West Bromwich Albion

Post Olympic glow

Tuesday 28th August 2012Thursday 30th August 2012Baggie

It is only a short few hours before the Paralympics hopefully picks up from where the Olympics left off. The whole of the UK still bathes in a post Olympic glow and not all down to the fact that it was our most successful games of the modern era (29 gold medals beaten only by our haul in the 1908 Olympics – also held in London) but the spirit that was generated by the whole event. Even the football stars are trying to use the country’s love of all things Olympian to try and raise its, sometimes, tarnished reputation. As a West Bromwich Albion fan I am very content that after 2 games of this season we are still undefeated. Olympics or no Olympics that makes for some very happy Yam-Yams!

It is August, the football seasons have arrived and as usual i am manically busy at work. Any regular readers to this blog and anyone that works with me will realise that August is a time when I get very little time for anything and so updates to the cyberworld are usually few and far between and days with my family are precious. However, two days off around the August Bank Holiday, Amélie asleep, Éowyn playing in her room and Lucinda shopping I thought I would try and take the opportunity and give a little update on the life in the Bagnall household.

As mentioned in the previous update after 3 years, Jo our childminder has given us notice and on the 21st August 2012 she looked after the girls for the last time. It is quite sad and it makes child care difficult as we have no true alternative, there may be lots of trips to Nanny and Granddad and Lucinda and myself taking days off work when possible. The joys of ‘family-orientated policies’ of this and previous governments. Nevertheless we will find a way, it will just require more advanced planning on our behalf.

Nanny and Granddad have spent the majority of the Summer with at least one, and on a number of occasions with all of their grandchildren playing at their house. Although this must be a nightmare (in a nice way) for them – and they are truly knackered at the end of the day – it is fabulous for the girls for they get to spend a lot of time with their older cousins who genuinely enjoy playing with the two little ones, even if they can be a little bit of a handful at times. I am sure that Nanny and Granddad enjoy it too and running after them all sure keeps them young and fit sometimes I am not sure how they do it I can be knackered after looking after just Éowyn and Amélie for the day.

Amélie has been worrying us a little of late. As anyone with kids will recognise (and I am sure ours are no different to any others), kids tend to go through growth spurts. That is, their growth pattern is not a constant rate but moreover a series of rapid growth spurts followed by a filling out. It is almost as though they bulk out, then stretch and then bulk out again. Amélie has just gone through one of these stages but during her growth spurt she seemed to lose and inordinate amount of weight and we were worried that there was something else. It is something that we will speak to the dietician when we next see her, for we went to see the doctor and the doctor assured us that there was nothing seriously wrong but admitted that it was a specialist question and that she did not feel qualified enought to advise. I think that is fair enough and since there was nothing seriously wrong and now that her growth spurt has ended she has begun to bulk out once again.

However, we have once again become really strict on removing all Cow’s Milk Protein from her diet to ensure that her intolerance wasn’t having any effect on the weight loss. Obviously she doesn’t get any dairy products per se but Cow’s Milk Protein is used in many foods that one would never realise, such as flavoured crisps. In our processed food world milk proteins can find their way into many foods and with one child that loves dairy food, inevitably there will be times when Amélie eats something meant for Éowyn. Now Cow’s Milk Protein intolerance does not mean that she will go into shock or come out in hives, but it does cause her pain and discomfort and, without painting too graphic a picture, doesn’t make her nappies very pleasant. A case in point was the other day when Amélie ate a yoghurt intended for Éowyn. Éowyn who is acutely aware that Amélie shouldn’t have any dairy, got upset because a) Amélie had eaten her yoghurt and b) Amélie shouldn’t have yoghurt (except her own Soya yoghurts). All was fine until the night when Amélie woke up screaming and I went into her and she hugged me tight saying ‘Daddy, it hurts.‘ Unfortunately there is nothing you can do except comfort her. At least when we see the dietician we can categorically say that she still has the intolerance.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz came to stop with Auntie Mary for Bank Holiday weekend, unfortunately I was working on that Saturday and Sunday so Lucinda took Éowyn and Amélie to visit their Aunties and Nanny. Although they were both very happy to see their Black Country relatives Éowyn was a little disappointed that her new best friend, Louise, wasn’t there. It was while they were there that Amélie first used her new phrase. She has been bouncing on the mini trampoline that Auntie Mary has and had fallen over. Everyone laughed and she stood up, pointed her finger at them, stamped her feet and said: ‘It’s not funny!‘ Cue howls of laughter. This has quickly become her new catchphrase and she keeps using it to the delight of everyone that hears it.

Although Éowyn’s new best friend, Louise, wasn’t at Auntie Mary’s, she does have a new best friend that she quite regularly sees. You may recall that last year Éowyn had an imaginary friend called Sam that came with us on holiday to Kent. He was quite a special friend as he could be small enough to fit on your thumb or be bigger than daddy depending on the day. He spent around a month in her life and then nothing more was said. A couple of months ago she acquired a new imaginary friend (or quasi-corporeal companion to give them their technical name) a brother (in her words) called Dizzy. She and Dizzy spend a lot of time together and he often tells her things that they should be doing and apparently they go on lots of adventures together. She hasn’t really described Dizzy too much and I haven’t pushed it too much as his appearances were very scant but now they are becoming more regular and she speaks of him several times a day I will delve a little more and see what I can find out about Dizzy.

Apologies for the lower than usual number of photos but as I am the photographer in the family (although a number of the photos below were taken by Éowyn and she seems to be following in Daddy’s footsteps) and I haven’t spent much time with the family then I do not have the breadth of photos to call upon. Will try harder for next time.

Peace and Love

Baggie

What a big handful of bubbles

Blow?

Oh, blow

Sleeping piggies

Peppa Pig’s Family

Mommy Pig and Daddy Pig

Mommy’s Orchid

Close up of Mommy’s Orchid

Mommy’s Orchid, again

Ready…

Wheeee!

That was fun!

Push us Aunties!

Can we go higher?

Higher!

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!

100,000 hits!

Tuesday 30th August 2011Wednesday 31st August 2011Baggie

As you may have guessed from the title of this update we have hit a milestone: 100,000 hits! Yes www.baggieandlucy.com has received 100,000 views. This milestone is split over two servers, my original WordPress hosted site (still available as www.afrobaggie.wordpress.com) and the new (not so new now as I have been here for nearly a year) privately hosted site that is www.baggieandlucy.com. It took nigh on 19 months to reach the first 50,000 but the readership has obviously increased (as indeed has my frequency of article writing – though not this month!) and the second 50,000 hits have occurred over 17 months, but at this rate it will still take until Christmas 2035 to hit the million mark. Again as I mentioned at 50,000 hits it maybe only a small milestone that means absolutely nothing in the real word 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 growing family.

There is also a second milestone linked to this update: the 100th post. This may sound like the second time that I have reached this milestone but the previous ton that I mentioned included the 9 major event pages. This is the 100th update since I begun the website, so one hundred little stories of Bagnall life! Again that represents quite an investment in time to sit at a keyboard and pour out the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

This latest update occurs against the busiest time of the year for me at work and the latest phase in our redecoration of the house. The English Premier League has kicked off, completing the hand of seasons bringing us to full speed. The start of this season has been considerably easier than the start of last but frankly it couldn’t have been that bad again. Then again we have not made such a technological leap forward as we did last year, although the spectre of 3D (or stereoscopic to be technologically correct) looms over us in the next couple of weeks. Saying that we have upgraded two of our studios to HD bringing the last of our areas up to the latest specifications and although there is still a hefty snag list their birth has been relatively pain free.

With the start of the season comes long hours at work and with a new flooring and redecoration comes disruption at home, which is unfair on the little ones. So in steps Nanny Fran to help. She was taking a week off work and offered to take Éowyn up to West Bromwich for five days so that Lucy could have half the workload while I was doing such long hours. So while the fitter was laying our new wooden floor Lucy drove to the relative safety of West Bromwich. Relative safety was something that seemed a little perverse when the riots that had been affecting mainly the London area spread across many metropolitan areas including West Bromwich. It is quite often nice to hear your home town mentioned on national television but not when it relates to something as negative as rioting and especially when your wife and two young daughters are in the vicinity with your Mom and kid sister! Fortunately apart from Poundland and Cash convertors West Bromwich emerged relatively unscathed however due to the positioning of the riots and the police attempting to prevent people from entering the riot area, two motorway junctions were closed. The two closest to my mom’s and the two that Lucinda knows. Hence she had a little detour and venture further into the West Midlands to find the way home.

Éowyn had fun at her Nanny Fran’s (it goes without saying) especially since she was centre of attention for a lot of the time but also got to play with Nanny Fran’s other ‘adopted’ grandchildren especially Jonti and Finn. Days out at the Safari park and soft play areas were high on her list. Éowyn takes after her dad in that she loves animals. She is especially fond of big cats, tigers being her favourite. She can tell the difference between Cheetahs and Leopards something many adults have difficulty with. While at the Safari park she saw white tigers, but not content with this colour variation she insisted that she wanted now to see a black one. In the same way that white tigers are not albinos (they still have stripes) so black tigers are not melanistic, however whereas many people have seen white tigers (there are some 200 or so world wide), black tigers are almost cryptozoological with only a scattering of reports throughout history, so Finn was quite correct when he replied to Éowyn, “They don’t come in black.”

She also did her family duties and paid visits both to her Great-Grandma and her Great Great Uncle Albert as well as entertaining some of Mom’s friends before heading back home on Saturday morning.

Amélie is really enjoying the new flooring. The wooden floorboards are not so harsh on her knees and she can slide across them easily. Although she still has this strange body-popping movement. Instead of the traditional hands and knees crawling stance she pulls herself forward with her arms and ‘caterpillars’ the rest of her body to make up the distance. Very cute. She is also everywhere. You turn around and she is right behind you or she is emptying her toy box on the floor. We had forgotten what this stage was like.

We had also had forgotten what a lack of sleep caused by a teething toddler can be like. Amélie has not had a decent night sleep for a month and a lack of sleep is difficult for everyone involved but I can only talk from my point of view of getting up and going into work, but it must be just as hard for Lucinda when she has the girls all day and Éowyn hasn’t been the most well-behaved of children of late.

I think Éowyn has come to realise that Amélie is here to stay and that means that she gets just a little less attention. And with me doing long hours, the house being disrupted with workmen and her sister now actively going after her things, I think she decided to exact a little revenge. She really did enter the terrible twos for at least a fortnight. I think things have begun to calm down a little now (with handy hints from Super Nanny) but it was not easy, especially when I was only seeing her for an hour or so a day and in that hour I would be making her sit on the thinking step or putting her to bed with no supper. It was an added stress that wasn’t needed. However she has been back to her good-hearted nature of late. Which is a relief for all concerned.

As you can guess from the dearth of good photos below (or should I say dearth of variety of photos below) or even the tales that have been regaled in this write up, life has been a little too work orientated for me and so I have not had the camera out as much or indeed spent too much time with the family which is always a little hard. So apologies and I will try to do better for next time (and not leave it so long!)

Peace and Love

Baggie