A year in London

2012-01-02T00:16:00.010Z

For Christmas this year we were lucky enough to have the Anderson clan fly in from Boulder & Chicago to spend the holidays with us. Ian arrived Friday afternoon and I finished up work after one last lunch of the year with the crew at the Mexican restaurant. We feasted on steak taco's with guacamole for dinner Friday night. Saturday GG & Papa Dave watched Colin while the rest of us made trips into Boston to pick up last minute gifts. The afternoon was full of football and food. We had ribs & mashed potatoes for our Christmas Eve dinner and after Brady went to bed everyone took part in the wrapping of presents and stuffing of stockings. Christmas morning started around 8 a.m. when the family arrived. Somehow Brady woke up at 7 and we were able to keep him occupied and away from the gifts until 8. For breakfast GG made everyone Monkey Bread and after opening stockings and a few gifts Brady & I ran off to 11 a.m. mass - where the big concern was the missing green bag (typically someone holds a green bag at the front of the aisle during the collection and everyone can go up and deposit money in it) - instead of the bag they came through the aisles with a basket. When we returned from church Brady got his big chance to open gifts and to say there were a few would be a severe under-statement. I'm not sure what his favorite gift was but he was really keen on the little Tin Tin ornament and was also thrilled with the large puppy that GG got him. The other toys from his stocking were also a hit - the harmonica & blue binoculars were probably all we needed to get him (point to note for next year). He has been playing non-stop though with the lego duplo hospital and the aircraft carrier so I guess there were no real losers when it came to presents. Colin got a bunch of little toys, clothes and books as well - which Brady helped us open on Boxing day. After Brady's nap on Christmas day we drove out to Wellesley where Rob & Denise were kind enough to host us the night before their 6 a.m. flight to Disneyworld. They made the full Christmas meal with turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, . . . it was very good and Brady was so happy to have a bunch of new toys to play with - Bruce was a trooper following him around as he investigated this corner and that.

Monday was the last day of the holiday which unfortunately meant the usual weekend chores. The boys (excluding Colin) went to see a musical theater play at Harvard called the Revelers (they left after the first act so Brady could get his nap). Meanwhile I ran around cleaning up Brady's room so he'd have somewhere to sleep (he's latest habit is to play fire trucks and he turns his bed into a truck and fills it with ALL OF HIS TOYS - a habit his mom finds slightly tiring). Also, got all the laundry done so the boys would have clothes to wear and a bed to sleep in at school. We ordered pizza's and caesar salad for our meal that afternoon and just relaxed watching a few movies including "Love Actually" and "The Fugitive". It was a very fast holiday and everyone had to go home to pack and prepare for their morning flights Tuesday. It was certainly a non-stop weekend and hopefully if we host another Christmas in Boston we'll have a home with rooms for everyone to come and stay not to mention room for cooking and playing with toys!

I picked out a few of the best pictures from the weekend.

2011-12-17T14:18:00.004Z

Colin turned two months yesterday! Last weekend we started to see the unprompted smiles - this morning I was lucky enough to capture the smiles and a laugh for the camera!

http://youtu.be/sQXtwaW7jYs

2011-11-16T02:57:00.002Z

Friday October 11th - Veterans Day. Brady's school was closed for the holiday so he stayed home with mom and Colin. We had an active day baking cookies, painting his pumpkins, building towers, reading stories and having a strawberry eating competition.

2011-11-16T02:50:00.004Z

Colin at 4 weeks.

2011-11-12T00:53:00.007Z

With mid-sixty degree days Colin & I spent a few afternoons at the Boston public gardens. The leaves, the sun, the warmth . . . might be my favorite time of year in Boston. Though the Hancock tower is a bit too tall and the park is shaded by 2:15 - probably acceptable for November but still a bit depressing. The park reminds me a lot of St. James park in London.

2011-11-12T00:41:00.003Z

2011-11-12T00:15:00.001Z

2011-11-06T23:53:00.001Z

Grandpa Jan joined Grandma Susan for a visit Thursday the 3rd of November. Just a few nights but a lot of fun was had especially by Brady who dragged papa Jan into playing with everything in his room.

2011-10-31T23:41:00.006Z

Halloween also known as Colin's original due date. Though he arrived two weeks and a day earlier. So how did we celebrate his due date - a trip to the doctors for his two week check-up and a visit with his brother to the Firestation for some Trick-or-Treating. At his check-up everything was all positive - he's gone from 6lbs 9oz when he left the hospital Tuesday the 18th to 7lbs 14oz...clearly all the chocolate mom's been eating for the past two weeks is paying big dividends. The maximum he could gain is 2oz/day or 24oz and he's at 21oz --- not too shabby. He's still got the belly button but hopefully that'll disappear in the next two weeks. The doctor was so happy with his progress that he said we don't need to come back until 2 months (which also coincides with another round of shots---maybe I'll send Bruce as the parent representative on that appointment).

After the doctors appointment we picked up Brady at his school, then picked up his daddy and headed home to get into the Fireman costume so we could head over to the Fire station for some trick-or-treating. Fireman Mark, who was manning the front desk, gave Brady a handful of candy then took him into the truck area, letting Brady sit up in Firetruck #5's front seat and coming down the pole for Brady to see. So we didn't go door to door but this trip made one 2 year olds day!

2011-10-30T22:00:00.001Z

Halloween weekend. Saturday Colin experienced his first winter storm (a true Nor'easter). Bruce took Brady out to gym class & the library and Grandma Susan, Colin & I made it out to the grocery store to stock up just before the rain started. Unfortunately Bruce got stuck in the rain while returning the car to the parking garage. Sunday the weather broke in the morning and we made it to the Prudential Centers annual Halloween event. Brady got to experience his first trick-or-treating going store to store getting candies --- or actually searching for lollipops anything else was almost not worth receiving. Brady also got the chance to decorate a pumpkin, which was good for us since we have two pumpkins at home that we never did get around to decorating or carving. Actually the only thing Brady really wanted was to get his face painted so after trying to wait in line three separate times we finally got lucky on the third line-up - they came around after we'd waited 25 minutes and told us they were cutting it off just before us but luckily the make-up artists were nice enough to stay late so Brady got a Patriots Logo on his face. Wearing his new Patriots sweats and logo were sadly not enough to bring the Patriots a win this weekend. It was a rough sports Sunday for the Patriots, the Cowboys and Kyle Busch who got taken out with 30 laps to go by Matt Kenseth, not to mention my fantasy team was annihilated.

2011-10-30T00:46:00.000Z

Friday was the annual Halloween Parade at Brady's preschool. Colin joined me for the trip but I think he found it a little bit too hot. We arrived about 8 minutes before the parade was to start so it was a rush to get Brady into his Fireman costume. The kids did two laps around the hallway on the second floor and then came into the commons area for some singing. Brady found Lila and the two of them both wore the same glazed "what are these crazy adults doing" looks on their faces while they sang one round after another of songs.

2011-10-28T23:04:00.000Z

2011-10-23T08:39:00.008Z

2011-10-23T01:28:00.000Z

Colin's first week capped off with Apple Picking at Parley farms in Northern Mass. So Colin slept thru most of it but Brady had a blast picking and EATING apples! Then onto the pumpkin patch where Brady got to pick his own pumpkin.

2011-10-20T11:20:00.001Z

2011-10-17T14:08:00.007Z

Baby #2 was a much easier arrival then baby #1 - don't know if that's the US system differences or if it really is 100% easier with the second birth but I'm thrilled with the results. Restless nights sleep Saturday night up every hour or so with back pain - not frequent enough to consider labor pains. Around 6:00 got out of bed and headed for the couch to try not to wake anyone. Brady joined me shortly after and then the pains started - this time I was getting them in my front and back. Again we skipped the whole 10 to 5 minutes apart and opted for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes apart lasting about 20 seconds apiece. I monitored this for a while trying to chart and decide if it could be labor (yes again still wasn't sure). I occupied my thoughts by pulling up my fantasy schedule and nfl.com to select my line-up for the week - priorities...had to know that I wouldn't lose by default. Then I took a shower because there was no way I was going to go to the hospital without one. At that point it really was frequent. Bruce ran around with lists packing Brady's suitcase, I ran around with my list packing my suitcase and Brady watched us all and started to get excited about going to see Mr. Matt and Melissa and the puppies. We texted Melissa & Matt to let them know there was a chance... I spent most of the morning trying to call mom unsuccessfully - apparently 5:30 a.m. in Utah is not a good time to get ahold of my mom by phone. Bruce took Brady and got the car then we called and finally got through to the doctor on call - she wasn't sure about having me come in since my contractions weren't that severe only lasting 20 seconds so I made sure to let her know with Brady they'd never been more then 3 minutes apart. At that point she said right well then I think you should come in and get checked. Trip over wasn't nearly as bad - contractions were horrible but Brady was in the back with me telling me that I needed medicine. Bruce & Brady waited in the lobby for Matt & Melissa to arrive and I went up to the 10th floor to get checked in. All still very civilized and polite. I'm sure the receptionist thought I'd be sent back home. Since I'd tested positive for Group B Strep they needed to get me on antibiotics for 4 hours before pushing --- we got to the hospital around 10. The nurse checked me in triage and I was "surprisingly" already at 5 (again the same as with Brady). They immediately got me to the room I opted for one last trip to the ladies before getting the epidural and then the resident came in and gave me the epidural (with the doctor standing by - very "Grey's"). Epidural was awesome and only wore off a little within 2 hours so they gave me a second dose. Bruce arrived just shortly after the epidural was in - Brady had been very happy to leave with Melissa & Matt for his adventure. The next four hours were quite uneventful - I spent most of it on my cellphone calling my mom, on the computer (free wireless internet) researching and booking flights for my mom to come out. Finished that up somewhere around 1 p.m. At 1:40 my water decided to break on its own! Surprising - I didn't even know how that all worked since I didn't remember it happening the last time. Around 2 they started coming back in. The nurse got things prepared and from about 2:40 or so I started pushing (I think it was closer to 2:30) then the doctor came in and I really had to push the nurse was AMAZING completely told me what to do and helped me do it right. It was a 100% different experience then what I had in London and so much easier. Anyway by 2:51 baby Colin made his arrival at 7 lbs and 19.5 inches long. Nice head of full black hair - similar to Brady. He's been fantastic (hope I didn't jinx myself there). We left the labor & delivery ward around 4:30 and came down to the recovery floor. They took the baby for a bit to check him and then we all settled in to watch the Patriots-Cowboys game and eat some dinner (the first food I'd had all day). At 7 Melissa & Matt brought Brady back to us. Brady loved seeing his little brother and everyone was in a good mood. By 7:30 everyone had left and it was just me and Colin for the night. I managed to just go in and out of sleep on and off all night - trying to keep to the rigid 3 hour feed schedule they have me on. Bruce came back this morning around 9 and I was able to take another shower. So life is good - and we got a few good family photos yesterday.

