It's a good thing I keep the floors clean...

It's a good thing I keep the floors clean...

Because Calum seems to think it's perfectly okay to eat off the floor. In fact, I think he prefers to judging by the fact that he choses to throw at least 1/2 of every meal he eats on the floor and loves nothing more then taking a bag of (insert whatever your little heart desires here: Cheerios, chips, cookies, etc.) and emptying it on the floor. Oh, and he doesn't discriminate-he gets just as much enjoyment from throwing stuff on the carpet as he does the tile, and Mom gets to have even more fun trying to get ground up bits of (Cheerios, chips, cookies, etc.) off of our berber carpet.

Calum's New Room

Hard to believe we've lived in our "new" house for 9 months now. When I look around there are still a million little things I want to do but it just seems like all of that energy we had when we moved in to make it how we wanted it has faded and things seem to happen slowly but surely now. My "honey to do list" is more imaginary then real as our weekends seem to go by in the blink of an eye and the enthusiasm Mark showed for his tool box has also waned.

Anyway, I digress.


Calum's room had been a little neglected so a few weeks ago we finally got around to updating it. He's at a hard age where he's not quite ready for "big boy" stuff but then he's not really a baby anymore, either. We found this retro German print from the 70s and liked the way it kind of funked up his room without being too cutesy/predictable (read: airplanes, cars, sports, etc.). I think the pattern kind of freaked him out for awhile because the first few nights he didn't sleep so great but now every morning when I go in to his room he is so excited to point out to me the colours he knows (blue and yellow at the moment) and the pictures he recognises (ducks, trains, cars, etc.).


Yeah, the nursing chair is still in there. We still use it every once in awhile (not for nursing obv!) but are going to take it out in April when we move his beloved teepee from his downstairs playroom into his room to be replaced with the table and chairs we got him for his birthday.

US

Yeah, we've been a little MIA lately. Under the radar. Seems like every time I sit down to write a post, I feel as if I've not got anything very exciting to write about. Oh, and it doesn't help that since we got back in January I've taken all total of about 10 pictures of Calum. Hoping he doesn't notice this neglect when he gets older and looks back at his old photo books. Oh, that's right-I stopped updating those about a year ago. Ooops.

Calum has settled into nursery really well-today he ran up to the front door with a big smile on his face so I think it's safe to say he likes it. I still look forward to the end of my working days when I get to go pick him up, the smile I get is the best reward a Mom could ask for.

Calum being at nursery has also been better for me work wise. This month I've billed as much as I did for the whole of last year! I'm really pleased that my hard work has paid off and the "target" Mark has set for me to pay off our new Audi Q5 which will be ready in June/July has been achieved so at least I've kept "the boss" (AKA MARK) happy (for now!).

Bye bye, Range-so excited!

We've decided we're definitely coming back in May for my cousin's WSU graduation and might take a side trip this time to San Francisco which is a place both Mark and I have yet to see-let's just hope it's manageable with a toddler!

My Mom has booked a trip to visit in April, I'm counting the days and can't wait for her to come. She's even extended her trip so she can stay for the royal wedding so that should be fun. She will also be here for Calum's 2nd birthday on April 24th (Easter!), this year I've decided to throw him a proper party so will be looking for ideas from you Moms out there soon. On April 23rd I'm going to be confirmed and christened into the Catholic church, going to finally make it official so will be a really nice visit and I can't wait to have her here.

Yesterday we had one of those rare sunny, winter days and I met my friend Zoe and her son Sean for a walk around a local nature trail and lunch. Calum loved every second of being free to roam in the woods which I realised was his first real experience in the woods. The look on his face when he bit it in the dirt was priceless-definitely Mommy's boy (not pleased at all with the dirt on his hands!). In fact, 'mess' is one of his favourite words. Ha!

Calum and Sean (and a bunch of smelly piglets!)
My little piglet

Also thought I would include a few pics from when my Mom's Xmas presents arrived last month. My Mom went nuts like she always does and bought us far too much for Xmas. Since we were limited on luggage space when coming back home she decided she would mail most of it back. In total there were 5 boxes and she spent something like $500 in postage!!! Calum has come to know that good things come in brown cardboard boxes and loved "helping" me open them as they arrived-particularly the one with his new lawnmower which happens to be the loudest/most annoying toy ever.

Getting into Mommy's treats!

In action
Doing a bit of maintenance

Have a great week, more updates soon x

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.

Nursery

Monday marks Calum's first day at nursery (AKA daycare in the US). Mark's Mum, Pat, has been watching Calum here at our house since February when I went back to work and is going to watch our nephew now that Mark's sister is going back to work. We looked around at a lot of options but in the end settled on a nursery in between our house and Mark's office that is about a 10 minute drive from our house.

Calum will be in their toddler room which consists of 12 other kiddies from his age up to 2 yrs 9 mos. On Wednesday morning I went for our first "settling in" day which was a chance for me to be in the room with him while he got to know everyone and I'm happy to say he seemed to have a great time while I chatted to the head of the room, so much so that after an hour she announced that I should leave him for a bit. Well, I wasn't expecting this and kind of stammered, then snuck out and proceeded to cry on the walk to Starbucks, trying to remember what it is you do with yourself when you have an hour of free time and you aren't anywhere near a bed to sleep in or a t.v. to watch.

