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!