Such a good day...
Martin was at work all day today, so Dylan and I had the day to ourselves. We took a long morning nap together and he played in his nursery while I pulled up some of the old lino and cleaned and oiled the floorboards. I've been wanting to do that for ages. About a third of the nursery is done. Then we went grocery shopping and came home to make fish pie. He had an afternoon nap while I finished the fish pie, and then Martin came home. We chilled until Martin's grandparents came over. We all had dinner together then Dylan had his bath and they left.
We got their old television. It's like twice the size of the one we had before. Plus, grandad Gilbert made us a cupboard to cover up the electric meters and fuse boxes. Our living room gets closer and closer to finished every day.
Martin and I also got a little bit more grass seed sown this evening, and have had loads of time together. The only downside has been the neighbors. They have been drinking since about 1 pm, and the cops have been over. An ambulance was called and apparently baseball bats were involved. Weird!
Dylan has started "commando crawling." He can move really fast--any day now he'll be crawling for real. It's so adorable to watch him trying to stand up. He's really more interested in trying to walk than to crawl. I've got a video clip that I'll try to post tomorrow or the next day.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
What's New???
Not a lot, sadly. We are doing well though. There are a few developments in our lives that I find exciting, but it doesn't take much since I had Dylan and started staying home with him. Here's the list...
Dylan has figured out how to clap. I've been working on it with him for about 6 weeks, and on Wednesday he finally figured it out. He also figured out how to wave on the same day. He gets really excited about clapping his hands. He can make noise now even if he doesn't have a noisy toy to hand. And the waving thing is adorable. We've added that to giving kisses on cue (most of the time).
Martin has built a cupboard door for the entrance hallway and has started moving his tools to it. I'm thrilled--it's always good to have more storage, and every time we get more storage the house gets a little bit tidier.
Our bishop, Bishop Crofts, has been called to be the stake president. Gossip abounds as to who will be the new bishop. It's terribly exciting stuff.
We went to a barbecue at the Mundays' house today. It was such fun--we stayed at their house for 6 hours. I can't believe we were there for that long--the time passed so quickly. They are seriously the nicest people, and the people they invited are all fantastic as well. I took some pictures and will post them soon.
That's all--too tired and going to bed soon!
Not a lot, sadly. We are doing well though. There are a few developments in our lives that I find exciting, but it doesn't take much since I had Dylan and started staying home with him. Here's the list...
Dylan has figured out how to clap. I've been working on it with him for about 6 weeks, and on Wednesday he finally figured it out. He also figured out how to wave on the same day. He gets really excited about clapping his hands. He can make noise now even if he doesn't have a noisy toy to hand. And the waving thing is adorable. We've added that to giving kisses on cue (most of the time).
Martin has built a cupboard door for the entrance hallway and has started moving his tools to it. I'm thrilled--it's always good to have more storage, and every time we get more storage the house gets a little bit tidier.
Our bishop, Bishop Crofts, has been called to be the stake president. Gossip abounds as to who will be the new bishop. It's terribly exciting stuff.
We went to a barbecue at the Mundays' house today. It was such fun--we stayed at their house for 6 hours. I can't believe we were there for that long--the time passed so quickly. They are seriously the nicest people, and the people they invited are all fantastic as well. I took some pictures and will post them soon.
That's all--too tired and going to bed soon!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
It's Official...
Dylan is an American citizen. Although Martin keeps reminding me that he is equally British. I'm so happy that his birth has been registered and his passport is on its way. I've applied for his social security card as well, though that will take a bit longer to come than his passport.
Our trip to London was good. We had a lovely drive down, with a stop for a picnic and beautiful weather and clear roads all the way down. We checked into our hotel which was pleasantly surprising considering how cheap it was. We drove to the nearest Tube station and got it in to London. We wandered around the National Gallery (I saw Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," the real one!) and had dinner in China Town at the Wong Kei. Then we got the tube back and got Dylan put in to bed. He slept the whole night and we got an early start the next morning.
