Weight

Daddy’s birthday

Tuesday 29th March 2011Baggie

The Vernal Equinox marks not only the day that there is equal day and night; that an egg can be balanced on its end, (apparently) but more importantly my birthday! However at least one of those statements is untrue, and after 30-odd years of believing that equinox (which derives from the Latin equal, night) meant that the day and the night were equal I find out that is a lie. The equinox is more accurately defined as the point at which the centre of the sun crosses the celestial equator, and as such is a defined point in time. Due to the fact that the sun is not a point in the sky and there is a defined amount of time for the sun to dip below the horizon (not to mention the refraction of sunlight through the atmosphere adding to amount of ‘day’) the day (in the UK) of the Vernal Equinox was actually 12 hours 10 minutes long. Now the day that the ‘day’ and ‘night’ was equal was actually a couple of days before the equinox on 18th March (in the UK) this year. This is more accurately known as the Equilux (equal, light). Now for the pedants among you who want to include the effects of twilight (civil twilight that is, not your nautical or astronomical twilight) then the equilux was around the 1st March. That was quite interesting wasn’t it?

As I mentioned in the ramble above (I know, I lost you) Sunday marked my birthday. My first as a father of two (pas de deux? – bad joke I know!) and first since Éowyn has really been able to comprehend, though not necessarily what a birthday is but at least that it is a special day. She even sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. It was a real step forward in her development because although she has already accepted having a birthday herself, the fact that other people can have birthdays too is a big step.

Fortunately my birthday fell in the middle of a set of three ‘off’ days and therefore I could spend a bit of time with the family and to make it extra special Nanny Fran and Aunties Mary and Liz came down on Saturday for a flying visit too. Éowyn was so excited about seeing the Bagnall side of the family (for she only regular sees them via Skype) and was constantly asking where Nanny Fran was. Unfortunately Nanny Fran was stuck on the M40 which was temporarily closed due to an accident and instead of the 2 hour journey it took over 5 hours! It was good to see Nanny Fran as it has been nearly a year since she last came down due to her knee injury. Although her leg is still not 100% she can now drive and has been in a phased return to work (after 45 weeks of being on the box – as we say in the Black Country) for the past month or so.

Nanny Fran certainly noticed the difference in both Éowyn and Amélie and in return Éowyn loves seeing her Nanny Fran and Aunties. So much so that she asked if she could go back with Nanny Fran. That was quite a turn up for the books, and with Amélie now sleeping through the night, there is a strong possibility that could happen – Nanny Fran willing!

Amélie is also still sleeping through the night. She has seemingly reached the weight or size where she can keep enough food in her body to last the seven hours or so. It is amazing how much better you feel for night’s worth of uninterrupted sleep. Although before children I would not consider six to seven hours of sleep a full night’s sleep. How quickly what is accepted as the norm changes when you become a parent.

You will be pleased to know that Amélie’s eye injury is healing nicely. It has faded to a faint line and I thoroughly expect it to disappear in the next few days. It is amazing how quickly little ones heal, I suppose their bodies are in overdrive and hence cellar repair is happening at an advanced rate as they grow and mature. She is putting on weight nicely too. She currently weighs in a 7.37kgs (16lbs 3.5oz) and is sitting comfortably on the 50th centile. As you may recall she started out on the 75th and dropped to just below the 25th so it is good news that is is back up to the 50th! Her length is 67cm which places her on the 75th centile, she is going to be a tall one like her sister. She has also started to giggle out loud. It is still my favourite noise. Yes, I like it when they learn to say ‘Daddy‘ and ‘Mommy‘ and ‘I love you‘ but for me there is no better sound than a child laughing uncontrollably.

This week we also saw real joy on Éowyn’s face, probably for the first time. You may recall that we had promised her a Gruffalo (for remembering to say her pleases and thank-yous) and a mouse (for ten wees on the potty). This week we decided that she has earned them and so gave them to her. The joy on her face was astounding, probably because it was the first time that she has had to earn something and had been looking forward to it for nigh on a month (which is a long time when you are only 2! – the equivalent of six months for a twelve year old; a year for a 24 year old; etc.). She is very proud of them (possessive too!) and we gladly tell you that she earned them for the reasons above. So as you can surmise the potty training is going well. Although Lucinda tried a day without a nappy on Sunday and it wasn’t too successful but the carpet needs replacing anyway!

