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.