Unfortunately, this is where the smooth sailing ended. We were driving to the Tube station when we ran into some bad traffic on the M1. A journey which should have taken us about 15 minutes took us nearly 2 hours instead as our exit was closed. We started out on the east side of London, and ended going in on the west side. Nightmare. So we didn't have much time before our 2:30 appointment at the Embassy. Then, once we were in, it took us another 2 1/2 hours of mostly sitting and waiting. But getting out of London was fast and the drive home was mostly uneventful.
Dylan had another good night, once he actually went to sleep. I was going to sleep in with him, but we got a call from the carpet fitters asking us if they could do our carpet today instead of Wednesday. I said yes, if they could help me move a little furniture. So our carpet got done a day early and Martin had a nice surprise when he got home from work.
So we've had a few really good days. Dylan is an American now and will have his passport in about three weeks, and our living room is finished except for the bookshelf and the cabinet for our electrics that Grandad Gilbert is building. It looks so good. Thanks mom and dad for the Christmas cash which paid for just about half of the expense. I'll think of you every time I walk on my beautiful, squishy carpet.
The closer to done the house is, the closer we are to moving home.
Dylan is an American citizen. Although Martin keeps reminding me that he is equally British. I'm so happy that his birth has been registered and his passport is on its way. I've applied for his social security card as well, though that will take a bit longer to come than his passport.
Our trip to London was good. We had a lovely drive down, with a stop for a picnic and beautiful weather and clear roads all the way down. We checked into our hotel which was pleasantly surprising considering how cheap it was. We drove to the nearest Tube station and got it in to London. We wandered around the National Gallery (I saw Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," the real one!) and had dinner in China Town at the Wong Kei. Then we got the tube back and got Dylan put in to bed. He slept the whole night and we got an early start the next morning.
Unfortunately, this is where the smooth sailing ended. We were driving to the Tube station when we ran into some bad traffic on the M1. A journey which should have taken us about 15 minutes took us nearly 2 hours instead as our exit was closed. We started out on the east side of London, and ended going in on the west side. Nightmare. So we didn't have much time before our 2:30 appointment at the Embassy. Then, once we were in, it took us another 2 1/2 hours of mostly sitting and waiting. But getting out of London was fast and the drive home was mostly uneventful.
Dylan had another good night, once he actually went to sleep. I was going to sleep in with him, but we got a call from the carpet fitters asking us if they could do our carpet today instead of Wednesday. I said yes, if they could help me move a little furniture. So our carpet got done a day early and Martin had a nice surprise when he got home from work.
So we've had a few really good days. Dylan is an American now and will have his passport in about three weeks, and our living room is finished except for the bookshelf and the cabinet for our electrics that Grandad Gilbert is building. It looks so good. Thanks mom and dad for the Christmas cash which paid for just about half of the expense. I'll think of you every time I walk on my beautiful, squishy carpet.
The closer to done the house is, the closer we are to moving home.
Dylan got the hang of eating with chopsticks very quickly. It helps that he didn't have to use them--just open his mouth. We enjoy a Chinese feast at the Wong Kei in London.
The carpet fitter came today. This is the front room with just the underlay down. Already an improvement!
Carpet is down...
Furniture is back in place! Looks great, huh?
Fortnum and Mason--the queen shops here! Notice the gold shopping baskets and red plush carpet. We weren't sure they'd let us in the doors, but we got in, and we even bought some bread there (it's all we could afford!).
Friday, May 16, 2008
Presenting a united front...
Thanks everyone for your advice about how to deal with the midnight screaming fits. We had a really rough night on Wednesday. Dylan woke up at 2 am and didn't go back to sleep until 6:15. Martin and I got all stressed out and angry with Dylan and with each other. It was so hard!
We ended up going with my mom's advice (thanks mom) and we had a talk about it in advance. See, part of the reason I was so angry was that I felt guilty that Martin was awake because he seemed to want me to just feed Dylan to sleep in our bed and I didn't think I should. So we discussed why we needed to just let him cry, and we were mentally prepared to do it.
