This pregnancy and birth have made me feel so creative this time. The only trouble being of course I just don't have the time (or energy sometimes) to do anything! Five weeks in on a good night I can get two and a half hours sleep in between feeds and of course nappy changes! Still not one to moan, it's not forever and at least I'm managing to write a blog which helps keep me sane! Even if it's taking me at least a week to load photos and finish writing this! And I'm not the only one, as a mum today in Waterstones cafe said she had the same thing with her daughter. She happened to be on the next table to the four of us, I had got Tallulah out for a sleepy feed and Sebas was doing his usual - wanting to go and play up and down the stairs so Mark could barely get sips of his coffee poor thing. We normally go when he's at nursery, it's just so much easier!
It's interesting how when you have a new born complete strangers stop and coo and chat in all circumstances from Tesco's to Doctor's Surgeries, Cafes, Art Galleries and just about anywhere! People's reactions to a baby girl are different too, people are a lot softer when it comes to girls, men almost go to jelly when they see her! It must bring out a protective paternal gene in people. Different to a boy, although I remember when Sebs was really really tiny, like 2 weeks old tiny, and we stopped off at John Lewis for a coffee, feed change etc, on our way back from Gobowen, and in the cafe queue, a woman really sweetly congratulated me, saying "you clever thing", which was so lovely coming from a complete stranger. You don't realise how amazing and clever as a mother you are to have grown this perfect little being inside you for 9 months or so, but it is to be celebrated. With everyone who I know who has a baby I always make a point of congratulating the mother and make her feel just as special, solidarity I guess to the sisterhood, as without womankind where would we be?!
We have had near life stories from one lady on her way into Tesco's just before Christmas who stopped to admire Talu and told us all about her daughter. She was really interesting though and spoke words of wisdom in that her daughter was grown up and married but had chosen not to have children so sadly this lady would not be a grandparent. However she was saying how being active and into sports and activities had given her daughter such a full and enriched upbringing, there had been absolutely no interest of drugs or alcohol due to the friends and activities she did. What she was trying to say was it's all about getting in with the right crowd I suppose and that's all you want for your childen. Anyway we have years before we have to worry about things like that. Now we have a daughter I wonder how 'girly' she will be ( I was quite a tomboy as a child) and when I first went to secondary school some of my class mates were scarily boy mad the age of 12,13, I had barely finished playing with my Sindy dolls! I was big into music, when I was 12 it was Howard Jones, 13 - Aha, luckily the older I got the cooler (I think) it got - The The, The Smiths, The Cure etc! We will have to put up with One Direction I guess now we have a girl, or the equivalent, in a few years when she starts getting into all that, I've warned Mark he may have to accompany her to concerts when they're older, or sooner in Emma (his daughter's) case as she is 6, but I have a feeling her mum would probably take her anyway...
Back to the festive period though, we were so excited of course to be in our new house and now with 2 children (or babies as they both are really) we decided to host Christmas at home. Yes, we are mad. But when it came down to it it wasn't too bad.. Mark did a big food shop the day before Christmas eve and then at 7.30am Christmas eve morning, he popped out to get our turkey from Edwards the butchers in Conwy and one of the best butchers in the area.
Christmas cards on the other hand have fallen by the wayside, but under the circumstances it's the one year I hope we can be forgiven for not sending them. The power of social media can be a very handy tool in situations like this, I plan to put up a notice and a festive photo and wish one and all a Merry christmas as a sort of virtual Christmas card from us instead...
One of the lovely stained glass baubles.
So Christmas is looming large now, the big day is just 2 sleeps away! We have a real Christmas tree in our entrance hall by the stairs which I am really excited about it and it looks just lovely in the space. I love the smell of real Christmas trees. We had one every year in the drawing room at Carreg y Groes and I can remember being really young gazing at the fairy lights on the tree the colours reflecting on the baubles and the tinsel thinking how magical it looked.
We treated ourselves to some new decorations and lights for the tree. Wooden and fabric reindeers, glass baubles bought from "The Christmas Shop" in Conwy which is exactly what the shop is, the main body of the shop specialising in Chocolate and the side annex and upstairs dedicated to Christmas decorations open only in the festive period. Also on Conwy high street is the best toy shop "Yesteryears", https://www.yesteryearstoyshop.co.uk the owners are a really warm, friendly, helpful couple who started their business due to their passion for bespoke, quality, handcrafted, traditional toys rather than the plastic fantastic mass produced options. We bought some lovely wooden skittles painted as soldiers for Sebas as part of his Christmas present. Tallulah has got a beautifully crafted and painted wooden Russian Doll, that opens into five different dolls. They both have something they can keep which is also collectable.
