just a Saturday afternoon quickie

Ty only naps for 20 minutes max so I only have a short time!  Ty’s Health Visitor came by yesterday for his 10 week assessment.   Being as I have no concept of times or days anymore – I had completely forgotten she was coming by.  So she walked in on my morning breakdown with Ty – unshowered – in my pj’s (a typical morning) and about to scream.  But I think this actually worked in my favor as she really spent a good hour with us going through the issues and concerns we have been having.  I just can’t seem to satisfy this baby with enough food – he is like a milk disposal – if there is such a thing.  She suggested trying some formula at nights specially made for ‘hungry babies.’  I think that is a polite way of saying your baby is a chubby little piglet.

but what a cute little piglet…

not a great pic but evidence of the ‘healthiness’ (check out that gut – oh, and those are size 6 month clothes..*sigh*)

Did I also mention he now weighs 14 lbs 1 oz?  I have a friend who’s 7 month old weighs that.  Atleast my arms and back are getting a fab workout.

And I just have to say – I have some great friends.  While wandering through the neighborhood in sweatpants yesterday whole trying to get Ty to nap – I ran into my friends Aysel & Nav.  They insisted Aysel watch Ty for me for 30 minutes while I went into Nav’s office for a back massage (she is an osteopath).   It was heaven – and just what I needed to stop me from auctioning Ty off on Ebay to the highest bidder.    AND – Aysel babysat for us again last night so we could meet up with some friends for a going away party in the neighborhood.   It’s so funny how it feel almost like a jailbreak for me.  Like I know I only have a few short hours of sweet sweet freedom before it’s back to the pen.  It’s just been a long & intense week with Ty and Jason has worked some late hours so I desperately needed a break from him.  We had a blast!  I really didn’t take pics (shocker) but this one…

we were so trying to get a picture of this Japanese guy completely passed out in the bar.. I love it.  See Jason in the background behind him?  too funny!

4 more days until our trip – better get packin’!  Hasta luego…

Adventure’s in Babysitting…

Ty had his first real experience with babysitters (non related sitters) last Friday night… and it couldn’t have gone smoother!  Thank goodness Jason & I had something fun to look forward to after our disaster of a Valentine’s Day.  I never thought I would be so excited about one of his boring work dinners – but I was just so excited about the prospect of getting dressed up and getting out of the house with adults!  My good friends Aysel, Nav & Lisa all came over to watch Ty (yes, it takes 3 ) – I knew I did the job of 3 women!   We couldn’t have felt more confidant with Ty in their hands.  Thanks again girlies…

Nav & Ty

We had a good time with lots of laughs – especially when jason spilled his glass of red wine on himself within 3 minutes of being there.  oops.  better keep the jacket buttoned.

Then Sunday night we went to dinner at Morton’s for Lisa and Dave’s birthdays with Aysel & her hubby, Arkin.  Can you find Ty in this pic?

Arkin and my Nanny – Oops!  I mean, Aysel

I heart my pram

And some pics just for daddy today

oops!  not so good at sitting yet…

FACEPLANT CITY

Highway to HELL

Let me back up to last Thursday – Valentine’s Day – and our trip to London to get Ty’s passport.  Without getting into too much detail – Jason and I agree it was one of the top 5 worst days of our lives.   Here are the highlights:

- Awoke at 4 am after almost no sleep to get Ty ready for the long car trip.  Still ended up running over an hour late with no time for breakfast – Jason and I were super stressed and arguing.  Nice way to start Valentine’s Day.

-Ran into terrible traffic in London – had to park on the street and only put one hour into meter as we planned on coming back out when we knew how long we would be.  Ended up being over 1.5 hours late and there were long lines and ridiculous security (on a funny note – they made Jason drink some of the breast milk we had brought in in bottles ).

-Because Jason had recently accidentally washed his passport (oops) they refused to give Ty one until Jason got a new one (new fees, pictures, paperwork, etc UGH).  Jason was unable to leave during this process to put more money in the metter so I went.  It took me forever to get back through security and byt the time I got to the car (6 minutes late) we had a 40 pound ticket.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  We just had to pay all this extra money for Jason’s new passport and now this!?

