James's baptism

James was baptised this morning! In the middle of the largest snowstorm that London's seen in years... It started coming down as we were leaving the house and we had inches of light fluffy snow by the time we were done. Very fitting since it was also snowing when we brought James home from the hospital. Here are a few pics, but there are lots more on Flickr (as well as a few from one of my client's kids Christmas party)...

My brother the chef!

My brother has always been a great cook, but it seems like he's taken it to a new level recently. He's making up recipes on his own - something I can NOT do - and cooking a ton for his girlfriend Jo (lucky lady!). Here are a few recipes that he shared, which I can't wait to try out for myself!

Asian Salmon:
In a bowl, mix the following ingredients:
Soy sauce (1/4 c)
Olive oil (1/4 c)
Garlic, minced
Sriracha Thai Chili Sauce (1 tbls or to taste)
Savory Spice Mix (1 tbls)

Roll and slice enough basil leaves to sprinkle on top of the salmon fillets. Press the basil into the top of the fillets in a very lightly greased baking dish. Cover with the mixture from the bowl and marinate 4-6 hours.

Cook at 350 for 10 mins, then put under the broiler for another 4 or 5, until the top is golden brown.

Ginger Asparagus (super duper easy and ridiculously tasty!):

Get the fat asparagus if you can. Chop off the bottom end and split them vertically.

Lay on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper.

Peel a piece of ginger, about 1-1.5 inches for 1 bunch of asparagus

Using the small, or "fine" side of the grater, grate the ginger directly over the asparagus.

Mix everything up on the cookie sheet, and once mixed, lay all the asparagus so the flat side is facing up.

Cook at 350 until fork tender, about 10-12 minutes.

Veggie Orzo:

Cook half a pound of Orzo, drain.

In a sauce pan, saute garlic, celery, and onion in a small amount of olive oil until tender and slightly browned. Add chopped tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes.

Mix into orzo, add Parmesan cheese and finely chopped parsley to taste.

Also, I made this Eggplant side dish that Jo really liked the other night so I thought I would share it:

Saute garlic, celery (or bell pepper), and onion until soft. Add peeled and cubed eggplant and cook until tender. Add tomatoes, chopped basil, salt and pepper and cook another 2-3 minutes until tomatoes are soft. Put in serving dish and mix in Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley to taste.

We've moved!

I haven't had a chance to take pics of the new place, so you'll just have to trust me... every single box is unpacked! Well, except for the ones we shoved in the attic and playroom closet, but we don't need to talk about that... Everything else is unpacked! I'm looking forward to my mom's next visit so she can help me reorganize the kitchen (one of her specialties) but for now, things are looking pretty good. Closets done - which was a feat since we moved two bedrooms worth of closet stuff into one bedroom closet, shelves are organized, toys are in the playroom - with James crawling around in excited circles, amazed at how much space he has, and most of the pictures are hung. Phew. It was a pretty exhausting couple of days (I've used that word a lot in the past 48 hours) but well worth it. We love the new place and can't wait for you all to come visit!

I'm going to try to shoot a video tour but in the meantime, here are some moving out pics from our former English cottage...

Christmas caroling

For the past couple years Ric and I have gone to the Christmas Carol concert at St. George's church in Mayfair. Last year I was heavily pregnant and cried like a baby at almost every song (especially the Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas duet - it was magical!). There weren't any tears this year but the service was equally as moving. They do a combination of choir singing, readings, and audience participation. With mulled wine and minced pies of course! Here's a little video of some festive singing:

The first farewell

We'll be saying goodbye to lots of things over the next few days as we move to a new house. But the first to go is our trusty living room furniture. I still remember when I was about 10 years old, living in Saratoga, and the family went out to buy new couches and tables for our house. I fell in love with this leather chair (it's so cozy!!) and wouldn't get out of it in the store until my parents relented and said we could bring it home with us. In the 20+ years since then, I've spent a lot of time curled up in that chair. Covered in a blanket. Reading a book or watching TV. It's been at home in our family houses on both coasts, in Ric and my first apartment in San Francisco. And our second. And it made the trek across the Atlantic with us.

