The past couple of weeks

Finally, I get to write something.  Feeling a little guilty for not finishing my Nathan's year update for his birthday, but I lost steam and now I can't remember where I was going with the post.

It has been so awesome having my mom here the past 2 weeks and as always I am extreemly sad to have her go.  Not only did she do my dishes for me (thanks by the way), but she had a huge impact on the Sprout that was really fun to see.  The Sprout now makes a "broom broom" noise when he is playing with his tractor and other cars, he says "uh oh" allot and he has an appreciation for "Patty Cake."

The Sprout goes "Broom"

He walks!

For the Sprout's first birthday we had a small family party with a couple of friends.  We had zucchini bread with a cream cheese frosting and the Sprout entertained us by taking his first steps with the aid of his push and ride car.  We also carved pumpkins.  With his birthday money we bought many new toys including a shape sorting box, a tractor, Mega Bloks, peg puzzle, and a light up drum.  He loves his push and ride cars (he got 2) and four wheel cow, as well as his ELC Sherwood Castle that has little guys resembling Robin Hood.  We finally got wall stickers for the Sprout's room and we have put most of them up; it is looking good.

We made our way down to London to go to the American Embassy to get the Sprout's American passport.  The trip went well, but the time at the Embassy was as efficient as the American government could be.  We spent 2 hours going between 4 different people who all told me the same thing, that I needed to get a notarized  consent form from Richard before they could issue the Sprout's passport.  It would have been nice if they could have told me that before I went down.  At least we don't have to go back into London.

I finally got my cortozone shot in my back.  It is feeling a bit better, but there are times of soreness.  I pick up the Sprout too much.  However, now I am dealing with a stupid sciatica which is a little worse than my back problem.

Halloween was pretty laid back.  The Sprout dawned a "Spider" costume instead of the cow costume because it was too hot (but not nearly as cute).  We had quite a few trick-or-treaters, and our pumpkins didn't get smashed.

Overall, the Sprout, Richard and I were all spoiled during my mom's visit and we will miss her dearly.

Friday Funnies and the nesting instinct

It finally came...our cot-bed (thanks mom) and I put it together all by myself because I needed to nest.  The problem with living in a rented property is that you can't put together a nursery (like painting and whatnot).

(it has a front but I need the under part of the cot for storage at the moment)

Luckily we have a large room (huge by British standards and a pretty good size by US standards) and the cot fits perfectly in it (we only have one bedroom), we still have tons of room to move around.  As you can see the Sprout has his own heard going...more cows welcome!

And now...

It's lolcats to the rescue:

The trip and 29/30 weeks

rscornwall

Click the link above to see my photo album


Mom is on the plane back to the States :(

We had a very busy 14 days.

She flew into Manchester Airport on Sept 2nd where I met her to make sure she got to Shipley.  That journey is pretty crazy after a 14+ hr journey.

We spent the next couple of days around my area of Yorkshire visiting Shipley, Saltaire, Bradford and Skipton.

On Sept 6th we made our way by train to Penzance, Cornwall which took about 9 hours.

The black line is the journey

We checked into the Hotel Penzance around 9 pm and had a yummy dinner at the fancy restaurant there.

The weather for the first 2 days was pretty iffy, sunny and misty, but we managed to wander around Penzance, going in and out of really cool galleries and shoppes.  My favourite gallery by far was the Penlee Gallery where they were showing the works of artists from the early days of the Newlyn Art Colony.

We made it to St. Ives on the last day of our stay, which turned out to be a warm and sunny day, but still not quite warm enough for a swim.  We visited more galleries and the Barbra Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Museum.  We ate Cornish ice cream, but were told to stay away from the pasties unless we wanted to be ravaged by seagulls.  We ate pasties in Penzance.

We came back to Shipley on Sept 10th in an un-airconditioned train on a very warm and sunny day.

The Saltaire festival began on the 12th and we wandered down to have a look, had Sunday lunch with Richard's parents on the 13th and visited Kirkstall Abbey on the 14th.

It was a really nice visit and I had a lot of fun, but last week when 29 weeks hit, I was instantly tired and sore and have yet to recover.  My tummy is so big and heavy, I finally had to get maternity clothes and I think I am going to live in the dress in the picture below for the next 10 weeks.