Rosie's First Roast Dinner

Last Sunday saw Rosie make a huge step forward in her life – an epic moment for all involved, she had her first Sunday Roast!

I'm happy to report that she ate everything, to be fair it would have been quite hard to pick bits out as it was all blended together but still she ate the lot and we're all very proud that she has excellent taste in food as well as music.

Rosie was also very keen to copy us all and kept trying her best to keep hold of one of the spoons we'd given her to play with. At the moment we're trying to encourage her to reach out and grab things for herself, she's certainly making moves in the right direction but it will be a while before she's doing things like feeding herself.

I stumbled across this song by Jack Johnson the other day whilst my tunes were on shuffle and have decided that this (for now) is my song for Rosie, anyone who knows me well knows how much I love music and how I listen to the lyrics of songs and like to adapt them to my own world. This song (whilst I know isn't about a Dad and his Daughter) just sits perfectly with my feelings for Rosie (especially the words in bold): 

I've got an Angel

She doesn't wear any wings
She wears a heart that can melt my own
She wears a smile that can make me wanna sing

She gives me presents
With her presence alone
She gives me everything I could wish for
She gives me kisses on the lips just for coming home

She could make angels
I've seen it with my own eyes
You gotta be careful when you've got good love
'Cause the angels will just keep on multiplying

But your so busy changing the world
Just one smile can change all of mine
We share the same soul…

'Angel' by Jack Johnson    Listen here...

The Tom Petty Effect

A few weeks ago now, Rosie was crying one morning and after about 20 seconds of trying to comfort her I'd exhausted all options. So, I resorted to playing some music from my phone, I just hit play on the last thing I was listening to and Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down' and 'Free Fallin' were the tracks of choice. She instantly stopped crying and actually gave an inquisitive smile, coincidence I thought and left it there...The next time I was trying (and failing) to calm her down I tried it again, and within seconds of the I Won't Back Down intro she stopped crying again. This has now become my first port of call when settling her and has yet to fail me. I decided to try and capture the moment next time she cried and share the results in this post.

Click here to get the full effect and listen to the tune...

10 Seconds into Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down

Pre Tom Petty

Brotherly Love

Harry is taking a more hands on role with Rosie, he was a little reserved in the early days but he can't do enough for her now and I sense he's taking pride in his position as head of the mini Bachofner bunch. Whenever Rosie gets bored or upset he's in there like a shot, pulling faces, chatting to her, playing etc – I've yet to see him fail in making her smile or giggle almost immediately.

Joe shows his love in similar ways but is still quite boisterous around her and sometimes it has an adverse effect! He gave us a great insight into his true nature on Saturday night though. Karen went upstairs to check in on Rosie only to find he'd sneaked into her room, laid a blanket over her and put one of his treasured teddies in her bed. Nobody around to prompt him, he did it off his own back to comfort her. It's little things like this that fill me with great confidence for their future as siblings.

That same night Rosie was up and down crying, at times screaming. Karen, being dreadfully tired from being up most nights of late definitely deserved a rest so I told her, 'I'll sort it tonight'... 

Within twenty minutes she's lying in bed next to us - oops! She's still not happy however, then Karen asks (well I did manage to give her 20 minutes off) if I'd tried winding her, "course I have, I've tried that for the last twenty minutes" I reply sharply, "it's not that, I don't know what it is?". Karen picks her up and there you have it – burped and smiling within 10 seconds.

I spent ages gazing, not at Rosie, but Karen… I was in total awe of her completely natural and maternal instincts. No way in a million years could I have the patience or indeed the ability to settle her tonight.

In terms of Rosie's development she seems very interested in her hands this last couple of days, staring at them, waving them frantically about whilst shouting at them, clasping them together in different ways and giggling when they're tickled.

Little Smiler

Well it's been quite a start to Rosie's short life, much of it in and out of hospitals, yet throughout everything, even after umpteen prodding with needles and intravenous lines she always manages to smile. A lovely way to reassure Karen and I that she was indeed okay despite how bad we felt for her, it's moments like those that make it plain to see why I find her such an inspirational little character.

Whilst we are aware Rosie may well be slower to develop than the average baby she certainly hasn't been helped by regular, long stints in hospital. Now her heart is on the mend and she's (hopefully) seen the worst of her bronchiolitis for this winter we have noticed her development speeding up.

One of the main things she's focussing on isn't the usual sitting up, grabbing things etc but how many different smiles she can add to her portfolio!

Here are a selection of my recent favourites...

I wanted to end this first blog post by sharing the lyrics to a song I've listened to alot throughout my life but never have the words had as much meaning to me than they do today.

Don't you look at me so smug
And say I'm going bad.
Who are you to judge me
And the life that I live?
I know that I'm not perfect
And that I don't claim to be.
So before you point your fingers,
Be sure your hands are clean.


Judge not
Before you judge yourself.
Judge not
If you're not ready for judgement.


The road of life is Rocky
And you may stumble too.
So while you talk about me,
someone else is judging you.


Robert Nesta Marley. 'Judge Not' 1962.   Listen here