As for Christmas, we had a great one.  We didn’t leave the house all day, and in fact we didn’t get out of our PJ’s, either.  We just hung out, opened gifts, created and ate yummy meals, and hung out some more.  I think Callum had a great first Christmas, but he definitely didn’t really understand it.  He loved all of his gifts, but he was consistently more excited about the paper than the gift.  He can officially say that all of his gifts were deliciously wrapped.  

So now that the little one has reached another mini-birthday (9 months now!), here are a few pictures.

By the way . . . I asked Nancy about my supplies the Tuesday after my last post.  She had completely forgotten to order them and was SOOOOOO apologetic it’s silly.  Then i found out that she used to support 1 VP and about 12 people, and now she supports 3 or 4 VPs and about 45 people, so yeah - she’s a little maxxed out.  BUT I think you’ll find that I always said she was nice . . . just a little scary.  

Anyway my supplies arrived on December 30th - officially less than a month after I started, and Nancy and I are buds, so it’s all good.

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Anyway, my second day, Nancy came back complaining about how much work she had.  Nancy sits next to me, so I knew all about how she had too much work.  I gingerly approached her. . . “Nancy, someone told me that I should talk to you about getting office supplies?”  She sighed, looked up at me and then back down at her keyboard, and told me to email her with a list.  

I emailed her with a list.  It was hard to be specific enough that I wouldn’t hate what she got me, but not so specific that she would think I was a diva.  Pens (if I get a choice, I prefer uniball or pilot precise)  Folders (envelope type that close completely).  I mean, I don’t want file folders - one needs to be somewhat specific.  I also don’t want a box of bic pens.  I wouldn’t use them anyway, as I am quite particular about pens.

To her credit, Nancy dropped off the majority of my list within a couple hours.  BUT there were a few things I needed to order from the catalogue.  Mouse pad, folders, and so on.  On Tuesday (a week later), I still had no sign of my supplies, and the lack of folders is getting to be problematic.  I delicately approached Nancy, “Do you have any idea when I should expect my supplies?”

“Well I ordered them yesterday . . . ” (In my head, I think, “YESTERDAY?!”) “. . . so I would expect it Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.”  

“Awesome.  Thanks so much.”

Wednesday afternoon, a box of office supplies came and was placed on the floor outside of Nancy’s cube (remember - that’s right next to mine).  I got excited.  Then Thursday came, and the box was still there.  ”UNPACK THE BOX,” I thought, and then I realized that I was completely powerless over this situation.  Bringing it up would risk Nancy’s rage, which would potentially mean the end of my ability to peacefully order supplies for the rest of my time with this company. Totally not worth it.  Who needs folders?  Piles work just fine.

Friday morning, the box went away.  I still don’t have my supplies.  I don’t know for sure if my supplies were in there, but I’m thinking Tuesday is the appropriate day to bring it up again.  I’m hoping they’ll just turn up on Monday and I can just show Nancy how grateful I am that she got them for me.

Incidentally, Nancy is actually pretty nice - she just has that “I work for these idiots and nobody appreciates me” thing going on.  The thing that only a career admin with a LOTS of experience can truly perfect.

Then came the weather forecast for the weekend. “Brrr!” the meteorologist exclaimed,”it’s cold out there.” He gave us the chilling forecast for the weekend: Highs in the mid-50’s with overnight temperatures plummeting to mid-40’s. That’s right, the temperature is dropping to 46 degrees overnight! Get a parka and a ski mask!

I love living in this city. On the rare occasion that the temperature departs from the typical 60 - 85 degree range, the heat wave or cold snap becomes a major news event.

Incidentally next friday is a snow day at Callum’s day care. An “ice company” is going to fill the outdoor play area with snow. Fun!

We had the monthly playgroup meeting at our house a few weeks ago.  It was loads of fun, and we had yummy food leftover for a day or two, which is always one of the perks of hosting!

We also got to go visit the Baum family before Thanksgiving.  They live in Nevada, which is only a few hours away, so we rented a car and went out there.  It was such a nice trip, and the weather was beautiful! BUT. . . we didn’t take any pictures.  I guess we just got too sidetracked with having fun and visiting, and we just didn’t remember!

