MiAmi

Wow am I behind with my blog posts! The weeks since we have been back from our US trip have been manic; in addition to getting used to our new routine with Calum at nursery Monday, Wednesday and Friday I am also trying to remember how I managed to get everything else done in my two days "off".

Since my last post Calum has been doing really well at "school", so well in fact that his key worker (person in charge of monitoring him and observing him, updating his little book on his developments) wrote in his book on Wednesday that "Calum was settling in very well". Whew! Even though he still cries a little when we drop him off, seeing him owning the place when I come to pick him up makes me feel a lot better and I've loved the peace and quiet at the "office" (AKA home).

So about a month ago I left Seattle for Miami where the 3 of us decided to spend Xmas this year. Calum and I had a great week in Seattle, he did amazing on the flight over with me and I wouldn't hesitate doing it again solo although I will definitely be waiting a few months! Our time in Seattle wasn't enough, it never is-didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see, everything was rushed as always, so I was glad to have a week with my two boys in Miami of relaxing by the pool, hitting the beach and doing some sightseeing.

We stayed in Coconut Grove, a little area about 15 minutes from downtown which was perfect for us-loads of restaurants in walking distance, a few shops and most importantly-family friendly. I love Miami but let's be honest, we weren't exactly going to be fitting in at the Delano's pool with a screaming toddler and we also weren't going to leave our baby with some random stranger so we could hit the bars/clubs on South Beach so this was a great option for us.

Anyway, the first couple of days were great-Calum was over the moon to be reunited with his Daddy and the weather was nice enough for us to lay out at the pool. Christmas Eve we had one of the most amazing Italian dinners I've had in my life and Christmas Day was spot on perfect. We had lunch at a French place around the corner, played in the park with Calum and then had a few drinks whilst watching the Lakers v Heat game (Mark has become a little obsessed with NBA lately and the Heat are his team).

Unfortunately Miami then experienced some of the coldest days they have had in history so we spent the rest of our trip out of the sun, in the malls, and spent one perfect day at Key Biscane.

On our last night we went to a Miami Heat game, in fact we actually extended our trip by a day so we could go to the game. When we last went to Miami two years ago (http://markandjenverghese.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome-to-miami.html) we went to Mark's first ever live game and he loved it. Needless to say, taking a toddler to the game was going to be a whole different experience. It started out fine-we strapped Calum into the Baby Bjorn which is total child cruelty considering it's made for up to 25lbs and Calum must be approaching somewhere in the early 30s these days-not to mention he and the wearer looked totally ridiculous. Unfortunately things progressively got worse as the game went on, we could no longer ply Calum with snacks and the people in front of us weren't really enjoying having Calum throw his toys at them so at half time I strapped Calum on and made myself busy until the 3rd quarter ended and we left at the start of the 4th. Bummer.

Anyway, we had a great trip and I loved having a stress free, chilled out Xmas. Next year we're going to be here in the UK but Xmas 2012 will be spent in the US again and I'm hoping that we can meet my parents half way and have another Xmas in Miami.