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...
Friday, November 19, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, November 8, 2010
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!!
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!!
Friday, October 29, 2010
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...
Here are a few from this week:
Fun on the swings
At the library
At home, and really excited about something. Not sure what...
Monday, October 25, 2010
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!
The winners will be announced on November 19 at an awards event in London. Thanks everyone!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
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.
Monday, October 18, 2010
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/
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/
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