Tallulah's five piece Russian doll.
Two of Sebas' painted wooden soldier skittles.
Christmas family portrait 2013!
Our beautiful tree!
Georgina from the toy shop also gave us a useful tip regarding the tree, to water it daily but to use lemonade which will help it to last longer. Like bought cut flowers with their sachets (which are just sugar and water apparantly) they love their sugary carbs to keep them fresh.
Last weekend the run up to Christmas, we had Emma, Mark's daughter over for the day on Sunday. Emma loves making things and drawing and colouring in. Great for me as I have someone to do creative things with and I like thinking up simple activities to keep her and Sebastian as he gets a bit better at concentrating on things, busy. So this time I drew round, very quickly, one of the wooden reindeer decorations so they could become a garland when cut out, so the noses and mouths overlapped and the tails and back legs overlapped too. I showed Emma how to do some snowflake marks in bright crayons that should show up on the black card we used and away she went. They looked lovely, we cut them out and she took them home to her mum. Sebs and I had a go a couple of days before, he had a scribble and a little go with some glitter which got everywhere! But I did manage to cut them out and stick them above the fireplace.
Wooden reindeer with reindeer stencils.
The reindeer garland with snowflakes that Emma did.
Making the garlands reminded me of something I tried with Emma a few weeks ago. When we were little my mum got us into 'dressing dolls'. Using paper, scissors, card and felt tips and colouring pencils I used to spend hours creating wardrobes for my doll. I stumbled across these really brilliant and fun paper doll books by "I love Mel" which are exactly the same thing but all ready to cut out and they are famous characters, namely Kate Moss, Debbie Harry, as well as Lady Gaga and Beyonce. There is also Adele and Kate Middleton! But I really liked the David Bowie one with the stage costumes too! Great as a fun Christmas present. There are also Colouring in books of Cara Delevinge, model of the moment, and Lily Allen's album cover 'Alright Still' certainly for big kids just like me who like to draw/colour in!
Debbie Harry paper doll
Debbie Harry Paper Doll.
Debbie Harry Paper Doll.
Kare Moss Paper Doll.
Kate Moss Paper Doll.
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Agyness Deyn Paper Doll.
David Bowie Paper Doll Stage Costume Collection, fab!
Saint Sebastian painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1614. Style: Baroque
I've always loved the name Sebastian. It's a strong name. The baby name books that we flicked through when deciding defined it as Greek in origin: "Majestic. Venerated. Lovely". Sebastian is also a third century saint's name. Born in c. 256 he was an early Christian saint and martyr. Commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, it is said that he was killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christian's. According to legend Saint Sebastian was rescued and healed by Irene of Rome after being shot by arrows. But shortly afterwards he criticised Diocletian in person and as a result was clubbed to death in c. 288. He is venerated in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Saint Sebastian is a popular saint amongst soldiers and atheletes, commonly known as the "Patron Saint of Sports".
1945 UK first edition hardback cover of Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.
Sebastian is a name I liked growing up too. Memories stem from watching the Granada production of "Brideshead Revisited" in the 1980's with Anthony Andrews as the charming but doomed and self destructive character battling alcholism, Lord Sebastian Flyte, with his teddy bear Aloyius. Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh we had every episode recorded on VHS video cassettes as my mother loved and still loves that production.
The 1980's series.
A more recent version condensed into a film saw Ben Whishaw who was notably in "The Hour", as the character of Sebastian. He did the role justice, and I did enjoy the film but the screenplay had been tweaked so it differed from the book and 1980's series. Sebastian and Charles' friendship caused uproar amongst purists with a kiss instigated by Sebastian. Whereas the 1980's version was much more subtle, as was the book, with a hint of ambiguity surrounding their close friendship.
Shakespeare also used the name Sebastian in his play "Twelfth Night". Not a play I am familiar with, I have never studied, read or seen the play but Sebastian is the missing brother to his twin sister Viola.
Other famous Sebastian's are of course Sebastian Vettel, and Sebastian Coe. Vettel is the current reigning formula one champion. Vettel had totally escaped us when we chose the name, maybe there is a trend now for naming babies after racing drivers, but it is something we didn't intentionally think of! At the playgroup we go to every wednesday morning there is a little boy the same age called Jenson.