2011-07-04T11:40:00.004Z

I don't know how mom's do it with a second pregnancy. Finding a minute to take pictures let alone post a few seems an impossible task. Thankfully a three-day weekend and an inability to sleep in past 6 a.m. has given me the chance to sort through some photos and post the second experience. Brady's brother will be arriving on October 31st, 2011, or thereabouts. Today I'm at 6 months and 1 day or 23 weeks. This time around has been a different experience - with Brady and Bruce in the picture. The first trimester felt so much worse than with Brady I couldn't get out of bed without eating six saltine crackers and even then my stomach never seemed to settle all day. Fortunately week 12 came and the sickness disappeared once again so other then being very tired and prone to all sorts of colds things "knock on wood" are progressing well.

Keeping it a secret at work was also a challenge. My intention was to keep it a secret as long as possible - telling only the most critical people along the way. Fridays at work are drinking Fridays so I had to be creative --- identifying which restaurants we were going to be eating at and then calling ahead to ask them to serve me a non-alcoholic version of a drink, describing what I looked like and what I was wearing and finally telling them to charge the full price for the non-alcoholic version in case the little auditors in the crew felt inclined to review the bill. My tolerance has never been so great. Once I'd passed the 14 week mark and had the first real scan I felt safer that same week I found out from two close friends at work that my staff had figured it out and were asking about my bump so I immediately pulled my boss aside to explain that I would be taking about six weeks off in late October/November. Ironically he didn't ask why immediately so I elaborated. It felt good to have that worry off my chest and by the time we went to Scotland for Cousin Scott's wedding we were able to tell people - which was a good feeling. I still wasn't ready for a world wide announcement given the statement "bet you hope it's a girl" that came after I told everyone so I decided to wait until the first week of June after our second scan. At the first scan I had determined that the face looked like a boy and I was 95% certain Brady would be getting a brother and it was confirmed the last day of May. The little guy was moving around a lot in the belly, we brought Brady to the scan but unfortunately they have a sequence they go through with the scan and he was not nearly as interested in looking at the size of his brothers head. He looked good and healthy though, everything perfectly normal and with two independent conclusions that it's a boy and we were content to leave with the conclusion that Brady would have a brother.

So here we are already at 6 months and I have taken very few pictures of my belly and I feel really guilty about it. I've been through all the photos that I've taken and found a few in Miami from April 2nd & 3rd, a few from Scotland May 17th and 21st, the first real bump showings from the Bruins Victory Parade June 18th and a few from our 3rd of July trip to the Aquarium yesterday. The bump is coming along - consistent with Brady he's quite active moving around especially when I get home from a long day and lay down on the couch. I haven't been successful getting him to kick Brady yet but we're working on it. Brady is very excited about the "boy" in there. For the past two months he's been identifying which toys he's willing to share with the boy. Occasionally he comes up and gives the bump a hug, a kiss or brings the puppy to it. It's very cute - though I know it's a delicate balance because I have also been kicked in the belly when someone got really mad at mommy, this only happened once and I think we've learned our lesson. Hopefully the rest of this pregnancy will be uneventful. We had been spending a lot of our free time in May & June searching for a bigger home - even got to the offer only to find out during inspection that the house was a mess and definitely not something worth investing in. So it's back to square one with a revised target date of December. I've been trying to fight off a sinus infection for the past few weeks, which eventually led to a prescription to try and clear it - hopefully I'm nearing the end of that. This weekend we went to Cranes Beach on Saturday, the aquarium yesterday and will be going to the Museum of Science for a visit and also to their 4th of July festivities this evening to watch the Fireworks over the Charles River. Hopefully we can keep cool. I did learn that pregnant women certainly do burn quicker and unfortunately the peeling from Saturday's two hour visit to the beach has already begun. Here's hoping that it'll be my first and last burn of the pregnancy.

2011-05-28T20:27:00.023Z

Eventually I catch on to the "hints" in e-mails about a lack of photos :) No worries I have been taking the photos and they are all in a safe place on my camera disks & most on my back-up drive it just appears finding the time to post them is the difficulty. Life has been hectic for us lately. We have actively started the bigger home hunt - which is stressful. We finally got our car in March the Audi Q5 -- it's beautiful and still has under 1500 miles on it. For now it's primarily a weekend car but I have no doubt once we find that house and move in we will start using it daily. Part of me longs for the time on the road when I can listen to music and talk on the phone....then I realize with Brady & Bruce in the car with me those peaceful drives will probably always be a distant memory of my times in Baltimore driving to Bethesda. Time will tell. The past few months since I last blogged have been busy for us as my mother-in-law says we're still traveling - most recently we spent the week in Scotland for cousin Scott's wedding on the 21st of May (we arrived the week before and had a lovely time with June & Paul). We've also had Grandma & Grandpa Sojka visit in March for a week and Grandma Gail visit for a week in April (during which time I spent a long weekend in Miami with the girls). That reminds me we also had Aunt Laura come and stay with us for a few weeks while she was on an extended holiday from London. Now we have Graziella visiting us from London for a few days of our long weekend.

It seems work has taken on a whole new dynamic for me - at the end of April I took on additional responsibilities which means more time in the office. Hopefully I will hire someone to make this all a bit easier but you sadly can't just snap your fingers and have someone perfect magically appear in your office ready to start to make your life better. On the other side it's that time of year when people who work under me are starting to think about their futures and at least for one of them it probably means moving into a new role where they can try new things...I've always been a big supporter of giving people new challenges and supporting the building of new skills but it is always sad and a bit painful when they go. I'm sure in the long run it will all work out for the best but in the meantime I think that means an extra busy summer. This week I was away for the annual finance managers conference at the cape - which after being out for the week before that has put me excessively behind at work and I've got only four days next week to catch up before I head to Nashville for a three-day conference. I'm clearly digging myself into a hole that I hope I can get out of.

Hopefully our house hunt will go well because I think we could use something simple in our lives. Brady is still enjoying his daycare, weekend gym class and swimming lessons. We took him to the circus in April and he LOVED it. I was shocked that a 2 year-old could sit through a two hour performance (with a short break) and be completely still. I’d never seen him so entranced and am sure I will be buying tickets to any and all circus performances that come through Boston in the future. His vocabulary is really coming along, at the moment his favorite word is “WHY” – unfortunately this is not my favorite word. In Scotland Paul got us answering “it’s for the greater good” but Brady caught on to this quickly and answers back with “no good”. So we’re still trying to find answers to satisfy his “Why’s”. He also picked up the word “Shut-up” a sign to me that I have to watch very clearly what words I use around him….hopefully he will not continue to repeat this around his friends at school. Our last weekend in Scotland he also picked up on a strange habit of hitting himself (and I mean like punching himself) in the head, primarily in the forehead. He quickly realized he was getting some pretty interesting looks from people and thought it was “cool”. Unfortunately it causes these red welts to show up on his face…hopefully this phase will end soon. I’d like to say we’re moving on with the potty-training but other then having him fall in love with a book on potty training he hasn’t shown much interest and we’re not really in the mood to push it too far. Hopefully once we get a new house we can designate a bathroom for him and make it “convenient” for him to learn.

Alright better get on with some photos!

2011-05-28T11:00:00.001Z

Some snaps from our visit to Galashiels, Scotland May 14th to May 23rd 2011.

2011-04-17T17:09:00.000Z

Brady playing guitar this morning - he's getting better!

2011-03-20T19:07:00.014Z

Photo memories from February 2011

February 27th was Brady's last swim class of the Tot C program - they go for five classes then it stops for a while. Since it's the one time you're allowed camera's I took full advantage to get some pics of the cool pool and Brady practicing his reaching and swimming with daddy!

Saturday the 26th we had some play time around the house which resulted in Brady finding his shovel and trying to find things to scoop up. One highlight was the successful arrival of Auntie Anne's present - the Thomas Tidmouth Shed attachment to his train set. Now all his trains have somewhere to sleep! Anne didn't know what she was getting Brady but since he likes his trains we thought this would be a good use of his birthday present. Earlier in the morning Brady got his second haircut - there is this wonderful barber shop (Clarendon Barbers) which opens early on a Saturday 8:30 and has a very cool kids only Thomas chair and a little flat screen tv which was conveniently showing Toy Story 3. Brady loved his time getting his hair cut!

Random Tuesday evening at our house - Brady was having fun playing with his camera while mommy played with hers.

Mommy's birthday a quiet night in on the 17th Brady helped mommy open her present from Aunt Evie. Thankfully he didn't also try to wear the sweatshirt!

Brady's first "celebrated" Valentines Day - some of the kids gave each other cards. I will say this was Brady's first marshmallow treat and he is now obsessed! He can't say the word but he came up with his own sign for it which is to touch his index finger to his thumb and act like they are hard to come apart (e.g. sticky). Sadly after this one trial with marshmallows they are almost a nightly thing in the Anderson household. The last two photos at the end are also from Brady's Valentines day - only these ones came from the daycare center care of Lila's mommy!

We flew down to Baltimore February 11th and stayed until the 13th to once and for all take care of the stuff I had in storage --- Brady had so much fun playing with Tejal & Jigisha. Anytime he can find a helmet he's ecstatic. He explored the house, played with Tejals markers, watched her fish, and basically did whatever he could to follow her around. Lucky for us Anne had baby Natalie the Monday before we arrived and we were lucky enough to stop by and see the baby for a quick visit. Brady seemed to be more enamored with Cal the puppy but I was thrilled to get to see the baby, Anne & Ryan. They're such a cute family! It was during this visit that Jigisha & I came up with the Miami Girls weekend 2011 scheme...and here I am two weeks out from the big weekend! I can't wait for the sunshine.

Brady's first Valentines Day.

2011-03-20T18:24:00.015Z

Blogging seems to have become a thing of the past it seems. We still have dozens of activities happening each weekend but for some strange reason I never seem to be able to find the time or energy to sit down and blog. It's Sunday - 20th of April - gorgeous day outside but only highs in the low 40's. Brady's down for his (hopefully) 3 hour nap and we've just finished preparing the daybed for Laura's visit. She's arriving tomorrow from Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, London. We're her second to last stop on her North American adventure and we're very excited to have her come and stay with us for a few weeks.

The last blog I posted was for Brady's birthday (January 31st) I had started a "word doc" blog from the weeks preceding his birthday but clearly never completed it nor did I post it. I just posted a new blog of Brady's time with his girlfriend Lila, since of all the events that have occurred in the past two months since I effectively lost the plot with blogging those dates were the most important.

Luckily enough I have photos to remind me of all the fun (and not so fun things) we've done in the past few months. - I'll do this in three phases - January 2011, February 2011 and March 2011.

After our playdate with Lila (Sunday - February 6th) - we bought Brady a snow shovel & sled - of course this signaled mother nature not to send any more major snow storms to us and so the shovel has had more use pushing imaginary snow then anything else.

February 5th - another Saturday stop at ABP for our favorite breakfast.

