Baby Gourmet

Little Zozo has made some great strides in the last few weeks.  She can just about sit up on her own, can stand when supported, is making word-type noises, knows her name straight away, recognises mummy and daddy and is much more mobile on her front and side.  However, this has come at some cost - she is also getting wise to mummy's clever tricks to get her to sleep and has realised it's far more fun to stay up, with the possibility of cuddles and food!  The girl who rivalled Rip Van Winkle's love of Bedfordshire has been waking up as much as 6 times a night, often flipped over with her legs stuck in the bars of her cot, and it's left me slightly delirious from lack of sleep. 

Anyway, on a more positive note, Zoe seems to be getting the hang of eating!  Milk feeds just don't do it for her any more so hopefully we can start to fill her up with other stuff during the day and she might sleep better.  Whilst my fellow Isis moms are busy buying Beabas, I am ashamed to say my copy of Annabel Karmel is gathering dust under the TV and I still haven't worked out how to use my food mill.  Instead, Zoe has been practising redecorating our apartment with Earth's Best organic baby food.  I have to say the rice cereal was a complete waste of time - Zoe would grimace every time it touched her lips - but she seems to like pears, apples, sweet potato, carrots and (taking after her Granny), prunes.  Zoe also loved sucking banana from her fresh food teether -  although parents, beware! - it produces banana puree of such stickiness it will need to be chiselled off the highchair with a pneumatic drill.  Curiously, peas and apricots are not popular at all with Zozo, and so the quest for filling food continues. 

As you can see from the photo Aunty Loo-sey had fun feeding Zoe when she was here, although experienced parents may notice Zoe is pretty much naked under her bib, which makes for a much easier post-puree hose-down.  As she gets into her bath shortly after her evening meal, I have found  myself wondering whether it would in fact be easier to cut out the middle man and just feed her in the bath.*  After all, it would be hard to make as much of a mess of the bathroom as her daddy sometimes does (and she is now, sadly, a bit too big for the kitchen sink). 

*Yesterday Bridget found prune in Zoe's hair from the day before.  THE SHAME. 

No baby is an island

Goodness me, you can hardly keep that Baby Zoe off the water these days!  Today we took a fast boat from Long Wharf to Georges Island, one of several islands that dot Boston Harbor.  In half an hour we were whisked away from downtown to this small and slightly eerie island, which is the home of Fort Warren - a huge and forbidding pentagonal fort built at vast expense but that never saw a shot fired.  Being a Devlin, Eamon went straight to jail (he did not pass Go), although he claims it was actually field research for his new role as an IMB member for HMP Pentonville. 

The site was made slightly more creepy by the fact that, whilst it is hot and sunny (at last!), there is a blanket of foggy Canadian smoke resting over Massachussetts* and so every vista was seen through a misty haze. 

Georges Island and Spectacle Island both boast toilet facilities, but that's about the extent of the luxuries available.  We didn't realise this and, as the Starbucks on Long Wharf was devoid of anything remotely nutritious for us to take with us, we headed straight for The Chart House upon our return to the Hub for some lobster-based fare. Zoe had saved her bottle until the end of the trip, thereby ensuring we didn't repeat the baby/vomit interface that is the inevitable consequence of a formula feed combined with choppy waters. 

* Alors, another example of how Les Canadiens suck

Guest post from Wee Eamon

A Chara

A few words from the third person in the Zoë in Wonderland production (currently on tour).  I enjoy reading the blog too (although I normally get to hear about the latest post at the Proskauer water cooler) and I've promised Ems that I won't turn off too many of her well earned fan base. 

First, a few words about the star of the show.  She is funny, loving, caring and always a joy to be around.  Ems is wonderful, does an amazing job with our daughter and is a great mother. Also great to see her back to full strength.  Z's speed of progress never ceases to amaze me, but sometimes I wish it could slow down a tad.  ZoZo is pretty cool too, especially with those two razor sharp teeth and her contagious laugh (wonder who she got that from!?). 

What's in a Name?