Goodbye chair and couches. You've taken good care of us over the years. I hope you'll do the same in your new home for many years to come!

Little drummer boy

James update

We are almost exactly one week away from James's first birthday, so I thought I'd take a minute to write about what he's up to these days...

• Teeth: he's got six teeth (5 fully in and 1 halfway in). They're huge. Much bigger than other baby teeth I've seen. And he's got a big space in between his two top teeth. All of which makes for a pretty funny, and charming in its own way, smile
• Babytude: Ric had to go back to the US for work and two days after he left, James developed what I've affectionately termed a "babytude." He basically started pitching fits when he wasn't getting what he wanted. Very interesting development, and one that I wasn't expecting for a few more months at least. So we've started disciplining him to try and nip it in the bud. He gets a babytude with Ana and I, but not Ric, so Ric is trying to teach James that's it's not ok to pitch a fit with Mommy or Ana. I'll say one thing for sure, the kid knows what he wants and doesn't want. And while it's not behavior that we condone of , it is kind of cool to see him becoming more of his own person
• Mysterious sickness: Last week, also while Ric was gone, James developed a weird rash that at first only came out when we put him in the bath. After my initial panic - Oh my gosh, he's allergic to water! - we talked to the doctor and when the spots didn't go away after 4 days or so, we took him in. Turns out he probably had a viral infection of some sort, which also explains his insanely high fever the other night (which we chalked up to teething at the time). The bumps have pretty much gone away on their own, so we're now back to normal
• Food: the good news about James turning one is that he can now eat pretty much anything that we eat. I made scrambled eggs for him last weekend and he LOVED them. We've also switched him to real cow's milk instead of formula, and he likes that as well. And peanut butter on toast... yum!
• Eating: in a related category, James is now trying to feed himself with a spoon. It's pretty funny and REALLY messy. Food everywhere. And as a non-messy person, this goes against every fiber in my body. But he loves it so we're letting him experiment as much as he wants. Mostly.
  
• 12 month checkup: while we were at the doctor, we did a quick 12 month checkup. James is right on track with his development (he's saying a few words, can use his "pincer" grip to pick things up, is trying to walk, can wave, etc). And he now weighs 22.5 pounds, which is in the 70th percentile
• Walking: he hasn't officially walked yet, but he can stand on his own without holding onto anything (until he realizes he's doing it and then gets scared and sits down), and he took a couple unassisted steps. He gets around so well by crawling (that kid is FAST!) that he's not overly motivated to start walking. But I think he'll be there in the next month or so. We're excited about that... and preparing to put gates up all over our new house
  

Welcome Collin Parr!

Congrats to Sara and Jeff who welcomed a new member to their family on November 26th. Collin Parker Parr is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. And his mom looks like a natural! He weighed in at 7 lbs and 1 oz and is 21 inches long. I can't wait to meet him in January!

Recipe share

Can't wait to try this one!

Hey Rach -

Here's my mom's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pound Cake recipe. It's so easy and equally delicious!

1 package Duncan Hines yellow cake
1 package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 tbsp vanilla
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sour cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. In large mixer, begin mixing dry ingredients. One at a time, add the ingredients (in the order listed above) until fully mixed together. Fold in semi-sweet chocolate chips at the end. Batter should be a creamy chocolate mix. Two baking options: 1) Pour batter into a bundt cake tin and cook for 1 hour 2) Pour batter into 3 loaf tins and cook for 50 minutes

I prefer the 3 loaf pans because you can keep one and share the other two! My mom wraps these cakes in Christmas saran wrap and gives them away to everyone for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving full of wonderful meals and lots of family time. In the spirit of celebrating from abroad, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes. If you have yummy recipes to share, please email them to me and I'll post them on the blog. Amanda - your squash casserole sounded quite good!



