West Bromwich Albion

I've got five minutes…

Tuesday 24th August 2010Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

It literally is only five minutes or so (OK about half an hour) on only my second day off work this month and it is raining. Therefore the lawn can wait to be mowed and I can take the opportunity to write a quick update.

Since work is full occupying my time at the moment (up to 18 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week – the glamour of television) I am not seeing an awful amount of either Lucinda or Éowyn and so I will have to regale a couple of tales second hand.

Éowyn is definitely growing up fast and seems quite advanced for her age. She is only just 22 months old but has a vocabulary of at least 75 words and probably over 100. She can string words together to make simple sentence. Can recognise colours, shapes, numbers, animals, my car (and other cars of the same model) and Lucinda’s car (and likewise other cars of the same model), count to fourteen (?!) and is beginning to say her a,b,c’s.

Lucinda and Éowyn paid a visit to Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz during my mad build up to the channel launch as she still is having difficulty getting about due to her knee injury and certainly can not drive to come and visit us. This was a change from Skyping Nanny Fran that we try to do once a week. I think Éowyn wore Nanny Fran out, keeping her on the go for the entire time she was there. She also astounded her Nanny with her ability to recognise numbers and to go one stage further. Éowyn picked up one of her number blcoks and said “Number 9, Nanny.” Nanny Fran replied that it was and that she was a clever girl. Éowyn then turned it upside down, and said “No, number 6!”, giggled and ran off. Now that is true understanding of the shapes of numbers, and humour in tricking people. Don’t know where she gets that from… whistles innocently…

Éowyn has also begun to start to look for me when I am at work. Éowyn will say “Daddy, where are you?” and Lucinda will tell her that I am at work and Éowyn will open the front door and go and look for me. Lucinda is now having to be really careful. Fortunately we have a green outside our house so she doesn’t run straight into the road but worrying nevertheless.

Lucinda’s parents have been golden, with me working I have been unable to do my share of child minding, they have been looking after Éowyn when Lucinda has been working or socialising. Éowyn loves it around their house, they have a big garden and a trampoline. So she runs them ragged as she doesn’t want to be inside it is always “Outside!” and the point and the forlorn look.

Well my short amount of freetime is up and so I must do something constructive. Please enjoy the photos below and hopefully I will be able to get another update in before we become a family of four.
Peace and Love

Baggie

Rock Star pose

With Arabella

Jazz flute

Look Nanny, a pig

Checkmate

Look at the pig!

Any relation?

Look at my hands!

The service here is good!

More Cheese!

Fast asleep

With Auntie Liz

With my Mommy!

Smiler

Me and mommy

Where did those three months go?

Monday 19th April 2010Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

And so here we stand in April. Where has the year gone? For most of the year Lucinda and myself (and Éowyn of course) have been keeping a big secret from all and thankfully the weekend of Mother’s day we were able to share that with you all. Judging by the speed of the last three months it will not be long before our family of three becomes a family of four. With such momentous news it was only right and fitting that it was a separate entry and should hog the front page for a couple of weeks. Therefore this update will cover nearly a month and so there are bound to be many omissions, but hey, you’re only here for the photos! Right?

So what has been happening in the Bagnall household over the last month? Obviously the Mothering Sunday weekend and following week was dominated by the news that Lucinda is pregnant, this included a flying visit to West Bromwich to let my Mom and sisters know and a meal with Lucinda’s parents to let them know. Obviously all are delighted, our main concern will be Éowyn. She will be going from the centre of attention and the apple of Daddy’s eye to sharing that limelight with a sibling. Éowyn already shows signs of jealously if Daddy is showing attention to others, and woe be tide that Mommy and Daddy have a cuddle: the tears start and she demands to join in for a group hug. I think that it will be a bit of a juggling act and new skills to be learnt when the new bubba comes along.

Éowyn has already begun to push the boundaries. She is seemingly entering the terrible twos six months too early. In some ways it can be quite funny to watch, when she looks around for something to throw and then launches herself on the floor kicking and screaming. But when you are trying to do something, or go somewhere, or just get her to do something it can be extremely frustrated. Months of watching Super Nanny on telly somehow still doesn’t prepare you for the tantrums. In all fairness her tantrums tend to be short lived and she is as good as gold before and afterwards. Hopefully this phase is over by September and there will be little or no troubles when the new arrival comes along. I really am clutching to straws there, aren’t I?

As it has been nearly 7 weeks since a detailed update it is quite hard to remember all that we have done (visited a farm, bought new shoes, lots of time around Nanny and Granddad’s, playing with cousins, fun at the childminder’s, fun at home and skyping Nanny Fran). Hopefully it will not take me 7 weeks before the next update. By then we will have a new government (we presume) and the airline industry will have gone bankrupt due to the unpronounceably named Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. It is a timely reminder from Mother Nature that however powerful we think we are as a species how she can affect so much and cause so much disruption with what is, in essence, a very minor geological hiccup. Living so close to Heathrow airport (still the busiest airport in terms of international traffic) the effect of a total ban on traffic in UK airspace is dramatic. The village seems eerily quiet and the skies are not punctured by large aircraft heading for exotic locations. The sky is clear blue (it has been particularly fine April weather the past week) without the merest hint of a contrail (or chemtrail should you believe the conspiracy theorists). However, I think that when they return we will really notice the noise levels, the smell of aviation fuel and the great big iron birds in the sky.

While the big iron birds have been conspicuous by their absence the bird life in our little corner of the land has been very noticeable. The number of species around here is fantastic for an amateur bird watcher like myself. One in particular has taken a liking to our garden. As we all know spring is the time when birds nest. Maybe you have nesting birds in your garden, but I think we are quite fortunate with the species that has decided that it will raise its family 10 feet from our back door. A mallard had decided that our borders make an ideal nesting ground. Unfortunately we didn’t notice her at first and we scared her off the nest, which gave us the chance to have a look in at the dozen or so eggs in her down lined bowl on the ground. We have been very careful since and Lucinda (probably empathising with impending motherhood) has been on duck-watch ever since. Hopefully most of the eggs will be viable and we should soon see a team of little ducklings. Duck is probably Éowyn’s favourite bird mainly due to the fact that it is the one bird that she can recognise.

I don’t think that I am going to waffle on too much, but by way of appeasement I have uploaded more than the usual number of photos for your enjoyment and hopefully you will not have to wait quite as long for the next instalment. A quick mention goes to West Bromwich Albion who will be plying their trade in the English Premier League next season, well done boys, the new bubba will be born supporting a top flight side (Oh yes it will, it has no choice!).

Peace and Love

Baggie

Who’s the prettiest of them all?

I shouldn’t be here, should I?

You can’t see me!

Have this food, bunnies

I’ll get some more

Look mommy, ducks!

Just there!

Granddad’s girl

Coming through!

Have some food ducks

Where have they gone?

There you are!

On the sofa with Nanny Fran

Cheeky chocolatey grin

Look, no hands!

Shall I read to you?

No, I’ll read to you!

Just chillin’

Concentrate

This is fun

Beep Beep, reversing

That was the decade that was

Thursday 31st December 2009Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

Another year draws to a close and for the first time in many years we are actually getting seasonal weather. Snow and cold weather seems to be blanketing much of Europe, North America and little ol’ us and again the country grinds to a halt. At least it makes everywhere seems a lot prettier, what a fantastic way to usher in the new decade. Yes, the new decade! Unbelievably another decade draws to a close and new one is just around the corner (or probably already here by the time you are reading this). And what a decade it has been both personally and in world events.

