Settling in

The weather has started to cool down a bit, Thomas is going to preschool twice a week, the carpet finally got laid and I am starting to feel a bit more settled.

There is still a lot to do on the house so that will be a later blog post, but it feels like home and it's a whole world away from our two-bedroom tenement in Glasgow! Unsurprisingly I have never once missed the alcoholic woman-hater who lived upstairs! I do miss my life in Glasgow, the familiarity of everyone and everything and the routine, but I don't miss having to get up and go to work and I don't miss the weather! I guess there will always be pros and cons to everything we do in life.

This is the little bugger which stung me and gave me cellulitis for two days! It still sits on the window and looks in at me...

I miss my mum more than anything in the world. Through the brilliance of the Internet I can talk and/or text her every day but come 6pm here, the UK goes to sleep. I had promised myself that I wouldn't spend my evenings mindlessly surfing the Internet, I would take up a hobby again like cross-stitch, or read a book. As you can guess, that hasn't happened yet! I will I will I will. Before this baby is born, I will do a cross-stitch. I have two ready and waiting!

Thomas loves it here. He hasn't developed an accent, yet... I'm sure it's coming, slowly but surely the "Mom" and "Gee" and "Can I go potty" will creep up on me, but for now he is still the cute English boy who pronounces 'water' as 'war-ter' and calls me Mummy. He is making friends at school and loves the weekends and early evenings with Daddy. He tells me he loves me a lot, so I'll assume he likes his time with me too!

Most days he talks happily about his baby brother and always asks if he is coming out yet. Then some days he decides he doesn't like him and he doesn't want to share his toys. Oh dear...

David loves it too. He doesn't need to tell me, he is just a different person here. He smiles more and is home more and work, although important, finishes at 5.30pm. Amazing!

It's incredible the things I find myself missing, or the things which they don't seem to have here which I find amazing - like bedmats! Thomas sometimes has accidents at night so bedmats are brilliant as it means he doesn't have to wear a nappy (sorry, diaper) but they don't exist here! Moroccan spice mix, a staple in my dried spice cupboard, doesn't exist in the main supermarkets - apparently Moroccan food is not a popular influence here. I can get a lot of Japanese food though, which kind of makes up for it! [And the thoughtful, tear-inducing food parcel sent from my lovely friend Lisa].  Other, 'better' things... the iced tea is fab, Thomas has discovered a love of Mac & cheese (macaroni cheese here is a totally different experience!), and the Fall season on TV... This week is the beginning of the Fall TV season. Everything, EVERYTHING, starts this week. I could watch TV all night, every night, Monday thru Friday (how American of me!). As it is I'll settle for the Vampire Diaries, Glee, Greys Anatomy, Hawaii-5-0 (oh Alex McLoughlin, could you be any better looking?), and many many more...

And me? I'm getting there slowly... We went to a meeting of the Maryland Families for Safe Birth organisation this weekend. Their mission is to legalise the use of professional midwives in the state of Maryland. It is currently legal for a woman to have an out-of-hospital birth, but illegal for a professional midwife to attend. It's a whole different birthing world over here and I have a lot to learn! I met some lovely people though and felt more content that I can find my 'place' over here, there are other natural birth, cloth diaper loving, people around! I also won a placenta encapsulation in the raffle and talked to my probable post-natal doula!

So we're getting ready for Autumn. The pumpkin patches and corn mazes all open soon, the shops are all full of Hallowe'en goodies (I feel that will be a whole post of its' own!) and it's time to plant the spring bulbs in the garden and reseed the lawn (proper grown ups!).

I'll be glad when the weather cools down a bit. My limited summer wardrobe is looking tired and I'm pretty sure I've got many more cold weather maternity clothes :) Haha, David will think I'm crazy for wishing away the warm weather! The leaves are falling off the trees though and I can feel Autumn in the air and I LOVE Autumn!