Sweet potato casserole (from my Aunt Barb):

3 lbs sweet potatoes
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs, well beaten

Topping, mix:
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 nuts (pecans)
1/3 cup flour

Cook sweet potatoes until soft. Mash and add all of the above. Add topping. Put in a baking dish (butter or spray with Pam). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Tee hee

Ok, now that I've communicated the emotional rollercoaster that is moving, I thought I would share something a little lighter. Funny pie chart passed on from my brother:

Our House...is a very very very fine house

The next three weeks are going to be a little difficult for me... I'm a creature of habit and change doesn't come easily, so moving out of our house is almost too hard to contemplate. I know we'll be happy in the new place. The playroom for James will be great. And the new neighborhood is wonderful (and only a 10 minute walk from the current neighborhood). But I'm really going to miss this house. It's been our home in a foreign country... always warm, cozy and welcoming. And it's where we had our first baby. I'm trying not to get too emotional, but I may not be able to hold back as I pack up boxes and watch strangers walk around inspecting the rooms and closets. I just want to scream - YOU'LL LOVE THE HOUSE! BELIEVE ME! YOU'D BE LUCKY TO HAVE IT!

Well, I'm not going to say goodbye just yet...

We're moving!

Down the street! I know it's not as far as moving back to the US, but it's a pretty big deal for us. If you've been to visit our house, you'll understand what a special place it is and why we felt so settled here, after 3 1/2 years. But the little man is taking up an increasing amount of space and we're just bursting at the seams. There was also the chance that we wouldn't be able to renew our lease when it comes up again in May, and rather than waiting until then to determine our fate, we decided to go ahead and commit to a change.

Luckily, we didn't have to leave the neighborhood that we love... we're just heading down the hill to South End Green (a different part of Hampstead). It's about a 10 minute walk from where we are now, but even closer to the Heath, which is great!

The new place is not a stand alone house... it's the second and third floors of a terraced house (British for "row house," as I was told today). There are three bedrooms and a nice patio area outside. James will have his own playroom, which we're all excited about... especially Ana! I've included some pics of the outside and the street below. We move in on December 9th - please come and visit soon!

Ouchie

James had another shot today - the third, and final Hep B vaccine. Now that he's bigger, more aware of what's going on, and stronger (!), it's a much more difficult process. He was very brave, though, and after some pretty serious tears he recovered quite quickly. This time he sat in my lap facing me while the doc jabbed one of his legs, so I was a lot closer to the action than before... that certainly made it harder as well!

He's got two more at 12 months, two at 13 months, and then a chicken pox vaccine. After that we're done until he's 4. Poor little guy! I'm sure he knows it's for his own good, though :) We also found out today that we can start transitioning him off formula onto "real" milk around 12 months. We stop sterilizing bottles then too. It will make things much easier!

We've posted a couple new videos on Flickr of him laughing hysterically... only Ana can get him to laugh like that. Ric and I get a few chuckles, but she gets these huge belly laughs. It's really amazing!!

Little munchkin

Happy Friday and Happy early Halloween! Hope people have fun trick or treating plans. Ric and I will be at the 49ers game in London (thanks Kell!) so not sure yet whether James will be subjected to a baby costume. If he is, we'll post pictures of course.

Here are a few from this week:

Fun on the swings



At the library



At home, and really excited about something. Not sure what...

Get out the vote!

Spark has been nominated for a TechCrunch Europa award... these are organized every year by the online tech blog, TechCrunch. We are competing for the esteemed title of "Best Service Provider to Startups" and we need YOUR vote to win! Please help us out by clicking here: http://bit.ly/bgIWyV

The winners will be announced on November 19 at an awards event in London. Thanks everyone!

20 years later

When we walked home from lunch today there was an older couple standing outside of our house taking pictures... Now, we love our house, but it's not necessarily most the most picture-worthy thing from the outside so we weren't sure why a mini photo shoot was happening. The mystery was solved when the man introduced himself and said that he lived at 4 Lutton Terrace 20 years ago. He was American, living in Boston now, and came back with his wife to see the old homestead. He talked about how special this place is and how it's a time in his life that he has never forgotten. We invited them in and showed them around. It sounds like the downstairs changed quite a bit - with the kitchen flipping from one side to the other. You could tell he was loving his walk down memory lane. And it was pretty neat to see how fondly he remembered this little house and the neighborhood... I think we'll probably feel the same way 20 years from now when we're dragging James back to Lutton Terrace to show him where he was born.

Ummm.... Paris?

This pretty much sums up how we all felt about our trip to Paris:



We learned a lot, that's for sure... Like going for a weekend in Paris with a 10 month old baby (who isn't a fan of sitting still) probably isn't the best idea!! To give James credit... he was pretty well behaved overall. On the train ride home he sat in our laps for 2+ hours reading his books, playing with his new toys, looking out of the window, and eating his lunch. He was a model passenger.



He also did okay when we ate out at restaurants... we brought a travel high chair, which was great because none of the restaurants had baby seats. And a friend of ours recommended the squeezable baby food from Ella's, which worked like a charm! You just squeeze right onto the spoon from the package, no need to heat it up and no mess! James loved them, they're all organic, and the ingredients only include "real" things... potatoes, squash, chicken, corn, milk, thyme, rosemary, etc. We would use these every day but they were perfect for traveling or if you ever need to do a quick meal on the go. While we ate our meals, we fed James, gave him some bread pieces to eat, and gave him sips of water from our "grown up cups" - all of which kept him more than entertained.



We also stayed at a great hotel - it had a kitchen, bedroom and living room, so James's cot could be in a separate room from where we slept. This was really convenient not only at night, but also when he was napping during the day (we could be awake and not worry about disturbing him). The biggest challenges or "lessons learned" where that a weekend is just too short for a trip like this. After all the packing and travel time, we really only had one full day in Paris. We also stayed in a neighborhood that before James was perfect - St. Germain is bustling, has small little cobblestone streets, lots of cafes, etc. But with a baby and a stroller the crowds weren't quite as charming and the narrow sidewalks proved difficult to maneuver.



Because we hadn't traveled with James in a while, we weren't sure what to expect, so we ended up not planning anything at all. As a result, we wandered around the same few streets and felt like we didn't really see anything new or different... now that we know what it's like, we can hopefully do a better job of planning activities and meals in advance so that we're able to take better advantage of the city that we've traveled to. I also think that when his naps are shorter and he only does one a day, we'll have more time to explore our destination. On this trip we'd pop out for a quick walk or lunch, then have to be back for his nap time.



Next time we go to Paris, we'll definitely stay for much longer (a week minimum I think!), we'll rent an apartment from a site like this: http://www.chezvous.com (which aren't any more expensive than the hotel we stayed in) and we'll find a quieter neighborhood with a few shops, markets and restaurants that we can easily walk to. Or, we'll just go back to Italy where they love babies so much that it doesn't matter when and where you take them!

One side note... for anyone traveling with babies/kids, this site has some good recommendations. It's a little bit geared towards older kids, but worth a read: http://www.deliciousbaby.com/

Packing list for Paris

I think this does a pretty good job of illustrating the packing hierarchy in the family... It's fairly obvious who takes priority :) It also shows how planning for a quick "weekend getaway" has changed since the little man arrived on the scene!

Fall in the Heath

We got a few good pics of James in the heath this weekend... he loved the fall leaves!

What's up?

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I would check in and say hello. The truth is, not much has been happening at number 4 Lutton Terrace... time is chugging along, days are passing, and summer has quickly turned into fall (then to winter, then back to fall). Here are a few updates for our lovely Bremer Blog readers...

1. We found out that we're getting kicked out of our house in June 2011. Our landlady's son has been dying to move in ever since he saw how nice the place looks with all our stuff in it (the last tenant was a bachelor who had no furniture and hung tapestries on the wall). She put him off for as long as possible, but in the end "son" trumps "renters." Even if we have been good ones. So the countdown begins. We have mixed feelings about this... on one hand it's nice that we have some time and don't have to rush into a place that we don't love. On the other hand, nothing we've seen so far even comes close to our house in terms of location, size, and "niceness." I'm a little worried that what we've become used to just doesn't exist in our budget anymore. But we'll give it to the end of the year and if we then have to talk about compromising (on location most likely) we will.

2. James has had a rough few weeks - he seems to have gotten one bug right after another. First he had bad diarrhea for a few days (sorry, but this is what you talk about when you have a baby), then he got a cold/cough (from his dad, but I'm not pointing any fingers...), then he got a stomach bug, which I think is a hold over from the first sickness mentioned above that didn't completely go away. Two nights in a row he had the worst throw up I've ever seen - from a baby or adult. He's on the mend now, after switching to lactose-free milk and eating very bland foods for a couple days, and I just hope that he can stay healthy for a while. I guess once you've gotten one thing and your immune system is weak, you're more likely to catch something else. And between Ric and Ana and me being sick pretty much constantly, James is bound to take the brunt of that.

3. Work has been really busy. Not much else to say there.

4. We've got some trips planned - yay! We go to Paris this weekend for a couple nights and James is coming along. Although we haven't quite figured out how it's going to work. We decided to just try and figure things out as we go. And to recover from that trip, Ric and I are hoping to go to Florence in November without James. Haven't booked tickets yet, but it's on the calendar so hopefully we'll be able to make it happen.

5. Christmas really isn't that far away - which is hard to believe, but I'm already getting excited about our trip back to the US to see LOTS of family and friends. We have a very aggressive schedule planned... Charlottesville (for Christmas), Raleigh (for New Year's), Charlotte (just me and James), then Atlanta (still just me and James). Who knows how this is going to work, but if we pull it off it should be loads of fun. Can't wait to see all of you who are going to be in one of those stops along the way. And James will be ONE by then! I am also scheduled to be in the Bay Area at the end of January for work.

Playing with forts is fun

So is playing with fuzzy felt stickers...



And playing with friends...



James has had a pretty good week!

Baby Victoria

Paula, who many of you know is my colleague in Spark's London office, recently ended up in the hospital with her baby daughter, Victoria. Vivi was born three days after James and we've already decided that they will make the perfect boyfriend and girlfriend someday. They're both adorable (according to their parents anyway). Plus, James will know how to speak Portuguese thanks to Ana, and Victoria's family is Portuguese, so it's really a match made in Heaven.

That's why we need Victoria to get better. She's having trouble with her sweet little baby heart. At the moment, it's too big. And lots of doctors are trying to understand why. Her dad (Paula's husband Andre) has been writing a blog about what they're all going through and it's one of the most beautiful things I've read in a long, long time. http://bigheartbaby.posterous.com/

Please keep Paula, Victoria, Andre and Alice in your thoughts and prayers.

This is a pic of Victoria and James before they made their grand entrances (week 37):

More teeth

Seemingly overnight - James has grown another tooth! This one is on the top, in the middle. And it really did appear out of nowhere. This morning it sounded like he was chewing on something hard and when we opened his mouth we realized that he was grinding his teeth together... and that he actually had teeth to grind together! As of yesterday, there was nothing. Now he's got another big pearly white. The first two came in as slow as glaciers, so this was quite a surprise. It also explains the high fever he had a few days back.

In addition to growing teeth, James's current favorite activities are crawling really quickly, pulling himself up on anything and everything, and trying to walk. I think he feels much more comfortable walking and just wishes that he could figure it out already! Ana's prediction is that he'll be walking by 10 months. Uh oh...

He also may be the smartest baby on the planet. The other morning Ana discovered that when you say the words to his "Trucks" book out loud, but aren't holding the actual book, he'll go and find it in his toy basket and bring it back to you! That is seriously amazing for an 8 1/2 month old baby, right??!!