I called Mark on the walk who was fairly sympathetic and then checked my watch every 5 minutes for the next hour and sped walked to go back to get him. When I picked him up he had been outside playing and was seemingly quite happy. He was also dirty. Shock horror for those of you who know me. In 2 hours there he managed to get dirt all over his trousers and berry stains on his sweater. Needless to say that today when I dropped him off he was in the grungiest clothes I could find.

Yes, I cried again today and I imagine on Monday when he does his first full day (8.30-6) I will also cry. Ho hum. I guess it's better to do it now rather then in a couple of years when he's off to preschool and at least he's been dealing with it better than I.

Pictures finally uploaded from Seattle/Xmas/Miami but as I'm supposed to be working whilst writing this, I better save those for another post. Have a great weekend x

That's not my baby.....

Mark took the above picture yesterday and when I saw it I thought to myself, that's not my baby-that's my little boy! Over the last few weeks Calum really seems to have morphed from a baby to a toddler which has been bittersweet.

When we were on vacation Calum got his own meals ordered at dinner rather than the last time when we were on holiday scrambling to find decent jarred baby food in a "foreign" environment. I can't believe the choices in America-I think I had more fun ordering for Calum (and eating his "leftovers") then I did for myself!

When BA failed to deliver our stroller in Seattle and it didn't show up until 8 days later in Miami, it wasn't the end of the world because Calum can now walk wherever we go (although we have had some serious tantrums whilst in the reigns).

We can't really shop at Cater's anymore since it's all baby stuff although I did buy a pack of the white undershirts in 24 months even though Ashley kindly pointed out to me (in true Ashley style) that maybe Calum is a bit old to be wearing shirts that button at the bottom which I suppose is another sign that Calum is no longer a baby but my little boy.

In fact, we no longer shop in the baby section at our beloved (and much missed!) Nordstrom-Calum is a 2T.

I love this little boy-he was my star on the 10.5 hour solo flight from Heathrow to Seattle and did so good being carted around from place to place, staying up way past his bed time and adjusting to jet lag a lot better then his Mom did. He made our little family trip to Miami for Christmas, it didn't matter where we were as long as he was having fun and having fun he did-from splashing around for hours in the pool, to trying to make new hot girlfriends as you do when you are in Miami (if Dad couldn't do it, someone had to!), to running along the beach at Key Biscane-he loved it and we loved it and that's what it's all about. This little boy. Love him!

Snow day(s)

On Tuesday morning I woke up and immediately felt like a kid again, we had snow! I had been feeling a bit jealous of you guys in Seattle and loved the thought of having a lazy day at home with Mark and Calum, especially since Mark had been gone in Barcelona the weekend before.

Day 1-10 a.m.
Checking it out
Day 1-5 p.m., look how much snow we got!

Tuesday was great, nothing like a little snow to make you feel like baking. I made an Apple Upside Down Cake from Cooking Light's October issue, my Grandma's Banana Cupcakes, did about 4 loads of laundry, watched Repo Men with Mark while Calum was napping (awful movie), made a proper lunch for my boys, took Calum out to play in the snow and had a lazy evening in. I realised that if I lived somewhere where it snowed a lot, I would be huge-all you want to do is bake, eat crap and be lazy! Snow also makes it really hard to get to the gym which isn't ideal with Miami around the corner.

Calum not sure about the snow

Wednesday I woke up and we had even more snow. Mark decided he would actually try doing some work which he doesn't realise just doesn't happen when you have a 19 month old running around (which might have been a blessing as he now realises what I go through on my "days off"). We didn't bother going out in the snow because Calum really just wasn't sure about it the day before, which I can't really blame him for as it was up to his waist and there didn't seem to be any cleared patches for respite! Spending 15 minutes getting all bundled up for 5 minutes out in the snow to be followed by 20 minutes of cleaning up after the discarded layers from two boys just didn't seem worth it. I scavenged in the fridge and managed to produce a decent dinner from very little ingredients and almost no vegetables since I hadn't been to the store since the week before (fried rice with chicken and crispy noodles), but I think the fatty non-diet food was finally catching up to me. Managed to polish off the last bottle of wine in the house (well, except the sketchy bottle of red our neighbor brought at the beginning of the summer that is left for emergencies only).

The strip

Today (Thursday) I was even less enthusiastic about another snow day. I had a cupcake for breakfast, leftover fried rice for lunch. Mark decided he would try to get the car out and go to work, had a laugh watching him clear a foot of snow off the car with only his hands-we hadn't really expected a blizzard in November and don't even own a snow brush, shovel or an ice scraper (unless you count the credit card sized one I put in his stocking last year which just didn't seem sufficient). Mark managed to get out, I managed to email him my grocery list and now Calum and I are enjoying some peace and quiet. Will be very interesting to see what Mark brings home from the grocery store tonight since the last time he stepped in one was not long after Calum was born. He's been there 15 mintues and I've already had 4 calls....

Day 3, 1 p.m.

Not feeling overly optimistic about the prediction of more snow and colder temperatures meaning what we have won't go away anytime soon. Have a much needed hair appointment scheduled for Saturday morning which is unlikely to happen I'm afraid which isn't ideal with the clock ticking on our trip home-you might all see me back to my roots, literally!

Calum loving the snow days

As I write the snow continues to fall so looks like I will be housebound for a few more snow days. At least I get time to blog! x