Growing

Teddy has been growing so fast, and having so many new activities and adventures that we wanted to share a few photos of him with everyone on the blog.

Bathtime fun! Teddy in his cheeky monkey towel

Teddy demonstrating his ability to hold his head up

Teddy at 3-months! Smiling and clicking his heels 

We've had visitors over the past few weeks, and it is the perfect time to visit, as Teddy is still willing to go out to the pub for dinner and will behave wonderfully. He is also not yet too heavy (at 3-months he was 15 1/2 pounds) he is still very snuggly and he loves being held and walked around.

Great Uncle Tommy and Aunt Debra, with Teddy at the Ship in Kennington

Great Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Steve with Teddy at the Mayflower in Rotherhithe

As you can tell, pubs are very baby-friendly in London, and our little man has become quite the pub crawler, which will be even more exciting once he learns to crawl.

Teddy is 40 days old

tiny hands, family hands

Teddy is 40-days old today.  It is really exciting.  He seems to smile, and he seems to be more aware of us as people, perhaps as his parents.

It is fascinating how much he has changed in the past month and it will be interesting to see how much more he changes over the next few days and years.  Today, after 2 unsuccessful attempts,  we managed to successfully give him a bath. I imagine eventually he will enjoy baths, I know when I was pregnant I would have a long bath every day, part of just taking time to enjoy the pregnancy.

Dan is going back to work tomorrow, and now that it is summer Teddy and Mum can go to the park and spend some time outside.  There are other babies who live close by and we are looking forward to playdates with them in the future.

Teddy at 1 month old

Baby Cull...

the hands of... EDWARD DALY CULL

Rose and Daniel are pleased to say that at St Thomas' Hospital, London, at 1.48pm on 29th April 2014 Edward Daly Cull was born.

Mother and Baby are home and doing well.

His birth stats:
 Weight at birth: 3945 grams (8 lbs, 7 oz)
Birth CH length: 56 cm (22 inches)
APGAR
1 min = 9
5 min = 10

A Taurus in the year of the Horse, who shares his birthday with Willie Nelson and Duke Ellington.

A baby Cull is called Edward!

Call the Midwife!

So, as you've been following the prenatal progress, you've probably begun to wonder "Where is that baby?"

A question I've been wondering myself.  Today is over a week past the ultrasound due date, but no signs of a baby yet.

We've been booked into St. Thomas Hospital on Monday April 28th for induction of labour. St. Thomas' has 6,800 babies delivered each year (around 18 each day) and is one of the best hospitals in London, it is also located across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben so the view from the maternity wing is pretty impressive.  St. Thomas is a large teaching hospital and has been providing healthcare since the 12th Century.  St. Thomas is where Florence Nightingale established a nursing school, and it is one of the most famous london hospitals, it is part of the Guy's and King's Hospital trust.

Of course it is a tentative booking, we will see how busy they are and it may take a few days, but I am relieved to have an actual date as the expecting was getting to be a bit tedious.

Will keep you updated!

Rose

St. Thomas' Hospital in the 18th Century

St. Thomas' Hospital today

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! 

Busy week...

We set up some of the baby stuff... 

...then the London Marathon came past the end of our street, so we went around to a neighbours (who is also pregnant) to watch it, and saw this kettle band...

...and the famous running Rhino's... 

...and the Wolverhampton Bob Sled team...

...and a whole marching band running (well marching) together...

... then the following weekend we hung out in Greenwich...

...and also ate some lovely Vegan Cup Cakes..

... so as you can see we're still waiting for the Baby to come... 

1 week to go!

Hi All,

It is one week until my due date, no baby yet but maybe this weekend? Perhaps if we make plans it will be more likely to happen.  

There is a full moon this weekend, but I've heard that only matters if I am giving birth to a werewolf. Team Jacob anyone?

Thanks to everyone for the notes, cards, and gifts, it has been really amazing feeling all your support and Dan or I will post to the blog once there is news about the baby.

love!
Rose

The cockney connection

"Legend" 

The little man will be born a "true cockney" growing up within the traditional sound of Bow Bells, just around the corner for example from where the legend that is Michael Caine was born (above is the blue plaque on the wall of the old hospital); there's a LOT of other famous Cockneys too. Cockney's are an important cultural group within working class English culture; famously with their own Rhyming Slang, songs, and the visual culture of Pearly Kings and Queens.

So where do we live? Here's a few photo's of the area. 

There's a lot of green space in South East London, here's a view through Southwark Park, one of the bigger parks near our house. 

The park has a nice bandstand in the middle of it... last year we watched the fireworks of Bonfire night from this park. 

There's an interesting seat made out of a fallen tree

Just outside the park is St Olav's Church, you might just be able to see that the flag is Norwegian, Rotherhithe is home to a Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish church, as a result of it's long connections with shipping and seafaring. During the Second World War this was the home of the Norwegian Government in Exile. 