THEN, we went to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving!  We got to see ALL of Callum’s cousins, lots of Aunts and Uncles and Great Aunts and Great Uncles, and of course Grandma and Grandpa.  The food was amazing, as usual, and it was such a treat to be with everyone again.  BUT . . . we didn’t take any pictures.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  Andy took some pictures on his snazzy new camera, but it’s old-school style and therefore not so web-friendly!

So now, Andy and I will be working full time, and Callum will be in “school” full time (slightly less - Andy does an early day so that C-man has a shorter day at school), and we’re going to have to somehow attach the camera to Callum so that we remember to take pictures all the time!

Today, we’re planning to look for a Christmas tree, so expect some nice holiday photos next time!  Anyway, here are the photos that we DID manage to take. . . fortunately it’s easy to get good ones since the C-meister is such a smiley little fella.

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This video is several clips from September where I ask Callum to show his teeth.  It’s actually quite ridiculous how much I asked to see his teeth.  The very end features a more recent clip of Callum with four teeth.

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We had lots of visitors in the past month.  Crystal & Chris came from Phoenix again, only this time they had a bed to sleep in.  UPGRADE!  Brad & Kristen came a few days later in mid-road trip, and Lynn & Peter came over for dinner - all in the same week!  It was so nice to see everyone, and I have to say we ate better than usual - we LOVE having visitors.  

OK, so let’s get to what you’re really interested in - PICTURES!

We hope you had a great Halloween!

Today I nearly met my match.  I waged a tough battle against an enormous butternut squash, and you’ll be happy to hear that I emerged victorious. 

We have been making Callum’s baby food.  After a few initial hurdles involving frozen peas which turned out to have salt in them (who knew?) and green beans which turned out to be almost impossible to pulverize and then REALLY didn’t go down well. . . and the ultimate acquisition of a food mill, which was deemed to be the right tool for the job, we finally got the hang of it. 

We have since found unsalted peas and squashed them to bits, smooshed up LOTS of sweet potatoes, shattered one bag of frozen butternut squash, and destroyed a bunch of gorgeous organic bananas. 

Every time we go to the grocery store, Callum and I peruse the organic produce section and eye up our next potential adversaries.  Most recently, I stumbled on an enormous organic butternut squash.  It was cheap and huge, and we were running low on squash (our bag of frozen squash was too teany), so it became part of the plan. 

It hovered around the house for about 5 days and was in various turns a mantelpiece, a weapon (threatened only, not used), a hat, and a microphone, and it came to be referred to as “the gourd.”  Today was the day I decided to annihilate the gourd.

I didn’t think it would be too much of a challenge.  After all, it’s just a vegetable, and I’m a human.  Much stronger – plus I have the ol’ brain to help me out.  BUT, as soon as I took a knife to it, I knew I was in trouble.  Turns out, raw butternut squash is VERY tough to cut.  Even with the nice sharp knife we borrowed from Jocelyn. 

The secret is to roast it first, then cut it.  That, however, requires cooking gear that is STILL in transit from London.  Yes.  Still.  SO, I pressed on.  Cut, peel peel peel, cut cut cut, peel peel peel.  It probably took about an hour – maybe longer, and in the mean time Callum woke up from his nap and was a spectator for the end of the battle. 

I boiled as much as would comfortably fit in our one pot, pureed it in the food processor, and spooned it into ice cube trays.  I filled two trays, and I still have an enormous Tupperware container filled with uncooked squash.  The point, though, is that after a long and arduous struggle, I suffered minimal injuries (a sore right palm and very dry hands), and I emerged victorious.  Congratulations me.

As it happens, babies only eat pureed food for a little while, so I’m thinking . . . . that I may not EVER have to do this EVER again.  Which is a very good thing.

And by the way, Callum has FOUR teeth now!

Anyway, now they’re visible, thanks in part to Andy’s tricky photography (and a little help from his finger) and here they are!

He can sit up for longer now, and we’ve started to give him a bath just sitting up in the bath, instead of lounging in his baby lounger.  He has also - and this is one of the more interesting developmental milestones to date - started to protest when he doesn’t get his way.  Today, he cried because I didn’t give him his bowl of sweet potatoes to play with, and he cried because I took the bath toys away from him when it was time to get out of the bath.  So, when he starts talking, I completely expect him to say, “but MOOooommmmmmmm. . .. ”  Nice.

