Trip to the Park

Thanks for making yourself known, readers. It's lovely to know you're out there, and also your comments are really nice as they form a sort of archive. I have no idea if Raf will ever read this blog, but your comments and participation is every bit as important as all the things we write and post here.

Anyway, another busy week. Both Rich and I are looking forward to the end of the semester. Rich, this past week, cut back his hours at work so he can take care of Raf for more hours during the week. Jen, the nanny, is really wonderful and we couldn't ask for a better carer for Raf, but we also want one of us to spend as much time with Raf as possible during these early couple of years. Unfortunately Im about to become chair of our department so I will have to be on campus more. I am really feeling sad about that - though I am trying to focus on the positives. Right.

Whilst I spent the day grading papers yesterday, today we had a nice family day together. This morning we hit the park - photos below. We've taken Raf to the park a couple of times but he has never really been into it. This is mostly, I think, because he's been tired or under the weather, and we've always managed to find parks that are super busy. This morning we went to one down the road from us, quite early on, and Raf had a very fun time. He loves the swings, and while he found the slide a bit perplexing he did like the fire engine with the big wheels to turn.

In other news... Raf is doing quite well with solids. We've been loosely doing baby led weaning whereby they feed themselves with finger foods. We have been giving Raf foods that we feed him which require a spoon - non-dairy yogurt, oats, hummus, etc - and lately he has been a wee bit lazy about feeding himself. Still, he's getting a lot of variety.

Today's menu for Raf:

Breakfast - non dairy yogurt (the probiotics are doing wonders for his tummy), combined with chopped kiwi fruit, banana, and melon. he also had a bit of my oats, oat bran and flaxseed.
Lunch - squash, hummus mashed with romaine lettuce, and avocado
Dinner - slices of pear, banana, melon and a massive helping of yogurt. We all had breakfast foods for dinner tonight, and Raf had a slice of the most expensive pear I have ever bought... mmm - organic pears are super pricey!

We are in a hummus rut, though... Any other suggestions. He LOVES it :)

Here we are at the park.

A date with friends

Hi all (or maybe just hi Louisa! I think our readership has gone down!)

I've had a very social weekend, even though it was also quite low key. Rich was horribly ill yesterday so we hung about the house. OUr friend Kate visited, though, and I think she was a little surprised by how much Raf has grown... She commented that Raf looks just like his mama, which is curious since everyone seems to say something different. Kate bought Raf the most beautiful little tooth holder for when he eventually loses his teeth - though we're anxiously awaiting the first tooth. The bottom two have definitely poked through but they're hiding behind the gum - you can just feel the sharpness for now. Anyway, I enjoyed a lovely, blissful walk with Kate, even whilst it was snowing (gah).

Today I met some friends for lunch. Meghann is pregnant, which is just very exciting! We went to Flatbread Pizza and had a great time. Because Rich and Raf are under the weather, Rich dropped Raf off towards the end of the lunch date so he could see his friends without becoming overwhelmed. Unfortunately he was nonetheless overwhelmed and spent the entire hour he was there seeming very shellshocked. I don wonder whether he is an introvert at heart. he is always so much happier at home. As soon as we got home he was back to his happy, beaming self. That said, it was very busy at the restaurant and he'd just woken up when he got there... still...

Here are some pics of Raf with Kim, Bistra, and Meghann.




Pretty happy with himself... loves ripping up paper!

9 month wellness check up

we're still a sick house, and poor Rich has bronchitis. But on Wed we also had Raf's 9 month wellness check up. What a big boy!

Height - 28.75 inches, which is quite a growth spurt
Weight - 20 pounds, which is a little less than he weighed a week or so ago but he's been ill and so Deb wasn't worried.
Head size - sheesh, he has such a big head! The first measurement was 51cm and so Deb remeasured for a noggin' size of 49cm. This still makes for a head size that is WAY off the charts!!