We're lucky to have one of the best public Libraries in London right on our doorstep, the inverted pyramid of "Canada Water Library" has been praised in national Newspapers. It has a great collection, an amazing cultural space (mini-theatre), a cafe, and loads of kids activities too. 

Dock Managers building, the Surrey Docks were the first buildings to be destroyed in the first raids of the Blitz. 

The areas old docklands and shipping heritage are everywhere used as "features" in the redesigned residential and commercial districts. 

I've mentioned that the area is a docks, and famous for shipping a few times, so it'll come as no surprise to know we're right by the Thames... here's a couple of images of the view each direction on a pretty rainy day just after we moved in. Above on the north bank, to our west, you can see the famous corporate centre of London represented by Canary Wharf. 

Further around the southbank, to our east, you can just make out the sails of the Cutty Sark.  

Quite a few of the old docks are now water sports centres. 

Street Art is ever popular in London, here's a kid sitting under the bridge.

.. and here's John Lennon. 

Upcoming hatch

Baby swans are called cygnets.  Baby ducks are called ducklings.  Don't know who is going to hatch first -  Rose or the duck family that has taken up residence in our backyard pond.

Welcome to the house of fun!

Our house is quickly becoming Baby HQ, baby stuff is being unpacked and finding a home and bags of clothes are being washed and sorted by age range, thanks to everyone who's sent us things, it's all much appreciated... we thought we'd share a couple of fun photos. 

Our hanging toy rack... was recently a big hit with a visiting baby. 

It seems our baby wants to give Imelda Marcos a run for her money, as his growing collection of shoes attests, he literally has more shoes than his dad. 

Pregnancy Productivity

There is towards the end of pregnancy a 'nesting' period.  During this period the mother to be and father to be begin to prepare the house for the baby, this can include decorating and cleaning.

Everyone has a funny story about how they cleaned the ceiling or floor with a toothbrush in preparation.  I have found that I have been finishing a lot of craft projects I had been meaning to do, so I call this period of time 'pregnancy productivity' because I seem to be quite productive.

A few examples:

Curtains - a good use of a lot of fabric and hopefully will let me 'sleep when the baby sleeps' which sounds like good advice

Headboard - may have a bit more tweaking, perhaps I will be adding some filler to make it softer. 

Floor cushion - I only realized later that this is burnt orange, we have a small living area so our dining table is a coffee table height, we sit on floor cushions to eat and I am sitting on this cushion right now writing this blog post :) 

Baby lions, tigers and bears are called 'cubs'.

Baby Bump!

What would a baby blog be without some "bump" photos? These were taken last month. Looking beautiful, Rose!

Anticipating Halloween

The five best baby costumes currently available from Party City:

Baby Bunting Great White Shark Costume

Baby Peacock Costume

Baby Business Costume

Baby Bunting Shrimp Costume

Baby Bunting Elvis Costume

Can't believe they don't have a Taco Baby costume yet.  Or Hamburger Baby.

Baby Names!

The top ten baby names for boys in England and Wales versus the United States, as of 2012:

          England and Wales                           United States

1.            Harry                                      Jacob

2.            Oliver                                      Mason

3.            Jack                                        Ethan

4.            Charlie                                    Noah

5.            Jacob                                      William

6.            Thomas                                   Liam

7.            Alfie                                       Jayden

8.            Riley                                       Michael

9.            William                                   Alexander

10.          James                                     Aiden

Hard to imagine thousands of Alfies running (crawling) around! Rose is currently 78th in England and Wales versus 261st in the U.S. (Was 264th in the U.S. at the time of her birth--way to hold steady, Rose!) Daniel is currently ranked 16th in England and Wales versus 11th in the U.S. (#5 in Texas!)

The Texas top ten is disappointingly in line with the rest of the country:

1.            Jacob

2.            Jayden

3.            Ethan

4.            Noah

5.            Daniel

6.            Jose

7.            David

8.            Aiden

9.            Matthew

10.          Alexander

Where is Walker (Texas Ranger)? Major or any other beloved UT quarterback? (Okay, Major is actually on a big upward trend in the U.S., but it has a ways to go before cracking the top ten.)  Mirabeau?? I am disappointed that Texans are not getting more creative and Texas-centric with their baby names. Makes me start to doubt that Texas is like a whole other country after all...  More inspiration can be found here.  

Baby Quilts

Since Rose and I share an interest in quilting, I thought the history of baby quilts might be an interesting topic for a post. Not knowing much about baby stuff (or…history?), I didn’t realize that cribs are a relatively recent invention, and therefore baby quilts don’t have a very long history!