February 3rd - mom made popcorn while Bruce got out Brady's new birthday train set. Bruce spent a good bit of time connecting the two train sets. I think Bruce enjoyed the train sets more then Brady and Brady was completely into the popcorn.

January 28th - Friday the daycare held a pre-superbowl party and Brady got the chance to wear his jersey and the beautiful New England patriots sweater GG got him.

January 27th - promised Uncle Paul some snow photos this was right after another big storm in Boston. Sadly this was worse then we'd seen in the earlier storms but school & work were still on. No problem Brady stays entertained with his ipod which GG sent to him when she got her upgraded ipod.

Saturday January 22nd we took Brady into Faneuil hall and after Brady snacked on a cookie bigger then his head he got to have his first ice skating experience. The shoes were a little bit too big but he still managed to have fun. Unfortunately it was fake ice so they didn't slide as well as they should have so hopefully the next time he goes it'll be even better. Wednesday January 19th - his new slippers from Grandma Glady's arrived and Brady had fun wearing them around the house.

Another random day in the house Brady got sick at school and on the 16th mommy and Brady had a day at home which included painting.

January 12th we had our first snow day - the daycare opened late but my office was closed and BU was closed so we had a family day. Brady & mommy made some yummy cookies (which mommy ate most of them in the next three days).

Chef Brady had a good time with his new chef apron, hat and glove -- only problem dad has two gloves and Brady only has one.

Brady loves his CARS helmet and he knows that people shouldn't ride bikes without them, when we read Curious George he always points out the boy on the bike delivering papers without a helmet - bad bad!

Finally the new years photos of the activities at the convention center and the parade.

2011-03-20T17:45:00.010Z

Brady and his girlfriend Lila

Brady has had three playdates with his french girlfriend Lila. As a two-year old he's not really into playing with other children - which we can note from his weekly visits to MyGym class, his weekly swimming lessons at BU, and our quite frequent visits to museums, but for some reason Lila is his world and when the two of them are together they can spontaneously break into laughter, fight over a cool toy, drink each others water cups, bring each other cool toys, eat fruit (yes Brady actually was willing to eat some berries when Lila came to visit us at our house), . . . and the list goes on. For our first playdate, February 6th, we met Lila and her parents at the Au Ban Pain (ABP) on Boylston street. The children had some pastries before we walked our way to the Boston Commons park - along that walk Brady taught Lila to stomp the snow (like Uncle Ian taught him at Christmas) they both found this hilarious. They both managed to fall into water puddles and eventually we wound up at a little Italian cafe where they had lasagne for Lila and spaghetti w/meatballs for Brady. We all had such a lovely time - the end was the scary bit after a quick stop at the butchers shop on Charles Street Bruce was pushing Brady's stroller ahead of us and suddenly there was a loud noise and from three stories up a huge mound of ice and snow came crashing off the roof less than a foot from Brady's stroller - it was one of the slow motion "oh no" moments. It primarily missed them but Brady did manage to have ice chunks all over himself. That's what happens when you get one sunny day after a month of snow.

Our second Lila date, February 27th, was at our house. Lila had been off sick all week from school with a fever and cough. Brady had been devastated - we got him a new "bento box" lunch pail for school since he refuses to eat his veggies if they are touching his pasta. It's a great little invention and it went to school with him on Thursday - when he saw it he started to cry for Lila - unbeknownest to us Lila has the same lunchbox and he thought it was hers. So he didn't eat that day. We were so excited when Lila's mom agreed to bring Lila around to our house at 10:30 one Sunday morning. We made a fruit salad, pasta for the kids and grilled goats cheese sandwiches for the adults. Again it was another successful play-date. They enjoyed sharing their waters - which is probably why several weeks later Brady turned up this week with a high fever and a horrible cough. But they had a blast playing with toys and serving themselves berries from the big glass fruit bowl.

Our latest date was last weekend at Lila's house in the South End. It was our first weekend with the new car and so we took the car over to see them. They live in a beautiful modern building in the penthouse apartment with large windows and beautiful views. Lila happens to have the exact same crib as Brady. Lila's parents are also big fans of the wooden toys so Brady was very happy to play with Lila's toys - the one toy they just couldn't seem to get along over was a beautiful push bike with three wheels - it's a similar theory to Brady's bike but it starts with three wheels so they can balance then you can convert it to two wheels - Lila was riding it before she could walk. They kept taking turns (or should I say being forced to take turns) riding it up and down the hallway. Later they enjoyed some sandwiches - well Brady enjoyed some bread and we learned of this wonderful beabe pouch (http://www.amazon.com/Beaba-B2197-Babypote-Container-Sorbet/dp/B004DS14B4/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1300644138&sr=8-15) thing that you fill with applesauce or yoghurt and the kids suck/squeeze it out. He loved it and Lila's parents were kind enough to give us an extra one to take home with us - we later ordered two more on amazon. At the end of the playdate the two were into their laughing stage and it was sad to pull Brady away but nap time awaited and with the time change we knew we needed to try to keep him to a schedule.

[I'm an idiot and posted these photos in the exact opposite order - most recent first but you get the idea!]

2011-02-07T01:25:00.013Z

So it's been another couple weeks since I last updated the blog but I didn't want to forget too many details from Brady's birthday weekend so I'll start there and then work our way back and forth to Superbowl weekend.

Being new to Boston and still working on making new friends we decided it would be easier to celebrate Brady's birthday a little quieter then last year in London. We did the family celebration of Brady's birthday on Sunday. Evie and Mom & Dad has sent presents to Bruce's office the previous week so during the week I took the time to wrap all the presents. Brady had seen them piled up at one point and was not too thrilled to see them packed up so he couldn't play with them. Sunday morning we started the day off with his favorite breakfast - cinnamon rolls (popped out of the can). After breakfast we congregated by the pile of presents on the daybed. Brady saw his new bike (which was technically a Christmas present from his GG & Papa Dave but it took me too long to order it) which Bruce & I had spent time the night before putting together. Even on the lowest level for the seat it's just a little bit too high for Brady to ride but that didn't stop him from trying to get on and off it - he seemed to have more fun sitting on the foot part then the seat. Next he decided he wanted to open his big present from Grandma Susan (TT) and Papa Jan. They had got him a fisher price fire station that comes with a fire engine, three firemen, their bunk beds, computer, a water cannon. . . .the list is endless and so is the amount of time Brady is willing to spend playing with this fantastic toy! Not to mention that he finally actually wants to open gifts! Just a month ago at Christmas we struggled to get him to open one present this time he didn't need any encouragement to open up more presents. Nicely enough we were able to spread his presents out throughout the day. He managed to figure out that he wanted to open the big presents first. Next he opened the present from Auntie Evie, Uncle Mark, Cousin Dean and Cousin William - which was a Melissa & Doug piano. He was enjoying banging away on the keys and was pretty impressed when we played Twinkle Twinkle on it.

At 11 we had to leave to go over to BU for Brady's second swimming lesson of the winter term. We decided this time it would be my turn to go into the water with Brady since he cried throughout his first class week and had to get out of the pool early. He was a little better for me but still complained of being cold in the water and was yawning while he was in the pool. We made the only wise decision and decided to switch him to the 9 a.m. class for the rest of the term. After swimming we came home and Brady had a hard time falling asleep after being so excited from the new toys. At 3:30 we met our friends Hagan, Hugh & Katie for a play-date at the Museum of Science. It worked out to be cheaper to upgrade our membership to allow five entrants then to buy two tickets so now we're even more set for future playdates. The kids had so much fun running up all over the museum checking things out. After two hours at the museum we returned to the condo and the six of us lit the birthday candle on Brady's cake and had a delicious chocolate cake and ice cream. Hagan also gave Brady a gift of his favorite play-doh set.

Monday for Brady's official second birthday I specially ordered Dr. Seuss gift boxes, blow-outs and stickers and picked up some mini-play-doh containers for him to have at school with his friends. We also ordered 14 white cupcakes with sprinkles for all the kids. On our way to school I stopped at Au Ban Pain and got Brady a cinnamon roll for his birthday breakfast. At 3:30 Bruce & I met at the daycare and put together the boxes and then joined in while the kids ate their cupcakes. It was so cute. His little girlfriend Lila was eating her cupcake like you bob for apples putting her head down to eat the cupcake without hands. Brady just downed the frosting and pretty much left the cupcake. It was really funny - sadly we had to leave and Brady had a hard time with us leaving but he managed to calm down. That night I had to work a little bit later but was home in time to read stories with Brady before he went to bed.

2011-01-17T02:28:00.004Z

Grandma Gail's birthday weekend visit to Boston. Brady and I had fun celebrating her birthday Friday night with champagne & sushi (for Gail & I) and cupcakes for Brady. Then Brady spent the afternoon and night at Aunt Jan's with GG. He was lucky enough to get a trip to the local children's museum out of the visit! We were lucky enough to get time to run errands, take naps, watch football and see a movie in the cinema. The fighter was amazing. Sunday Brady got the chance to try out his new paint and brush set on the easel.

2011-01-12T22:59:00.005Z

Brady & I are in the middle of our first Nor'easter, Brady's school opened two hours late, my office was closed and Bruce's university was closed. So instead of braving the conditions - strong winds and snow all day long - we decided to stay home with Brady. It's been an adventurous day - starting bright and early at 6:20 a.m. when Brady got up. We were planning to go to work and it wasn't until 7 a.m. when I found out that my office was closed that we stopped our preparations and settled in. Brady had his breakfast cereal and then settled into his activities. I seriously think he has played with every single toy he owns today. We started the morning with some art work which continued throughout the day. Brady has been taking Bruce's fancy measuring tape rulers and trying to draw straight lines on his notebook - typically it ends with him drawing on the ruler more but it's fun. Then we moved onto playing with Mr. Potato Head which was a lot of fun identifying ears, eyes, arms... We also played with his parking garage putting cars down the ramps backwards and forwards. There was time spent playing with the new Trucking set that Mark got him for Christmas, we especially enjoyed trying to take the front loader fork thing and stabbing the crates. We made a salad with our vegetable, bowls, pots and pan sets cutting the cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, etc and putting them into a bowl and then mixing them up. Brady also spent some time reading books with us. Then we got out the trains and played with them. This weekend we put together Brady's Christmas present from Evie, an Easel, and the dry-erase markers I ordered had just arrived so Brady LOVED drawing with the markers and then immediately erasing them all day long. It was a great activity. Around 9:30 we took a trip to the post office to mail off some long-delayed Christmas presents to Brady's cousins in Colorado. We thought Brady would really enjoy the snow so we got him all layered up with snow pants, big boots, gloves, coats and a hat but when we got out we were the first set of footprints in the snow and Brady was miserable and refused to walk. So I carried him to the post office and then we carried him back down to the grocery store where we were going to stop and pick up flour - but since it was a good place for him to run around we came out of there with a very very heavy grocery bag full of stuff and two small plastic bags. Brady took a shorter then average nap from 12:45 to 2:30 during which time Bruce & I were able to fully focus on work for a few hours. When Brady got up we tried to get the stuff out for chocolate chip cookies but realized we weren't just out of flour we were out of brown sugar and there was no chance we were going out again. Instead we pulled out the pre-made sugar cookie packet and Brady had fun rolling the dough out and cutting the figures - of which none came out. After the cookies cooked he had fun putting sprinkles on the cookies. We also found out that Brady had fun playing the Wii Bowling game. So the three of us bowled a set and Brady patiently sat at the side waiting for each of his turns. Now he's had an early dinner of spaghetti o's and franks and we're just chilling until bath time and bed time. Then hopefully we'll be able to settle in and watch The Town which we picked up from RedBox last night. Tomorrow will be a challenging commute in but I think it'll be good to get back to the office.

