Dec 31, 2009

Elijah stared at the court jester, suspicion in every line of his body. But when the man bent down and lit a torch, sudden understanding flared in Elijah's eyes. He raised a tentative finger, shifted his weight expectantly.

The jester tossed the burning torch into the air and caught it. The small knot of onlookers applauded politely.

"HOT!" bellowed Elijah, pointing in earnest.

A small tittering swept the crowd. The jester turned to us and bowed. "This young gentleman is correct, good ladies and gentlemen. It is, verily, hot."

"HOT!" bellowed Elijah, still pointing.

The jester nodded again, then turned to the bulk of the crowd and began to juggle again.

"HOOOOOTTTT!!" The tiny finger waggled, whether in excitement or disapproval I could not say. Still, we beat a retreat from the courtyard, up the steps to the Great Hall....


...where Henry the 8th danced centuries ago, in Hampton Court Palace. Since we'd come early, there wasn't much going on yet, but it was far less crowded. And we did get to see some of the costumed folk and check out some other activities.

Besides, the scenery was pretty great:

And we were able to wear out a certain young fellow by letting him roam around. After this, he slept for 2 hours!


Anyhow, happy 2010 to everyone. I will catch up on some emails tomorrow, but for tonight I think I'm going to head to bed. B and I are just sitting here waiting for the clock to tick over to midnight, having watched a DVD. I've been doing a lot of cooking lately - pesto pizza, banana cake (modified from Dad's recipe), homemade bread, and, to challenge myself, a vegan meal of sweet potato and carrot soup. Which actually turned out pretty good.

This is making me sound... really... old. Well, I had a glass of wine tonight, so ha. Um, yeah. Maybe I'd better stop now. Mmhm. Good night, and happy New Year to all!

Hiccups and Pizzettes

I am awake.

I am awake because I watched the BBC's latest adaptation of Day of the Triffids (pt 1).

I am awake because I tucked my husband into bed after the show ended. As usual, we had a brief chat about our respective days (he spent his with friends out of town) and something that E did today had us in stitches of laughter.

I subsequently got the hiccups.

"There's a scratching at the window!" B said.

S... Scratching?! Triffids make scratching noises!

I yelped. Loudly. Meanwhile, B dissolved into a paroxysm of laughter, apparently under the impression that he was "curing my hiccups" by scaring me witless. Well, he cured them all right, but now I've got insomnia while he's peacefully drifting off to sleep. I oughta break out the ol' airhorn, but I thought I'd take the higher road and update my blog. (Besides, I don't even have an airhorn.)

So. Since B was away all day, I had to think of something cool for dinner. I settled on Dad's pizza recipe, which I modified slightly to make pizzettes for a certain young gentleman. Quick and easy (as long as you prep the dough and chop the ingredients in advance), they cook in less than 10 minutes.

I used a cupcake tray (oiled) and put dough bases in:


Loaded the bases with some pesto, grated mozzarella, and a bit of (cooked) sausage:


The finished product:


He couldn't wait to eat them, so I had to tear the pizettes into smaller chunks so that they cooled faster.



E's contribution to the cooking process was to drag a large amount of his toys into the kitchen and mix them up among things that he considers toys but which really aren't - like the dustpan and brush, fork, and dirty laundry that he helpfully unloaded from the washing machine. The latter isn't really his fault because I've been letting him help me unload the washing when it's done. It's actually somewhat helpful. But he's not at the stage where I can let him help me cook quite yet. He understands that the oven is hot but all those cool ingredients? They find their way to his gullet instead of into the pot.

So for now, I get this:


And that's all for now. I shall fight the urge to go out into the bitter cold and scratch at the window outside. Instead, I'll brush my teeth and go to sleep. Someone had better be grateful for this in the morning and COOK ME BREAKFAST IN BED. Just sayin'.

Merry Christmas

Tree!
Acclimating to the new baby-sized bathrobe from his great-aunt:

No more pictures!!!!

I'm Dreaming

of a White Christmas, just like the ones I used to know...