Here are some pictures from the last month. . . 

CALLUM has TWO TEETH!  Ok so maybe not two whole teeth, but two that are poking through the gums, growing up into teeth.  We were completely shocked, as he’s the first in his little playgroup to get teeth, and so - unlike other developmental milestones - I wasn’t anxiously anticipating the day his tooth would arrive.  He just jammed my hand in his mouth, as usual, and I felt it!  I said, “Hold on a second!  Can I please feel that?”  He didn’t respond, so I took that as a “Sure, go ahead,” and lo and behold - tooth!  The other tooth started growing about 2 days later.  Once they’re big enough to be easily visible, we’ll obviously take pictures and post them up here.  

He’s also eating two meals of rice cereal every day, and I think we’re going to branch out into green vegetables this weekend.  I read that if you start with yummy sweet things, they don’t like the veggies later, so we’re starting with veggies.  I’m fine with this idea in theory, but at least the rice cereal is white, so when Callum grabs it from me and launches it across the room, the mess isn’t too bad.  I’m going to have to cordon off everything within a 6-food radius of the little dude when GREEN things come into play.  

Speaking of mess, he has also started to figure out that if he kicks around in the bath, Mommy gets wet.  He doesn’t completely get it yet, but I noticed a spark of recognition there yesterday. . . this could be trouble.  Hey - at least it gives me another excuse to wear bummy clothes.  Other than the usual no job, my clothes are still on the boat, new mom type stuff.

So that’s Callum.  Andy & I . . . are boring, so I guess this is really more of a Callumpdate.  Sorry.

So, back in July . . . of 2007 . . . we went to Norway to celebrate our anniversary and Katie Anne’s birthday.  We took several hundred pictures, and we’ve been a little busy since then, so we took some time to get around to posting them.  So long, even, that I didn’t even know I was pregnant until we got home from this trip, and now Callum is 5 months old.

We flew into Bergen and rented a car, because we thought we would enjoy the drive up to Balestrand, a town on the north edge of the Sognefjord.  Bergen itself was a perfect starting point - a beautiful little town with plenty of interesting sights to check out.  We didn’t have long, but we were anxious to get up to the fjord, so that was fine.

Our drive took forever, but it was a fun adventure.  Taking ferries seems to be a way of life up there.  The directions kept telling us to drive across the water, and there wouldn’t be a bridge on the map. . . we were glad to see the ferries, because we weren’t sure our rental car would make it across the fjords on its own.

Balestrand was as beautiful as we expected, and the people who ran our hotel were very helpful in pointing us toward fun things to do.  Since we had the car, we were able to use Balestrand as home base, but we could still drive around and explore.

We expected our trip to be a fairly lazy four days, but somehow we managed to squeeze quite a few big activities in there.  We went for a short hike that ended up - as short hikes are prone to do - being a fairly long and arduous hike.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time.  

Then we went kayaking in the fjord.  Before you ask, yes, the water WAS cold, but perhaps not as cold as you might imagine.  Also fun, and we enjoyed chatting and joking with our guide, who was American.  

We ate an enormous buffet meal at the big fancy hotel in Balestrand - no booze, though, because the cheapest wines there were the equivalent of about $70/bottle, and they were brands that we recognized as inexpensive wines.  Those Norwegians really tax their booze - no wonder people were loaded down with duty free at the airport!

We drove to Jostedalsbreen, the biggest glacier in continental Europe, and we were actually able to hike up and on part of it.  It was sort of like hiking a giant snowcone - not solid ice, but little pebbly ice.  It was actually less challenging than perhaps we expected, but the view was amazing, and we got to wear crampons and carry pickaxes, so we felt cool anyway.  

Here are some pictures of our adventures.

The last day, we took a ferry along the Sognefjord and down one of the narrow branch fjords (Aurlandsfjord).  The weather was pretty cold, extremely windy, and at times drizzly, but it was just astonishingly beautiful - so much so that it actually made up more than half of our trip photos and is largely the reason it took so long to sort through them and post this.  There are quite a few here, but they are all so amazing that it was very hard to choose.  As it is, this is less than 10% of them.

