We've been busy since our last post, it seems like the end of October went by in the blink of an eye and all of the sudden it's November and just
5 short weeks until our trip to Seattle. Since we last blogged we:
Opened our Halloween box from Grandma McEvers. Highlights: Slim Jims (I DIE!), Rachel Ray magazine, American Halloween candy, Funfetti Halloween cake mix and frosting and our new Halloween haunted house candle feature with Pumpkin Spice candle (which is as close to a Pumpkin Spice latte as I will be getting since I was told last week at Starbucks it will basically never come here since Brits aren't into Thanksgiving).
Opened one of our Christmas presents early. Calum has been unwell for the last month or so. First it was his leg/ankle injury which had him not walking for over a week and then it was a mysterious flu like illness which my Mom thought could be Fifths Disease (http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/fifth.html)-you can kind of see the "slapped cheeks" look in the pic above that is characteristic of it. Miserable. Getting sick in the middle of the night, endless changing of clothes, sheets and etc. Calum used to eat anything you put in front of him and since then he's become picky and seems to have lost his appetite. This week he has an ear infection. It's never ending and distressing as a Mom to see your child sick and in pain and not be able to do much about it. Since we're going to be in Miami for Christmas we decided to go light on the gifts this year (as in Calum is getting 3 Fisher Price toys and the truck above is one of them) and as a perk me up we decided to give Calum one of the gifts early. It worked, for about 15 minutes!
Dressed up as a lion for Halloween. I think the look in the top pic says it all.
Had our 2nd annual Halloween party. Since we met last summer, the Mums in our post natal group have stayed in touch and they all came over on Halloween with the babies for our 2nd annual Halloween party. 6 babies + 6 Mums = chaos. That said, it was really fun for me to have them here all together and I look forward to having the party for years to come. I'm so lucky to have met these women, they have really helped me get through some challenging times as a new Mom and Calum is pretty lucky to have such a great group of friends already. BTW, this is the only pic from the day with all 6 babies and it also pretty much sums up the day.
Read lots of books. Calum has always been a big book lover (just like Mommy!) and can never have enough story time before bed. What started as a ritual of Calum and I of reading a book after the bath in his room has extended to him picking a second or third book and bringing it into our room to read with Daddy before his bottle. In addition to our own collection which has been pretty much all thanks to Auntie Tara, Calum gets to have 8 books at a time from the library which has been great-he loves going to pick them out and it allows us to change the selection based on what he's into at the moment. Currently he's into books about animals, making the sounds that they make, and he loves books with flaps to open.
Went to the Mary J Blige concert. Yes, I've been on an old school tour lately-Joe, Keith Sweat and now Mary. Our friends the St Martins were able to get box tickets to see Mary J Blige last week and I have to say, it's the best concert I've ever been to. She sang her heart out for 2+ hours and I found myself knowing almost every song. Amazing. In the bottom pic on the right is a footballer named Anton Ferdinand who happened to be sat in our box.
Renewed our love for our local park. Now that Calum has perfected his walking, the local park is even better than it ever was before because it offers unlimited space for him to run and play and that's just what he's been doing lately as often as he can get us down there. I mentioned before, but this park is literally right behind our house and is only accessible by a path that starts along a big duck pond that our house backs onto. The top pic is our attempt at feeding the ducks-Calum wasn't too happy about sharing his bread, hence him sneaking a bite for himself.
Had cousin Rhys over for a night. Mark's sister Tracey's baby, Rhys, is one day shy of a year younger than Calum so I wasn't sure how we would cope with two babies for the night but it all went off without a hitch. Calum couldn't quite figure out why his old baby toys were out and for the most part didn't pay much notice to Rhys being there-sadly he never seems to get jealous when I hold other babies although I suppose this will be a good thing if/when we have a second. Rhys is a very easy baby who loves to be held all the time (opposite to Calum at this age) and it was a pleasure to have him. The second photo is Calum giving Rhys a kiss-it's taken him ages to be coaxed into kissing but in the last week he's really seemed to pick it up and it's pretty cute.
