The weekend just gone was the last of my really lovely long weekends since Elsie was born just before the May Bank Holiday. Rather than take a hyge chunk of paternity leave and putting unnecessary pressure on Reverse Delta, I thought it would be best to take off Mondays and Fridays for a few weekends whilst things bedded down at home and we got a routine established.

On reflection, and I’ll admit that it’s early days, things have been really quite relaxed and easy for us to adapt to. With a second born, there’s so much less adjustment because it’s more about resuming a familiar routine. Add to that that Elsie is a bit more of a sleeper and eater than her elder sister and it all makes for a very chilled existence.

The long weekends though have had a special value - working from home has meant that I can roughly keep abreast of my work without that ‘out of office’ panic. With Lily being at school it’s also meant that I get two days with Lily sandwiched by two days with Katie and Elsie. The unusually dry - I’ll say it again - unusually dry spell of weather that East Lancs has had has made the weekends generally outdoor affairs, be it gardening, or walking, or - just occasionally - some more strenuous activity.

On Sunday, Lily and I had a great trip up Knowle Hill - about a four mile round walk all in all from where we’d parked - to watch the annual fell race up there. It’s a hill I know reasonably well, but for some reason I’ve watched the race there twice and never yet taken part for one reason or another. My friend Matthew was taking part, something that gave Lily and I the excuse to head off for a couple fo hours togather watching the fell race (photos here) and exploring the new Scout Moor windfarm (photos here).

The down side was that this - and the rest of the weekend’s activities - were carried out without Elvis, who I took running on Thursday evening and brought back home with a two inch gaping wound in his belly - somehow. The vet sorted it, but he’s on an enforced rest now as a result.

It’s all happy times here… just keeps on getting happier.

Every once in a while I get to hear a tune and it grows - I guess we all do really - and so often for me these seem to be in spring and early summer for some reason. Last year, ‘Mathematics’ from Cherry Ghost hit the spot for Dave’s catchy number one.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been helping Brad from Cityscape Records put a couple of websites together, and one of their bands - Merchandise - put out their first ‘big’ single launch on Monday - and in the last few weeks, I’ve heard the single - ‘Sometimes’ - so many times but it’s one of those dreamy summer Zeitgeist moments that hits the spot for me every time at the moment. It’s uplifting, it’s twee, it’s melancholy, it’s simple, but above all, it’s just catchy and after two listens it’s inside your head for good. Great tune.

Great catchy tune - download it on the Cityscape Records website or watch the video below…

Oh, and please visit Merchandise’s lovely website.

With the new addition to family Haygarth being such a big thing in the June calendar (or the May one, as things turned out), I decided to give the local Rossendale Triathlon a miss this year. Instead, I continued and indeed developed my 2008 habit of becoming a sports spectator, and went along with the camera to get a few snaps of mates Carl and Cathy Nelson doing a team effort in the local sprint triathlon.

They did very well and everyone seemed to enjoy the event. Lily and I especially enjoyed the trip out on the trailer bike - she covered 13 miles and has perfected the art of seeming to be pedalling all the time (or at least, every time I look round!). Funniest bit of the day for me personally was when we were making out way round part of the course and came up behind one of the less committed entrants - Lily’s pedalling suddenly kicked hard from behind as she scented the quarry, and we had to overtake the poor bloke. Quite what he thought when he saw the five year old’s determination as she rode past, I don’t know, but I suspect he felt like jacking in there and then. It made Lily’s day though… little minx.

Rossendale Triathlon 2008 results here
Some photos here

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.

1. The two siblings are wildly different in so many ways already, but share a lot of common traits, too
2. 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
3. Not having bosoms is a great way of getting plenty of rest with a newborn baby
4. 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.)
5. 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.
6. 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
7. 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

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….