This short trip to Norway ended up being one of our favorite trips ever.  Norway is high on the list of places we would like to go back to.  We went for four days and barely saw anything, but everything we did see was breathtaking.  The blues were bluer and the greens were greener.  If you ever get a chance to go to Norway, go go GO!

He loves being on his tummy, and he can get a little air under his bum, so hopefully that means he’ll start crawling one of these days.  He has also discovered that he can squeal very loudly whenever he feels the inspiration to do so. . . this has provided plenty of amusement for everyone involved.  

He’s getting better at eating his rice cereal, and we just started dropping his late-night bottle three days ago.  So far he slept through all three nights, so hopefully that trend will continue. . . admittedly he is now insatiable during the day, but we’ll get there.

Anyway, here are the new pictures. . . 

This trip was so much fun - we spent two weeks feeling so loved and appreciated.  It was such a gift to be able to visit so many people who we care about and miss being around.  I have to admit wondering at times why we live so far away from all of those people. . . but I think we’ll stick with this plan for now and re-evaluate next year.  

Who knows?  We might be able to see people just as much (or almost as much) from here as we could there!  We’ll see how it goes.  Anyway, thanks everyone for coming to see us, having us over, playing with us and just generally being so loving and kind.  We feel so grateful that we have all of you and that we had this opportunity to see all of you (well, most of you).  Now it’s your turn.  Come see us in SF!  Callum’s only going to get cuter with age. . . . 

Here are some pictures of our trip.

The second is the last belly picture, which we took about 45 minutes before we left for the hospital.  Can you see the stress in my face?  I tried to hide it well.  Check it!

More pictures on the bump page.

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I don’t think we would have been terribly surprised if someone told us then that we’d be back in seven years having been married for five of them and had a baby in the mean time, but it was still kind of interesting to find ourselves there again in this completely different life stage.  

There isn’t much to report in terms of activities.  We would wake up at a fairly leisurely hour (maybe 8:30 - we DO have a baby, people) and either read or maybe go for a swim in the pool with Grandpa and cousin Chi.  Then at around 10:30 or 11 (when it started to get too hot), we would come in and have some lunch, sit around a bit, maybe read some more, play with Callum. . . whatever.  Then at about 2:30 or 3:00 we would head to the beach of our choice.  We have a few favorites, and in a pinch there was a pretty good beach at the resort itself.  Callum would go for a quick dip in the ocean and a quick walk along the beach before completely crashing for a long nap in his little tent. (If only I could get him to take long naps at home! Maybe I’ll try the tent.)

Then maybe another dip in the pool.

Then dinner on the porch in the warmness.

Then bed.

Rinse and repeat.  

It was wonderful and warm,and I’m beginning to see the appeal of going there every year.  Ahhhh. . . .

I suddenly feel the need to put on a sweatshirt.  

Check out the pictures!

2) Time to get going.  That’s in more of a figurative sense.  Our things from Pennsylvania have arrived, our living room furniture has arrived, the cats arrive tomorrow, and we’re not about to go away (see point 1), so now I really have to get down to business.  Find daycare.  Find job.  Daycare search = fearful tearful.  Job search = 0.  For now.  Well, I’ve done two things job search-wise, but I need to get in gear.  I feel that buying a suit might be the next logical step, but I also plan to call Jordan and talk to my few other SF contacts.  Very few.  Please mention any ideas. . . 

This week, I had a long list of things to take care of, and the ONLY thing I haven’t done is order a baby gift for Noah (YAY! Noah’s here!) and order picture frames for our newly acquired family photos.  That’s pretty good, considering the length of the original list.  Today’s chore was acquiring a litter box, litter scoopy-do, cat litter and cat food.  This required a stop off at home in the middle, because the stroller basket is only so big.  Then I got home and realized we still need food dishes and maybe a bottle of that don’t-scratch-on-the-new-sofa stuff.  I didn’t go back for it, though, because I had to go meet with the playgroup for ice cream.  

I had a typically gross-sounding but wonderfully delicious combination of mint chip ice cream and pink plum sorbet.  It’s not that I like the gross combinations; it’s that I’m indecisive, and really the overlapped bit is only a couple bites anyway.

But today is not only a day of celebratory parades, barbeques and works of fire.  No sir, today marks a major shift in Callum’s life.  At the end of today the number of days that Callum has lived in the USA will exceed the number of days he lived in the UK.  49 days in the US to 48 days in the UK.  Take that red coats!  