Yeah, growing up in coastal California didn't expose me to a lot of snow. You have to go inland for that, past Sacramento or so. Actually, the one December it did snow (albeit about 10 flakes) in MV, I was with a friend's family in Bear Valley, skiing. I remember those few flakes moved inland and became a massive storm. It was great! It blizzarded overnight, giving us a few feet of fresh snow. Drawback? Windchill was oh... -9F or so. Every time we hit the ski lift we'd have to knock off the icicles that formed on the bottoms of our scarves.

And when I was 15 or so, we spent Christmas with Chris O in WA in whiteout conditions... but that was the day after Christmas, wasn't it? So did that count? Maybe? I think it does!

Speaking of snow...

That's our front garden. I reckon that's the better part of an inch, there. E was slightly intrigued by the stuff, but I don't think he entirely grasped what was going on. He had a good poke about, though, and did some shuffling about. I couldn't get any pics, however, since I need both arms to wrangle him. Dude can seriously sprint, now. Bet he'd take gold in the Toddlerympics 400 dash.

It's still pretty cold here. We went to visit our friends on Sunday for an impromptu dinner at their place. It was only a 10 minute drive or so but the side roads were like ice skating rinks. Right now, it's raining, so I doubt we'll see a white Christmas. But that's ok.

Things on my to-do list:

-Make some mulled wine
-Wrap presents and attempt to avoid the "giant spitball" look
-Do up some stockings for the three of us
-Christmas Eve walk
-Long relaxing bath
-Bake a pecan pie
-Bake a pumpkin pie (both from Dad's recipes)

Hope everyone is keeping well and has a good holiday, wherever you are!

Overheard.... (PG13)

This morning, while B let me have a nice lie-in (we were both up with E last night at varying points). While I was lying there, I realized yet again why I am married to him.

"Come here, Mister. Do I smell something? Yes, yes I do. Ewwwww. Come here. Uuuup. Hnng, come on then. This is the second time today; how unfair! Down you go. No, don't wriggle around. Here... here's an item to hold. Oh, what a thumping chunk that is, yuck. Don't wriggle. Right, all done, up you go."

Out of Bruges

Been too busy to sit down and blog, so I'm snatching some time now while E plays with his Mozart Cube before bed. I've been concentrating on my novel (man, that still sounds pretentious) because I've finished the rough draft (68k words) and am now revising it with a view to expanding the word count to around 80k.

Anyhow, the second part of our trip to Bruges went well. I think the highlight for me was the horse-drawn carriage ride we took. It was 30 minutes long and took us around the inner city. The coachman was knowledgeable and gave us good commentary.


3/4 of the way through, we stopped at a designated resting place so that the horse could have a break. There was a great fountain there which we discovered while letting E have a quick leg stretch.

After the ride, it was beginning to rain, so we found a tearoom to shelter in for awhile. E had some of B's apple pie. Sorry for the blurryness.


Meanwhile, I had the best hot chocolate ever.



The blurry picture doesn't do it justice. Basically, this treat consisted of a cup of hot milk. On top of that was a shallow dish of pure chocolate. Beside the dish (not pictured) was a glob of whipped cream. And chocolate wafers to dish. There was also a lump of sugar. But really, who'd need sugar with all of the above?!

Bruges has such awesome church bells sounding at different times of the day. I know I'm a sucker for pretty-sounding bells and carillons, but I always enjoy visiting places with lots of loud church bells.

The Eurostar home was uneventful. E fell asleep on the train from Bruges via Ghent to Brussels, then stayed asleep for part of the journey on Eurostar. Funfact: The Eurostar goes 186 miles per hour. And it's MUCH preferable to flying, unless you enjoy cavity searches and cramped seats. As for us, we were offered champagne and an enjoyable meal both ways, and the seats were more than comfortable for a just-under 2 hour journey. The train to Bruges from Brussels was about an hour and was quite pleasant too - a double-decker train. It'd be nice if the UK got some of those but I've never seen one in service here.

Lastly, a picture of me (in the Chocolate Museum) so that B stops nagging me about posting my own mug on my own blog.


I have a few more photos that I'll try and stick up here and there, plus a couple of videos. As for now, it's time to put the sprog into bed.

In Bruges

We're in Bruges.

