6,7,8.....

Nine

Ten

Migratory Patterns

Teddy has become quite and international man of mystery! Recently he has traveled to Italy to celebrate American Thanksgiving in November.  We met up with Greg and Sarah Morrison in Lucca and had a feast of American and Italian food.  We enjoyed walking around the medieval town and taking a day trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower. 

Teddy studies Italian while celebrating his 7-month birthday

Teddy has also traveled to America where he spent time with his cousin Nancy Dove Swanson.

En route

Snacktime!

Next weekend he will be going to Paris, Oh le le!

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.

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. 

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 :) 

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

Sales, Sales, Sales....

Hello all.... it's Daniel here.... Rose left her computer open, so I'm taking a minute to say "hello" from me! And so I thought I'd take a second to share something about one of the activities that has been filling up our last couple of weekends: NCT Nearly New Sales!

The Nearly New Sale is like a Black Friday sale for baby swag. The NCT, or National Childbirth Trust, is a charity (that we're members of) offering information and support during pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenthood. We're currently attending their ante-natal classes - which are very well taught. One of their initiatives is the "Nearly New Sale" that allows parents/to-be to shop for second hand, but barely if-at-all used, equipment and clothes at quite excellent prices. The sales are also a fundraising opportunity for the charity; who take a cut of the sales while the parents/sellers keep the lion share. For the last weekends we've headed out early (to beat the rush), shopping list in hand, to see what bargains we could find...

As you can see above our first outing was quite successful, in that we bought a fair amount, and probably spent more on a cup of tea on the way home than we did at the sale! However, the careful observer will notice from the haphazard way everything is strewn out on the table when we returned home that we were a little shell shocked! 

Next time we knew what we were going to be in for... and so planned accordingly, even studying up on which room equipment would be in, versus clothing, books, etc. 

Even better, and despite taking the bus in the wrong direction for a couple of stops, we managed to arrive before the sale started, and were within the first 100 people to enter the sale and thus received a "goody bag", the wonderful bag above full of magazines and flyers for various products and such like.

We were on form and managed to grab up most of our "wish list" items, a baby bath insert, a changing mat, a couple of books and a pile of assorted designer clothing - so the little man has some stylish clobber already.

Just to let you all know our preparations are well under way, and all is well with us... we're really looking forward to the little one arriving, and thank you for all your support, and we look forward to introducing the little one to everyone soon.

All best wishes for now...

Cheers, Dan