Sebastian Coe I remember clearly watching on the television with my dad. As an athlete he competed with his rivals Steve Ovett and Steve Cram for victorious gold medals in the 1980's. These days The Right Honourable Lord Coe is a Conservative politician.
The band Belle and Sebastian prompted me to comment to Mark that if we had a girl maybe we should call her Belle … However our neighbours to the left of us have a little boy a couple of months younger than Sebas called Seth and a dog called Bella so maybe not. I had visions of calling "Belle" in from the garden from playing and next door's dog come running in also...
After seeing my aunt who lived in Spain when Sebas was only a few months old, she told us that the Spanish shorten Sebastian to Sebas highlighting the "a". We really liked Sebas as a shortened version rather than the obvious Seb. However we and everyone else still abbreviate to Seb too, but people have picked up on Sebas and maybe in the future he will like to be called that too.
For middle names, Mark Peter were chosen after Sebastian's father and grandfathers. My father's full name was Johannes Miguel Angelus, but contrary to that he was simply known as Petie to everyone! This came from when he was little he was called Jopito after Jopy his father, meaning "little Jopy". from "Jo Pito" came Petie. Mark's father's name is Peter, so Peter it was. We later chose Johannes as a middle name for a boy if the next baby was to be a boy but it was not to be utilised obviously!
For a girl, Tallulah, was always the main contender. We wanted a name again that was unusual, and we liked the rythymn of the syllables Tal lu lah, which also goes well with Se bast i an. American Indian in origin, the definition is "Lively, leaping or running water". Spelt without the h on the end, Tallula, has a gaelic meaning that being "princess". We personally like the American Indian definition. I have never known any Tallulah's but always have liked the name. A young thirteen year old Jodie Foster in the children's film Bugsy Malone made in 1976 always sticks in my head singing "My name is Tallulah". We chose Paz Rosita as middle names, both family names. Paz is my middle name, Spanish for peace, the z is pronounced 'th' 'path'. When my parents registered my birth they did not know the spelling of Paz and so on my birth certificate it is spelt Path! Rosita is after my father's mother, Rosa. Rosita is a deriative of her name, with the 'ita' on the end it means little rose.
Tallulah Bankhead is probably the most famous namesake. Outrageous, outspoken, and uninhibited, she was a pretty racy character, known as much for her vices - cocaine, alcohol, hysterical tirades, and scandulous affairs with both men and women, as she was for her winning performances on stage. Born on 31st January 1902, her mother tragically died of Septicemia (blood poisoning) when she was 3 weeks old. Tallulah was brought up by her paternal grandmother whom she was named after, Tallulah James Brockman Bankhead, together with her elder sister Evelyn Eugenia.
Born into the powerful Bankhead-and-Brockman political family, active in the Democratic party in Alabama and the South. Her father was the speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936 to 1940.In 1917, a fifteen year old Bankhead boldly left her established Alabama political family and fled to New York City to fulfill her relentless need for attention and become a star. Five years later she crossed the Atlantic, immediately finding her place as a fixture in British society and the most popular actress in London's West End. By the time she returned to America in the 1930's, she was infamous for throwing marathon parties, bedding her favourite costars and neglecting to keep her escapades secret from the press. At times, her notoriety distracted her audience from her formidable talent and achievements on stage and dampened the critical response to her work. As Bankhead herself put it, "they like me to 'Tallulah' you know - dance and sing and romp and fluff my hair and play reckless parts." In the 1950's she became an increasingly heavy smoker, smoking 150 cigarettes a day. She once tried to seduce Marlon Brando who was twenty years her junior, but he turned her down on account of her bad breath. Still her reputation as a wild, witty over-the-top leading lady persisted until the end of her life at the age of sixty-six.
So both my children have names the same as flamboyant, fast living characters, one a fictional, charming yet self destructive drunkard. The other an outrageous actress, I just hope the outrageous, promiscuous and self destructive traits are not inherited from the names!
A biography & Autobiography by Joel Lobenthal of Tallulah Bankhead.
Tallulah in the early 1920's.
This footage features amongst others the actor also recognisable for playing the lion in "The wizard of Oz" singing "I'll take Tallulah" from the 1942 film "Ship Ahoy".