2011-01-07T18:23:00.003Z

New Years with a Toddler. We had low expectations this year for New Years. We made our plans to return to Boston the week before New Years to avoid a hectic day at the airports (impossible since we didn't predict the major Eastern Blizzard that hit the day before our flight and cancelled most flights in & out of the East). That being said we luckily returned with a few days to prepare for the New Year. Bruce & I both had Friday the 31st off from work so the three of us enjoyed the day together. We started it off taking care of some errands - picking up Christmas presents from Bruce's office (namely my Wii accessories - Wii Fit, a Dance game, some fit stuff and other accessories - I think Bruce is truly hoping I'll make an exercise routine out of this new device) and going to the Bank to arrange a pre-approved loan for the car. After Brady's nap we took in Boston's "First Night" the 35th Annual running oft his festivity. We didn't have too high hopes but and I will say it was crazy. I think Disney is the only other place I've seen so many families running around with young children. We didn't get there until 3 p.m. (which wasn't great but Brady got his nap and was happy). We couldn't get into any of the smaller venues which were giving puppet shows and magic shows due to lines and timing but we were able to take in the Bike stunts, Trampoline experts, traditional group dancing and a story teller. Around 4:30 we took to the outside and headed in the direction of the Ice Sculptures in Copley square. They were pretty impressive but again we encountered crazy lines. A little bit later we met up with Hagan, Brady's friend from MyGym, and his parents Hugh & Katie. The six of us lined up our two strollers along the parade route and settled in for the 6 p.m. parade down Boylston street. I was skeptical but impressed that Brady lasted the entire parade - he really enjoyed looking at the different floats & costumes. He was also thrilled with the free bead necklaces he got while standing on the route. After the parade we noticed that he'd managed to step in enough water that the bottom half of his legs were soaking - so we decided that was a sign to pack up and head home at 7 after the parade. That left us putting Brady to bed just after 8 and Bruce & I settling in to finish off Season 3 of Chuck. Not a bad way to end 2010 - and we actually finished up the dvd's just in time to watch the ball drop and to ring in the New Year. We were asleep by 12:10 and Brady was kind enough to get us up bright and early at 6 a.m. to start 2011 off right.

The day after New Year we went to the dealership and signed the paperwork for our new Audi Q5. It'll be 60 to 90 days before our car arrives - which will hopefully put us after the crazy winter street parking situation. We're really excited as neither of us have ever had a new car. The rest of 2011 has started out pretty good - Brady had his early intervention assessment performed and they are going to get him some help with his speech in the school. His words are still growing - this week we added bowl, barbour (barber) and scissors. We're just hoping a little special attention in the school will get him to use them more consistently. Now it's just time to settle in and watch football to avoid the continuous snow that has been falling (and not laying) all day.

2011-01-07T13:52:00.004Z

It's a new year already? There is so much truth to that saying the days are long but the years go fast. It's hard to believe Brady is almost two (24 days and counting). We've had his second Christmas. He reached flight number 40 for his lifetime December 28th when we flew home from Utah after the holidays. The two bottom teeth, third over from the center (canines I think) finally came in and have filled out his bottom row (they started to appear around the 14th of December). His word count is somewhere around 34 - with "cold" being the new word of the week. He's still saying "die" frequently and no one has been able to figure out what he means when he says it. So the stats just keep on mounting.

Brady & I arrived in Utah the night of the 18th, Bruce arrived the night of the 21st, his parents and brother arrived the afternoon of the 23rd and we returned to Boston on morning of the 28th. Brady & I arrived in time for Evie's birthday - which was spent at mass (the three boys did remarkably well at church and were present for the entire service the oldest two even went on their own and took cans of food up to the front for the collection). That was followed by a breakfast of bacon rolls and then an amazing dinner of Mark's infamous ribs (fall off the bone kind of good). Late afternoon it started to snow (and continued until it turned into a wet rain on Wednesday and all the pretty white snow disappeared) and that sent the grandparents packing. Since the weeks are all blending together I'll go through the highlights that I remember. The plan was for Evie & I to work on getting the Christmas stockings fully packed (12 in total for the entire Anderson-Sojka-Siegel clans) and wrap the presents I'd bought and had shipped to Utah. Monday the cousins went to daycare and Brady stayed with Evie & I. The big thing from Monday is that Brady and I stayed home and cleared the drive-way of snow while Evie went to pick up the boys...it was cold but Brady loved it as Evie had a little red shovel that was just the right size and Brady literally followed me around shoveling up piles of snow (he didn't exactly put them where they belonged but he tried and it was fun).

We were exhausted after our day of shopping and entertaining Brady so Tuesday we decided to do the smart thing and we sent Brady along to daycare with Dean & William. Ironically the center had a classroom for 3+ a classroom for 18 months+ and a classroom for infants....Brady started in the big kid classroom and by the time we picked him up he'd been through all three and apparently was most happy in the infant room where he was the only one who could talk walk and had the most interest in toys. While Brady was looked after Evie & I had a day sisters dream of - a good breakfast, a movie in a theatre, How Do You Know with Reese Witherspoon (it wasn't a bad movie but over the two days we also saw Easy A and the Killers and of the three Easy A was by far the best and I think we agreed we wouldn't even bother watching How Do you Know again if it were on free tv), we did some shopping, we had a good late lunch at an awesome BBQ restaurant where my friend Troy works, and then finally we picked up the boys (which included Bruce at the airport after the little ones went to bed).

Wednesday we had William and Brady at home but we had Bruce who helped watch them while we packed stuff up. The only thing memorable from that day is we went out in search of a sled an we picked one up only to come out of the store and realize it was now raining and the snow was disappearing so the sled ended up in Evie's garage and sledding will have to wait for another year. Thursday Evie's boys went to daycare and around lunchtime she took Brady, Bruce & I to the Little America hotel so we could check in for the evening. Brady sadly took a twenty minute power nap in the car and would not fall back asleep when we got to the hotel. Instead we took him to the swimming pool and he enjoyed swimming around with us until I decided to put his head under the water. He joined me in the steam room after the pool and he loved being in there. When we returned to our room Bruce's family had arrived and checked in (literally next door and across the hall). We cleaned up and the group went to the "lounge" which is the place in the hotel that serves alcohol and is set up like a sports bar but cannot be called one. We all had a relaxing meal (ok except Bruce and Gail who chased Brady all over the hotel when he was done eating). That evening my parents also came and joined us at the hotel and Evie, Mark and the two cousins came and the twelve of us took the free Utah Rail service into downtown SLC to see the lights in Temple Square. Having lived in Utah for decades and knowing this was one of the big things to do it was something we can all say we've done and it was fun but I'm sure we won't be rushing to do it again. After viewing the lights we walked back to the hotel and went back to the lounge for dinner - this was a bit more challenging as people were actually in there trying to watch football games.

Friday the Sojka's & Anderson's had a nice family breakfast in the hotel and then we packed up the cars and went to South-West Salt Lake for a family photo session. Talk about hectic - Marks family also joined us so we had 14 people to arrange in a small photo studio for a group picture. The plan was to get various groupings of photos with the different mixes of families but it became way too much for the kids. Mark had to get back to work so by the time we got Brady back into the studio for the Anderson-Sojka photos it was over. He's definitely in the photos but smiling wasn't in his plan. Sadly the last thing we did was try to take photos of the three boys together and that was a complete mess. But at least we have one good photo of the extended families. After the photos everyone returned to the house and Evie & I took Brady to the pediatricians office - he'd somehow developed pink eye and still had this horrible cough. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do about the "cold" but we got an Rx for the eye drops. The rest of the day was a blur of people and food (Sojka tacos') and a mass exodus around 3:40 to head over to Fr. Dave's church for the Children's Christmas mass. We arrived at 4:10 for a 5:00 service. Needless to say three little boys had to sit still not only for the service but also for the 50 minutes before the service. Evie ran out of milk before church began and the boys were well into the goldfish 5 minutes into mass. Sadly the cousins had a minor meltdown and Evie left 15 minutes into mass for Logan with the boys. Fortunately Brady kept it together - being left the center of so many parents and grandparents attention was a good thing in his eyes! After church we went to a steak house and had a really nice dinner (which eventually Brady fell asleep for).

Christmas morning started too early for us mom brought Brady to our room around 6 a.m. but luckily enough he managed to fall back asleep in our bed. Around 8 a.m. we were all milling about. After a few showers we were ready to start the insanity...when suddenly Santa showed up (Uncle Ian had brought his costume from a race with him) - the kids loved it. Brady was skeptical but Dean immediately started asking him if he had got this toy or that toy and even went and started getting toys from under the tree to ask if this was his car . . . (so cute). The boys were completely spoiled yet again. The adults seemed to all enjoy their stockings and we managed to get Brady to open one presents (yeah the other 15 or so had to be manually opened by parents over the next three days). Dean was all about the presents this year (which was good since he had about 30 to get through). Wills was interested in watching the activities and playing with the bows. The rest of the day was fast - we had mimosa's for breakfast with some Swedish pancakes. The rest of the guests (Marks mother, her husband and his grandmother) showed up between 1 and 2 and then we all did the buffet line and into the dining room for our meal - turkey, roast beef, stuffing, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, brussel sprouts . . . it was excellent and with 18 people somehow we managed. The rest of the highlights...Ian sadly had an early flight Sunday morning so my dad, Ian's dad and Bruce drove him to a hotel near the airport that evening, Mark, Evie, Michael-David and I played our standard round of games (one of these days I'll remember that girls vs boys never works out for us). Then we concluded the night with a viewing of the Ref (oh on Christmas Eve we concluded our drive up to Logan with a viewing of the original Die Hard - nothing quite gets you in the Christmas mood like Die Hard).

Sunday was a quiet day - the grandparents all took a drive up to Bear Lake, Evie and her family went off to check out the sales on lights at Home Depot (unsuccessfully) and Bruce, Brady & I took it easy. Since it was a football day we ordered pizza and Mark, Evie, Bruce & I settled in with the puzzle and the food. Later the Siegel's took off to try and get home safely in the snow storm that had arrived around 11 a.m. That night mom made her spaghetti for dinner.