Daddy's first half marathon

Can you believe we're all sick again?! Yes, it's true... we all have colds and it's pretty miserable. Added to that Raf is cutting his first teeth. We can feel the bottom two coming through, though he won't really let us take a look. As you can imagine, I'm just dreaming about sleep these days.

Nonetheless, we did have a lovely weekend as Rich ran his first half marathon. It was also in NH, like mine, but unlike my event this was well organized and the sun was shining. We had another friend running the race from work, and it was really great to watch her, too. I'm hoping that Rich will write a report, but here are some pics. I secretly had some t-shirts made, which we're going to wear to all future events :) Yes, this is probably a bit sad!

Team Oliver-Campbell.. we take our mascot with us :)


And he's off....


Pops putting on a sprint finish!


Waiting for daddy to finish. Incidentally, Raf stayed wide awake during nap time as Rich ran, and as soon as Rich crossed the line Rafi fell promptly to sleep.


All of us in our shirts getting ready to drive home.

Day with Daddy

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3/4 of a year, illness, etc.

Busy week, as usual, and once again Raf has been sick. Poor baby. My guess is that he's in a terrible cycle of being ill, thus lowered immunity, and thus more vulnerable to sickness. It's been quite an awful couple of days. Tuesday night Raf was up ALL night with a very high fever (103). He was miserable, absolutely miserable, and was very sick around 3am. He didn't go to nursery because a) we didn;t want to infect Hudson and Sierra, and 2) he's been up all night and was of course wanting his mama. I took him to the Drs as we'd called the office and they suggested we come in. I was a bit embarrassed as we'd only been there on Friday for a rash on Raf's face. At the time I thought it might be a viral rash, or something, because he has just been 'off' for a long while now. But they thought it was nothing... so, anyway, back we went, seeing another doctor, and she thought that Raf just had a tummy bug. Tylenol brought down his fever, thankfully, and last night we enjoyed better sleep.

But the reality is that when Raf's ill we don't have a back-up, or anyone who could take care of him. As it was on Wednesday Rich went to work in the morning and in the afternoon I took Raf to campus and waited for Rich to come and watch Raf while I was in class.

Talk about exhausted.

And did I mention that yesterday Raf turned NINE months! no cake, but we did buy him one of the walkers (not the dangerous sort :) )

Thankfully Raf is feeling quite a bit better. I worked from home today, and here Raf is helping me mark essays :)

First Easter

Happy Easter, everyone! Hard to believe that this time last year I was lying on the couch most of the day feeling very poorly, Today in Maine it's in the 70s, sun is shining and we now have a little boy :) As readers know, we are not renowned for our celebrating... until Raf appeared. So today we celebrated Easter - and tried to do so American style. IN the UK we have lots of Easter eggs, but they are quite different from the ones you get over here, and, much to my dismay, you can't easily get the English kind (think of your favorite type of chocolate bar made into a massive hollow chocolate egg, filled with little of those same choccies). Instead we decided we'd do the more American Easter basket. With feedback from FB friends we got a sense of what goes in such a basket and yesterday we tried to put one together. Raf is a bit small for chocolate, obviously, so we filled a basket with a soft bunny, duck, and a very special yellow frog. We also put in an Easter vest-jumper, some teething biscuits, an apple, banana, a hairbrush and comb. We had a great day! Rich and I also got to go out on our bikes... separately, of course, but we also went on a nice evening walk with the entire crew.

Easter lunch... with Spring like vegetables :)


Raf loves these teething biscuits. Unfortunately it seems as though they might be causing an adverse reaction as Raf has a horrible rashy thing around his mouth. We think it might be these little beggars.

Easter flowers...


Rafi's Easter basket!


Let's check out what's in this basket...


Digging in to his Easter basket.



Such a big boy in his Easter jumper.


His favourtie things? His apple and brush... He managed to pick up the apple with his one hand whilst he held on to see his 'sea spider'.