So last night when he woke up at 2 am we changed him, gave him some Calpol, got him calmed down, and then put him down and let him cry. He cried for over an hour. But we were all asleep by 4 am, which was much better than the night before. And again, when he woke up at 6, I fed him, we put him down, and let him cry. That time he only cried for about 20 minutes.
He's awake now, so I need to go get him.
And why does everyone seem to think I'm this big hippie freak who won't give my baby pain relief medication? I know it's not that good for him, and I try not to take anything myself, but he's little and doesn't understand the pain, so I will do anything I can to take away that pain. I have no problem giving my baby drugs!
Thanks everyone for your advice about how to deal with the midnight screaming fits. We had a really rough night on Wednesday. Dylan woke up at 2 am and didn't go back to sleep until 6:15. Martin and I got all stressed out and angry with Dylan and with each other. It was so hard!
We ended up going with my mom's advice (thanks mom) and we had a talk about it in advance. See, part of the reason I was so angry was that I felt guilty that Martin was awake because he seemed to want me to just feed Dylan to sleep in our bed and I didn't think I should. So we discussed why we needed to just let him cry, and we were mentally prepared to do it.
So last night when he woke up at 2 am we changed him, gave him some Calpol, got him calmed down, and then put him down and let him cry. He cried for over an hour. But we were all asleep by 4 am, which was much better than the night before. And again, when he woke up at 6, I fed him, we put him down, and let him cry. That time he only cried for about 20 minutes.
He's awake now, so I need to go get him.
And why does everyone seem to think I'm this big hippie freak who won't give my baby pain relief medication? I know it's not that good for him, and I try not to take anything myself, but he's little and doesn't understand the pain, so I will do anything I can to take away that pain. I have no problem giving my baby drugs!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Any suggestions???
Lately Dylan has been waking up in the middle of the night and not going back to sleep. He hasn't done that since he was about 8 weeks old, and we don't know what to do. We've even tried taking him for a midnight drive, which worked once but didn't work for us last night. It's so frustrating, and any advice would be welcome.
We had a great weekend anyway. I got my dates mixed up--thought we had ~Dylan's American Embassy appointment tomorrow but it turns out it's next Monday. We went to Mablethorpe yesterday and spent the night at Don and Olga's house (Martin's dad's parents). We met his nanna and grandad at Willingham Woods on the way down to have a picnic, which was lovely. Then we carried on to Mablethorpe and took Dylan to the beach.
He hated every second of it!
I think the sensation of the sand washing out from under him scared him a little bit, and he just sobbed every time we put his feet in the water. But he enjoyed playing in the dry sand, and he got good and dirty.
As mentioned above, he had a sleepless night. But he was so tired tonight that he fell asleep really easily. I hope he sleeps through tonight, because Martin and I are both completely exhausted.
Speaking of Martin, he got the door switched around tonight. We are now coming into the house through the entrance hallway and the old door has been screwed shut. We need to get some insulation, then we can board it up, plaster it, and build our bookshelf. But we have shifted the furniture down and the front room looks great.
We also got a few things done in the garden. The grass is looking good, the ivy is gorgeous, and I have radishes sprouting. We got some geraniums and other plants from Charlie and Dave (Beth's parents), and I planted them tonight. We actually have green stuff growing in our garden, and the back patio area looks FAB! the brick is almost all exposed now, and Martin scraped a lot of soil off it while I was finishing dinner tonight. It looks so good!
Busy weekend, and Match of the Day is about to start so I'm going to bed. I'll try to get some pictures posted soon of our weekend away.
Happy Mother's Day to all the American moms who read my blog!
Lately Dylan has been waking up in the middle of the night and not going back to sleep. He hasn't done that since he was about 8 weeks old, and we don't know what to do. We've even tried taking him for a midnight drive, which worked once but didn't work for us last night. It's so frustrating, and any advice would be welcome.