I find myself thinking about Pavlov’s dog whenever I just seem to be incapable of learning certain things.  I find myself saying, “Self, how many TIMES do you have to do this?” or similar.  Surely if a dog can learn through repetition, so should I?

What brings this up, you ask?  Well first of all, I left our changing bag in a cafe yesterday.  Now, to be fair to me, I haven’t left anything anywhere in several years.  It stinks, because it didn’t exactly come back with all of its contents, but as far as my intellectual capacity is concerned, I feel like a few years without incident is acceptable.  I mean maybe Pavlov’s little pooch would still remember, but he was a friggin famously smart doggie, so you know - we need to keep the standards reasonable.

BUT the slightly more humorous and significantly less depressing silliness of late is that twice in the last week, Andy and I have purchased goods that we do not currently have the means to open.  This has happened before, and you can probably sympathize.  How many times have you brought a bottle of wine to a function without a cork screw?  I suppose this happens more often in England, where it’s legal to drink outside, but I can tell you Yanks that it definitely happens.  I feel like I have also, in the distant past, brought cans of Hi-C to a picnic, only to have them sit unopened while the attendees came up with some sort of ridiculous plan.  

Anyway, this week, Andy bought some beverages that required a bottle opener, of which we have several. . . on a boat on their way here, and I bought some cans of soup which would require a can opener, of which we have one. . . on a boat on its way here.  So seriously - how many more times will we do this before our openers arrive?  The answer is probably zero - but only because I wrote it down.  Perhaps this blog is my Pavlovian bell and now I ALSO won’t leave anything anywhere ever again. . . but only if I’m blogging?  hmm. . . must work on this plan.

Incidentally, we managed to find a way into the beverages (and have since discovered a free opener in Andy’s pile of stuff at work), but I think the soup will have to wait patiently for the can opener.  It looks pretty good, but not good enough to find some complicated way into the cans.  We can wait.  (Hehe. CAN wait.)

So, the first weekend we were here, Andy, Callum, and I went for a long walk down Market Street. Along our way, we came across all sorts of crazy folks, and we said, “Man, this town’s full of crazies.” Well, turns out it’s still true.

That day, we found your run-of-the-mill hippie type crazies, a few singing crazies, a couple of talking-to-myself crazies, and lots of garden variety yelling obscenities at the sky crazies. One of the talking-to-myself crazies was telling herself all about how all of the cults are after her and don’t get her started on those Mormons. . . and then there was a long bit about the conservatives and how they’re all after her, but then the liberals are also no good. . . and also, word has it that Joe Montana’s wife stole her identity.

There was an old lady in a hot pink spandex dress on the train one day. . . she had on black panties, which was good, because when I looked (and trust me, the way she was sitting you just HAD to look), I was seriously concerned that I might not see any panties at all.

Another woman on the train was perfectly normal aside from the fact that she was dressed head-to-toe like Eliza Doolittle. (”My dahling, where does it rain?”)

There’s a man who stands outside Andy’s office every afternoon shouting “Body Oil! Body Oil!,” but he might just be selling drugs. . . not sure.

Finally, yesterday when Andy was on his way home, there was a man on the corner standing on a plexiglass shelf. A woman, who may or may not have known him, asked him what he was doing, and he said, “I’m standing on an invisible platform.” Obviously.

Genetics left Callum with a pretty good chance of being nuts to begin with, but now that we’re in San Francisco, who knows . . .

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Anyway, it turned out that the doctor was a normal pediatrician, more of the jolly old elf variety - jiggly belly, white beard and all. He was very nice and - of course - confirmed that Callum is a very big, very healthy boy. 16 pounds and 13 ounces of big, healthy boy, to be exact. The nurse who weighed him told us that he’s the size of an average six-month-old. We were surprised when today’s outfit (size 6-9 months) fit him well, but now it all makes sense. We’ll need to try out the rest of the as-yet unworn 6-9 month stuff soon, just in case!

Callum had to get 5 shots and an oral vaccine today. He was hungry, so he sucked down the oral vaccine like it was a milkshake. He didn’t notice the first shot, he squeaked a little for the second one, and then he got mad. The poor little guy was not happy about it, but it’s all good, because (note the sarcastic tone) he now has a Bugs Bunny Band-aid on his left thigh and a Tazmanian Devil Band-aid on his right thigh.