As I was putting Éowyn to bed one night she asked me if we could see a tiger. I said that we can go to the zoo and see a tiger. Again she upped the ante, ‘And a giraffe?‘ And a giraffe I agreed. So it is a trip to the zoo for us one day – brilliant. I enjoy a trip to the zoo even though I am in two minds as to whether they should exist (although on balance I think they do more good than harm). Hey, I have even been a zoo-keeper for the day! It was a fantastic experience and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone with an interest in animals! I think tigers may be Éowyn’s favourite animal at the moment.

I dropped Éowyn off at Jo’s the other morning, and her little friend James greeted her at the door as he does most times. This time he was carrying two toy animals. ‘Dinosaur‘ he said holding the toy dinosaur up (no, he is not Peppa Pig’s brother!) ‘Lion‘ he said holding the tiger in his other hand.

‘No, James.‘ Éowyn said, ‘It’s a tiger!‘

‘Lion.‘ He replied. Éowyn re-iterated the fact it was a tiger and again he insisted: ‘Lion‘.

‘No, tiger. Stripes!‘ She said dismissively and pointing out the main (no pun intended) difference between the two. James looked at me and if to say, back me up. Unfortunately I had to confirm my daughter’s observations!

I left them waving me off on the doorstep. Éowyn said ‘Bye Daddy‘ and James repeated the phrase. ‘No, it’s my daddy!‘ she argued as I walked out of ear-shot. They are like a little married couple at times.

I will now leave you with the latest crop of photos and see you all in April!

Peace and love

Baggie!

Giggler

Holding hands with my sister

Let me sing you a song

Cooking Daddy’s birthday cake

Sitting with my Daddy!

This is a lightsabre?

All aboard!

Sitting with Auntie Mary

On Auntie Mary’s knee

Looking at my Nanny Fran

Sisters!

Sitting next to Uncle Michael

Get into crawling position

This is how you do it

Too hard!

Back in the routine

Sunday 20th February 2011Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

When I first begun this website with the birth of Éowyn I promised myself that I would attempt to update this website once a fortnight. Sometimes those updates are easy, so much has happened and I find it difficult to fit everything in. And then there are updates such as this. That is not to say that we haven’t done anything, it is just that there has not been much of note. So I apologise in advance for any ennui induced by what follows.

The cold and the snows of December seem so far away considering the mild start to 2011 (in the South East of the UK anyway), but not only did it close Heathrow airport for 4 days but also put pay to our NCT group’s Christmas party. We had booked the soft play area of Egham Leisure centre but due to the snowfall decided it would be better not to risk it that day and fortunately Egham Leisure centre were accommodating enough to re-arrange the date for us. That date was last Sunday, so we had our final Christmas party on the 6th February! It was good to see the other dads (the mums get together once a week) but was difficult to strike up any conversation since we always had one eye on what they were doing, or were climbing around the soft play area with them. For those of you unfamiliar with soft play areas, they are basically 3-dimensional mazes with rope bridges, slides, and slopes all padded for extra safety. Excellent fun!

Éowyn has been settling into playbox a little better. Still a little clingy when she is dropped off but has been more chatty and joining in more while she is there. However overall her behaviour has changed since the start of the year. Now whether it is the terrible twos kicking in, influences from playbox, jealous over Amélie, the fact that I am back at work or a combination of all four it is impossible to say. Don’t get me wrong she is not an overly naughty child but she is definitely pushing boundaries. It is ‘I want’ with no manners, she seemingly has forgotten how to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank-You’. She even got told off at school for not saying ‘Please’! Therefore we are employing tough love at the moment and she is not getting anything without asking for it properly. This has resulting is a number of tantrums and even telling Lucinda: ‘Mommy, I don’t want you anymore, go and put yourself in the bin.’ We thought it was quite an amusing phrase but not that we let her know that!