We had a great weekend anyway. I got my dates mixed up--thought we had ~Dylan's American Embassy appointment tomorrow but it turns out it's next Monday. We went to Mablethorpe yesterday and spent the night at Don and Olga's house (Martin's dad's parents). We met his nanna and grandad at Willingham Woods on the way down to have a picnic, which was lovely. Then we carried on to Mablethorpe and took Dylan to the beach.
He hated every second of it!
I think the sensation of the sand washing out from under him scared him a little bit, and he just sobbed every time we put his feet in the water. But he enjoyed playing in the dry sand, and he got good and dirty.
As mentioned above, he had a sleepless night. But he was so tired tonight that he fell asleep really easily. I hope he sleeps through tonight, because Martin and I are both completely exhausted.
Speaking of Martin, he got the door switched around tonight. We are now coming into the house through the entrance hallway and the old door has been screwed shut. We need to get some insulation, then we can board it up, plaster it, and build our bookshelf. But we have shifted the furniture down and the front room looks great.
We also got a few things done in the garden. The grass is looking good, the ivy is gorgeous, and I have radishes sprouting. We got some geraniums and other plants from Charlie and Dave (Beth's parents), and I planted them tonight. We actually have green stuff growing in our garden, and the back patio area looks FAB! the brick is almost all exposed now, and Martin scraped a lot of soil off it while I was finishing dinner tonight. It looks so good!
Busy weekend, and Match of the Day is about to start so I'm going to bed. I'll try to get some pictures posted soon of our weekend away.
Happy Mother's Day to all the American moms who read my blog!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Monday, May 05, 2008
Daddy and Dylan share a giggle.
Did you know that Liverpool is the European city of Culture for 2008?
Bridge over (un)troubled waters...
Look at that beautiful patch of vibrant green grass! Everything that has a paving slab down has been sown with grass seed and we started digging the brick out of the last garden section this afternoon. Hanging baskets will be done tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. Dylan will have some grass to play on by the end of this month!
Liverpool (after a LONG night)...
Martin's baseball games on Sunday were pretty good. The Liverpool Trojans are the best team in the league and so it was a little bit, shall we say, one-sided, but the team played well and had a good time. The weather was decent, too. It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't pouring rain the whole time, either. It would have been more fun if we hadn't had the worst night with Dylan since he was about 8 weeks old.
He went to sleep just fine, but woke up coughing at about 11:30 pm. He was inconsolable, and didn't get back to sleep until about 1:30 am. And we couldn't get him to go down. We ended up bundling him into the car and driving until he fell asleep. Then he woke up again at 6:30 am for a feed, and we had to be up at 8 to drive to Liverpool. Ugh!!!
I've decided that Liverpool is a very groovy city. I wish we had longer to spend there, because it seems really cool. I love the Liverpudlian accent as well--it sounds almost Welsh. It's very sing-songy. I can't understand it very well, but it sounds so pretty.
Anyway, we have our darling little baby back now, and today's been great. It was a Bank Holiday, so Martin and Dylan and I got a lot of work done on the garden. Over half of it has grass seed down, and we finished doing one of the borders. Martin got a lot of brick dug out and it looks fantastic. We would have planted strawberries and tomatoes, but we wanted to put them in hanging baskets and we couldn't find any we liked that weren't really expensive. It has been a hard day's work, but so enjoyable. I wish Martin had two days off every week!
Martin's baseball games on Sunday were pretty good. The Liverpool Trojans are the best team in the league and so it was a little bit, shall we say, one-sided, but the team played well and had a good time. The weather was decent, too. It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't pouring rain the whole time, either. It would have been more fun if we hadn't had the worst night with Dylan since he was about 8 weeks old.
He went to sleep just fine, but woke up coughing at about 11:30 pm. He was inconsolable, and didn't get back to sleep until about 1:30 am. And we couldn't get him to go down. We ended up bundling him into the car and driving until he fell asleep. Then he woke up again at 6:30 am for a feed, and we had to be up at 8 to drive to Liverpool. Ugh!!!
I've decided that Liverpool is a very groovy city. I wish we had longer to spend there, because it seems really cool. I love the Liverpudlian accent as well--it sounds almost Welsh. It's very sing-songy. I can't understand it very well, but it sounds so pretty.
