Occupation: Mum

Finally after many years of wearing glasses I made the jump and got contacts over the weekend. On Sunday I had my appointment at the optometrist and previous to the exam she asked a few standard questions. When she got to the occupation bit she automatically selected for me the "Mum" option as I had been telling her (and anyone who will listen these days) about Calum. Since I graduated college I've always fallen safely into the "sales" option and just hearing someone else say out loud that my job these days was as a Mum really hit me for some reason. Last night I had the chance to think about it a little more as Calum decided that sleep is for wimps and kept me up most of the night. Am I happy with being "just" a Mum?

Growing up I spent a lot of time at my grandparents and was very close to my Mom's mom, Grandma Britton. Grandma Britton was an amazing cook, always had her house in perfect order and did stacks of ironing at lighting bolt speed. Not only was she a Mom but she was a true (and great) housewife. As a child I always wondered about what she did before she had kids and I wonder someday if I don't go back to work if Calum will do the same. I want him to be proud of me, but is being a Mum (which as we all know is in fact the hardest job out there) something he can be proud of?

The hot topic of conversation amongst my Mummy friends these days is about work, are we going back, if so when and will it be part time, etc. I have to say that four and a half months in I can't imagine a job that would pay me enough to take me away from spending every possible minute with Calum. While I've felt a lot lately like time is wasting away a bit as I'm not being as productive with it as I would like, that's what the job requires at the moment and I just have to remind myself that being a Mum is a job whose description is every changing and I'm looking forward to each new day as it comes.

Have a great week x

Funny....

As Calum gets older he is turning into quite the comedian and lately has been an endless source of entertainment for Mark & I. Last week we tried giving Calum rice cereal for the first time which was absolutely hilarious, his facial expressions were priceless. He's turned into quite the entertainer with his new fake cough as well, he's now learned that if he fakes a coughing fit Mommy or Daddy will come running in a state of panic to make sure he's okay and he's then got an instant audience. Yesterday Mark and I went out to breakfast and then for a walk in Greenwich Park and along the way he seemed to think Mark was absolutely hilarious, rewarding us with laughs and giggles which still bring tears to my eyes every time I hear them, I swear there is no sweeter sound. Mark's Mum watched Calum on Saturday night so Mark and I could go on a much needed date and apparently he loved the audience he had for his bath, laughing away until it ended in tears from too much excitement.

I would love to think Calum is unique and that these are the first little signs of his personality but I hate to say that I think these experiences are pretty common for most other Moms out there and within the Mummy groups I'm part of who also have babies at this age. It does seem however that Calum is quite the socialable baby, when we go to baby yoga or when we had the girls and their babies over the past few weeks for our baby massage class he just loves smiling and talking to other babies and he definitely is more vocal then the other babies we know. Funnily enough he seems to have warmed more to baby boys which has got Mark worried that poor Calum might be gay ;)!!! Regardless of whether or not these little signs of personality are or are not "real", I've been loving every single day more then the next with my handsome little boy and am counting the days until we are home and he gets to meet my friends and family.

Hope you all have a great week x

Despite how it looks in this pic, his legs are actually of normal preportion!

First bite of cereal

The seafront....

This past weekend in the U.K. was a 3 day weekend and to mark the last non-official day of summer (since we don't celebrate Labor Day), Mark and I took Calum to Whitstable, Kent-a historic little seaside town about an hour's drive from where we live. The weather was gorgeous and we managed to get out of the house at a respectable 11 a.m. which is pretty good for us these days! For whatever reason in England rather then saying seaside like we would at home, they refer to it as the "seafront" (I will never cease to be curious as to how these little idiosyncrasies came about in the English language). Anyway, we had a lovely walk along the seafront and enjoyed one of the nicest days of the summer. We had an amazing lunch (chili tiger prawns, scallops wrapped in pancetta....) and homemade donuts (a typical seafront treat) afterwards. It was a perfect day with my little family and one that once again made me realise how lucky I am. Hope you all enjoyed your weekends. x

Sea in the background

Calum in his new hat and overalls from Grandma McEvers

Mark always jokes about houses here that are older than "my country"-this one actually was!

Greenwich Park

Yesterday was one of those days where you can feel fall coming, but as the weather was still pretty sunny it was the perfect day for a picnic with my sister in law Rachel and niece and nephew Holly and Max. We went to the nearby Greenwich Park which is the largest park in London and the birthplace of Henry VIII (apparently it's been a park since Roman times and was made a "royal" park in 1427)! Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to build The Royal Observatory and Greenwich Park is most famous for Greenwich Mean Time. The park itself is gorgeous, there are amazing views of London and lots of walking space for me and Calum to explore later. We had a lovely picnic and then went walking with the kids who loved the massive playground and pond with paddle boats. It was fun to spend time with the kids and see their relationship with Calum grow, it's a shame they have to go back to school next week.

On another note, one of my best friends Tara Holmes gave birth on Wednesday August 26th to a very handsome boy named Jackson Jacob who was a whopping 9lbs 13 oz! I'm heartbroken that I won't get to meet him until next spring on our next U.S. visit but am certain that Tara will keep us posted with lots of great pics as she was our resident photographer throughout college and got a brilliant new camera for Jackson's arrival. Congrats to Justin and Tara on starting the next chapter in their lives together, they are going to be great parents and I know one day Calum and Jackson are going to be great friends.

