nosy guest

What happens when you invite Cal over to your house for the weekend?

He goes through your cupboards.

serious Pimms weather.

So, the weather turned all amazing on us this weekend.  Like 'special slide shows on the newspaper website showing Britain enjoying the weather' amazing.  Not just sunny intervals, there hasn't been a cloud in the sky since Friday.  I don't want you to underestimate how nice it was, so let's just say that on Saturday I rolled up the legs of my jeans and today I wore shorts, and leave it at that.

We went to see a local manor house on Saturday, which was nice enough if unremarkable.  The grounds are really nice though, and there were lots of people lounging around getting sunburned.  I could see heading back there for a day in the park when Calvin is a little older.  Chase some sheep around or something.

We briefly thought about heading to the nearest coast and jumping in the ocean today, but the idea of driving 3 or 4 hours round trip for what would probably be 3 or 4 hours of hanging out at the beach didn't quite work for us.  Neither did sweating our way around London.  So we headed in to town for a fantastic picnic with the rest of the picnicing hordes, lounged around, had a Pimms at a pub, and meandered back home.  Next week it's off to Barcelona for me, and there will be no more relaxing.

Working off some steam after being carried around Wimpole hall.

The grounds are full of sheep and cows.  It's more pleasant than that sounds.

Orange break!  Oranges are delicious.

Cal tries to escape on my bike as we picnic.  It was no use: his arms are too feeble and he's too short.

His preoccupation with the bikes meant we could relax and enjoy our food.

playing catch-up

Wow, has it already been two weeks?  Cal will probably never forgive me for posting his grumpy mug at the top of this famous website for that long.

I wish I could report that we've been off on distant adventures but we've mainly been sticking around Cambridge.  The weather has remained cool so I still haven't put away my wool socks.  Maybe one of these days I'll get to re-introduce my pale white legs to the sun.

In Calvin news, he is now an adjusted one year old!  Yesterday was his "adjusted" birthday and he is right on track with a one year old.  He isn't walking yet but he isn't that far off.

Here are several pictures from the past two weeks:

Couldn't make it through dinner

 Making faces at the Fitzwilliam museum

 Enjoying a sunny day at the Orchard

 Walking in the countryside (Cal is falling asleep here)

 More walking

 One of the views on our countryside walk

 Same walk

 Dentistry

 Glamour shot

portrait: unhappy punk rocker

more spring

We've been dealing with various life-gets-in-the-way-of-fun stuff over the last few weeks, like finding a place to live after July and finding someone to fix our car.  Success on both counts!  We found a place to live on the northern outskirts of town, and we found a guy who has the right attitude to get mediocre cars back into serviceable shape.  So that's good.  In the meantime the weather has been awesome, so we've been biking around and hanging out outside.  Hopefully the car will be back in action this week, and we can start getting out to see more of the country pretty soon.  Grantchester is a pretty pleasant place in the springtime, though, and it was nice to spend a weekend just relaxing around the village.

We're surrounded by thatch-roofed buildings.  These guys are getting an upgrade.

We spent a lot of time at the playground this weekend.

Letting him crawl wherever he wants without worrying about destroying the house is nice.

Determined to climb up the slide.

Elevated feet for a little more challenge on the pushups.

This is his concentration face.  The puffed-out cheeks add power to whatever he's doing.  The pursed lips are just for style.

Cal is about to be picked up and put in the stroller by mom (the enforcer), but he's blissfully unaware for the moment.

The one major downside of spring is the return of the cows and the cow crap all over the paths around Grantchester.

pop quiz

What is wrong with this picture?

 Answer:
1. The mother left out a box
2. Boy is on an unstable box
3. Boy is holding plastic wrapping from the box
Extra credit: Boy can easily reach expensive electronics

Not only is Calvin moving potential "stairs" to where he wants to go, he is also walking with his cart of blocks.   It's a good thing we have a shotgun style house so he has one long walkway.  He hasn't mastered turns yet (or straight lines, for that matter).

Calvin coming

Calvin going (minus trousers)

a new set of wheels

On Monday, we finally put to good use the money my parents gave me for my birthday: we bought a bike for me and Calvin.  And when I say for Calvin, I mean he gets to be my passenger.  Luckily I'm not a reckless mountain biker like Nick so Cal should be in safe (and extra cautious) hands.  He even has a helmet that has penguins on it.  The penguins don't make him like it any more than he already does, which is to say that he hates it on his head.  But when he is in the child seat, there are plenty of distractions for us to slip it on.  He seemed to enjoy the first ride, even though it was a bumpy one along the path between Cambridge and Grantchester.  He was saying "ahhhhh" the whole way (not a "I'm terrified!" ahh but a "my voice vibrates as we go over bumps" ahh) ending with him falling asleep just as we arrived home.  Nick installed a bell on the bike so I can warn pedestrians of our arrival but with Cal's vocals, I probably won't need to use it.

 First bike ride! (for Calvin, obviously)

Putting up with the helmet (which looks like it still needs some adjustment)

It will be nice to have the bike for many reasons but especially since our car is either going to have a lot of work done to it or we'll have to scrap it and get a new car.  Yes, our car had an accident but luckily we weren't in it.  Somebody hit our parked car (just outside our house) and moved it a car length and drove off.  We've had a week or so to cool off about it but we're still very angry.  We'll see what happens after the local mechanic takes a good look at it.

 Top view of the front of the car with hood ("bonnet") opened

What Cal thinks of people who damage cars and drive away

Stay tuned for the next blog post: exciting Calvin tricks!