-I forgot to mention we spent all our cash in the passport photo machine and still had not eaten.  It was like noon by now.  Ty was ready to go and oops!  they just realized they processed our paperwork wrong and would we mind waiting a bit longer? O.M.G.

-After finally getting Jason’s passport, Ty’s passport and getting ripped off – we hobbled back to the car completely exhausted and starving only to find this…

As you can only imagine – we almost died.  To make an already long story short – we didn’t get home until almost 4 pm, we ended up spending almost $500 (much of it to the London parking authorities – grrr) and we were barely speaking to each other. 

I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A BETTER VALENTINE’S DAY THAN WE DID!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

Love, Ty

say cheese

Don’t have too much time to write today – any moment the monster may awake!

Yesterday we had to have his passport photos taken – not as easy as it may sound.  Apparently UK passport pics differ from American ones so we had to find a photographer who knew all the ‘american rules.’   And then one who had the tools to photograph an 8 week old!  But Ty was quite well behaved and managed not to be crying in his picture (below)…

Tomorrow is our appt. in London for his social security card and passport.  It better go smoothly because we fly in less than 2 weeks!  I wish we had some time to sightsee or for lunch in London tomorrow but I think Jason has to work in the afternoon.

more from yesterday… (was cute until he didn’t stop crying for 3 hours..grrr)

maybe he didn’t like his new hat?

Happy Hump Day!

happy weekend!

The weather was awesome in the UK this weekend!  What a nice surprise for a usually bleak and freezing February… this means we didn’t have to bundle up near as much for our walks.

trying our hotsling in different ways

I can’t believe he is about to outgrow his Moses basket ALREADY

I tried to find a comparison shot.. this was 5 weeks ago

bathtime with dad

3 weeks and counting!

Until our trip to the States.  Yippee!  And thank GOD the American Embassy FINALLY got back to me yesterday (after 3 weeks of pestering them) with an appt. to get Ty’s passport.  I thought I was going to have to sneak him out of the country under my shirt.  So the 3 of us need to go down to London on Valentine’s Day and fill out a ton of crazy paperwork and pay a ton of money in order for us to take him home.  Many people assume that because he was born in England he will have dual citizenship but unfortch this is not true.  Parents have to have citizenship for that to happen – so we have to be here 10 years first.  NO thank you.  So he will have an American passport.

Here are a few reject pics I was taking yesterday still trying to get that elusive ‘flattering picture’ of our little chub-rock.  You may have noticed I still have not put together birth announcements for him.  Who has the time?!  But also, I want to send out a cute pic – not these crusty eye booger – double chin shots I keep getting! (btw, we got drops for his crusty eye finally yesterday.  It only took the GP 7 weeks to notice there was a problem!)

hates being on his tummy…

he peed on my shawl during this picture.

and a random I love my playmat picture

LARGE AND IN CHARGE

7 weeks stats for our beefcake:

weight: 12 lbs 4 oz (80th percentile)

height: 22.6 inches (80th percentile)

head circ: 15.7 inches (75th percentile)

Where is this coming from?  Jason and I are not exactly American Gladiators or anything…  I purchased a Hotsling 2 weeks ago to carry Ty around in in the house – and he can barely fit in it anymore.  I can only carry him for about an hour before my back is screaming!  And I was planning on taking him in the sling on the plane in a few weeks.  There is no way I can carry his fat butt plus my luggage at the rate he is growing!  And all on breastmilk too

xo

Welcome to the Jungle

Yesterday we took Pam to the local Safari Park that we love.  I have never been in the winter and it didn’t occur to us that not as many animals would be out…. but we had a great time anyway.

Pam & friend

Ty seemed to like most of the animals…

But NOT the elephants.

Then we hit up a few pubs for lunch, drinks and to watch the Wales v England rugby match (Wales won!).  Those pics to come later.  We took Pam to the airport super early this morning – poo.  We are all sad to see her go!  But Ty & I will be in the States in under 4 weeks and Jason soon after.

xo happy sunday!