Baby Jackson

Calum & Mommy

Views of the Thames and the City

Holly & Max

Burning the fat...

Today marks 4 months since my little ham came into my life and as he gets bigger (16 lbs 13 oz as of last week) I'm FINALLY getting a bit smaller. It's no secret that I gained some serious weight while I was pregnant with Calum (something like 50lbs which is a lot considering I weighed about 125 before I was preggo!) and for some silly reason I didn't think it would be so hard to lose it after I had him. Hah! Admittedly I haven't been able to do a lot, anyone who has had a baby knows you don't get much time to yourself and any time you do have probably isn't going to go to exercise.

This week my sister in law Rachel and I are going to join Weight Watchers so I can lose that last stone (here in the UK people weigh themselves by "stones", 1 stone is equal to 14 lbs) and I'm joining a bootcamp which they do every Saturday (this is progressive stuff for the UK, it's the first of it's kind even though they are super popular in America). Since I cut down on breastfeeding I've managed to lose 7 lbs in the last week and a half which is great, I even fit into a few pairs of my old jeans! Fingers and toes crossed that by the time we come to Seattle (Oct. 4th), I'm almost back to my old self!

Calum has been getting active too, last week we bought him a Bumbo (which he's not quite sure about) and one of those door jumpers that we all had as kids (my Mom said I loved mine). The door jumper has been a hit, Mark and I find it hilarious to watch Calum do his little tap dance like moves trying to figure out how to make jumps. On Friday his first tooth appeared which would explain the massive amounts of drool (called dribble here) that he's been producing these days! The jumper seat (and the floor) is soaked after a few minutes of playing! While I like most people think big babies are cute, I am getting a touch worried that he's still in the 91st percentile for weight but yet an average height. Never once has he ever turned down food, everytime I give him a bottle he cries when it's done and even when I breastfed I was the one who had to stop him from feeding, he never stopped himself. He loves his food! Let's hope we both burn a bit of fat in the upcoming weeks!

We're baaaaaaack!

Well, actually we were back late on Sunday evening but things have been so hectic this week that I'm just now getting a chance to post. Since we've been back our little pickle (Calum) has also been a bit of a handful as he's trying to adjust to a different schedule which hasn't been helped by having his 3rd round of shots on Monday, either. We spent last week in Villa Moura, Portugal which is on The Algarve-the southwest corner of Portugal which is very popular with British holidaymakers because of it's hot weather and lovely beaches. Unfortunately because the weather was so hot we couldn't take Calum to enjoy the lovely beaches but we did enjoy lots of time by the pool in front of the condo we shared with my brother and sister in law and their two kids (Mark's Mum and boyfriend stayed at a condo across the way from us and Mark's sister and her boyfriend came out for a couple of days to visit, too!).

Mark and I spent our days taking "shifts" with Calum (I had one hour, he had the next so we could get some sun and relaxation time), taking him in the pool (which he wasn't quite sure about), and watching him interact with the family (it was particularly sweet to see the kids bond with him). Every night the whole family would get together and head out to dinner at around 8 or 9 p.m. which is typical in Portugal as it's too hot to go any earlier and the Portuguese have a siesta during the day so they don't eat dinner until later in the evening. Calum was an absolute trooper, sleeping most nights in his stroller while we were at dinner and slept every night all the way through; one morning he even slept until 9.45 a.m.! Unfortunately he decided on day two that he didn't want to breast feed anymore so we were forced to switch over to the "dark side" and compliment his diet with formula which has been great for both of us-less stress and more time to enjoy together.

It was admittedly nice to be home, whilst I loved the hot weather and spending more time with Mark there is something to be said for the conveniences of home-the bottle warmer, Calum's swing and playmat and a proper changing table! The trip was a great little practice for our trip in a few weeks to Seattle although I'm still anxious about the 9 hour flight with Calum (even though he did great on the flight to and from Faro) and even more worried about how we will all adjust to the time difference. Below are a few pics, Calum has turned into quite the attention seeker lately and is a real ham which has been great to watch. Hope everyone is well xxx

Our little ham, looking more like me every day!

The ENTIRE Verghese clan

Check out that 6-pack!

Calum's first dip in the pool (Mommy and Daddy went a little overboard with his swim equipment!)

Daddy and Calum in their matching Tottenham Hotspurs shorts

Mark, Calum and Max relaxing in the morning

Calum and cousin Holly on the plane ride home-no wonder he was content!

Adeus

Adeus (goodbye in Portugese) everyone, after 8 LONG months without a holiday (or even a weekend away!) we are off for our first family holiday to the Algarve in Portugal. I wish I could say I was super excited but in reality I'm super apprehensive about travelling with a 15-week old baby as even the fairly simple task of packing has proven to be a lot more complicated then it ever was when there was just two of us. The ENTIRE Verghese clan (11 in total) will be vacationing together which has only ever happened several times before-to Ireland for a wedding and a funeral and to Italy for our wedding. Should be...INTERESTING but also great, we will be lucky to have so many helpers around. Will of course have loads of pics to share when we're back on the 16th. Until then, wish us luck-still can't get over how crazy it is that my baby has his own passport at 3 mos (I got my passport at 21!) and will have 2 stamps on it by the time he's 6 mos old! Guess there is a slight trade off for the sacrifice I make for living abroad and away from home, let's just hope he remembers his world travels when he gets older. Take care x

Our (not so little) little ham