Triennale (3 years)

Three years ago today Mark and I were married in Ravello, Italy. I went through some of our wedding photos yesterday and they brought back memories of what was a truly magical and special day which was only enhanced by the amazing location, fantastic guests, and gorgeous food and wine (and lots of it!). Never in my life did I think I would marry an Englishman and most definitely not in Italy-if you would have told me 6 years ago where my life would lead, I would have never believed you (nor would most of my family and friends!). That said, I'm a pretty lucky girl-I've got a gorgeous, funny and very hard working and clever husband who has given me the gift of being a mother to the most cheeky, sweet, caring and cute little boy in the world. Tonight we celebrate by having dinner at a little Italian restaurant nearby although I am definitely wishing I could be back here again-

Flat Head

So over the past week I've been trying to back up all of the photos stored on our computer onto CDs since the (literally) thousands of pictures I've stored of Calum make my computer move at snail pace*. Whilst doing so I came across the below pic of Calum's profile shot, taken in January 2010. At the time I remember how concerned we were about Calum's flat head, we even went as far as doing some research on those awful helmets they have (actually saw a baby in one at the store last week and couldn't help but stare). What a difference 10 months makes!

BEFORE

AFTER

*P.S. How are you other Moms out there storing your pics? I've started to get really freaked out by technology and worried that someday CDs will be obsolete and then how will I access those precious baby pics? I think I went a bit over the top with the first 6 months which I have CDs for, Rachel has CDs for in her safe and I kept the SD card for. Any suggestions on the best method? x

Me? SPOILED?!

This weekend we went on a mini shopping spree. It would seem that my 17 month old son was in need of a new wardrobe even though he spends 75% of his time at home in sweats or PJs, Mark and I still felt the need to spend some serious cash outfitting him in all of the latest fall styles as well as a few new pairs of shoes now that he's walking (how cute are baby Converse?!). I have to admit, I actually think I prefer shopping for Calum-guess it takes me back to when I was a little girl and dressing up my dolls, it's fun to play dress up with Calum and he even seems to enjoy it although we found out that having a baby who thinks he can walk makes trips to the mall in a stroller a lot harder than they were before. We're about thisclose to investing in a pair of reigns.

Anyway, in addition to Calum's new fall wardrobe we also treated him to a slide. Calum loves slides and when we go to the park he zeros in on them immediately, crying and throwing a fit when he is separated from his favorite toy. I've become a bit thrifty lately and been using this site here in the UK called NetMums where you can source some great barely used stuff so we managed to get him one for £10 and it's been brilliant (if only he could learn how to get himself up the ladder and onto his bottom himself-it's a serious work out for Mom!). Perfect for those rainy days that are right around the corner when we're stuck inside.

Oh, and what else does a 17 month old baby need? His own chair of course! Mark and I went to this local nursery last weekend and Calum fell in love with this little camping chair which now adorns our newly decorated grown up living room which is slowly looking more and more like Calum's playroom next door... When we put him in it at the store Mark said to me it really hit him for the first time that he's not a baby anymore but a little boy and I have to say, he does look pretty grown up sitting there all on his own.

My new chair

At the nursery on the nature trail

Wallabies!

Otherwise over the last week or so we've been going through the tireless process of trying to find a new childcare option since we won't have Mark's Mum any longer from January. We've seen 3 daycares (called nursuries here) and met with 2 childminders which are like nannies who operate from their own house and are regulated by the government so background checked and etc. and required to follow a ciriculum with the children. The first thing I've realised is how expensive they are-even though we only need him to be watched 3 days a week we are still looking at about £600/month which is about double what we've been paying Mark's Mum so the pressure will be on me even more to be making placements. I've also realised how much of a control freak/neat freak I am and how hard it's going to be for me to let go and enter into this next stage of Calum's life. A couple of the places we've seen I wouldn't leave my dog in (if I had one), let alone my precious child. I worry about how much time he will be spending with someone who isn't family, someone I don't really know and how much that person will shape his life. Most of all I wonder how I will get through those 3 days a week with only seeing him in the morning and then for dinner and a bath when he gets home at night.

On the more exciting front, work is going really well and I had a great meeting with an old client last week which has really helped boost my confidence. Mark is in the process of signing a lease for new offices where he and his partner will move their staff which is super exciting, I'm so proud of how well he's done in such a short period of time and hope it will continue and he can deliver on his promise that we can move back to the US in the next 5 years. In the next week or two we're booking our tickets back to Seattle for either Thanksgiving or sometime around Christmas so it will be nice to have that to look forward to again and I know the trip will come up before we know it. Have a great week x

My waiter in training

So it's finally happened (well kind of finally happened), CALUM IS WALKING. Yes, on Sunday the 5th of September at approximately 1.35 p.m. GMT (that's THE Greenwich Mean Time) Calum Xavier Verghese AKA Cal, AKA Big Cal, AKA Munchkin, AKA Munchie, AKA Bieber, started walking after being subjected to watching paint dry (literally) and other mind numbing DIY tasks that his parents were trying to get through on a boring Sunday afternoon. He was 16 months and 8 days old.

