Missing: Big Julien

Oliver aged 4 months with Big Julien.

The unthinkable finally happened. We have lost Big Julien.

Anyone who knows us or has read this blog for a while will know that Big Julien is Oliver's favourite soft toy that he has had since he was 10 days old and which has been his comforter ever since we took away his dummy when still a baby. Even these days if he gets upset he will ask for Big Julien. Not to mention the fact that he still cuddles up with him to go to sleep every night. You only have to search my Flickr photos for "Julien" to see how Oliver and Julien have been inseparable from the daay he appeared.

Well, on Friday Big Julien was taken to a local playgroup and was last seen sitting on a chair there. It appears he never made it home. Consequently, last night Oliver went to bed without him for the first time in ages. And the preceding times were when he could be fooled by the "spare" that we had especially brought over from the States. But since he cottoned on to my deception this spare has really only been a minor player in Oliver's life, largely ignored.

There was the small comfort that we still have Baby Julien (a smaller version) that he has had for quite a while, but even so, last night was punctuated with questions about where Big Julien was and it was the first thing he asked this morning.

Hayley has been to the church where the playgroup is held and searched the store room, but to no avail. I fear Oliver may have dropped him as he got into the car and someone has picked him up, taking him away rather than handing him in to the church (where the car was parked).

Of course it is still within the realms of possibility that he will turn up, even here at home (though we have turned the place upside down so I'm probably kidding myself). Oliver did claim at one point yesterday to have brought him home, but I think this was more wishful thinking than fact, as he said he was at playgroup on other occasions.

Hayley and I are gutted. I feel sick sometimes when I think of how he has lost his number one comfort.

On the bright side, he did sleep reasonably well last night and today has gone to bed with Baby Julien and Big Julius (the name of the spare) without much concern. However, the time will come when he gets upset and wants Big Julien. I really hope we find him before then, but as time goes on I'm running out of hope.

Of course to my 4 year old son this is a terribly serious matter. But it has served to illustrate something else to me. Having watched a documentary about the 18-year long kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard on TV last night, I can barely start to imagine the horror of what her parents experienced. I keep looking in the car expecting to find my son's favourite toy and then feeling sick when it's not there. How much more mind-numbingly awful must it be to keep looking in hope for your child.

Having said that, of course here in the UK we have been witnesses to the unfolding tale of Madeleine McCann, whose abduction was so shocking and omnipresent on our TV screens in the days after it happened that I couldn't find words to say that weren't already all around us. In fact I've never commented on it in this blog for that reason: it has all been said. It is an intolerable nightmare that somehow the McCanns must live through for the sake of their other two children.

So it may not be the end of the world that Big Julien is missing, but it has had more impact than you might at first think in our household.


Oliver earlier this year with Big Julien and Big Julius.

Saturday snap

Just the cutest little lady in the world. Even (or perhaps that should be especially) when she has stolen and put on her big brother's trainers.

Lucy's 2nd Birthday

Today Lucy is 2 years old. To celebrate we arranged a fab picnic party in the park. Of course, thanks to our wet summer we ended up having the picnic on blankets in our living room, but hey, that was great fun too!

But before all that we started the day by coming downstairs to find the living room decorated with balloons which Lucy immediately spotted. Oliver then made a bee-line for the small pile of presents that I had intended to leave until Hayley got up (as Saturday is her lie-in and having got up to wish Lucy a happy birthday she had gone back to bed after an hour or so). Oliver then offered one of the presents to Lucy so I let her open it. It was a rather cute matching necklace and handbag which Lucy immediately put on for our Tesco trip.



After breakfast we came home and helped get ready before the party kicked off at 11am. There were 16 kids, some Lucy's age and some Oliver's age, but Lucy thinks she's four anyway so that doesn't phase her. When food was served it was in their picnic boxes. Lucy settled her Mama dolly down on the blanket.



She then presided over proceedings as well as getting some food herself.





The picnic boxes consisted of some sandwiches, raisins, crisps and a fruit shoot.... amazingly some sandwiches got eaten, albeit with a little persuasion from the parental overseers.

Then there was some games of pass the parcel. Two in fact: one for the two year olds and one of the 3 and 4 year olds. Stopping the music to make sure everyone gets a go is not easy with two games on the go.



There was pin the tail on the donkey and a rather splendid round of musical bumps reversed, where the kids sit down to dance and then have to stand up when the music stops. The last to stand up is "out" and gets a sweet. Everyone's a winner!

Lucy was a doll all afternoon. Here she is presenting Nanny with some chocolate.



Finally Lucy was presented with her cake.



To our surprise, one guest, Amber (a little girl Oliver's age who Lucy loves) turned up with her Mum half an hour after the end of the party. It turns out that Hayley had been in "wedding mode" when writing her invitation and had accidentally put the start time as 1.30pm like the wedding! However, all was not lost, as we had more fun with the few remaining friends and kids, including indulging in some ice-creams, ever popular with Lucy.



And anyway by this point the sun was out, so we eventually headed off to the park where Lucy had a great time with Amber.



We had a great day and more importantly the little lady loved it too. She got lots of nice presents, favourite amongst which was undoubtedly the ceramic tea-set in a wicker picnic basket.

And with no nap all day, she was out for the count after her bedtime milk. Probably dreaming of a picnic with her tea-set.

There are more pictures from the day here.

Echoes

I know my children are individuals. I know I should not compare them to others, including myself. But there are times when I look at my children and I can't help seeing echoes of myself and my sister.

In my defence I ask you to consider exhibits A and B below.

In exhibit A (circa 1967), my self and my sister are pictured at home on the drive. She closely inspects the workings of mother nature (a flower) while big brother looks on.


In exhibit B (circa 2009), my son and his sister are pictured at home on the drive. She closely inspects the workings of mother nature (a slug) while big brother looks on.

Little Hayley

I sometimes call Lucy "Little Hayley" and here's why. The girl at the back on the left is Hayley at 5 years old. If you can't see the resemblance with Lucy I suggest you make an appointment with an optician. (There's a bigger image here.)

For the record, second from the front on the right is Hayley's older brother Paul who is sadly no longer with us. In some shots of Oliver I think you can see a resemblance between him and Paul too. Hayley's younger brother Wayne is sitting in the centre at the far end of the table and her cousin Becky is sitting next to Hayley.

The party was jointly for Hayley's 5th birthday and Paul's 6th birthday as they were born 11 and a half months apart.

What a difference a year makes: ask Gerry Giraffe

Seeing Oliver so confident as he rode on Gerry the Giraffe up at my Mum's house this weekend, was another reminder of how quickly he is growing up. Contrast his confident riding style of now (above) with his enthusiastic but less confident style of a year ago (below), when his ride involved tightly gripping Daddy's shirt to be sure he was safe.



Or so I thought...



When I came to check the video of the two occasions, it seems he was quite confident in the saddle a year ago (above) once he had got the knack of it.

A year on (below) he is even more confident - even pressing the start button for himself - though quite what he is jabbering on about I honestly couldn't tell you!