The highlight of Monday was breakfast at Crumb Brothers (a little cafe type bakery in Logan). Brady held court with all four of his grandparents around the table. Then the ladies and Brady took off in one car to go see my friend Michelle. She got engaged over Christmas and so we were lucky enough to catch up with her quickly at Einsteins. I'm so happy for her she's one of the girls I grew up with that I can completely relate to and she really deserves to settle down with a good man. The rest of the day was mom's turkey-rice soup and then it was time to pack up the car and send Bruce, Brady & I back to SLC for a night before our flight. We managed to pack dad's car FULLY with our bags and we had two more waiting for us in SLC. Oh I should also note that due to the shopping and all the presents we left Logan with two extra suitcases (one big and one small). Monday night we spent the night at Evie's and Evie & I relaxed watching some Chuck while Bruce & Mark went to the bar for a while to watch football. Tuesday we packed up Marks Ford F-150 with all of our bags (which completely filled the bed of his pickup truck) and he took us to the airport for our 9:50 flight. Talk about too much stuff -we checked three bags (at $23/bag) and then had two carry-on's each. Somehow we made it onto the plane - Brady slept for about an hour and a half then played nicely for the rest of the flight. The departing of the plane was a NIGHTMARE - impossible to get a car seat, two rollerbags, two bags, backpack and Brady's little backpack and coats off the plane when Brady's running and then wants to be held. Even the stroller at the end did not make the process much easier. Then we picked up our other three checked bags and we were just lucky the second taxi to come around was a minivan. Somehow we made it safely back to Boston but I think we learned some good lessons from this trip...a) we don't really want to travel for Christmas again, b) kids probably only need a few presents each, c) STOP SHOPPING!!! It really was wonderful having the entire family in one place for Christmas and we had a great time while we were there but it's a lot of work so I think that will probably be the last time for that.

We returned to so much snow in Boston - we could barely get in. Bruce had to stay in with Brady while I ran out for some of the necessities (milk, bread, spaghetti o's, avocados). Then I started the unpacking and laundry. I am so thankful that we don't have any more big trips coming up soon! I did post some good photos on Facebook but I'll sort through and put them up here as well (hopefully this weekend)

2010-12-18T23:26:00.000Z

Brady's pre-Christmas professional photos...total nightmare experience, thankfully a few good pics.

2010-12-15T01:01:00.002Z

Sporadic blogging...yep what can I say. The weeks/weekends go so fast during the Holidays it's hard to keep up. The weekend after Thanksgiving I went down to Baltimore for Anne's baby shower. It was so great - Liz picked me up and we stopped for lunch at Cladaughs pub (got my crab fix in), then we had time to spare so we went shopping up in White Marsh (and Baby Natalie got a bunch more stuff), then we went to the baby shower (great opportunity to see the ex-EY girls - Anne, Liz, Jen and Megan), Jigisha and Tejal picked me up and we went shopping at the new and improved Towson mall (why couldn't it look like that when I lived 10 minutes away?), then we went and had dinner at a Japanese Steak House (wonderful food), Jigisha and I crashed together and it gave us the perfect opportunity to really catch up - I even got to sleep in as late as I wanted (or could) which turned out to be around 9:30, we then had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, played Mexican dominoes and then it was time to head back to the airport and home to Boston. So a whirlwind of a weekend there I managed to get back to the house by 4:15 and had time to unpack and get the laundry done so we could start the week on an easy note. Last weekend was primarily uneventful - we took Brady to his new toddler class which is for two to two and a half year olds and boy do they have energy. It's 15 minutes longer then his usual class and boy were we all feeling it. Since we'd rented a car we went to the storage unit and located the beautiful Christmas ornaments/decorations we'd picked up in Germany. Unfortunately most are for a tree and we didn't have time or energy to pick one up this year. After a painful trip to JCPenny's photo studio we managed to come away with a few cute photos of Brady and Brady with Bruce. The rest of the weekend was spent with me getting the start of a horrible cold/flu. Bruce took Brady at 10 a.m. Sunday to the museum of science to give me a break...which I used as an opportunity to go to the grocery store, do three loads of laundry, make up some spinach dip and start a beef stew. When he returned at noon I was finishing up the browning of the meat - clearly rest is not in my vocabulary these days. Now that my cold is in full force Bruce is starting to come down with it and when I picked up Brady early yesterday (at 4 p.m.) they told me he had a croupy cough so it was off to the pediatricians office where they concluded he has a ....COLD. Yep I was embarrassed seems Brady is very very very good at faking the cough (or making it sound a lot worse when he wants attention) and I know this but didn't expect the doctor to have an open appointment on a Monday evening. Oh well. After the doctors visit we walked home (20 minutes) past a toy store (yeah Brady managed to get a new toy - this time a blue scooter though when we got home and he realized it wasn't the pink one he had been riding around the store on he was less then thrilled). So here we are it's Tuesday and we're all feeling under the weather but hopefully it'll pass before our flights on Saturday night.

So the motivation to blog this evening was actually prompted by my little "angel". Last week I decided that it would be a good idea to start a tradition of kneeling at his crib and saying the things he's thankful for before he goes to sleep (aka prayers). So we started doing this and have done it about five times. Well tonight Bruce sent him in to bed and I grabbed his blankets and walked into his room and found him kneeling on the floor waiting for me to say prayers. I am so lucky to have this little one in my life to keep me grounded on what is important in life!

2010-11-27T15:29:00.003Z

What a wonderful weekend. The opportunity to come to Colorado and spend Brady's first real Thanksgiving in America with the Anderson and the Patterson clan. We had such a "filling" Thanksgiving. There's something nice about holidays with little one's running around. Brady had such a wonderful time playing with his cousins Hunter (3) and Lydia (18 months). The highlight for me was watching the three of them holding hands as we walked up the street on our after meal walk. It was so precious and Brady was the first to hold out his hand to walk with Hunter and later Lydia joined the pack. They had so much fun playing together and there wasn't too much drama.

The highlight of yesterday was Brady getting his first hair cut. Yep we did it we finally took him in and had his hair cut. He wasn't thrilled at first as she went around with a wet comb but he was sitting in a car driving so what's not to like? Eventually he forgot about the scissors and the comb and relaxed while driving. Clearly we're in love with his curls and refused to get much cut off so we just removed some of the length at the back (the mullet look) and had his fringe cut back so the hair isn't in his eyes and she let us know what she'd layered it some to bring out the curls...(yeah clearly overboard). For now it's still curling up nicely and with the lack of humidity in Boulder I'm sure it will be even curlier when we get back to Boston. So we all survived the first hair cut (well except uncle Ian who was completely bored and decided to take a walk - can't really blame him). I videoed the first bits which I will attempt to post later when I get the right cord. It was my first time using the new Kodak digital pocket video camera I won in a raffle at a conference last week...it seems to work well but we'll see once I get it on a big screen. In addition to the hair cut we also went to Best Buy - where they were having some GOOD sales. After all the talk of Mad Men we decided to see what all the fuss is about - $10/season can't be beat so we bought the first three. We did this with Entourage last year and it worked so this year we'll try Mad Men.

Unfortunately Bruce came down with the stomach flu Brady had on Tuesday and par for the course his bout of the stomach pains is carrying on for days unlike Brady's hours. Fingers crossed that it will pass this evening and we'll all be 100% for the flight home on Sunday morning. I managed to come down with a migraine on the 5 hour flight so when we arrived in Boulder I disappeared straight to bed and left the family to deal with unpacking the car and settling Brady down at 11 p.m. (no really I did have a migraine I wasn't just looking for an excuse to avoid the dirty work).

So in this season of Thanksgiving I've been reflecting on all the things I'm thankful for and realize I have so much to be thankful for. First and foremost an amazing husband who spoils me rotten (e.g. letting me come home and sit on the couch every night watching soapy type tv shows while he does the dishes; and of course battling through countless illnesses to keep up with Brady and I so I'm not stuck doing it all - while letting me get a "free pass" every time I'm sick). There's also Brady, my perfect son (biased of course) who entertains me constantly and never ceases to amaze me with new words, tricks, dancing moves, laughs - every phase is my favorite and I can't wait to see what he'll do next. My parents who were generous enough to fly to Boston my first week back in the US in May to take on Brady for a week while Bruce & I both departed for conferences (anyone who can deal with a jet-lagged baby is alright in my book) and of course the phone calls of advice whenever an unpredictable issue arise with Brady. My in-laws ... there just aren't enough words to express how much they help us out - from the multiple times they flew out to London and Boston in the past year to help with Brady to the week they took Brady in June so I could work and Bruce could attend a conference, the wonderful Thanksgiving dinner they hosted for us and the e-mails of support and advice in all times of need.

My friend Laura in London, as a single mom in London there was nothing more important then having that one friend who would show up weekly to give me an excuse to have a good meal, gossip about Grey's Anatomy, knit and just relax - she's amazing and I miss her dearly. My coworkers in London - Annie- who was an ear through so many uncertainties, Josef- who gave me opportunities to continue to grow and develop and who also was there to share stories of our similarly aged children, Kyle- who kept me smiling at work, Gergana-who shared similar war stories of babies and jobs, and all the other colleagues who helped me manage alone in London with a baby. Then there was my girlfriend Jessica who shared her pregnancy with me and was an ear to lean on (via Sametime) through the job uncertainty. It's so strange not to have that EY sametime link anymore - not being able to message with Laura, Annie, Jessica, Jen . . .a whole connection shut down with that change and I do miss hearing updates from everyone.

My family in Scotland - June & Paul being such a help coming down in April for a visit which ended up being a Brady watching session when I flew out unexpectedly for a job interview, and the countless times they had us to stay with them in Scotland both while we were living in London and so far once since we left (not bad given we've only been gone 6 months). My other relatives in Scotland David & Dawn (who were kind enough to let us share in their wedding day), my Auntie Anna (who always makes me smile and is so good with little Brady), my Uncle Jack & Auntie Linda (who make a very good cup of tea and biscuits and are a lot of fun to catch up with), my cousin Fiona and her son Jack (who is always good for sharing toys and giving Brady a chance to interact with people his own age while on holiday)....the list of course goes on and on but we love our visits to Scotland and the time we get to spend making new memories.

My godmother, Graziella outside London who could always be counted on for a new adventure to a museum, park, manner house . . . we experienced so many new things outside the ordinary as a result of our friendship and we hope we will find ample opportunities in the future to visit with her again (including this coming May - we're starting our New England activities list now). Jane and Clara (Laura's mother and sister) who were also just a phone call away and a support for all of Brady's big events while living in London. Selena and Matt- who were Brady's first baby-sitters and were also very supportive while we were living in London going through first time parenting experiences.

