A brother... or sister?

Turns out, Rosemary has a little brother or sister on the way ... somewhere around October 30. We haven't quite got around to telling her yet, but we hope she'll find him or her at least half as amusing as robotic dinosaurs! (or waffles...)

Vocabulary

I wanted to share with you Rosemary's new words -- all within the last few weeks: mama, dada (although those two words tend to mean a much wider range of things than you conventionally associate with them), shoe, baa (all animals that aren't fish or dogs, particularly sheep and cows), boat, ball, na na (banana, or other food), "cocka cocka" (what a rooster says), row row (when she demands you bounce her on your knee and sing "row row row your boat"), moo moo, teeth, and eye. She has also been known to say fish (although its been a while), and dog. And of course, "hi" and "night night." She also knows the signs for "more," (which she is constantly signing), please, "all done," and --all importantly -- ORANGE. What else do you need?

Rosemary abroad

Rosemary had her first international adventure last week, and, it turns out is an amazingly great traveler. She seemed to have a wonderful time, and was incredibly cooperative. We started out in Edinburgh, where we visited Becky and Murray and had the best time touring castles, distilleries (including one of only 14 Scottish-owned distilleries), the ocean, and the Edinburgh zoo (where we saw the famous march of the penguins, see video below -- the picture of her leaning into the wires is from the penguin cage). We also got to see their lovely new house and garden, which has the most amazing conservatory -- perfect for the long days of Scottish spring! Rosemary had her first encounters with no less than two robots -- we went to see Asimo, the Japanese humanoid robot and, even better, Murray's Pleo, a little dinosaur robot that absolutely thrilled her (see video below).


















Then it was off to Cambridge, where James had a conference. Rosemary and I planned on sightseeing when he was off at work, but it was pretty rainy so we mostly caught up on rest (she didn't really nap much in Edinburgh as it was SO exciting), and tried out the playgroup (with a zip line!). She definitely missed Becky & Murray -- it was boring to back with just her mom and dad. We did manage to eat good Indian food and enjoy the ducks, cows, and boats.

Finally, we had two wonderful days in London, with our friends Rebecca and Jake, and their 13-month old son Isaac. They were amazing hosts, and took us all over the place in a condensed 2 days -- the Tate AND the Tate Modern (really great) AND a boat ride AND St. Paul's! And a delicious fish and chip party, to boot. We were impressed by how baby-friendly London was, and how nice people were to Rosemary.


Seems like the hardest part of international travel with a baby is simply the gear you have to lug. Of course, we also were visiting friends that were incredibly hospitable and understanding of making accommodations for babies, so that helped.