Darwin had lots of fun with bubbles today! It’s the first time he’s been interested in them. He kept trying to touch them and he started trying to blow them away. We are trying to upload a video of Darwin and his bubbles, check back soon.

I’m very pleased to announce that today at approximately 10:30am, Darwin successfully used the potty!! I waited until about ten minutes after he had eaten and sat him on there, within ten seconds he did a wee! Not bad going for his first attempt!

Today, Darwin took his first boat trip! Now I know you’re probably imaging him sailing in a luxury, $80m private yacht (one day, I’m sure), but not quite, it was a bright yellow, Ikea water taxi! Nevertheless, as you can see from the picture he thoroughly enjoyed himself. We arrived and had some lunch, Darwin had amongst other things, some garlic bread (sorry Grandma, it’s one of his favorites)! He was then tasked with a difficult challenge of having to choose between a carrot, an orange moose or a rather large dog. After some deliberation,  Darwin went for the moose with his over sized, gangly legs and stripey blue socks, as orange seems to be his favorite colour. The moose worked a treat, we spent a further two hours shopping without any upset at all and the swaying motion on the boat ride home even sent him to sleep!

On another note, Mummy and Daddy took their driving tests today. We were both ridiculously nervous, as if we’d never driven before! We had to go up to Yonkers with an instructor. When we arrived I took a lesson, as I’m really not that experienced driving in the States. Well on my first parallel park I bumped the curb, well instant fail!! That didn’t install very much confidence. But after driving around for thirty minutes and several successful attempts at parallel parking, I felt a lot more at ease. Then Daddy had a go, which was really useful as there are a lot of tricks that you need to know in order to pass.

We pulled up to a long line, which looked like a queue of traffic about twenty cars long, this was the test line, not quite the same as the UK. After forty or so minutes we were nearly at the front. Our instructor kept us entertained with lots of amusing stories about his previous students. He suddenly shouted out ‘yes’, he was anxious to see who our test instructor would be and he was very happy that it wasn’t this rather grumpy looking lady.

I decided to take my test first. We didn’t go on any of the anticipated roads we’d just been practicing on, she had me do a three point turn and then a parallel park consecutively (It was a great park)! We then went down the hill slowly but she pressed the brake, well I thought I’d failed. We then went round the block and then we were down, as simple as that. I passed, she even said I was a great driver! Then it was Daddy’s turn, I was sitting waiting thinking he’s taking ages, they pulled up and I was trying to see if Daddy was smiling, he wasn’t but the tester was, then they were in there for ages, so I thought what if they’re debating something on the test. After a couple of minutes he had to ask ‘How did I do’? She said, ‘Oh yes, you passed’!!!!

On the way home the instructor said ‘You both know you passed, right? Calm down’!

We are both very happy to have passed! Next step, car shopping!

Darwin and I had the sweetest moment today. It was ridiculously hot today in New York, a whopping 35*C but not as hot as it’s suppose to get, apparently it’s going to reach 43*C this week! We were lying down on the bed trying to have an afternoon nap and escape the heat when Darwin started laughing at me. This caused me to laugh back, we were both in hysterics for about five minutes; it was such a lovely and precious moment. It seems no matter how much I love Darwin, every day I love him more and more. x

At approximately 5:00pm on Friday 15th August, Darwin started crawling!!! He even timed it perfectly with Daddy walking in the door from work! Half of me was elated and very proud of him and the other half had me thinking ‘uh oh, time for the trouble to start’!

He has for weeks, been trying all sorts of interesting techniques to get himself from A to B, but he just couldn’t get the coordination quite right. But he is a very determined little boy and keeps on going until he gets what he wants (which is everything in sight)! I came into the living room to find him eating the FT from the coffee table this morning! So for now, the only way to describe his technique is a wounded solider! He’s dragging himself across the floor and getting into lots of mischief! Photos to follow!

Yesterday I braved it and gave Darwin a haircut!! After much debate with Daddy and him refusing to tell me where the scissors were, I waited for him to leave for work and did it! Poor Darwin was constantly getting food stuck in his hair and it was long enough to plait! So I changed his diaper, feed him breakfast and gave him a toy to distract him and then cut! I was actually very emotional about it and quite scared that he would move and I’d hurt him or the cut would be very uneven. I only had the heart to cut the back, he still has his crazy hair at the front, but now it’s nice and neat at the back and he had no idea I’d done it. His locks are now safely stored in his memory box!

Yesterday we took our weekly trip to Wholefoods. But this was no normal trip, no, this was also Darwin’s first time sitting  in the seat of a shopping trolley and boy did he love it!!!! He was looking all around him, trying to grab food, he was very excited to be at almost the same height as me looking down and smiling at all the other kids that were grumpy in their strollers! He lasted a good 40 minutes before the novelty wore off and he needed to be carried, but by that time we were at the checkout. Darwin did his usual thing of wanting to play with the credit card (8 months and he wants a credit card already)! He had a slight outburst when it was taken away from him, as would Mummy if Daddy took her credit card away from her! I was also pretty relieved to find that the stroller wasn’t stolen from the stroller park! All in all a fun trip to the grocery store!

Today we are venturing out of the smoke and into the countryside!

A friend of ours bought a barn Upstate and we are going to celebrate him closing on the property. Everyone is sleeping on the floor in the derelict barn, but we thought it would be best to opt out of that plan and book into a hotel. I think it was the lack of running water or toilet facilities that sealed the hotel for us!

Welcome to the blog of our beautiful son, Darwin. Follow his great adventures, his first, his like and dislikes.

We wanted to create something where we could keep a log of everything Darwin does, so he can look back on it in later years and create somewhere our family and friends, especially those far away, can come and get a daily Darwin fix, feel involved in his growing up and not miss things even though they’re thousands of miles away.

Enjoy!