Anyway, we have our darling little baby back now, and today's been great. It was a Bank Holiday, so Martin and Dylan and I got a lot of work done on the garden. Over half of it has grass seed down, and we finished doing one of the borders. Martin got a lot of brick dug out and it looks fantastic. We would have planted strawberries and tomatoes, but we wanted to put them in hanging baskets and we couldn't find any we liked that weren't really expensive. It has been a hard day's work, but so enjoyable. I wish Martin had two days off every week!
Friday, May 02, 2008
Thanks for the good advice, mom!
I remember when I was quite a bit younger I told my mom that I didn't ever want to have kids, because I'd never be able to sit down and just play the piano again. I think Jace must have been a baby and I was watching him. She gave me a good bit of advice then. She said that I could still do the things I loved. I would just have to do it regardless of whether the baby was crying or not. She said that moms shouldn't change everything about their lives just because they have a baby.
Today Dylan and I went swimming. Then we did a little bit of shopping. We worked out in the garden tonight, and we played the piano before he had his bath. Martin and I both do the things we love still, and Dylan just adds dimension to our lives. He's a wonderful addition!
Incidentally, anybody know how much dirt a baby can ingest and still be ok?
But hey, I got shallots and parsnips planted, as well as a few flowers. It's nice to get some stuff planted out back (other than grass, of course)!
Martin has another baseball game on Sunday, and we are combining a temple trip and a mini break to Liverpool with the game. I'm excited--not necessarily for the baseball game, but I've never been to Liverpool and we haven't been to the temple since Dylan was just two weeks old and mom and dad came over. I should have some good pictures to post from the weekend. I love going new places!
Speaking of Martin, stuff is happening at the Place. Since they changed the menu it's been a lot busier, and so the owner is ready to renovate the upstairs room and expand the business. It's not going to be a fine dining restaurant as he was promised when he took the job. It'll be a cozy coffee lounge and the downstairs will be for people having food. There's no set time frame for the project yet, but it should be good. They are slammed every lunch time, and could be a lot busier if they had more room. There has been some talk of earning a commission as well--good stuff!
I'll keep everybody posted on what happens at work. Got to run now--I'm in the middle of doing dinner. BLTs and oven chips! Yummy!
I remember when I was quite a bit younger I told my mom that I didn't ever want to have kids, because I'd never be able to sit down and just play the piano again. I think Jace must have been a baby and I was watching him. She gave me a good bit of advice then. She said that I could still do the things I loved. I would just have to do it regardless of whether the baby was crying or not. She said that moms shouldn't change everything about their lives just because they have a baby.
Today Dylan and I went swimming. Then we did a little bit of shopping. We worked out in the garden tonight, and we played the piano before he had his bath. Martin and I both do the things we love still, and Dylan just adds dimension to our lives. He's a wonderful addition!
Incidentally, anybody know how much dirt a baby can ingest and still be ok?
But hey, I got shallots and parsnips planted, as well as a few flowers. It's nice to get some stuff planted out back (other than grass, of course)!
Martin has another baseball game on Sunday, and we are combining a temple trip and a mini break to Liverpool with the game. I'm excited--not necessarily for the baseball game, but I've never been to Liverpool and we haven't been to the temple since Dylan was just two weeks old and mom and dad came over. I should have some good pictures to post from the weekend. I love going new places!
Speaking of Martin, stuff is happening at the Place. Since they changed the menu it's been a lot busier, and so the owner is ready to renovate the upstairs room and expand the business. It's not going to be a fine dining restaurant as he was promised when he took the job. It'll be a cozy coffee lounge and the downstairs will be for people having food. There's no set time frame for the project yet, but it should be good. They are slammed every lunch time, and could be a lot busier if they had more room. There has been some talk of earning a commission as well--good stuff!
I'll keep everybody posted on what happens at work. Got to run now--I'm in the middle of doing dinner. BLTs and oven chips! Yummy!
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