Amélie has begun to take to eating solid food. We have begun weaning her early on the dietician’s advice and at first she was struggling to take her baby rice but not any more. She gobbles her baby rice down but it hasn’t diminished her appetite for her neocate and she is still on her 3 hour cycle. Baby rice may be a favourite but she isn’t taking to new flavours with the enthusiasm that Éowyn did, but then if you had chronic reflux then maybe you would be wary when trying new foods. Her weight (6.3kgs (13lb 14oz)) has seemingly settled onto the 25th centile, so our concern over weight loss has lessened but her reflux is still quite bad. Hopefully after the ultrasound at the beginning of March they will be able to determine what is causing it. We will keep you updated.

Before I leave you to look at the photos just a quick note about the other love of my life: West Bromwich Albion. Roberto Di Matteo has been put on gardening leave and Roy Hodgson has been bought in as Head Coach. For one game (a disappointing 3-3 draw with West Ham United – we were 3-0 up at half time!) in between appointments an ex-player Michael Appleton was in charge and at 34 became the youngest person to be in charge of a Premier League team, remember that for your pub quiz team. I had nothing against RDM (we haven’t been in the relegation zone all season) but if Roy can tighten our defence and keep us up he may have a chance to put his tenure at Liverpool behind him. Come on you Baggies!

Peace and Love

Baggie

Wistful look into the distance

Yawn!

I’ve had a hard day

It’s my party!

Anyone for tea?

Concentrating!

The land of Nod

Extreme close up

That’s my Nanny!

Let me tell you a story…

Mommy’s shoes!

In disguise

A week off

Wednesday 26th January 2011Sunday 30th January 2011Baggie

All too quickly the final days of last year’s leave has ended, reality kicks in and I have to return to work. It has been good to spend a week with the family, even though we didn’t get half the things done that we had planned to do. Time just seems to fly past far too quickly, especially where there is a baby and a toddler involved. Nevertheless we have managed to squeeze in a few things.

Amélie is still a concern to us. She is putting on weight but seems to be encroaching on the 25th centile line (and not in a positive way) and, more concerning, her reflux is still severe. You can change her a dozen times in a day (and yourself as least twice!) and she will seemingly be continously soaked through. Doctors tend to dismiss reflux as a laundry problem but it is more than that. Lucinda was wearing a new T-shirt on Sunday when she was caught. The vomit bleached her top, that is not just bringing up a little milk, that is stomach acid. If that is what it does to a T-shirt imagine what it must be doing to her throat and airways. The drugs that we have been prescribed should be reducing the stomach acid, would dread to think what it would have done if it had been full strength acid!

Fortunately we have been able to both attend the appointments with the doctor and although he doesn’t seem to think that there is any cause for concern he has finally given us a paediatric referral. Now that is another strange and convoluted procedure. First you get the referral from your GP. They give you a print out with phone number and reference number (among other things); Then you phone the number and quote your reference number and the triage goes through your child’s symptoms; They then arrange a paediatrician to call you on a given day to go through your child’s symptoms in detail and then if they think the case is deemed worthy they will arrange an appointment to see you (and your child) in person. Simples! We will keep you posted!

We also saw the dietician this week, who suggested that we try weaning early but is reluctant to do anything drastic until we have been seen (or spoken to) the paediatrician in case they suggest something for the reflux. Now Amélie has not shown interest in food in the way that Éowyn did. (Remember the infamous Coconut Macaroon incident?) Nevertheless we took heed and Lucinda gave Amélie her first taste of solid food on Tuesday 25th January: baby rice and water. She seemed to enjoy it, opening her mouth on cue. However, she soon had her fill and pushed the spoon away. I call that a success, especially since she kept it down.

Amélie has achieved a couple of firsts since the last update. The first first (so to speak) was to roll over. She has done it twice, once with Lucinda and once with me. However both times we both have missed it. Lucinda left her on the bed was out of the room for a moment came back and she was on her front. I was changing her on the floor, again left the room for a moment and came back and she was on her belly. Either she rolled or the house fairies are having a laugh with us.

Amélie’s other first since the last update was to go swimming. We asked Éowyn what she would like to do since we were all together as a family and she asked to go swimming. It was a little surprising as she has been nervous of late since she had a bad experience at a pool. Nothing major but it had put her off. So when she suggested it we jumped at the opportunity. Both of the girls loved it. Amélie was just serene as Lucinda held her in the water while I was trying to teach Éowyn to swim, while at the same time being mindful that a false move could put us back. I think a few more lessons are required but she did spend most of the time on her front kicking her legs (supported by Dad) so progress.