According to one of my favorite Half-Price Books finds, The Perfect Patchwork Primer by Beth Gutcheon, colonial-era quilts tended to be gigantic because they had to cover you, your husband, AND a couple of hatchlings.  Younger children would sleep in the master bed with their parents, and older children would sleep on trundles that were stowed away under the master bed during the day.  A quilt needed to be large enough to cover the larger bed and also hang down far enough to hide the trundles stored underneath.

This article by French quilter Christiane Billard has a lot of interesting information.  Cribs started being mentioned in New England writings around 1750, and we can assume that quilts for cribs followed soon thereafter.  However, it was still common practice until the middle of the 19th century for children to sleep in their parents’ bed.  In 1841, Catharine Beecher’s book Treatise on Domestic Economy was published--the first comprehensive guide to housekeeping published in the U.S.  The book was immensely successful.  Beecher  promoted the use of cribs, and American households soon fell in line with her way of thinking.  

In the 1800s, baby quilts were usually made by the pregnant mother or a grandmother for the first-born child.  The same quilt would then be used for each subsequent child until it fell apart from wear and tear.

Crib Quilt, Mill Wheel pattern, c. 1840, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Ballard points out that the aesthetics of baby quilts evolved as attitudes toward children changed during the Victorian era.  Baby quilts had been miniature versions of adult quilts, but as the sanctity of childhood began to be recognized and the genre of children’s literature started to flourish, baby quilts became more fanciful and educational in their motifs.  Baby quilts then started to feature appliqués of animals, letters, and scenes that would be amusing to children.  

Marion Whiteside Newton, Crib Quilt, Alice in Wonderland patterned, 1945, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Have you made, received, or purchased a remarkable baby quilt?  Tell your story in the comments or send me a photo if you have one!  I would love to compile a gallery for another post.  

Baby llama, alpaca and vicuna are called Cria.

British -> American Translations for Baby Terms

Cheerio!

Cheerios? Dan, what are you talking about?

Well Rose, we use different terms in the UK compared to the USA, interestingly some of the USA terms are the old English that was brought over when American was colonized and some of the UK terms are older versions of words that have been replaced by new words in the USA.

Ah, like for example:


  UK English                                                                  USA English
Anaesthetist                                                             Anaesthesiologist
Antenatal                                                                 Prenatal
Chemist                                                                   Pharmacy or Drug Store
Cot                                                                          Crib
Dummy                                                                   Pacifier
Flat                                                                          Apartment
Homely                                                                   Home-like*
'in hospital'                                                              'in the hospital'
Jumper                                                                     Sweater
Mum                                                                        Mom
Nappy                                                                      Diaper**
Polo neck, Roll neck                                                Turtle neck
Pram, Push Chair                                                     Baby stroller
Trolley                                                                     Shopping Cart
'sorry'                                                                       'excuse me' or 'pardon me'
'tucked up' as 'the baby was tucked up'                    'tucked in'
Vest                                                                         Undershirt, Tank top
Waistcoat                                                                 Vest


* In the USA 'Homely' means plain or ugly, Dan refers to the flat as homely often, even after I told him the American meaning of the word.

**Diaper is one case where the original word (from middle English, one of the earliest uses was "Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper" —Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew). Diaper was replaced by Nappy, probably a shortened form of Napkin, in the UK, Ireland, and South Africa.  Diaper continues to be used in the USA. 

There are also a few things to consider when naming a child, for example, 'Randy' is a popular name for a boy in the USA, but in the UK it would be like naming your child 'Horney'. 

It is also worth mentioning that like American English, English in the UK can be very regional.  Londoner's and Southerners in general speak differently than people from the North.  Similarly, in the USA someone from Louisiana uses more words of french origin while someone from Pennsylvania would use more words of german origin.  

There are also totally different languages spoken in different regions of the USA and the UK, but that is a different post. 

Deptford Wives

A bit about our new neighborhood.

We moved in January to an apartment in SouthEast London.  Our neighborhood is called Deptford, in the council of Lewisham, south of the river Thames.  The neighborhood is more residential then where we previously lived, which is nice, and there is a large Vietnamese population so we are really close to a good Pho shop, which makes me happy because it reminds me of Houston.  The neighborhood is quirky, but not too trendy, and we live close to: a park, pharmacy, library, doctor, grocery stores, and a McDonald's (sometimes you just need a McFlurry ;).

If anyone is thinking of visiting, Greenwich is the closest neighborhood that has hotels, and probably the nicest close place to stay.  Our apartment is tiny, but has a large garden so I am really looking forward to summer when I can sit outside and enjoy the late summer sunlight.

I will post more about the little man as he begins to come on the scene, and thanks to everyone who has stopped by the blog for a visit, I am really looking forward to keeping all my friends and family around the world up to date as we build our nest in London. xoxo Rose

House Wives Cash & Carry - Classic

Mrs. and Mr. smokestacks in Deptford