Amy usually sleeps for around two to three hours during the afternoon. However, if she has any sleep at all prior to this then she classifies this as her afternoon nap and refuses to attempt sleep until at least 7:30. For example: today we went to the garden centre, went to see my dad at his workshop, then took the dogs for a walk. On the way back in the car she fell asleep just as we pulled into Slaithwaite. It took us around five minutes to get home from there, but in Amy’s mind those few minutes counted as her nap for the day and she point blanc refused to go to sleep when we got back. Each time I put her into bed she was up within ten minutes shouting “Hello Daddy, I’m awake!”.
Normally this is not too much of a problem, I’d just write off my “me-time” for that day and get back on with the joy’s of fatherhood. Today however is Pancake Day and two year old children and flinging hot batter around the kitchen do not mix. Fortunately Amy has recently discovered the delights of Mary Poppins and so I was able to distract her sufficiently in order to get a pretty respectable pile together.
Every year during the winter half term school holidays the village where we live holds a moonraker festival. Basically this involves daily workshops where kids and their parents are supported to make huge paper lanterns on a theme (this year was the sea). Then on the Saturday night there is a procession through the village with everyone carrying their candle-lit lanterns. Scattered within the hordes of lamp carriers are various bands (there was a Dixieland jazz band, a troop of drummers, and a brass band). There are also other bands dotted around the village that play for the procession as it goes past.
Last year it was our first winter in Slaithwaite, and therefore our first moonraking. Having moved here from Batley, where the closest comparison to this event was kids setting dustbins alight in the park, we were overwhelmed with a sense of community. Not to mention the sense satisfaction that we had chosen the right place to bring up our child. This year was the same. Slightly better even as we managed to see a few faces in the crowd that we recognised (the Dr’s receptionist, someone that Kerry chats to on the train, that kind of thing).
I grew up in a small town just over the valley from Slaithwaite (Holmfirth to be precise, home of the TV show “Last of the Summer Wine“). I’m really pleased that Amy and the looming #2 will get to grow up in a place where things like the moonraker festival goes on. I can see her eight or nine years from now running around the town with her friends on moonraker night, just like I did during Holmfirth folk festival or the torchlight procession. Events like those are building blocks for a childhood. Days that you can hang your memories on like Christmas and bonfire night but more local, and therefore somehow more special.
I like it here and I’m glad we moved.
Whilst randomly clicking the “next blog” button on the banner above this blog I kept coming across pages like this, basically a well laid out blog containing what I initially took as gobbledegook. I’ve only just realised that this is some cynical marketing type thing to raise a poker site’s standing on google. The tricksters!
Speaking of blogs, I really must thank Deb (of Toast Ambassador fame I’m presuming) for sticking the odd comment on my posts. It’s prompted me to update a couple of times now and I really do think that this will be a great way of recording Amy’s childhood - even if it is through horrendously love struck paternal tinted glasses.
I’ve recently been struck how easy it is to forget details that you assumed would be burned into your very fabric. On Friday night we discovered that Kerry is pregnant again. This was a bit of a surprise as, although we’ve been trying, we haven’t been trying particularly hard. Still it’s great news and we’re obviously very excited. For a while after we found out I was pretty cocksure - “ah we’ve done it once, we’ll be dab hands”. Then I suddenly realised that I’ve forgotten vast chunks of Amy’s babyhood, and I can only vaguely remember Kerry being pregnant at all (Say…. are you putting on weight?). OK so that’s a slight exaggeration, but on the whole practical side of looking after a baby I’m drawing a complete blank. I’m just hoping I’ll pick it up a lot quicker this time round.
Really you are supposed to not tell people that you’re expecting until you’re about three months gone, but I always think that if you are going to lose a baby it would be best to have the support of your friends and family. Plus we just got too excited. My job and various other things have made me more aware than most people of the tenacious link to life that kids have, but that’s not going to stop me celebrating each and every day that link remains intact.
Anyway, today is valentines day so I’m posting this picture of the two loves of my life. Here’s hoping that our little family gets just that little bit bigger.
The internet is a wonderful thing. For example it allowed us to make some rather nice oatmeal and raisin cookies the other day by providing an easy recipe that even I could follow. Unfortunately due to the fact I have the organizational skills of a dead ferret I just scrawled it on a piece of paper and didn’t bookmark the site - reasoning that if I could google it once I’d be able to google it again.
Fat chance.
Never mind, this fleeting glimpse of a near perfect cookie recipe is perhaps even more enriched by it’s transience. Wish I hadn’t eaten them all in one go though.
Bryn ended up eating nearly half a pack of butter that I’d left out on the kitchen table (what? You expect me to create Culinary masterpiece and tidy up afterwards?). He’s getting much more daring in his food raids these days.
It’s mine and Amy’s day tomorrow again and I’ve not yet made any decisions what we’re doing. It’s a bit miserable to be doing much outside, but I’ve just about exhausted the inside activities. I’m vaguely tempted to try giving the dogs a bath, that should provide us with some amusement. I’ll see what whim comes over me I suppose.
Part of Amy’s bedtime routine is Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. At 7 o’clock and we switch on Nick-Jr. Then gentle tales from Nowhere-Land sedate our own ferocious beast enough to get her pyjama’s on. Recently she’s started to demand to see the program after too (Max and Ruby in case you are wondering). We’re doing quite well in the whole TV watching thing, she generally only has it on for about 2 hours a day. Cbeebies is usually the drug of choice though as it doesn’t have any adverts.
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