It has been interesting and a little upsetting to see how Éowyn is dealing with the experience of attending Playbox Playgroup. Obviously, it is a new place with new people and so it will take her some time to get used to it, as indeed it did when we first took her to Jo’s. However, now she is a little older and can talk to you it is harder to convince yourself that you are doing the right thing when she says things like: “Daddy, I don’t like school.” “I don’t want to go to school.” It breaks your heart, especially when you drop her off and she is crying and clinging to your leg. This Monday though (her fifth day) we walked into the classroom and she wandered off. I asked her for a kiss and to wave me goodbye and she did. Again progress, although she did get upset in the last 15 minutes or so of the session, probably because she was tired after the weekend.

Lucinda and I just have to be strong and encouraging as well as learn to cope with the other things that happen to your children while they are at school. Éowyn has seemingly begun to re-inact things that have happened at school with her toys. She was playing with her toy monkey (Ok, strictly Amélie’s toy monkey but I think that Amélie has lost any ownership of that toy!) and although we only caught the end of the conversation (“…and that’s it and we can go home.”) but it sounded very much like something that the staff would have said to Éowyn when she is upset. Then Monday she came home with a scratch on her face, only minor and the staff did draw our attention to it and I had to sign the accident book to acknowledge that fact. They were not sure how she did it but think she caught herself with the end of a book, and it certainly looks feasible. However later that day she was talking to her monkey “…It is not nice to hit people monkey. It will make them sad…” We tried to get out of her whether she hit someone or whether they hit her, but we could not draw any conclusions. Although I don’t like the idea of either Éowyn hitting someone or someone hitting her, a lot worse will probably happen just have to try and get her to talk about it.

In addition to swimming, trips to the doctors and hospital and dropping Éowyn off at Playbox we managed to squeeze in a photoshoot for the girls and a trip to Nanny Fran’s for a Bagnall family photoshoot. The photoshoot for the girls was a freebie session (to entice you in) for Amélie at 3 months. It includes a free 10″x8″ print, so we thought we would go for it. Obviously when you see the other photos you are tempted to buy extras. Yes, we were suckered into that but thought that the price that we were quoted was reasonable and so the credit card made an appearance.

Nanny Fran’s photoshoot, on the other hand, seemed to be jinxed. We (her children) bought her the photoshoot as a present for Christmas 2009. When we turned up at the photographers it was closed and he couldn’t be raised on the telephone. He called back a couple of days later to apologise but wasn’t prepared to offer compensation and so we decided against using him. So we found another reasonable studio and booked for the beginning of December. A week before my sister Mary slipped on the ice at work and broke her elbow, so we decided to push it into January. So Nanny Fran re-booked for last Sunday.

The southern side of the family, Mary and us four headed up the M40 on Friday for the weekend. On the Saturday morning we jokingly suggested that she ‘phone them to ensure that they had our booking. Never a truer word spoken in jest. Sunday morning we all get dressed up and manage to keep Amélie puke-free so we would all look nice for the photos. No booking. Apparently the previous booking wasn’t cancelled properly so the re-schedule shoot was not in the diary. We have agreed to give it one more go before deciding that it is well and truly jinxed and give it up as a bad job.

Despite that we had a good weekend at Nanny Fran’s. Éowyn has finally grown too big for her travel cot and so Nanny Fran bought her a ready bed and pink tent to sleep in. Obviously it takes a little getting used to but she seemed to love it although the excitement meant that she didn’t get to sleep until after 10pm on the Friday night. Poor Nanny Fran offered to look after Amélie on the Friday night so that Lucinda and I could get some uninterrupted sleep. On Saturday night Éowyn went to sleep early (as she was tired from the night before) and we took Amélie in with us, however Éowyn who sleeps in the room next to Nanny Fran woke at 0400 and kept her awake. I bet Nanny Fran was glad we were going so that she could get some sleep.

So now I am back at work and the 1500 e-mails all need reading, some of them as long as this write up! Thus I will leave you to enjoy the photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie