So I have almost survived the first week back at work and away from my baby. The week has continued to go relatively smoothly, and Caleb appears to be settling in well at nursery. The only glitch appears to be if one of the workers is not purposefully distracting Caleb as I attempt to leave. If he's left to play on his own, he inevitably looks around for me, catches a glimpse of me nearing the door (or worse, walking out), and he gets upset. Therefore, I typically wait until one of the workers has engaged him in some sort of play and I slip away. So far, this seems to be working.

I have always believed that nursery would be good for Caleb because he is such a social child and loves being around other kids. However, it has not come without its downfalls as well. Aside from the obvious, there are two main aspects of nursery of which I am already not a huge fan:

1) Caleb has started sucking his thumb...a lot. He has never been a thumb sucker (though I can't say that his thumb has never wandered into his mouth). However, in this past week, Caleb has apparently picked up thumbsucking from his nursery - I'm guessing that this is by watching other children. I'm hoping that it is more appealing currently because he's teething but that it will be a passing trend. I can take his pacifier away when he's older. I can't take away his thumb.

2) Caleb no longer smells like himself. This may sound weird, and I can't tell you what he used to smell like. All I know is that every day when I pick him up he smells like perfume or some sort of girly body lotion. So now my little boy smells like the workers in the nursery. And I hate it! It's not that I think they smell bad, it's just not what Caleb is supposed to smell like. It's very sad and the first thing I want to do when I get him home every day is wash him off!

Granted, neither of these things are huge issues and I'm sure I'll come to accept them. Things could be much worse during this transition time, but for the time being I'm just glad that it's almost the weekend!

Labels: Caleb, Nursery

Well, the long awaited (and much dreaded) day has come and gone. It went much more smoothly than I had imagined (of course, I was imagining the worst), yet I'm still very glad that it's over.

Scott and I dropped Caleb off at nursery at 8:30 this morning. The drop off went smoothly and we slipped out while he was playing with a toy so that he did not see us leave. We then headed to our respective jobs - the low point of my day. Returning to my office was weird. I hadn't worked in 7.5 months, but in many ways it seemed like I had never left. When I was climbing up the stairs, it felt like any other day when I was headed to work.

I arrived at my office to discover that my managers just wanted me to "take it easy" upon my return. They had decided that it was not best to overwhelm me from the start. While I appreciated this, I would have liked to have had SOMETHING to do. When I asked my manager if she could at least give me a file for one of the cases I would be getting so that I could read through it, she laughed and appeared to think it was a bizarre request. I, on the other hand, really just wanted to be busy all day so that the day would pass quickly. Instead I spent the whole day with no direction at all. So, I talked to everybody in the office, caught up on my former cases, weeded through all of my 300+ e-mails, updated all my expired forms, and talked to everybody some more. In the midst of my crazy, busy day, I only phoned the nursery once to check on Caleb (though to be fair, I phoned Scott and asked him to phone a second time and to call me right back).

Caleb did great on his first day back and we got nothing but positive feedback about how he was doing. I even managed to survive, with the day passing much more quickly than I had anticipated. My wonderful husband surprised me during his lunch break with flowers - he had just enough time to get to my office, give me flowers, meet my officemates (he had never before been to my office), and then turn around to return to his office before his lunch break ended.

After work, Scott and I met at the train station and picked Caleb up together. It was definitely my favourite part of the day! Our cute little boy greeted us with giant smiles and then showered me with lots of kisses.

While I hated being apart from my baby, I was reminded that even though I have dreaded my return, I really do love my job. And I learned that I might get a new case working with a woman who has Dissociative Identity Disorder and has over 20 personalities, all with different names and ages! I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about this possibility because it sounds absolutely fascinating. So, while I would rather be at home with Caleb, at least I have some things to look forward to.

Labels: Caleb, Cheryl, Work

That's right folks, Caleb is 7 months old today. Crazy! The last 7 months have flown by and tomorrow (*sigh*) is Caleb's first day in nursery and my first day back at work from maternity leave. I can't believe that it's here already! As I look back at the past 7 months it's incredible how much Caleb has changed and grown, creating this little boy with such a distinct personality.

In any case, Caleb is now 29 inches long. I don't know how much he weighs, so don't ask. In the past week and a half he has become obsessed with finger and table foods - basically anything that's not pureed. Don't get me wrong, he still eats his regular foods, but he LOVES to eat everything that Scott and I are eating. This obsession began when we were on the plane to Prague and he decided that he should be allowed to eat anything that we were eating. Needless to say, his favourite food is now yogurt raisins (probably because they are the sweetest thing he has ever had). He gets so excited if he sees them, waving his arms around, jumping up and down, and grunting with excitement. So cute.

Caleb is working on cutting his third tooth (a top one!) so the last few days have been riddled with drool. He's never been a very drooly baby, even when cutting his first two teeth, but apparently his top teeth are different. In the meantime, he's also biting everything. And let me tell you, this is not a great thing.

He is still working on crawling, though he has not yet been successful in going forward. For the past couple of weeks he has been successfully pushing himself backward, however. He can stand with ease while holding on to something, and has even learned to use his arm strength to hold on if he starts to lose his balance. However, he has not yet figured out how to pull himself up to that standing position.

Anyway, that's my little 7 month old kiddo. Thought you might also enjoy a slideshow of pictures from the last month(ish).

Labels: Caleb

So Caleb is totally diggin' on textures these days. He's been interested in them for a while now, particularly when around new blankets, rugs, sheets, etc.. Today he took it to a new level, however, and sat on the floor for 20-25 minutes, "reading" his Puppies book. By "reading," I mean turning the pages back and forth and petting all of the puppies. He has enjoyed this book for a while, but apparently I no longer have to prompt him and move his hand over or point to each of the puppies for him to feel them. Instead, he moved around touching all of the textures on his own. So cute!

If you look closely, you'll notice the cowboy shirt that Caleb is sporting. That's right, we're working on Americanizing his wardrobe. We have recently added a selection of cowboy/rodeo decorated clothes, and today we bought a hoodie that says "soccer" and a basketball jersey.

Labels: Caleb

I've been looking for a pair of baby sunglasses since he was born, so I'm super geeked that I finally found some! (And, yes, the tag on the left lens has been removed since the picture was taken.)

Labels: Caleb

Well, we are back from our extended weekend in Prague. Our trip started off with a somewhat interesting issue as we once again had too many people on board our plane. What are the chances?! Seriously, with all the checks that you have to go through at an airport, showing your passport and/or your ticket, you wouldn't think this would be possible. Thankfully, the issue was cleared up much more quickly than the previous time and we were off for Caleb's second international trip.

The flights went smoothly and it proved very easy (and cheap!) to get transport to our hotel. After being told that we would be in room 1000, we headed up to the fifth floor, as instructed, only to find that the fifth floor was home to rooms 500-530 (or something like that) and room 1000. Could it be?! That's right folks, they hooked us up with the "penthouse!" Okay, so it was the penthouse of a 3.5 star hotel and nothing like the penthouse in Pretty Woman, but it was still stinkin' awesome! This picture only shows a portion of the room. We had a queen bed and two twin beds, a flat sceen/flat panel tv, a few desks, and a ginormous bathtub (which Caleb loved!). It was so exciting!

Friday, the weather was perfect for being out and about. After breakfast, we spent a good portion of the day exploring the castle and all the surrounding pieces that go with it (ie: cathedrals, shopping areas, etc...). My accomplishment for the day was climbing 287 steps up a narrow twisty staircase (that made me dizzy), and other subsequent staircases, with Caleb strapped to the front of me! That's right, I'm a beast! We quickly learned that travelling with an infant is very different because we had to stop every 2-3 hours so Caleb could eat. This definitely slowed down our pace of day, but also offered nice breaks to my shoulders and back from carting Caleb around in the sling. It turns out, however, that Prague is not a particularly child-friendly city, in that there are no baby changing facilities anywhere and highchairs are hard to come by. Good thing Caleb is flexible and easy going!

Caleb also thoroughly enjoyed riding on Daddy's shoulders during the day. It was so cute because he would squeal, laugh, and try talking to everybody that we passed. He definitely loved being the centre of attention and everybody around us gave him the attention that he wanted. It was absolutely adorable.

After the castle area, we headed down by the river and thought about doing a boat ride because it was so beautiful. However, we decided to do the boat ride on Saturday and head up to Charles Bridge toward the Old Town instead. Sadly, Saturday proved to have miserable cold, rainy weather, thus not conducive for boat rides or being outside at all. This put a huge damper on our last full day, as we sought to be inside as much as possible. Sadly, this meant that we did not get to check out the supposedly awesome graveyards in Prague. (I HATE graveyards but had been told by so many people that they were worth seeing that I had resigned myself to visiting them.) Instead, we spent the day exploring some of the old towers and doing souvenir shopping. One of the funniest things we saw was that apparently "Fruit of the Loom" is a souvenir of Prague (we even saw some people carrying Fruit of the Loom bags! We were highly amused by this.) If I posted everything about our trip, this post would be impossibly long. So I will leave you with a few other highlights from the weekend:
1. Scott has NO sense of direction. Zero. Basically, if he suggests that we should go one way, you can safely assume that we should probably go the opposite way.
2. There was a group of former Navy Seals staying at our hotel. They were in Prague doing security work for somebody who needed protection from the Russian mob (which apparently is a big problem in Prague)!
3. Saturday night as we were packing, Caleb grabbed the remote control and somehow turned on the tv to "Deutschland Super Star," Germany's version of American Idol. They had the same theme music, same red room for the contestants to sit in and be interviewed, and everything was in German except the songs. It was really funny and, yes, we watched it while we packed.
4. Czech food is different but tasty. We did our best to eat local food since we can get Italian, Spanish, American, etc... anywhere.
5. There are a bazillion tourists in Prague, even in off season. If you go, don't plan on going during their most touristy time! I can't even imagine how crazy it would be!

All in all, it was a great trip, though we wish Saturday's weather had been a bit more pleasant. Caleb did amasingly well on all of the flights, bus rides, and being carted around everywhere. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself during our trip and made it that much more fun for us. We did learn, however, that it's about time to invest in a smaller umbrella stroller for these trips. After four days of carrying Caleb in the sling, my back was nothing but knots because he is getting so heavy.

-------Scott's note:
I feel in response to #1 above I need to share a story about our trip as well.

Before we left, Cheryl made a wise decision and suggested we bring Caleb's music machine along to help him sleep in a strange bed in a strange place. This turned out to be one of the best ideas ever. Ever. As Caleb slept very well,, Cheryl needed to share with me that she was "glad that I'm glad that we brought his music machine." Not just she was glad we brought it or that she was glad that Caleb slept well, but "glad" that she was "glad" about bringing it.

I just wanted to share that story.

Labels: Trips

I noticed this morning there are a few British artists available on the U.S. iTunes store and I feel its my ex-pat duty to share my opinion on these artists and some download recommendations. In no particular order...

James Morrison - A laid back Rock/Pop album. His voice has a Ray LaMontagne quality to it, but with more maintream music.
Download: Wonderful World, You Give Me Something (this was a free download a couple of weeks back), The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore.

The Fratellis - Well, Flathead was recently featured in the newest iPod ad, but I would also recommend Chelsea Dagger. Very similar to Franz Ferdinand (also from Glasgow).
Download: Chelsea Dagger

Amy Winehouse - I've only heard a couple of songs, but her sound is very unique and fun. A Soul/R&B rythym with a comptempary spin. It alsmost sounds like her music is a few decades old.
Download: Rehab, I'm No Good

Paolo Nutini - Again, I only have a couple of songs, but I have heard several. Paolo is very laid back rock/pop/folk artist (folk is not necessarily what you think).
Download: Last Request, Jenny Don't Be Hasty, Loving You

Razorlight - Just dowload America.

The Kooks - This is not a new release, but The Kooks are a personal favourite. Another good English band that have a good mix of acoustic driven songs and more upbeat rock hits. I would categorize them (almost) similar in sound with Australian band Jet.
Dowload: She Moves In Her Own Way, Naive, Oh La La, Seaside, Sofa Song, Crazy - acoustic Gnarls Barkely cover on the iTunes exlusive session.

From what I understand about music in the States, I don't need to tell anyone about Snow Patrol.

Labels: Britian, Music

Just thought you guys might like to hear what I hear all the time now when Caleb is playing. He has become quite the noisy, chatty little boy so there is rarely peace and quiet in the house (not that there ever was)! :)



In reality, I actually think that Caleb is really trying to say hi (which is not evidenced by this video). It comes out as a conglomeration of "hi" and "hey" but he seems to say it pretty consistently when he sees somebody or in response to them saying hi to him! It could be coincidence, but I prefer to think that it's not.

Labels: Caleb, Video

This is a picture of Caleb when he was eating dinner a couple of days ago. He spent the majority of his meal going back and forth from one side to the other, trying to figure out how to take the tray off his booster seat. He was never upset or fussy during this process, just very intent on figuring out how to escape. Apparently he knows that he has to push in the buttons on the side! What a smart little boy! I have a feeling that this is an indication of mischief in the future, however.

(If I remember correctly, Caleb's oldest cousin, Noah, was the same way and learned early on how to escape from things. It might be dangerous to get these two together in the future!)

Caleb's visa arrived today! I just booked a trip to Prague (Czech Republic) for next Thursday, 15 March - Sunday, 18 March. Woohoo!!! Happy first Mother's Day (in England) to me!!!

I just realised that whenever I do official updates on Caleb, I seem to address the same old cliche things, particularly expected milestones. So, I figured that I should share some of Caleb's quirks that make him unique.

1. He starts spitting a lot when he gets sleepy.
2. He watches me intently every day when I brush my teeth. When it's his turn to brush his teeth, he never swallows the toothpaste but instead spits or drools it out all over his clothes.
3. If I try reading when breastfeeding him, he will reach back with one hand and try to knock the book out of my hand or close the book while he is eating. If he is not successful, he will stop eating, sit up, and push the book down before continuing his meal. (I think this is because he wants my full attention on him.)
4. Sometimes when he is eating, he stops and makes a little noise indicating that he wants his pacifier. He will then suck on it for a few seconds before returning to eating. If I refuse to give him the pacifier, he will refuse to continue eating. Sometimes I tell him that he needs to eat a little more before he gets his pacifier, so he will latch back on and suck once or twice before stopping and asking for the pacifier again. No lie! The kid is a little rascal!
5. He rips out small handfuls of my hair every day when he gives me kisses because he grabs ahold of my hair in a death grip on both sides of my head.
6. If he is being fussy with Scott or myself, he will immediately stop and turn on the charm and flash a giant smile if somebody else approaches and says hi to him. He will maintain this little facade until that person is gone and will then return to the little mood he was previously in.
7. If he takes a nap on the bed next to me instead of in his crib (which I have him do sometimes just cause it's cute), he often grabs my arm and pulls it around him right before he goes to sleep.
8. He loves to look at the pictures on the camera after I take them and often gets upset if I don't show them to him. When he looks at them he smiles and laughs.
9. When I ask him if he can say "Mama" or "Dada" he gives me a mischevious grin (that is different from his normal smile). I think that he really can say it but that he refuses because he thinks it's more fun to listen to me prompting him all the time.
10. Right when he wakes up (and other times in the day as well), he likes to look in the mirror. I point out that "it's Caleb and Mama" and he starts laughing.
11. When he gets in his exersaucer, he always turns immediately to the "record player" station because there's a little place next to it where I hide a pacifier every time before I put him in. He gets the pacifier and puts it in his mouth. If he drops his pacifier at some point while playing, he will turn back to that station and open the little place looking for a pacifier again. I think he thinks it replinishes itself so I have to watch constantly so that I can "restock" it otherwise he is disappointed.
12. If I give him part of his clothes to hold on to while I'm changing his diaper or getting him dressed, he plays peek-a-boo with the item of clothing on his own.
13. He loves to talk during the quietest times at church, particularly if we are praying. Scott or I will stick a pacifier in his mouth, but he will reach up and take it out so that he can keep talking.
14. He shows very little interest in trying to watch the tv if we have it on while he's in the room unless a commercial or show comes on that start playing music. He LOVES music. Then he'll contort his body however possible to turn and watch until the music is over. When it goes back to people just talking, he'll turn back to his toy or whatever he was previously doing.
15. He often wakes up in the middle of the night and plays with his toys in his crib. He talks, squeals, and plays for who knows how long and then goes back to sleep. (I know this only because I occasionally hear him when I wake up to turn over or stretch my back.)

Anyhow, that's just a glimpse into my quirkly little boy so that all of you can have a taste of what his personality is like. I know that photos capture some of his personality, but thought you guys might enjoy a little more depth.

Labels: Caleb

Yesterday Scott, Stephanie, Caleb, and I headed out to Ashford in Kent for some outlet shopping goodness. We didn't really know what we would be getting ourselves into, but we had heard good things about the outlet stores and Scott and I had never been to Kent (in southeastern England) and knew it was supposed to be beautiful. As it turned out, the weather was perfect for the outside mall and the place was enormous.

The mall was full of all kinds of designer stores and I cleaned up with a selection of clothes and shoes. There were several highlights of the day, but one of the biggest excitements was learning that Old Navy is making a breakthrough to the United Kingdom (FINALLY)!!! Sadly, it was only the one shelf of clothes inside the Gap outlet, but this was the first glimpse of Old Navy goodness that I have had in over a year and a half. I almost peed in my pants with excitement, and I'm pretty sure that the worker thought that Stephanie and I were a little crazy (not to mention that we may have been the only people he'd come across who knew what it was). There was an equally small corner of Banana Republic clothes inside the store as well, and apparently this summer an actual Banana Republic store is opening on Regent Street in London. Surely Old Navy will not be far behind. (Sadly, it will not be in time to benefit me, but I feel the that England will be a better place once the store makes a mark on society.) :)

The best deal of the day was definitely at the Nike store where I got two pair of shoes, a pair of shoes for Caleb, and a package of socks for £24 total! Not too shabby! Here are a couple of pictures of Caleb's new kicks. So cute (and only £4!).
If you look closely at the picture above, you can see Caleb's tooth. It's actually getting to be a pretty decent size and stands out quite a bit, but his tongue is often covering it in pictures, especially when he smiles. We ended the day with sundaes from Baskin Robbins (yummy!) and Caleb got to ride on one of those little car machines (which is technically for 3+ year olds, but he loved it). It was such a fun day and well worth the journey, but we definitely have one tired little boy today since we were so busy all day yesterday.

Different cultures have different ways of dining. In Africa, people eat with their hands (typically their right hand). In America, we typically eat with our fork "right side up" in our right hand, the knife is often forgotten about, and eating food with our hands (such as pizza, french fries, etc...) or scooping food into our fork (such as those wayward peas) with our fingers is not unheard of. If we need to cut something that is uncutable with a fork (typically this is only steak or something else equally tough), we switch the fork to the left, cut, put the knife down, and switch the fork back to the right. In countries with a British influence, the fork is "upside down" and never leaves the left hand, the knife is always in the right hand, and you never use your hands for anything.

When I went to Australia in 1999, I remember that one of the families I stayed with was amazed by the way that I ate. They held their utensils in the "proper British way" that I thought was strange. (After all, how do you get peas on the back of a fork? That simply made no sense to me.) After watching me eat chicken at dinner one night, the father asked me if forks in America had sharp edges for cutting. I could not understand why such tender chicken required a knife.

My first week in England, a lady from here took it upon herself to show me how to eat proper British food. I decided I didn't want to look silly all the time, so I began eating meals in nicer restaurants with my fork in my left hand and my knife in my right. At first I felt silly, but eventually it became more normal and most proper meals were eaten like this. In fact, this was very obvious at Christmas when my parents, brother, and Stephanie were all here and we were eating Christmas dinner. Scott, Stephanie, and I were all eating like British people. My family was eating like Americans.

Still, I was sure that I would continue to hold on to my American roots. After all, some foods were meant to be eaten with hands and fingers, specifically pizza, fries, and burgers. Well, friends, I have to confess that I have conformed. My downfall began because if you order pizza at most restaurants here, they are not sliced, thus giving you no choice to to use a knife and fork. Fine. But I have recently noticed that I ALWAYS use a knife and fork when eating pizza, including frozen pizza at home or American chain pizza places (Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, Dominoes). This was not a conscious decision. In fact, I met Scott for lunch today at Pizza Hut for the pizza buffet and did not notice until about half way through the meal that I had utensils in my hand.

*sigh*

Please do not hold this against me! I continue to eat burgers and fries with my hands, but I fear that if I remain in England much longer I might be a lost cause.

Labels: Cheryl