My friends scattered across the US who sadly I think I talked to more while I was living in London. Mary who I have made the trip down to visit and loved every minute of my first girls weekend (mini-MarLa). Jenny who gave me the excuse to come to Baltimore for her Baby Shower (and her little girl Camden who I can't wait to meet) and also granted me the chance to catch up with Jen, Liz & Anne and here first hand the news of our future little girlfriend Natalie. My girlfriend Lisa who took a drive out of her way when she visited Boston in September so I could see her grown up little girls and meet the newest little Kenny (Sean). Jigisha & Tejal who I don't get to see nearly enough but enjoy the random phone chats & e-mails. Clarissa who now lives in LA and I'm looking for a good excuse to come out there and meet her newest little girl Abby.

I really am living a wonderful life and there is nothing more important to me then my friends & family. We're now back safely in Boston. The trip back was the easiest flight we've had less then 3 3/4 hours we even landed early. Bruce & Brady slept for three hours and I had the peaceful opportunity to read two full magazines while sitting inbetween them on the plane...I am thankful for those rare moments of peace and quiet when there isn't a network connection or cable tv to distract me from the joy of reading. We were at our house by 5, unpacked by 6 and three loads of laundry done by 9 and Brady slept thru the night not getting up until Bruce woke him at 7:30. Only three more weekends until Christmas (one in Baltimore, one in Boston, and one in Salt Lake City...it's going to be here before we know it).

2010-11-20T01:08:00.003Z

Clearly behind again on the blog and so much has happened but before I forget recent activities I thought I'd post a few quick updates for those not following on facebook. Wednesday I went to pick up Brady from daycare and as I opened the fence he started to run towards the classroom when suddenly he stopped and pulled down his trousers and said "Oh-O" - I just stood there completely astonished and asked the teachers what they had been teaching him? Apparently he'd been doing it off and on all day...so much for buying clothes the next size up!

But more interestingly...my girlfriend and mother of Hagan (two months younger then Brady) had converted her sons crib into the toddler bed Sunday so I decided maybe we would do that this weekend if I could get the extra box out of his room and move the chair so that we could place his bed horizontal. Tonight we put Brady to bed and two minutes later I hear a small thud and then hear little steps walking across the floor. Fortunately he didn't get hurt falling out of the crib on his own but we had to instantly take off the center piece and convert to the toddler bed tonight. He was really good about going back to bed in it but three minutes later I saw his little head in the glass of the door at the bottom of the curtain so we had to go for round three of bedtime. Now he's in bed and fingers crossed that he will stay there safely asleep until 6:30 or 7 tomorrow morning.

Last weekend Grandma Gail came to stay with us Friday night and then took Brady to Aunt Jan's house for a sleep over Saturday (day) and night. He had a wonderful time with them and I'm certain wore them out taking them up and down stairs, on long walks to the park, running around the park, and brushing his teeth (over and over and over again). He really seemed to enjoy his time with GG and Jan so hopefully they'll have him back again. In the meantime Bruce and I had the opportunity to test drive the Toyota Highlander (too big for us) and the Audi Q5 (we're completely smitten with this beautiful automobile and will hopefully have it parked out front before the end of the year).

Today in daycare the kids had a fun time making pig puppets out of paper bags so I'll take the opportunity to post the photos they sent over. We're working our way up in the word count adding "moon" and "football". We need to do a better job keeping track but it's progress. He's been to the speech therapist and will get evaluated some more by the specialists in Cambridge. The ear doctor determined that he has perfect hearing so for now other then two shots next Tuesday before we fly out Wednesday night for Thanksgiving in Colorado we're all happy and healthy in Boston. Well other then someone hacking into my hotmail account and sending all my contacts e-mails with viral links - but hopefully that is resolved and we can just concentrate on how much turkey, stuffing & green bean casserole we're going to eat next Thursday!

2010-11-01T13:58:00.002Z

I started this as an e-mail to my mother-in-law and realized I might as well post a blog entry!

Brady's first US Halloween is over! We got three "wears" out of his William Wallace Costume (excluding of course the use in Scotland at the wedding) and we managed to also get a Tom Brady jersey costume in as well. Friday was the second use of his costume for his nursery school costume parade. All the kids dressed up for a 9 a.m. parade followed by pancakes w/syrup. Bruce stayed downtown for the morning so he could take part. Just before 9 we returned to the school and helped paint Brady's face blue and handed over the sword (which took some serious effort to prevent anyone from getting hit). Brady seemed to enjoy getting outside and we finally got to meet miss Leila ("lala") from his classroom. She's a cute little French girl who was dressed in a costume her grandmother had picked up in China. For the pancake part of the morning we quickly changed him from Braveheart to Tom Brady (saving his beautiful sweater and kilt for the weekend). Brady also for the first time used the words "please" and "thank-you" it was reference to a need for more syrup and when he got it he was HAPPY! He's getting a lot better at using words - or at least I think so. He has an appointment with a speech therapist coming up and we'll see what she thinks but as a mom I've seen substantial improvement in the words. I'm not sure I can account for all the words Brady uses these days but his favorite is of course "MINE", he uses "more", "mama", "dada", "lala", "go over there", "hi", "bye" (used very frequently when seeing a bus, fire station, train, neighbor. . .). I'm sure there might be more but those are top of mind.

Saturday we rented a car and shortly after Gym class we drove up to Andover where Bruce was participating in a Q&A session with students and parents during Parents weekend. We also took that as an opportunity to catch up with Bill & Nina Scot. They are such lovely people and as luck would have it they had a couple visiting from Scotland (Aberdeen area). Brady was in top form around 5:30 p.m. when we arrived at their house and he ran around entertaining everyone and playing with the puppy. Luckily he was a happy boy and actually sat and played with Nina for a bit - she was so good with him. Around 7:50 we left their house and as soon as we were back in the car Brady happily passed out for the night (well until 4:30 a.m. when he woke up and we had to bring him into our bed for a few more hours sleep).

Sunday Brady had his swimming lessons and he did well with that again - Bruce took him in the water again this past week. He seems to be enjoying it. After that we came home and he took his nap until just after 3 when we made enough noise to finally wake him. Then we dressed him up as William Wallace (for the last time) and headed for Charles Street - we had intended on buying him more of his favorite little ice creams made of chocolate but they didn't have them as they are a summer Belgian chocolate so we ended up getting him a few candy corns and then stopped at the butcher shop where he got his first official Trick-or-Treat candy (a snickers bar) and oh how he loved it. For fifteen minutes he ate that little chocolate bar and immediately wanted more. We then stopped at the mall but unfortunately there was no trick-or-treating happening. On the way back we stopped at our grocery store where on the way out the cashier gave him a few pieces of chocolate...apparently he's not a fan of Almond Joy's. So that was Brady's first "real" American Halloween. No one came by our house so he didn't have the pleasure of handing out treats-maybe next year.

2010-10-25T01:07:00.005Z

It's Sunday night and it was a fairly productive weekend. Friday I managed to lock Brady & I out of the house. Of course I didn't notice it until I dropped him off at daycare and went to work and tried to open my desk (luckily I keep a spare set of keys for my desk in my office, unluckily I don't keep a spare set of house keys anywhere but on my husband). After some calls I determined the only way back into the house was through a locksmith and that was going to be a $165 painful lesson. I ended up having to rush out of the office at 3:30 to get back for 4:15 when the locksmith could fit us in (it was either that or he'd come after 6 p.m. and with a 21 month old and the freezing temperatures we've been having that wouldn't fly). That was the most stressful T-ride I've had since moving to Boston we watched two North Station trains depart from Arlington, we got on the second and rode it to North Station where we watched three more trains come and end there... I should have been home 3:55 but instead was literally at North Station at 4:15 without cell service when the Lechmere train finally arrived. I was sick with worry and when I finally got out of the train and ran the 1/2 a mile down to our house I was completely out of breath. Fortunately the locksmith had waited and literally had us through both doors (and locks) in less then 5 minutes (lot of confidence I have in security). I haven't done it yet but I will be making some spare sets of keys and keeping at least one in my office. That night we were supposed to go to the Halloween Party at the Aquarium but after the drama I'd had I opted for a more subtle 15 minute visit to the local playground - where there were no children in sight and I questioned whether I was the bad mom that didn't get the it's too cold to let your kids play on the playground memo. On the other side I was excited that Brady is finally excited about wearing mittens on his hands! At least that helps me feel a bit better about him playing outside in the cold. We then picked up some food (including a small white cake) from the grocery store and when we got home Brady & I baked some french fries for dinner and ate cake.

Saturday we got up early and went to Brady's MyGym class. On the way back my mom called so I had to walk down to the next tube station and on that walk Brady fell asleep I wound up walking from Kenmore Station (BU) down to the Prudential Center, through to Arlington where Brady woke up and I gave him his traditional Saturday cinnamon roll and then decided to take him back to the Prudential Center so he could participate in the Halloween Fest which was a kids thing to generate money for a local children's charity. Technically Brady was too young to participate in most things but I paid the money anyway and he got to listen to the story teller, see Elmo & Winnie the Pooh (big hits) and watch all the other children - so it was worth it. When we finished up we came home and Brady had some blueberry waffles with syrup before passing out from 1 until 4 (I took the opportunity for a two hour nap myself). When we got up we had about an hour to clean up the house so Bruce wouldn't think we'd been living too crazy while he was away. Bruce arrived safely back around 5:30 and we took it easy at home.

Today was the best day of the weekend though. We had rented a car for the day and decided to put it to use, ok I did somehow manage to drive away with a zip card ontop of the car and now will have to pay $15 for a replacement but aside from that the day was great. We got up early and let daddy sleep for a bit while Brady & I had some breakfast (kix & milk) followed by reading stories for about an hour. When Bruce got up I got my shower and we finished packing up the swimming bag and a bag with Brady's William Wallace gear. We then took the stroller & car seat and walked towards the mall parking lot...on the way we stopped at the park where I dropped Brady & Bruce off to play while I got the car. I then came back and picked them up and Brady was in a great mood after getting to play for 30 minutes. We returned to the house and picked up three storage bins full of summer stuff for storage. After dropping them off at the storage unit (and losing my zip card) we drove over to Brady's swim lessons. This time Bruce went into the water with Brady (and I ran outside to call the zip people and try to resolve the issue of "no card" fortunately Bruce's worked on my reservation). Brady had fun in his swim lesson and after I took him to the family shower and got him all cleaned off and dressed in his traditional Sunday apparel (Brady jersey and some blue trousers only this time with very high blue socks). Next we got in the car and drove to "Castle Island" where they have Fort Independence and where they also traditionally have a Halloween open house the weekend before Halloween. We got there around 1 and Brady woke up while I was painting his face blue with the paint I'd bought...needless to say he wasn't thrilled and we ended up getting more blue paint on his beautiful sweater (Oh well here's hoping I can get it out with the wash). After Brady was successfully in his costume we wandered to the fort. They had a small kids haunted house which was fun, free popcorn, a free cookie, free balloons, and a little goodie bag - and all the children one could ever want to watch. Of course Brady was also fascinated by the airplanes that flew over head every 1 minute and 20 seconds (Uncle Paul would have been equally impressed as they were pretty darn close to landing from that point). We started our walk back around 2 and opted to skip the very busy child's playground and as luck would have it 10 yards from the car the rain started pouring down.