Dressing up babies is almost as funny as dressing up pets...

Happy Friday!

Accra, Ghana

It's always difficult to sum up a trip to Africa in words, so I'll just include an overview of what we did during our five days in Ghana and hopefully that will give you a good flavor of the country. There are pics up on Flickr, but we didn't take as many as we normally do for some reason. I'm very self conscious about taking pictures of people (becuase they usually don't like it) and we didn't do a safari in Ghana (animals don't care if you take their pictures), so most of the photos are from our short trip to Cape Coast.

Wednesday - we arrived in Ghana around 10:30pm on Wednesday night after a 6 hour flight (and 1 hour delay leaving Heathrow). There was a shuttle at the airport to take us back to the hotel. We stayed at the Labadi Beach Resort, which was absolutely gorgeous. Definitely the swankiest place we've ever stayed in Africa.



Thursday - The bride had invited me to her "hen do" (aka bachelorette party) so I was up early on Thursday morning and joined about 40 other girls for an hour and a half bus ride to White Sands Beach Resort. Another very nice place, White Sands is a private club in a little bay. We were there for most of the day, had a delicious lunch, and watched a group perform traditional Ghanaian music and dance.









Ric got a car from Accra and picked me up at White Sands (about 2 hours late after the driver missed the turn and drove an hour too far). We then went on to Elmina for the night, which is a little fishing village on the coast. We arrived at night, so it was pitch dark and had to drive on a dirt road for what seemed like miles to this out of the way "rustic" hotel. We were both a little nervous upon arriving, but once we saw that Will Smith and Serena Williams had stayed there we felt much better. Had another delicious dinner - Waakye, which is a traditional meal made of black eyed peas and rice, with a meat on the side in spicy red sauce.



Friday - Our driver took us into Cape Coast, the fishing town next to Elmina. We toured the slave castle, which was a very moving and sad experience. This was a place where hundreds of thousands of men were kept before being sent on ships to the new world (a third of the men went to Brazil, a third to the Caribbean, and the rest to the Americas). It was appalling to see the conditions they were kept in for up to three months and chilling to walk through "The Door of No Return" where they set foot in their home country for the last time before being put on boats and sent abroad. After the slave castle we decompressed a little bit by walking around the town of Cape Coast. It was vibrant and bustling, with tons of people on the streets, lots of little stands selling odds and ends, and lots of women walking around with huge baskets on their heads full of fish, fruit, water... After a nice lunch on the beach we started the 3 hour drive back to Accra.









Once we were back in Accra we showered, had dinner, and were then onto the next event - a night of dancing at Bella Roma, a hot nightclub in Accra. We are not club people, as you probably know, but this was a very laid back place and we ended up dancing until the wee hours of the morning. I woke up the next day with sore knees and an aching back. If that's not a sign I'm getting old I don't know what is!

Saturday - We were able to sleep in Saturday morning, which was very nice (and very necessary). After an early lunch we got ready for the wedding and left for the church around 1pm. The wedding was held in a "normal" church and was very much like a Southern church service. There were tons of people there, it lasted a while, lots of hymn singing, etc. Following the service there were refreshments served behind the church, then we went on to the actual reception. More good food, lots of people, traditional Ghanaian music and drums... it was a very fun night. And I couldn't get over how well everyone was dressed! It was the creme de la creme of Ghanaian society (the groom's mom has been a supreme court judge her whole career) and a huge group of fancy Londoners.

Sunday - We didn't leave until 10:40pm Sunday night, so we had another nice day in Accra. We walked on the beach outside of our hotel, had a little down time at the pool, went to the groom's mom's house for a lunch reception, and stopped by the cocktail party before heading to the airport. We couldn't believe how many activities were planned throughout the week. It was amazing, but I'm sure the bride and groom were exhausted and ready for everything to be over with!







Monday morning - arrived home around 6:30am and were very excited to see the little man! He cried when he first saw us, but once he got used to us again he was his normal happy self.