I just lost half of this post because Internet Explorer is an utterly useless browser, full of holes, spyware and absolutely idiotic programming. I should be editing this in Firefox like I normally do but I don't have the time now...

I'll briefly recap -

We're having a good time, although it's stressful vacationing with an almost 16 month old toddler. He slept on the Eurostar all the way through France and into Belgium, was tolerably good on the train from Brussels to Bruges via Ghent, and has been regarding everything here with a mixture of wonder and suspicion. Bruges isn't as child-friendly as our area of London. Most of the tourists here seem to be on the older side. So it's been a lot of work to make things go smoothly.

Yesterday we went to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. It has a relic which includes some of the blood of Christ, and is very old and beautiful - completed in 1149 and rebuilt in the 19th century.



That afternoon (after a certain someone's nap) we went to the Chocolate Museum.

And that's all for now. I've got plenty more pictures and an update of what we did today, including a description of The. Best. Hot. Chocolate. Ever.

But I refuse to post, ever again, using IE. So that probably means I'll be back in London before I post again. See you all later and have a good Thanksgiving.

Off...

...to Belgium, via Eurostar. Staying in Bruges for 3 nights. Got a deal through B's company for the trip and we'll be visiting the Christmas markets!


Above is the result of the Great Spoon Experiment. The young gentleman pictured came to the scientific conclusion that hand > utensil. It's all fun and games anyway, until you find droplets of yogurt on the ceiling days later.

Been awfully busy so poke me if I haven't responded to an email. Off to bed now. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

November

First, a mini-rant.

What is it with failures of parents/nannies who can't discipline their children? An older child went for E today when he dared clamber onto the same structure he was on top of, and all the mother could manage was a weak "oh, sorry..." as she continued to reward the child by helping him climb higher. Nice one, must be taking lessons from the general "softly softly" approach that Europe has toward criminals.

I'll start putting some money aside for Muay Thai lessons for E when he's older, I suppose.

On a more pleasant note, we enjoyed the crisp autumn weather today, although E got a little bit too cold after being out for 45 minutes or so. And we met a very nice girl who spun him around on the children's merry-go-round thing, saying, "We have to keep it slow because he is just a little baby!" Almost restored my faith in humanity.

Oh yes, pictures:

The Consequences Of...

...an extra 15 minutes of sleep:

Autumn Leaves

The weather is starting to get nippier, but it's been downright pleasant throughout September and early October. There's a different feel to the weather in England... there's more of a warning bite to the breeze than I ever felt in California.

I remember swimming in mountain lakes in Shasta County with my godfamily when I was younger. The water on top was sun-kissed, warm and pleasant. If you dove more than a few feet underneath, however, the water grew instantly colder, reminding you of the lake's glacier roots. Autumn in England is a little bit like swimming on the line, dipping in and out of the cold.

Today E and I visited the park because he woke up too late to go to one of the play areas (they close at 3:30). He was a little bit out of sorts today because he had his MMR jab yesterday. The nurse said to be aware that symptoms can crop up within a week - some children go through a very mild form of measles or mumps, some run a fever, etc. So I'm keeping an eye on him.

Meanwhile, at the park...



Running, climbing, pointing, swinging (not pictured, too blurry)...


Wanting to climb, and...

...giving himself a hand for getting to the top of something he could climb.

That's all for now. Poor B left before 7 this morning and won't be back until after 10pm, so hopefully he'll catch a break sooner rather than later.

Thank You?

A certain young gentleman has been handing me things lately. Lots of things! Things ranging from my shoes to a spoon he's plucked out of a nearby bowl, to bits of fluff that are so tiny they're practically nonexistent.

I say "thank you!" every time. He likes the praise, and it teaches him manners (or so I hope). Recently, however, things took a rather unexpected turn when he handed me a brown furry object which turned out to be the corpse of a very large, very fuzzy brown spider.

I know they say "be prepared for anything" with babies, but really.

And no, the spider hand-in did not get a "thank you" - it got a garbled, dying camel noise of trying-not-to-scream-and-give-my-child-a-phobia-of-creepy-crawlies.

