélie that Nanny Fran had snow, she asked if we could go to Nanny Fran’s to build a snowman. I explained that wasn’t possible but we facetimed Nanny Fran instead and asked her to show us her snow. That seemed to sate the girls. While facetiming Nanny Fran, Éowyn entertained us talking to her imaginary brother Rich. Rich is quite often the reason she is naughty (according to Éowyn) and this Saturday morning was no different. Nanny Fran said that she didn’t like Rich and then Éowyn just turned on Rich and said that she had had enough of him. She then called the Police (imaginary Police obviously) and asked them to put him in jail. A little harsh. But she wasn’t finished. She disappeared off to the brother shop and bought another imaginary brother also called Rich. It is more complicated than soap opera at times (with better imagination) and takes a bit to remember all the twists and turns. Not sure what happens when original imaginary Rich gets out of imaginary jail to find his place taken by another imaginary Rich.

Apart from imaginary brothers the girls have been relatively well behaved considering the upheaval of having a new member of the family. They both are very affectionate towards their brother (real brother) and fight over holding him. Amélie especially holds him at least a couple of times a day. The length of this cuddle can vary from a couple of minutes to ten minutes or more, depending on Ezra behaviour. If he cries she will try and comfort him for a couple of seconds before asking you to take him off her. The funniest is when he has the hiccups. For some reason Amélie finds this hilarious and literally laughs uncontrollably. It is very amusing!

So maybe not the most exciting of updates but nevertheless important stages in Ezra’s life and not the most exciting of photos below I will try harder for next time. However a small geeky thing that most of you will not of noticed but this website has reached a new milestone as it has now received 100,000 hits. Some of you will long memories with think haven’t we been here before? Yes we have. But that was 100,000 hits split over two servers, my original WordPress hosted site (still available as www.afrobaggie.wordpress.com) and the new (not so new now) privately hosted site that is www.baggieandlucy.com these 100,000 hits are purely on the latter server and are in addition to the 65,000 hits on www.afrobaggie.wordpress.com. As I have mentioned before it maybe only a small milestone that means absolutely nothing in the real world but it feels like a justification for the amount of work that I regularly put into this site. So thank you all for your interest in the ups and downs of our family.

Peace and love

Baggie

On record

With Daddy at the Registry Office

Me and Mommy at the Registry Office

On my Nanny’s lap

With my Granddad

A kiss from my sister

Half in shadow

In the shadows

Sleeping babe

Rambo?

Here is the news

Cheeky girl

And so the Bagnall family celebrates its second momentous event of the month, indeed the week: my 40th birthday. On the vernal equinox 1973, the joyous strains of Slade were sitting at the top of the UK single charts and I made my appearance in this world. There have been plenty of ups and downs over the past four decades and anyone that has lived this long will have their own stories and this website is mine.

The day before my birthday we spent a quietish day mostly at home. We ventured as far as the other side of the village to Nanny and Granddad’s for tea and buns to allow Nanny an Ezra cuddle while I gave Granddad his latest computer lesson on his laptop. Then in the evening Ezra finally met his last Uncle and Auntie (Michael and Cristina) who had been on a snowboarding holiday when he was born. He is well and truly a fully paid up member of the Cathrall-Bagnall clan.

The next day was my birthday. So this is fortieth birthday I have celebrated, some have involved beer, some have involved tears, most have involved cake this is the first that has involved a week old baby. Quite often one has a long list of wants for their birthday, this birthday was slightly different all I really really wanted was a good night’s sleep. Thankfully Ezra is a very contented baby, he has not been too much trouble so far (I hope that hasn’t put the collybosh on that). He sleeps, he eats, he poops and he only cries when he is hungry. He is a very different newborn to both Éowyn and Amélie, in a good way.

So how did I celebrate this momentous occasion? After a relevantly good night’s sleep (thank you Ezra) and after the girls gave me my card and presents I took Éowyn to school and the little egret that we first spotted the day of Ezra’s birth saw us off. While I was taking Éowyn to school Lucinda cooked me a full English breakfast while I opened my cards and presents. The pick of my presents was from my family and it is a super car driving experience at Chobham test track. To be booked for some time this years I get to tear round a race track in one of six cars that I can only ever dream of owning. I think I know which one I hope to drive but after the success of the naming poll I may just open it up to my readers to see which one you guys would chose.

Then the excitement of my birthday moved up a notch as we left Amélie at Nanny and Granddad’s while the three of us (Lucinda, Ezra and I) headed for lunch in Windsor after buying a new vacuum cleaner (not a hoover, as some may call it, a Dyson to be accurate, a DC34 Animal to be precise). We know how to live.

The evening saw us at Nanny and Granddad’s for dinner, we were joined by Uncle Michael and Auntie Cristina and Lauren. Unfortunately the evening was cut a little short as Amélie wasn’t feeling very well. Indeed by the time we got her home she was running a temperature of 39.4ºC – scarily approaching the 40ºC when you should be heading to hospital. We put her to bed and dosed her up with Calpol and monitored her temperature every hour. The Calpol did its job. She was still hot but at least her temperature was coming down.

Ezra slept well the night of my birthday again, going 5 hours between feeds, unfortunately Amélie did not. She was still feeling the effects of her illness. This could be a precursor of our future lives. Even if the youngest member of our family sleeps there are still two older children that may not.

Thursday seemed to disappear. Again Éowyn went to school while we took Amélie to sing-song time at Staines library. She still wasn’t fully herself but she really enjoys the sing song time and so we thought it was important to take her. She seemed to perk up after that but the illness had one final twist before bedtime. Without going into all the gory details part of me was quite glad that she was wearing tights for it was contained. However part of me wished she hadn’t been wearing tights for it was contained. I cleaned her up and a quick bath followed by Calpol and she is back in bed. Hopefully she has now turned the corner and hasn’t passed it on to any of us, especially Ezra who she delights in holding and kissing.

Although Thursday did seem to vanish quickly we did manage to make a number of important appointments including organising a time for the Health Visitor to check in and at the local registry office so that we can officially make Ezra a member of our country.

So I hope I haven’t bored you, with a week old baby it was never going to be the most adventurous of birthdays but nevertheless I have probably never been more happy. Before I leave you to view the photos here is one anecdote that might raise a smile. On my birthday morning I said to Amélie, ‘Who’s Daddy’s gorgeous girl?‘

Amélie folded her arms stamped her feet and replied, ‘I am NOT a gorgeous girl! I’m a cheeky monkey!‘ This may change when she is a little older.

Peace and love

Baggie