The world has changed significantly during the noughties (not sure what the new decade will be called: Twenty-Tens; Tweens; Tenties probably won’t find out until the retrospective TV programmes and newspaper articles of 2019) almost as significantly as my life. I don’t think that I need to re-iterate the major world events of the last ten years as I think we could name the most notable and infamous incidents. From a personal point of view this decade as seen me promoted (twice – more later); buy a house; sell a house; fall in love; get engaged; get married and become a father. I’ve visited a number of incredibly beautiful places around the world, made new friends, lost some friends, cemented older relationships and incredibly now support a team that has been in the Premier League and been seen in a F.A. Cup semi-final.

As mentioned above I have been promoted at work so as of the 1st January 2010 I will be Head of Live Operations at mediahouse, for IMG. This will include responsibility for all our live programming clients , including Premier League (worldwide distribution), Football League (for the BBC) and ESPN to name a few. It is an exciting position and as I will be moving to a five day week (although not necessarily Mon-Fri 9-5) it means I will be able to see Éowyn everyday which will mean so much more now she is becoming more aware as she is growing up.

We have been a little busy since the last update, hence the delay between this and the previous update so forgive me if I omit some of the finer details. Like everyone much of the latter part of December has been gearing up to Christmas and all the malarkey that is associated with it. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) Éowyn is still a little too young to appreciate all that is going on. although she did begin to take an interest in the Christmas tree and the presents underneath it. The only decoration that is was interested in, though, was a Christmas bell. For some reason she took a shine to it and kept taking it off the tree and either giving it to one of us or putting it in her toybox.

As befitting new parents we didn’t really go out and celebrate the way many of our single and younger friends did. However we did get ourselves glammed up and her to Royal Holloway College for a Christmas Dinner Dance. And so that we could enjoy ourselves my Mom (and Sister Liz) made the trip down (fortunately the Snow had eased by that point) and baby-sat for the evening. Again I’m not sure who enjoyed themselves the most: Lucinda and I, Éowyn or Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz? It was a close call.

Nanny Fran stepped to the rescue for child-minding duties again over Christmas. Being shift workers Bank Holidays (including Christmas) mean nothing in the jobs either Lucinda or I do, in fact they can be the busiest times for both of us. This year we were both down to work Boxing Day (26th December for non-UK residents) and the day after. So we decided to ask Nanny Fran to look after Éowyn for those days. Therefore we decided to drive to West Bromwich on Christmas Day, have Christmas day with my mom and sister (and Éowyn’s Great-Great Uncle Albert), leave Éowyn with Nanny Fran and pick her up after our shifts had finished. Although it was a lot of driving it was really nice and meant that we had two Christmasses.

As it was a little difficult to see Lucinda’s parents on Christmas day and drive to West Bromwich, we decided that we would have Christmas day with them and Lucinda’s brother on Christmas Eve. So we invited them around our house and I cooked a roast pork (we didn’t want Turkey two days on the bounce) dinner and we opened presents. We thank our lucky stars that we are both so close to our families and it is a shame that my family is not closer for such occasions, although Nanny Fran is seeing an awful lot of Éowyn recently, which we are most grateful for.

As for Éowyn she was obviously a little too young to understand Christmas, but she did see Father Christmas (with Jo, her child-minder) but was scared of him (fair enough, he is a bit of a strange character) and got into the swing of opening presents. She wasn’t really bothered about the presents as such, but enjoyed ripping the paper off (although some people wrap their presents a little too officiously). In fact she would rip the paper off, then rip it again and hand you each little bit. That will soon change, no doubt. We would like to thank everyone that sent us a card or bought us a present and especially to those of you who bought Éowyn a present, she is lucky to have you all, as are we.

I wish all of you a light filled 2010 and all the best for the coming decade. In the words of Ann Landers: ‘Let this coming year be better than all the others. Vow to do some of the things you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t find the time. Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Vow not to make a promise you don’t think you can keep. Walk tall, and smile more. You’ll look ten years younger. Don’t be afraid to say, ‘I love you’. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world.’

Peace and Love

Baggie and Lucy xxx