BusyBusyBusy

B is absolutely swamped at work and is going into the office tomorrow very early after getting back late tonight. We're both really grateful that E has been sleeping better at night - he's not perfect, but it's a far cry from waking up 2, 3, 4 times a night. If he could sleep in past 7, though, that'd be nice.

Ever since August 5 I can't help but think about this time last year and how difficult it was. The first three months were a real struggle and I definitely wasn't as happy as I am now. I remember how difficult it was to get out of the house and how I was physically weak for a good long while after the birth. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to relax and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyhow... just tomorrow to get through before a peaceful weekend of no stress.

A few pictures:

In the above pic, E is enjoying listening to his Mozart Cube in his pj's before bed - the cube is a present from Grandpa in CA. It also doubles as a noise trap after bedtime or during naptime. Simply place the Cube in the hallway and wait for an unsuspecting person to trip over it and land on the French Horn. Bonus points if the tooting wakes the baby.

E after a trip down the hill to the soft play center, with his very first balloon. He now recognizes the word balloon and will look around for one. He played with this one until it was the size of a wrinkled lemon. I guess we were lucky that it didn't pop.

Until next time.

Mundanity

Anything in, must go out. Anything out, must go in. This makes for interesting juxtapositions. Toys in the cutlery drawer, spoons in our bed.... it's all fun and games until someone loses a TV remote or a jar of eucalyptus balm gets washed (and quite spread out among the clothes).

Today we visited B's old babysitter for a quick lunch. She's in her mid-90's, and was recently discharged from the hospital where she had successful heart surgery. Yes, this is the NHS I'm talking about - and I don't want to get political, but I'll just add that both she and her pocketbook are doing just fine. As always, she had plenty of stories about old times, including reminiscing about what powdered egg tasted like during WWII when food was rationed.

Then we went to E's friend's 1st birthday party. I didn't have time to take pictures, but a friend did.


Staiiiirs!

Driveway exploring!

And that's all for now.

Wanderings

Yesterday I took E to the common, less than a mile's walk away, to enjoy the late afternoon sun. (And, of course, to wear him out before bedtime, but the whole enjoying the sun thing sounds more romantic.) In the above picture, he's about to take a spill, thus the pseudo dance move.

Here's a video of the man himself in action.

Kaboom?

Elijah reached for Daddy's Blackberry with toddlerish determination.

Upon wresting it from his hands, he looked up excitedly and pronounced his most interesting word yet.

"Kaboom?" he asked.

"No," Daddy said. "At least, I hope not."

Allergic

Oddly, it seems E is allergic to bell peppers. Poor fella.

Here is a recent pic of us at some random fountain in London.



Nearing 60k, have just about finished outlining the end of the novel, continuing to plug away. All's well, just busy. B just came back from a work dinner with his boss and global team. E is teething - or maybe that's just an easy, one-word excuse for his inability to sleep more than four hours straight without moaning.

And off to bed.

September

Sorry I haven't been updating. It's been hard to find a spare minute. I still need to respond to a bunch of emails, too.

Been spending lots of time on the novel, trying to keep on top of housework, and last (but certainly not least), keeping up with a certain young gentleman.

Last year at this time, I was in bad shape, having had a kidney infection and other complications. It's amazing to think how far we've come in a year. (Incidentally, in some other cultures, post-birth healing process include not leaving the house for a certain period of time. I can see how that developed.)

On Sunday, we bought Elijah his first pair of shoes. He's walking fairly well now, although he's very teetery still. B also took him swimming for the first time!

I haven't been taking many pictures lately because I've mostly been enjoying living in the moment and documenting everything tends to get in the way of that. I'll try and snap a pic of his spiffy new shoes soon, though.

In the meantime, we went to the Docklands Museum a few weekends ago and had a great time. I needed to know a bit more about London's docklands in the late 1800's for the book I'm writing and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the museum. After we were done looking at the exhibits, we went to the soft play area downstairs where E got to crawl around and poke things. There was a huge sand and water play table for older children, too. I can definitely see us going there again.

A few pictures:

In the sling, on the train, stylin' his sunglasses.

Exploring the play area with Daddy in tow.

Lastly - today is the anniversary of a very sad day. May it never happen again in anyone's lifetime.