Come to think of it, he also has Sesame Street characters on his diapers. Whenever I see them, I think “Why?” Sesame diapers and Looney Tunes band-aids on little babies = BAD investment of time and/or money. Ah well, I guess it’s something for mom & dad to talk about when trying to console said little baby. . .

And now, here are some new pictures, including two from today.

THEN, he found his feet. That’s still new, so he doesn’t really find them on his own very often just yet.

THEN, he found his thumb. Again, still not a pro, but he does occasionally luck out and land it in his mouth.

He also started really giggling. It’s so cute. He was almost giggling for a while, but now there’s no denying it.

Today we discovered that he can almost role over. He gets up onto his side without any trouble, but then his bottom arm gets in the way and he doesn’t have enough momentum to get the rest of the way over. Give him a couple weeks - he’ll get there.

With all of this activity, one would think a little baby would wear himself out, but no. Today, he rode in his stroller all the way to the grocery store (about 20 minutes), all the way around the grocery store (maybe 10 minutes), and almost all the way back before finally falling asleep 4 blocks away. I wheeled him upstairs and he woke up about 5 minutes after coming through the door. What kind of 9-week-old baby takes a 10-minute nap? A very social, wakey baby who sleeps very well at night. It’s actually a good thing, but it keeps us very busy.

The most important even of the week is that Callum’s Grammy is here, so he is being COMPLETELY spoiled out of his mind. He’s going to be so disappointed when Grammy goes home and he’s left with boring old Mom & Dad, who don’t spend nearly as much time and energy entertaining him as she does. Grammy is convinced that Callum says “Grammy.” Hmm. . . sounds more like “Ugah” to me, but then Grammy understands his language better than I do. They’re friends. Hence the giggling.

Here are a few new pictures. . .

So, when we named our boy Callum, we knew that it wasn’t a common name in the US - that’s one of the things we liked about it. Now that we live here, though, it has become clear that most people here haven’t heard the name before and tend to look at us like we made it up. The poor little guy is definitely going to have to spell his name for people.

People here tend to ask us what his name is, and when we say “Callum,” we usually get a blank stare, and occasionally we get guesses. . . Calvin and Hallum are two recent attempts. Only once did someone say “Callum?” We were impressed until we learned that his baby’s name was Soren. Ah hah - unusual names club.

Anyway, just to clear things up, Callum is pronounced like so:

Cal - as in Ripkin or, appropriately, -ifornia
Um - as in umm. . . . . how do I explain this . . .

Emphasis on the Cal. Hope that helps!

These pictures are actually from last week, when I paparazzied him for about 10 minutes each in order to catch a smile on camera. He tended to smile when I got close and then, as soon as I was far enough away to take a picture, he got very serious. Anyway we finally caught him smiling, so now I have proof that he’s a smiley little fella. Here are some pictures. . .

The main difference is that random strangers here are much more likely to talk to me than they were in London. I always found it odd that people in London didn’t talk to Callum or look at him much (huge exception for the Old Ladies in the grocery store who said he was “gorgeous” “a treasure,” and so on - OLL Callum) - then again, they probably considered it an invasion of my privacy to do so. Here, everyone talks to him. Everyone wants to know how old he is. EVERYONE thinks he’s “SOOOO cute!” It’s great!

Then again, yesterday a woman caught up with me on the street to get a closer look at Callum. Then she asked me how old he is and said he was so cute. THEN she started to tell me about how she tried to get pregnant and she welled up a little. I almost wanted to hug her! So my thoughts are that while I do prefer this friendliness as a whole, I also kinda miss knowing that if I went out for a walk in the city, people would just leave me alone. So yeah - I guess I got used to British culture while I was there - it has its perks.

We haven’t had weather this good since July 2006.  When does London have such nice weather?  When you about to move to California, that’s when.  I think London is trying to make us sad to leave.  And it’s doing a good job… 

His eyes get bluer every day.

He’s well over 13 pounds now.

He makes all KINDS of noises.

He can be extremely smiley.

He hates being in line at the grocery store, pooping, and he’s not a big fan of being woken up.

He likes Elton John (face it, Todd, Elton John is good).