Opened our Halloween box from Grandma McEvers. Highlights: Slim Jims (I DIE!), Rachel Ray magazine, American Halloween candy, Funfetti Halloween cake mix and frosting and our new Halloween haunted house candle feature with Pumpkin Spice candle (which is as close to a Pumpkin Spice latte as I will be getting since I was told last week at Starbucks it will basically never come here since Brits aren't into Thanksgiving).
Opened one of our Christmas presents early. Calum has been unwell for the last month or so. First it was his leg/ankle injury which had him not walking for over a week and then it was a mysterious flu like illness which my Mom thought could be Fifths Disease (http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/fifth.html)-you can kind of see the "slapped cheeks" look in the pic above that is characteristic of it. Miserable. Getting sick in the middle of the night, endless changing of clothes, sheets and etc. Calum used to eat anything you put in front of him and since then he's become picky and seems to have lost his appetite. This week he has an ear infection. It's never ending and distressing as a Mom to see your child sick and in pain and not be able to do much about it. Since we're going to be in Miami for Christmas we decided to go light on the gifts this year (as in Calum is getting 3 Fisher Price toys and the truck above is one of them) and as a perk me up we decided to give Calum one of the gifts early. It worked, for about 15 minutes!
Dressed up as a lion for Halloween. I think the look in the top pic says it all.
Had our 2nd annual Halloween party. Since we met last summer, the Mums in our post natal group have stayed in touch and they all came over on Halloween with the babies for our 2nd annual Halloween party. 6 babies + 6 Mums = chaos. That said, it was really fun for me to have them here all together and I look forward to having the party for years to come. I'm so lucky to have met these women, they have really helped me get through some challenging times as a new Mom and Calum is pretty lucky to have such a great group of friends already. BTW, this is the only pic from the day with all 6 babies and it also pretty much sums up the day.
Read lots of books. Calum has always been a big book lover (just like Mommy!) and can never have enough story time before bed. What started as a ritual of Calum and I of reading a book after the bath in his room has extended to him picking a second or third book and bringing it into our room to read with Daddy before his bottle. In addition to our own collection which has been pretty much all thanks to Auntie Tara, Calum gets to have 8 books at a time from the library which has been great-he loves going to pick them out and it allows us to change the selection based on what he's into at the moment. Currently he's into books about animals, making the sounds that they make, and he loves books with flaps to open.
Went to the Mary J Blige concert. Yes, I've been on an old school tour lately-Joe, Keith Sweat and now Mary. Our friends the St Martins were able to get box tickets to see Mary J Blige last week and I have to say, it's the best concert I've ever been to. She sang her heart out for 2+ hours and I found myself knowing almost every song. Amazing. In the bottom pic on the right is a footballer named Anton Ferdinand who happened to be sat in our box.
Renewed our love for our local park. Now that Calum has perfected his walking, the local park is even better than it ever was before because it offers unlimited space for him to run and play and that's just what he's been doing lately as often as he can get us down there. I mentioned before, but this park is literally right behind our house and is only accessible by a path that starts along a big duck pond that our house backs onto. The top pic is our attempt at feeding the ducks-Calum wasn't too happy about sharing his bread, hence him sneaking a bite for himself.
Had cousin Rhys over for a night. Mark's sister Tracey's baby, Rhys, is one day shy of a year younger than Calum so I wasn't sure how we would cope with two babies for the night but it all went off without a hitch. Calum couldn't quite figure out why his old baby toys were out and for the most part didn't pay much notice to Rhys being there-sadly he never seems to get jealous when I hold other babies although I suppose this will be a good thing if/when we have a second. Rhys is a very easy baby who loves to be held all the time (opposite to Calum at this age) and it was a pleasure to have him. The second photo is Calum giving Rhys a kiss-it's taken him ages to be coaxed into kissing but in the last week he's really seemed to pick it up and it's pretty cute.