Yep, after Mark and I trying to coax him like a little dog with treats, after subjecting him to hours of kid socialising hoping he would just pick it up like my Mom claimed I did after a visit to the doctor's office, Calum just decided to up and go when we weren't even looking! Guess this is true Calum fashion though, he's never been one to do things when we want him to, he's definitely stubborn (not sure where he gets that from?! MARK! JEN!!!), and even now, 5 days later, he won't walk if I try prompting him which was a little embarrassing at our Talking Tots class this morning when I came in bragging about how he was walking and he spent the whole class alternating between sitting on his bum and arching his back when I tried to get him to stand.

Oh well, I have proof! See the video below. Someone get this kid some knee pads! I heard Huggies makes them, is this true Moms out there?

Yes, he is a waiter in training-in weeks I will have him with a tray in that little outstretched hand with a glass of Sav Blanc perched upon it. Love this little boy, and am so proud he's finally in the club! Watch out girls!

A Boy's Boy

Calum was 16 months old on Tuesday and as he enters toddlerhood he is no longer a baby but a true "boy's boy". Up until now I haven't noticed much difference between what he's into and what our baby girlfriends are into but in the last couple of weeks he's really started to show a true affinity for cars, beating people up, making a mess, and a few other things characterised with being a boy/man (is there a difference?!).

Case in point? Calum's favourite thing to do in the kitchen while I'm cooking is push the chairs from one end to the other, not an easy feat considering the kitchen is about 20 feet long. Once he's got a chair on one end he will usually try to push his high chair over for a chair party and has even tried to push me over on the bench. His strength amazes me.

Chair pushing

Last week we received a package from my Mom, always a treat since it's guaranteed to include a few issues of Cooking Light, a bag or two of Jolly Ranchers and Sour Patch Kids (gold dust since we can't get them here) and treats for Mr. Spoiled himself (I passed him the title when he entered the world, from one only child to another!). When we were in Seattle my Mom gave Calum a fire truck he could ride around on and no surprise with all the shopping we did, we couldn't fit it in the luggage back home so she sent it in our package and he's not taken his butt off the thing since! Within a day he learned how to steer it around and go backwards and forwards. Pretty cute although it might be hindering his walking as he's still not taken any more then a couple of steps since Aug. 18th (the day he took his first ever unaided steps!).

Driving

My clever boy also finally realised the stairs are made for climbing. Within about 3 seconds flat he can get from the bottom to the top which is pretty impressive considering there are 13 stairs in total and a landing in between! Not great for us though as we have not one, but two flights of stairs and the stairs going up to the 3rd floor are narrow, windy and particularly fun to climb.

Victorious after a stair climb
In action

What else do boys do? They watch football of course! By accident I discovered that at certain times in the day Calum will sit with me and watch tv (the only time I can get a real cuddle, priceless) and I caught Mark and Calum watching the Spurs play in the Championship League the other night. Mark has looked forward to watching football with Calum for ages and I realised this is actually going to be a bonus for me as maybe he will finally stop asking me to watch the games!

Watching football

We took Calum down to Brighton last weekend and he got to go on his first ride, worth every penny of the 50 pence, and I took him last Friday to Greenwich Park where we played in the sand pit and enjoyed our last day of "summer vacation" (I had two weeks off work while my mother in law was in Portugal on holiday). We've been busy putting the finishing touches on the house now that the big stuff is done, pictures to come soon. Work has picked up and I've had a pretty good month so let's hope it continues. This weekend marks the end of the summer here in the UK and is a 3 day "bank holiday weekend". We're off on a date tomorrow (YAY!), and then plan to spend Sunday doing odd jobs around the house (now that we have a house to do them in!). Hope you enjoy yours, more soon x

In the sand pit

With Sean at Greenwich Park

On the ride, notice Mark's FIRM grip!

Just the two of us...

Dear Daddy,

While you were away this weekend on a "work trip" in Cyprus, Mom and I had lots of fun. Well, mostly I had lots of fun whilst Mom caught up on the Hills, the City and Big Brother while drinking wine and eating what seemed to be lots of junk (I wouldn't know as she only gave me a few measly bites of what she was having and I was left to the same old stuff I always have!).