Sorry so short, but I have a big move to work on, and we all know you just want the pictures. . .

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Over the last two weeks we have learned a lot about Callum.  For example, he frequently gets the hiccups, like twice a day.  It doesn’t seem to bother him, and it can be really cute. Also, when he sneezes (which is also quite frequent) he hits himself in the face with both fists.  It’s a good thing his cheeks are plump enough to cushion the blow.  Daddy always responds with “Bless you and don’t beat yourself up over it.”

Callum sleeps and he eats.  And he poops.  We’ve had a few explosive ones that seem to go right through the diaper, resulting in an immediate change of clothes.  He hasn’t peed on us while changing a diaper yet.  But he promptly peed when we set him in the bathtub for the first time.  He wasn’t to happy about being in the tub, so we quickly wiped him down with water from the less yellow side of the tub and got him out.  He also peed on mommy when she was holding him before a bath (that was daddy’s fault, he gave a naked baby to mom and made her hold him for about a minute).

Well, it’s happened.  The tone of our blog has changed from witty banter to discussion of various bodily functions.  I guess it was inevitable.  Anyway, here’s some newer pictures of our 11 pound, 7 ounce son (he’s gained a bit of weight since birth). 

So yesterday we got the boiler fixed. Some of you may remember that it broke in December and took weeks to fix thanks to a conveniently unavailable landlord. Then it broke on Good Friday, which is an official holiday here, as is the Monday afterward, and obviously it broke at a very cold time (well, cold for England - lows around freezing, snow and such), and we watched the temperature inside slowly falling as the apartment gradually lost its heat. (Sidenote - I should mention that our shower is on a separate system, so we did have warm shower water. Don’t feel TOO bad for us.)

ANnnyway, I called British Gas myself on Tuesday morning (still haven’t heard from the landlord despite 5 messages), and they came yesterday afternoon between 12 and 6 (how convenient) and they fixed it! So now, thanks to me being home and British Gas not forcing me to go through the landlord, we have heat. Coincidentally (or not, depending on your particular philosophy on such things), it was really warm and beautiful today. So much so that I sat outside and had milk and cookies in the sunshine.

I’m hoping that the warm weather will coax itty-bitty out, but I’m not exactly holding my breath. I’m fairly convinced that he’ll wait until next week, when they’ll make him come out regardless of whether he wants to or not. The size of my belly is starting to concern me now.

I should mention that I’m grateful for all of the “how to get him to come out” tips. I assure you that I have tried all of them - pineapple, Thai food (thanks Phil), Indian food, long walks, walking up and down steps, and my personal favourite suggestion from Lisa, which was to play him really inspiring music - Eye of the Tiger and I’m Coming Out were specific suggestions. . . and while I’m fairly convinced that none of them actually work unless the baby’s on its way anyway, at least it gave me something to do in the mean time.

By the way, I promise that we will tell you when he arrives. Promise. It won’t suddenly slip my mind. I have hilarious visions of talking to one of you sometime two weeks from now and you saying, “So, no baby yet?” and me saying, “OH Shoot! Yes! Sorry - I forgot to mention it.” BUT I’m really glad that everyone’s so excited. . . not long now!

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So, it’s a beautiful, cold, snowy snowy Easter morning here in London, and here’s a rundown of our goings-on:

1. No baby yet. Itty-bitty is due to arrive today, but I read somewhere that 75% of babies are born after their due dates. I’m sorry, but who’s grand plan was THAT? Surely it should be somewhere around 50%? On top of that, first babies are more likely to be late than subsequent babies, so basically it’s not a surprise that he hasn’t made his appearance just yet.

2. Baby soon. While we are getting slightly antsy waiting for the little guy, it’s comforting to know two things. First, every day brings a greater chance of his arrival. That 75% chance of being born late, for example, is already up to 100%. Second, the midwives told me that they won’t let me go past next Friday. SO, last possible day is now the 4th of April, which is less than two weeks from now. As uncomfortable as this is getting (there’s just not very much ROOM for him anymore, so he’s squishing up against my ribs and pelvic/hip bones when I try to sit down), I can manage another 12 days if I have to.