Brady passed out on our (LONG) drive back (rain always manages to make any drive take longer) to Boston so he missed out on Bruce running up to his office and picking up packages, he missed me returning his book to B&N, he missed lunch at our favorite UBurger (we opted to get the food to go and ate it in the car0, and he missed me running into the office to pick up some work. Somewhere between our house and Target he came too and so he was able to polish off the last of the french fries and join us for the Target run (less then $47 what a miracle). We then stopped at the grocery store and finally returned home to unload while Brady took his turn "driving" the car while it was parked. Once the car was unloaded we returned the car and picked up a few last minute needs at the mall before coming home and unwinding. When I say unwinding we found June & Paul on Skype so we were able to catch up with them and I'm sure they were exhausted from watching Brady run around like a mad man...apparently syrup has that effect on him. Brady didn't actually go to bed tonight until well after 8:30 which was completely unplanned. Oh well. Hopefully he'll sleep better through the night. Anyway it's 9:30 and I've done about an hour of work tonight and it's about time for me to call it a night too. All in all it was a pretty good week and hopefully next week will continue to go well!

2010-10-21T16:28:00.002Z

I lasted thirty three years, eight months and four days but now I join the ranks of the "imperfect" mouth. The little tooth that the dentist scheduled a close-up cleaning for turned out to need more...one ouch and I got some fun jelly which has turned the right side of my tongue & cheek numb and then some fancy jabs which turned my tooth numb. It's so strange to drink a chai latte when you can only feel the liquid on the left side of your mouth or to eat a sandwich with half a functioning mouth. Here's hoping this is the first & last of the cavities and that my new electric toothbrush will keep away any future imperfections.

On a side note Bruce safely arrived in Utah last night for some meetings and a quick visit with my parents and Brady & I are having our mommy & son time. Which is going well as evidenced by his desire to sleep in until 6:30 this morning and his willingness to eat dinner last night, and take his milk from a sippy cup instead of a bottle this morning. Who knows by the time Bruce returns from Utah Brady might be bottle free...we'll see who's willpower lasts longer.

2010-10-17T22:00:00.017Z

I guess I mentally cannot get myself to keep up with this blog anymore...sadly I have no real good excuse for not blogging last week other then a lack of interesting events but I'll take the time to update now while I'm watching our second game of the day. Believe it or not the New England TV station showed the Patriots game first and now it's the Cowboys. After last weekend however, my first Cowboys game since I returned from the UK, I have been seriously considering skipping right to Basketball season. So much so that Bruce actually asked me how difficult it was to change a middle name - perhaps Brady should have been Brady David not Brady Anthony... because based on the number of SACs and the INT's last weekend Tony clearly does not deserve the namesake. At least Brady has been doing well and isn't letting us down. So clearly you know what we did last Sunday afternoon...but last weekend was a quiet weekend. On Saturday we took Brady to his MyGym class, where he did excellent in circle time and then we had our standard breakfast at Au Bon Pain where Brady has his cinnamon roll and we had our bagel sandwiches. Then we did our usual errands and Saturday afternoon naps. Sunday Bruce went into work and Brady and I stayed home - we were very active attending church by ourselves (California Raisins for the first half and Cadburys chocolate buttons got us through the 45 minute service) Brady behaved better then expected. After church we booked a zip car and the two of us walked down to pick up the car. We then went to the storage unit and sorted through plastic tubs and bags to find my winter clothes...when we were finally done packing up the car Bruce arrived in a taxi and joined us. Since we had the car for another 50 minutes we took advantage of it and went to Stella Bella toys and Brady got a small magnetic blackboard and some rollers and cutters for clay (play-doh). After the toy store I returned the car with 2 minutes to spare (closest yet - I was going far too fast scooting down the 4 levels on the parking garage to return the car in time)...unfortunately we had forgotten to take the clothes boxes to the apartment so had to turn around quickly and drop Bruce off at the house while we ran the car back. All the crazy fast driving put Brady to sleep!!! So we took advantage and had an early lunch at an Irish pub in a square not too far from the house. They had a live jazz band playing (yeah I'm not sure I follow that logic)...anyway we were half-way through the appetizer when Brady woke up. Fortunately he enjoyed watching the staff type things in the computer and pour drinks for the first 10 minutes, then he enjoyed watching the jazz band play and eventually loved eating his pancakes or should I say enjoyed eating his syrup with the pancake dipper pieces. We then took the long-walk home stopping at the playground and grocery store on the way back. Monday was Columbus Day and Brady's daycare was closed and Bruce's University so Bruce & Brady hung out at home. They came into the city early and played in the park and then met me for an early coffee at Starbucks. Since no one was in and things were quiet I left a bit after 4 and met them at the aquarium where he had a blast checking out this fish sculpture. We then went to the North End for dinner. We had decided 5 p.m. on a Monday night might be an acceptable time to get a table without a lot of people and we were right. Bruce and I took turns during the appetizer standing outside with Brady while he pushed the street button for people...amazing how that never gets boring. Fortunately he was very interested in both the spaghetti we ordered for him and the huge meatballs! After our meal we stopped at Mike's Pastry shop and got some cannoli's for us and some cookies for Brady. I normally wouldn't blog about our week because it's uneventful but we did end up eating out again on Tuesday night at McDonalds - that was a record for us three days in a row of meals out! Ok so I'm not sure you can characterize McDonalds as a meal and I really hope we don't get in that habit but we were exhausted.

So the weekend. Thursday night I woke up 30 minutes after going to bed with horrible stomach pains which I determined must be food poisoning. I suffered for a few hours - thankfully Bruce got me pepto bismol which didn't seem to help, he also got me water, which didn't work either, and he got me a hot water bottle - which at least kept my bed warm. Fortunately at some point the exhaustion beat the pain and I passed out. Unfortunately at 5 a.m. we were awakened to Brady crying and I went into find him being sick in his cot. Poor baby...the good thing is with this new electric Thomas toothbrush he's totally happy to have me clean his teeth - and that was good since I wound up having to do it several times that morning. I assumed it was food poisoning but later in the weekend realized it definitely wasn't. Anyway Brady was totally happy after that and fell asleep with us in our bed for a little bit longer. We got up and got ready. He had some water and we went into school. I dropped him off at school and he was a little off but he was eating his cereal bar when I left. About 40 minutes later I called to check on him and called just after he had been sick again all over... lovely. I should have known better. Anyway I grabbed my computer let my bosses assistant know that I'd be working from home if he needed me and then ran across the street to get him. Thank goodness the new center is literally across the street. Since Bruce had to teach two classes I wound up home all day with Brady. He was tired so around 10 he fell asleep in my arms and slept until 1:30. Time for me to check e-mails and make sure I wasn't missing anything. I tried buying him pedialyte - two flavors and he was having none of it. So he ate saltine crackers and we drank water all afternoon.

Saturday morning we were supposed to take Brady to MyGym but gave it a miss - especially when Bruce woke up sick. Of all of us he got it the worst. We had planned to rent a car and go up to New Hampshire to ride the foliage train on a lake. Brady & I took the car to the baby store and let Bruce have a little over an hour to recover from his bout of sickness then we picked up Bruce and did our quick dry-cleaner stop and picked up some re-usable swim diapers at the pro shop on our way out of town. The drive was long (two plus hours) but we eventually, after picking up McDonalds lunch, wound up at the train station. We got caboose seats and they were awesome - we had to climb this high ladder to these special benches that had a glass observation area. Brady enjoyed that though he also enjoyed being down on the ground and most of all enjoyed the new My Own Laptop I picked him up at Target earlier that morning. Brady was so excited about having a laptop of his own. The leaves were really nice - not quite at peak color but still managed to get some nice photos (I hope). Saturday night Brady & Bruce went to bed around 7:30 and 8:00, respectively and I stayed up watching most of the Nascar race (though I was saddened to watch the recorded part this morning and see Kyle give up the lead in the last 40 laps). Oh well.

Sunday we still had the car and we packed it up early and left at 9:45 a.m. to take Brady to his first US swimming lesson. Since Bruce had been sick we decided I would take him in the pool. The class was about 8 kids. It started with a sing-along and then they showed us four ways to hold the kids in the water. After that it was "free time" where we were supposed to get the kids comfortable with the pool walking them around the lazy river and chasing duckies. Have to admit I was sadly disappointed at the class compared to the one we attended in London. In our first session in London we were dunking them under the water, kicking their legs and moving their arms and getting them comfortable being in the water. I really hope the next lesson will do more because the way she was talking was that this class is just to get the kids comfortable in the water...I hope she meant that week not the course. After the class we got Brady a Starbucks cinnamon roll and then went for our usual U-Burger lunch. Bruce then went into the city to get a hair cut and Brady & I returned home. He went down for his nap just before 1 and I started the five loads of laundry that were awaiting me. I also found the time to do all the dishes, scrub the kitchen table, chairs and finally scrub the kitchen floor, oh and clean up all the rice krispies Brady had got all over the living room floor that morning. Not bad for the two and a half hours he was sleeping. Bruce got back and it was just about 3 and time to get Brady up. We then ran to Home Depot to get a new air filter which Bruce will replace this evening after Brady goes to bed. Now we're just chilling out watching football and doing the last of the laundry. Not bad for a short sickie weekend!

2010-10-06T12:59:00.003Z

I decided this picture was too cute to waste so I entered Brady in the Gap casting call 2010

http://www.gapcastingcall.com/GapCastingCall/EntryDetail.html?id=244337

2010-10-06T00:58:00.001Z

2010-10-06T00:37:00.001Z

Brady bopping to the wind music at the fair.

2010-10-06T00:29:00.002Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpNPRj6mJ08

Quick video of Brady & Bruce riding the potato sack slide at the Topsfield fair.

2010-10-05T22:50:00.008Z

So last weekend we spent Saturday doing the normal - MyGym class, errands, the park, and chores around the house which Brady actively participates in :) Sunday though after finding out that the Patriots were the Monday night game and the Cowboys had a bye we decided to pick up a Zip Car and head North to the Topsfield fair, which is the longest running fair in the US. It was pretty great and Brady really enjoyed it - he got to go on three rides the merry-go-round, a little train (which technically was only for kids 3 feet and higher but the ride administrator wasn't exactly the direction following type) and Bruce took him on the huge potato sack slide (which immediately upon departing he was pointing and saying more more more - sadly the line was far too long to do that more then once). Bruce enjoyed the fair food (mostly fried stuff), Brady took part eating some potato pancakes, some of the french fries with vinegar and then some kettle popcorn which quickly became his favorite. As we left we were impressed to see the mile plus long line ... thankfully we didn't have too much traffic on our way in. The rest of the evening was pretty quiet but we really had a great time at the fair and will continue to look for outdoor activities to participate in on weekends until the weather turns too cold! Which this week with our 50's and drizzly/damp conditions seems to be right around the corner...

