We spent ages weighing up the pros and cons of a big holiday with a little baby. It’s a big deal really trying to get things right because we wanted to get on with things and have some fun – for Lily, Katie and I – but to have a bit of sanity / settled, relaxed homeliness for Elsie (now nine months). Continue reading “Our half term hols… Peebles and Edinburgh”
Elsie the quadruped
On the eve of being nine months old, our little girl Elsie has crawled across the floor today. A full three months ahead of Lily, she seems very eager to get moving. Mild panic as we realised we needed to get hold of a stair gate, Now on order. Doors shut in the mean time.
Christmas photos 2008 part 2: the other half of the family
We made a pretty spontaneous trip up to Greame and Fiona’s farm on Saturday to catch up with Katie’s branch of the family, meaning that Lily and Elsie had seen all of their six cousins and all their aunties, uncles and grandparents in the space of 24 hours. Great trip to the farm including all the normal animal chaos (no inpromptu lambing this time but some taming of a frisky horse to be done).
Christmas 2008 – a load of Haygarths together
We had Phil (my brother) and Anne with their three children and my mum to stay on Xmas day and had a brill time. So much went on my head’s a whizz but we seemed to cram a million little memories into 26ish hours.
A load of photos here. My own personal favourite moments were Angus saying “I can bite my own toe uncle Dave and it well hurts” and the fairy hunting going on on the lovely walk through Redisher woods in idyllic Boxing Day sunshine.
By the river in Hubberholme
Some 30 years on, history repeated itself yesterday as we decided to make the most of some gorgeous summer conditions and spend an afternoon by the river Wharfe in Hubberhome. Going to exactly the same spot that I went to as a young boy, Lily and I frolicked in the cool water with the inflatable dhingy, Elvis dug all day for always-just-too-large stones, and Katie and Elsie managed to sneak in a tiny bit of chilling time. Just a bit.
I rode home on the bike in the boiling heat and got a few miles in, which was a lovely thing to sneak in.
We made video with incredible similarity to the family cine films of 30 years ago, including me looking scarily like my dad when I swim.
Birth 2.0
Dave in ‘habitual blogger doesn’t blog for ten days’ shocker
I’ve gone long enough now… this is ridiculous. Sometimes big things happen in your life and they’re so big that you’ve just got to take stock and take it all in. I haven’t even taken all that many photos (for me) – it’s like a form of stage fright or something.
Since Elsie was born our life’s been a whirlwind of gentle activity and we’ve had such a great and memorable few days. So many visits have made us slightly jaded but not worn out, and it’s so great and important to share these times with family and friends. Elsie’s arrival into the world also came at the start of Lily’s half term holiday, so the activity level has been bolstered by all the goings on of a busy five year old in the house.
Some things that have really started to sink in during the last few days with us.
- The two siblings are wildly different in so many ways already, but share a lot of common traits, too
- People are so incredibly generous when you have a baby. We’ve been dumbfounded by the generosity – it’s just incredible and it really humbles you
- Not having bosoms is a great way of getting plenty of rest with a newborn baby
- Real nappies are actually easier than disposables (we waited until Lily was a couple of months old until she had real ones – we’d been hoodwinked – like most of us are – into thinking that ‘disposable’ means ‘easy’. Think about it – a walk to the bin vs a walk to the washing machine. You’re already going to the flipping washing machine with baby grows anyhow. No brainer.)
- Champagne and other sparkling wine produce is dreadful for the head. Why, oh why do we bother? It doesn’t even taste nice. Utterly pointless and it’s probably more fun and better for you to inject hard drugs.
- Men in India (some subcontractors working for / with me) go more clucky and gooey over births and children than people in England. Women in England do it fine, but men here generally ‘congratulate’ rather than wanting to look at the baby. I’m probably as guilty – it’s an odd cultural thing that real brooding seems the reserve of women in our country
- The birth announcement is no more. Flickr, SMS and the blog were an ace way of reaching so many people. Welcome to birth 2.0
Elsie’s here!
As these things go, the arrival of Elsie Annice Haygarth at six minutes past one this lunchtime was a very smooth affair. Katie’s performance throughout was what I’d been hoping for for a second birth. A precautionary visit to hospital at 7.00am and returning home an hour later was what we’d expected after waters broke in the night. We were all taken aback, however, when we rushed back in at 11.40 and parked up and in the delivery suite for midday. Some hard work and concentration from mumsy and hay presto… one very gorgeous sister for Lily and two utterly chuffed parents.
First ever online photo of Elsie here
More Photos here (added late on Saturday!)
More, rather inevitably, to be reported here soon….