3. It’s Easter and it’s SNOWING! The past three days have brought us the first flurries of the season, and this morning it has been snowing for over an hour, which is the most snow I remember seeing since we moved here. It’s not really sticking, but it’s so pretty! The flakes are big now, and in PA that usually means it’ll stop soon, but we’re not sure if those rules apply globally or not. Andy’s making us some nice cinnamon buns for breakfast, and we have plans to make beef wellington and twice-baked potatoes for dinner, so it should be a yummy day around the McNeil household!

4. Our heat isn’t working. It is pretty cold in the house, and we’re having to boil water to wash dishes in, and today and tomorrow are holidays here, so it probably won’t get fixed until Wednesday or Thursday, and we’re about to bring a new baby home, BUT it could be so much worse. See, we have a radiant heater in the living room, so we can turn that on to keep ourselves warm. We also (crucially) have an electric shower, so while we don’t have hot water in the sinks, we DO have hot water in the shower. This would be rather insufferable if it weren’t for that. Even imagining a shower in this icy water makes me shiver with discomfort.

Finally, here is the updated photo for this week. Bear in mind that I am in holiday mode and therefore fairly um . . . casual. I should also mention that we took an extra special belly picture this week, but it’s being held hostage until Thaddeus delivers on his end of the bargain. That’s right, Thad - it already exists. Muahahahahahaha. . . .

Today was my first day of maternity leave, and so far I feel slightly bored. I did all of the chores I wanted to do around the house today, which means that if itty-bitty is two weeks late, I’ll need to find some other things with which to fill up my time.

The good news is that I have a social engagement tomorrow and another one on Wednesday. . . how popular of me! After that I might start taking in some museums and such. Hopefully I’ll get up to some silly adventures that I can share. The only noteworthy thing today is that people are starting to really stare at me. I don’t think people often see a woman so close to her due date, and when they do, they seem to find it surprising. We almost done preggos are alarmingly enormous. Or at least I am!

By the way, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone. If itty-bitty were planning to arrive today, I would probably know about it by now, so I guess he escaped being named Saint Patrick McNeil. The next fun one is Easter. . . Easter Bunny McNeil (Bunbun for short) has a nice ring to it. . .

Andy was away last week in St. Louis, so I did some organizey type stuff - washed all of the laundry, tidied up, packed the hospital bag (yikes!) and so on. He came back with Valentine’s Day chocolates from the McNeils, so that was exciting! I’m having some for breakfast - gotta love that pre-natal nutrition.

In other news, Katie and Steve were back in town over the past couple days, and yesterday we met them for tea at Fortnum & Mason - VERY posh and nice, and I was very excited, because we have never had a fancy tea here. Anyway I got semi-dressed up and went to meet them there. Arrived a little early, used the fancy loo, and waited on the ground floor by the central staircase, figuring it would be hard for Katie or Andy (who I was also meeting there) to miss me there.

Finally Andy called and said he thought it was on the 4th floor and he’s on his was up. So I went up there, and it turned out that some very wonderful people had planned a little baby shower for me there. I mean WHO has a baby shower in Fortnum & MASON?! Me. That’s who.

I was completely shocked and REALLY touched and well . . . still can’t get over it. Andy is SOOO sneaky! He was so normal! In the morning he said, “What time are we supposed to meet them, again?” I didn’t think anything of it, because it would honestly be weirder if he DID know what time it was, especially after being away for a week. I realised later that he was probably just checking that I got the message about the later time (which was all a lie - he warned Katie that I’m always early, so they told me a later time). Then I told him about those thoughts and he said, “No it’s because I didn’t remember.” Oh, maybe not so sneaky after all.

Anyway, Katie and her whole family (minus Pops who stayed home for this trip) were there, and they put pictures up of everyone else who participated from afar - Erin & Matt, Andrea & Shuman, Crystal & Chris, Robyn & Mark, Cori & Jason, Lisa and Traci. Incidentally, I have some very good-looking friends. Jen M was there, and Melinda was in Berlin but was sad sad sad to miss it. I did take the pictures down after Katie said I could - it was so sweet but also slightly intimidating.

Anyway, it’s so nice to have so many nice people thinking about me and wanting to do nice things for me. Also, Itty-bitty is going to be one stylin’ little dude.

OK now, Katie thinks it’s a volleyball, Steve thinks it’s a soccer ball. Now you can see the new picture. . . any votes?