Here are some pictures from the fair

2010-10-01T01:17:00.037Z

Wow...a whole month and two weeks since my last blog post. Life is passing us by so quickly - in London I felt like I had so much more time and here the days just fly by. I guess this is why they are always saying to savor each moment when they're young because before you know it those moments will be gone. Since Brady & Bruce got back from Idaho and the lake we've been quite busy...remembering it all won't happen but I'll do my best. I finally made a friend in Boston - Katie. She has a son named Hagan who is a few months younger then Brady. Shortly after their return from Idaho we started Saturday morning lessons at MyGym in Boston for Brady. It's a 45 minute gym class he goes to. It's at 8:30 every Saturday morning (which is pretty early) and there are a lot of little kids in his class. He's not exactly interacting with little kids yet but at least he's getting used to being around them. The class has two teachers and there's music playing, free time on the different gym accessories, it starts with circle time which is a challenge - getting Brady to sit in a circle on our laps and stretch for a few minutes with all these distracting fun toys around, then there are a cycle of exercises they prep - some build strength in the arms by having the kids pull themselves up, some work on balance by having they walk on a beam, others are just fun like this week it was a car wash thing with bubbles where the kids pushed little cars through a bubble/obstacle course. Anyway -it's good to have a routine and something to do on a Saturday morning.

The last weekend of September was labor day and we took it easy. We rented a car and went up to Maine to the outlets to pick up some presents for family in Scotland. After the outlets we stopped at Portsmouth, New Hampshire a beautiful little town on the way back for lunch and a small bit of shopping. It was there that we found a cute little toy store - and it was there that Brady discovered his first pink baby stroller - he spent at least ten minutes pushing a stroller with a toy baby around the store and probably would have been quite content to push the baby around all day. We took him out crying as he was forced to leave the stroller behind. Instead we picked up a little pony on a stick (which he has still to figure out) and a plastic tea set - which was the key to us being able to actually sit in a restaurant and have some lunch.

The following week Brady & I left for Scotland (September 11th). Saturday evening Brady & I left on an evening flight to Amsterdam and then onto Edinburgh. Delta was very good and gave Bruce a pass so he could help me through security with Brady - and luckily enough he stuck around until we boarded the plane and left for Europe. The flight wasn't so bad and Brady fell asleep immediately...unfortunately about 4 hours into the flight I realized his diaper had leaked and the front of his trousers was wet. I debated and eventually took him to change the diaper (not the clothes). Unfortunately the light in the bathroom woke him up and for the next hour he was really cute in the cuddly I look like I'm going to fall asleep and I cuddle well but don't fall asleep manner, then it turned and with two hours left on the flight (and most people on the plane sleeping) he was awake....completely alert. I opted for some of the stickers I'd bought and Brady loved it - fortunately there were loads of little stickers so it took a long while for him to take each sticker off and re-stick it to the back of a notebook. After the stickers I attempted to have him play with the new bear with practice locks. In Amsterdam we had to rush through and pick up new boarding passes and then navigate our way to the gate picking up milk along the way. It was a long wait and eventually we wound up at the back of a security line that wasn't moving. Fortunately some American tourists from Detroit offered to watch our stuff while I ran Brady around the airport. I was exhausted after about a 45 minute sleep on the first flight. Fortunately Brady slept the entire flight to Edinburgh and I got about another 45 minute sleep. June & Paul were waiting for us on the other side of security and Brady slept on the drive back to the borders. I also managed to get a nap in at the house before we had to head back to the airport Sunday afternoon to pick up my sister and William. I also picked up a rental car and ended up with a fancy BMW which drove really well.

Our week in the Borders went far too quickly - Monday was an errand day picking up things for the boys to make our visit easier. Tuesday June joined Brady & I on the drive to the airport where we picked up Bruce and brought him back to the house. Tuesday afternoon Evie, Brady, William and I drove over to Hawick to visit Fiona and little Jack while Bruce caught up on some sleep. It was fun to see how much little Jack has grown and the two boys attempted to play together - it's tough Brady definitely not quite to that playing together phase but it was a really nice visit. Jack & Linda stopped by toward the end of our visit and it was really good to see them again. That evening was a quiet night in the house - Uncle Paul finished up work so we were able to have a nice dinner of Indian (courtesy of Evie). Wednesday we took two cars and drove up to Edinburgh to Raceland for some outdoor go-kart racing! Cousin Jamie & his girlfriend Laia joined us on the trip as well. The weather wasn't great but we enjoyed taking turns driving around the track - I thought I wasn't up for it but I did take one turn and had a great time with it. After the go-kart racing we were all hungry and decided we wanted fish & chips so we drove down to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Since we had a few hours before the fish & chip restaurant opened we had some tea at a cafe and then walked the old walls of the city before picking up the food and driving to the shore to eat. It was a perfect day!

Thursday was our night to do Italian and we ordered from the fancy Italian in Melrose - yeah that's pretty sad that I can't remember what we did during the day but I can remember the meals. Actually I think Thursday is the day we went to Jedburgh and picked up kilts for the boys so they could be dressed up for the wedding. Friday afternoon I went to the airport to pick up my cousin's fiance's aunt and her friend and then we all went up to my aunt's house for the rehearsal bbq. It was nice to see the family gathered in one place and Brady enjoyed playing with balls and apples in the grassy area. As it got later we decided to take the strollers and walk the boys home. On the way we picked up a pizza.

Saturday was the wedding day - the morning was spent running a few errands including getting the horseshoe ribboned and flowered for the wedding. Then we had to get the boys dressed up and ready. At the wedding we sat in the front row next to my aunt & uncle. Bruce was really good with Brady and entertained him off the side throughout the wedding. It was such a beautiful ceremony and the stories told by the minister really took me back to my wedding day and the oaths Bruce & I took. After the wedding we had a celebratory drink outside the abbey and then moved to the volunteer hall where they had a lovely dinner followed by dancing and cake. At the hall they had these amazing balloon towers and Brady absolutely loved it. Him and Auntie Anna had a good ten minutes of playing with a tower. Eventually Brady crashed and fell asleep which was really necessary.

Sunday started off with some rain and miserable weather...which again reminded me so much of our wedding three years earlier. We had an anniversary brunch at the Kingsknowes hotel with June, Auntie Anna, Evie, William, Mom, Dad, Jack, Linda, Scott, Tracy, little Jack and Fiona. It was such a fun luncheon. The boys enjoyed running around and going inside and outside the restaurant. The food was excellent as always and eventually we returned to Gala in the afternoon to run a few more errands and pack everything up for our trip back to the US. Around 6:30 we took our two cars to the Hilton airport - I dropped the one off at AVIS and we checked into our two bedroom hotel room with two infant cots. Unfortunately the beds were equivalent to twin beds so Bruce & I huddled in one for the night - given we had to wake up at 3;30 a.m. it wasn't too painful. The morning came really quick too. When we got to the airport just after 4 we found out that somehow they had lost my reservation!!! Scary way to start it - Brady was booked and Bruce but somehow not me...fortunately I had all the details of the flights I'd taken here and my itinerary and they were able to find us room on the plane. When we arrived in Paris we had very little time - and were bused to the airport after a very long taxi from one side of the airport to another on the plane. We had to get into line to get our boarding passes and the guy gave us two seats together in the upper deck for our return flight. After we got our boarding passes we realized Evie only had ten minutes before the boarding was scheduled so we were pushed through security and she had to run on ahead...we ran to catch her and were luckily able to say our good-bye's at the gate before she had to board her flight home. Our flight was delayed....so with a 4 and a half hour stay in the airport we did our best to tire Brady out (or I should say Bruce did a lot to tire him out). The flight turned out to be perfect - the upperdeck was as nice in economy as I remembered it being for business. We had the extra cabinet on the side by the window and no one ended up sitting in the aisle seat so we were able to move Brady to sleep across the middle seat. He slept a lot of the flight and played with stickers and toys the rest. We arrived in Boston an hour late and I had to quickly make calls to confirm daycare arrangements for the next morning and carpooling for the trip down to Newport for work the next morning. All-in-all the return was hectic. We got home, unpacked, bought some groceries, I tried to do some work but by 9:20 we were all asleep...and I found myself fully awake at 2:45 (jetlag and the stress of the work event causing me to be unable to fall back asleep) at 3:15 I got up and at 3:30 I heard Brady so I brought him into the bathroom with me. Around 6 I caught the taxi to Jamaica plain to meet my colleague Melissa, who had kindly agreed to drive me down to Newport. Talk about a fast vacation with no recovery time.

Anyway - Brady started his new daycare the first day back from Scotland and it's been just over a week now and he seems to be enjoying it. I'm enjoying taking him to school every morning on the tube together - he's literally across the street from our buildings. In the evenings I've also been swinging by to pick him up most nights when work doesn't interfere. Last weekend we rented a car again on Saturday and after the MyGym class we headed to the outlets in south-western Boston and returned the vest we got for my aunt in exchange for another one and picked up some other shopping goods. Brady then got to attend his very first birthday party! His friend Sebastian from his old school turned two and they had a bubble party in their backyard. I'm sad to say our little 20 month old boy seemed to have more energy then the other three two-year olds combined. It was fun but embarrassing to see how not gentle Brady is with the other kids. He was very forceful with his bubble wand and not wanting to share the space in the water thing. Hopefully we can find some ways to teach him gentle hands and sharing though secretly I'm hoping it's the age and that the four to six months the other boys had on him will make all the difference.

Sunday Bruce went off to the spa for his anniversary present and Brady & I stayed home relaxing and watching Thomas - after watching the same two Thomas DVD's over and over and over again in Scotland and at home (oh yeah - over Labor Day weekend Brady for the first time showed an interest in the TV - with Thomas) we decided it was time to expand the collection. Overboard as usual I picked up 8 new Thomas DVD's for Brady..at this point we're not through them all but it's good to have the variety!

From a work perspective this week has been a tough one. The deal that I'd been working on since I arrived in May - and when I say working on I mean consumed with - my days, evenings, life had completely revolved around this thing and making sure that I was doing everything right. This was supposed to be the week when we felt some relief and the whole thing would be over with and we'd be celebrating...well the market didn't cooperate and things haven't turned out quite as we expected so now it's a delay. Fortunately not being on the management end of things I get to sit at my desk and wait to see what the future holds for me...while I think it'll be good regardless and I really enjoy the company and the people I work with it would be a lot more comforting to have this behind us and feel like I was really "necessary" to the operations. Time will tell but for now I've decided to try and bring back that balance in my life...I miss London and the way things were there and I hope that with time I can find the same peace and happiness here. With that it's 10:17 p.m., way past my bedtime and since I'm pretty much up to date on the blog I think I'll call it a night and worry about the photos tomorrow...alright so I couldn't pull myself away so some of the pictures are now posted. (more to follow)