Routine...

Our normal routine's been a bit up in the air lately, which has been stressful. Night wakings continue as "normal" and he's now waking up after an hour or less of napping, which equals grouchy baby and grouchy me.

B and I have been enjoying the tail end of summer's long days by eating dinner in the garden and using the barbecue. He also took E to a "Daddy Rhyme Time" singalong at the library, and came back with some funny anecdotes.

Apparently, at least 4 different babies stole E's toy, usually while he was involved in trying to cruise/toddle his way to a very appealing sippy cup, which of course belonged to another toddler. The grass is always greener :)

During the singing of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" the oldest child in the group, a 2 year old, followed E as he crawled around, pointing to the embroidered star on his romper with great excitement.

A baby "pile-up" occurred, where at least four daddies were poised and ready to extricate their crawlers/toddlers from each other. Somehow, with much wide-eyed staring and a bit of poking, all the youngsters managed to untangle themselves and move on.

Old Macdonald has a SAUSAGE and both a COW and a MOO COW on his farm. B claims he forgets what sound effect the sausage does but perhaps he's blocked it out.

So... that's what's been going on. Life's been busy, not with groundshaking events, but with all the little mundane things that need attending to. It's nice when the weekend rolls in and B and I are able to spend some time together.

We both feel fortunate that we live in a good area and can do a lot of cool local things. It's nice to be able to pop out, do something, and go home right away and relax.

Speaking of weekends, in a few days, B and I are visiting a museum and brunching with friends at the restaurant up the hill. And catching up on sleep. Hopefully.

Oh yeah, but you came for the pics. Here ya go!

This food is soooo yummy. Why don't we have barbecues every night?

Practicing his fish face for Daddy. The syringe is one we use for his acid reflux medicine. Somehow, he's decided it's actually a great teething implement.


Pinning the wild child after his bath this evening. Lying down to be dressed is just so 8 months old. Totally not in vogue. Silly parents, don't you know anything?

And I'm off for as much shuteye as I can get.

Quick Update

-Still finding random bits and bobs to unpack and squirrel away/display
-Tons of laundry
-Some good weather and lots of outside play/finding new parks
-50k+ on the novel
-Visiting friends in the country at their child-proofed house. We wound up staying quite some time because it was such bliss to let the baby roam around without dragging him out of a fireplace every 3 minutes! He was very entertained by the ball pit and all their toys, too.


-Last, but not least, a certain young gentleman is slowly getting the hang of this "walking" thing. B and I don't think he knows how to stop once he gets started, however, thus lots of tiny tangling limbs, butt-landings, and random sprawlings are occurring these days. His record stands at something like 9-10 steps in a row, but the last steps are always hurried, desperate little dance-moves as he strains to cover the last 6 inches from couch-to-couch, or chair-to-footrest!

First Steps!

B and I have been fairly lucky thus far in being able to observe milestones together. We both witnessed his first real attempts at crawling and pulling himself up, we were there (along with my dad) when he said his first word (banana!) and today we both saw him take his first steps!

Just to clarify, they weren't very firm steps. He went from holding onto the couch over to me, a distance of about 2.5-3 feet, but B and I both agree that they were actual steps, even if E did rather ingloriously fall into my arms at the end.

And... here he is after having gleefully eaten his share of chocolate-and-raspberry birthday cake. I haven't been taking many photos lately - it's been warm, but gray and dismal here, and sometimes quite humid. The sun is very intermittent, despite it being August. Not very inspiring picture-taking weather, really.

Birthday Boy

I meant to do a long post about our nice barbecue and everyone who came, but given time constraints it's going to have to be a short one.

On Sunday we held a little party for E combined with a late housewarming party. It ended up being a medium to large party. The weather was great and our new garden is excellent. Lots of people (especially the kids) enjoyed the hammock.




No, E didn't really pinch the flame out.

The cake icing, by the way, was made with melted Belgian chocolate (very low heat in a saucepan) mixed with sour cream. After I made the cake and icing, B hand-whipped some cream and cut the cake in half and filled with with cream and fresh raspberries. Yes. It was really good.


Now, if you'll excuse me, he's pulling books off the shelves again.