We:

Had a little(!) temper tantrum when I couldn't figure out the zipper on my sleep sack
Had some fun playing with the Velcro on the new sneaks Auntie Dett helped me pick out in LA
Went to the mall where Mom had me try on this ridiculously cool and fashionable scarf (which we didn't actually buy because it was Timberland and was £25! for a scarf!)
Bumped into cousin Rhys who is looking oh so grown up-remember when I was that big?!
Played with my new turtle who sings opera and even has an underwater voice-Mom couldn't resist
Smiled because we were having so much fun together
"Walked" around the house about a million times
Played dress up... AGAIN. Mom tried to get me in a hat-wasn't having it.
Checked out the birds at the duck pond after our walk and glass of wine (for Mom!) with Zoe and Sean
And finally we read some books. Well, Mom read the books while I tore out the pages. The library is going to love us!

So all in all we had lots of fun in the 3 days since you've been gone. We realised we can get by without you, which is probably a good thing since you told Mom you're going back in September. Mom actually kind of liked the peace and quiet except when it came to going to bed at night in what is still a relatively new house. Most of all, we both just loved getting to spend every second together and learning more about each other as every day goes by without those niggly little interruptions we usually have like Mom's work, Mom having to make dinner and etc.

This morning when Mom got me up I heard some noises downstairs and was getting excited until we came downstairs and I realised it was just Nana.... It was great talking to you on the phone yesterday, but when are you coming back? Mom is great and all, but she just doesn't tickle like you do, isn't near as much fun to wrestle with and just can't make me laugh in quite the same way.

Love you!

Calum

Our trip

Sunday morning we touched down at grey, depressing Heathrow and I felt pretty sad that the last 10 days spent in Washington and California had come to such a quick end. We were so busy while we were there that the holiday literally flew by. The flight over wasn't great, from now on we will definitely do direct only, however Calum was as good as you can expect a toddler to be after 14.5 hours on a plane stuck on Mom and Dad's laps.

We spent our first few days at my Dad's in Arlington and then headed down to Redmond on Friday for a mini-reunion at good old El Torreador with the girls who hadn't been together since Tara's wedding 2 years ago. The next day was my birthday, celebrated with everyone (including babies) at Ashley's for a BBQ. That night I had a family dinner in Issaquah at this really great new restaurant called the Flat Iron Grill which was amazing. It was a special treat to have my cousin Jake come over from WSU where he's attending summer school to celebrate-next time I see him is likely to be back in Pullman next year when he graduates, can't wait to show Mark where I went to college! On Sunday we spent the day with my Mom, doing some shopping and heading down to Spuds on Lake Washington where Calum enjoyed Mark's strawberry milkshake. That night Mark took Calum swimming in the pool at my Mom's and on Monday we went to the Mariner's game with my Dad and my Aunt Sue. Unfortunately Mark had to have an emergency tooth extraction so photos from that day all show him with quite the "long" face!

Family dinner
Calum, Westyn and Makena

Our attempt at a baby group shot (minus Keri and Kena!)
El T's
In Pioneer Square on the way to the Ms game

We headed down to LA on Tuesday where we spent the first two nights in the OC. Tara and Justin took us to "the Wedge" in Balboa to watch the big waves and crazy body boarders who rode them, then to the OC Fair which was a true American experience for Mark who couldn't get over all of the food, rides and good old American white trash. We saw a rodeo, took Calum and Jackson to the petting zoo where they had a blast, and made Justin and Mark (and even Tara!) go on some scary rides. The BBQ carne asada Justin cooked up that night was a treat. The following day we went to Laguna Beach and had fish tacos, then to a "secret" beach Justin knew of that had 1000 steps (or maybe more like 300) going down to get to it-not ideal when carrying a 27 lb baby! The beach was worth it though, so pretty and picturesque-I could have stayed forever but we had to get back up to LA and needed to avoid the insane traffic there that had already eaten up hours of our trip.

Calum and Jackson at the fair
Calum and Mark at the petting zoo
Family pic at "the Wedge" in Balboa
Dett, Tara and I at Laguna Beach
Besties-Jackson and Calum

We checked into our amazing hotel just off the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica and spent the first evening just the 3 of us, the first time we had spent any time just the 3 of us since we got to the US! The next day Dett was an amazing tour guide, taking us through "LA in a Day"-we drove through the valley, Beverly Hills, past Mann's Chinese Theatre and the stars on Hollywood Blvd, down Sunset and past the Viper Room and then on a side tour to the Century Plaza for some shopping and Pinkberry, an LA must. We then headed to the Farmer's Market and the Grove which was probably the highlight of the day for me. That night we all had drinks around the fancy pool at the hotel (Calum and Jackson included-as Tara says, they totally partied!) and then had a great dinner in Santa Monica (thanks Mark G!).

Tara, Dett and I at the pool bar at Shangri La in Santa Monica
Enjoying a drink at the LA Farmer's Market
Farmer's Market

Come Saturday morning I have to say I really wasn't ready to leave. We had such a good time with everyone and I think Mark was really starting to get into LA, I completely messed up by scheduling such an early flight and not giving us more time in LA to have a look around. None the less, on the drive to LAX Mark did say that he's sure we will be back lots over the next couple of years so there is still hope!