We spent months thinking of a name for our bundle of joy, especially after Rex, such a hit with both sets of grandparents, wasn't going to work this time around.  We both wanted a name that was easy to say (Eamon, or "eemon" is a nightmare in USA; folks seem to prefer that I were called Devlin], spell and that couldn't be shortened.  Despite that we ended up shortening her name, by adding a letter - how Irish is that?  Z just ticked over six months and already has a bunch of names, sometimes even I get confused - Zoe (official documentation), ZoZo (everyday use), ZeeZee (rare, fitting in State-side), Bebe Zoe (playtime), Miss Devlin (naughty) and Zofia (very naughty).

Land of Opportunity


To date Boston has been kind to us; it really is an adventure for this wee family.  We are very lucky to have been given this opportunity and one that is proving most enriching.  Where else can you do 250+ billable hours in a single a month and still feel you're on vacation?  It would even be better when that most European of ideas, namely the "weekend", catches on here.
Ems has been super at getting out and about meeting the Bostonians, making buddies, joining baby groups and consuming a sh#t load of cowffeee.   America really does run on Dunkin.


Boston, at the Athens of the U.S., has a lot going for it; clean air, ahigh standard of living, lots to see but most importantly I genuinely think Yanks, more often than not, get out of bed the right side each day.  I like their sunny disposition and their time for children.

Sport is a massive part of society here and in a nice way - it is not divisive like it is in certain countries - all types can, with ease, follow the major league sports here. The Boston Celtics just got into the NBA final, where they meet those West Coast dossers, the LA Lakers.  Some of my work colleagues, after I managed to convince my boss that spending $2K on getting us a corporate box would enhance team morale, went to a recent C's playoff game.  I spent years looking forward to watching a live NBA game.  Pity I picked the game that led to the C's worst ever defeat in a playoff game.  I'm now officially banned for ever again attending the Garden.
And there is baseball. Lucy, Holly and I went to the Red Sox game last night and had a blast. The Sox won (we think) in the tenth inning. I am happy to report that, following their post-game exuberances, neither Lucy nor Holly were charged and were released earlier this morning.

In short Boston is a nice place to live and leaves us with some thinking.


Eamon's Sightseeing Album

Whales & Wails

Aunty Loo-sey is visiting at the moment.  She and Baby Zoe get on famously I must say. Lucy has even been persuaded into changing niffy nappies, which will surprise many of our regular readers!

So far we have been pretty lazy about getting out of Boston, but Lucy's visit gave us an excuse to get out of town.  This entailed renting a completely underwhelming car* for 3 days and heading to "the Cape", aka Cape Cod, home of abundant seafood (but, curiously, no cod), white sand beaches, dreadful traffic, whales and sentimental memorials to John F Kennedy.  We stayed at the marvellous Sea Coast Inn in Hyannis, run by the fantastic Terri and Al.  Seriously, if you are looking for somewhere to stay in Cape Cod then you should consider the Sea Coast.  Not least because nothing is too much trouble for Terri and Al and they have a dog called Zoe, nicknamed Zozo!  It was fate we should stay there. 

Zoe behaved impeccably for (almost) the entire trip, which is more than can be said for Aunty Loo-sey and her partner-in-booze Holly, who are still wanted for crimes against karaoke by the Hyannis Sherriff's Department.  On reflection, going for a 3 hour whale-watching boat trip after a heavy night on the sauce was probably not a good idea, but the girls bravely soldiered on and we were rewarded by incredible encounters with several humpback whales, which came so close to the boat we could smell their stinky whale breath (surely on a par with the most malodourous nappy). 

Having been lulled to sleep for almost the entire voyage by the motion of the boat and the thrum of the engine, it was a little concerning to discover, on arriving back in Provincetown, that Zoe had been secretly seasick and had been sleeping in her own vomit for the entire trip.  Bad mummy!

Whilst at the Cape we discovered that Baby Zoe is not a fan of the beach, probably because (a) it was very bright and sunshine reflects off sand and water; and (b) sand blows in your face when it gets breezy. Zoe also dipped her tiny toes in the sea for the first time but, again, this was not a popular move.  Clearly much work needs to be done to ensure Zoe follows her female relatives' example and becomes a devotee of the beach as soon possible.  I wonder, is this topic covered by Gina Ford?

* Zoe agreed with the reviews - the Kia Spectra is a rubbish car, and to prove it had a complete baby meltdown on our drive home to Boston.

Baby Cool

Whilst I can't believe I actually made Zoe wear these sunglasses today, it's even harder to believe she didn't try to pull them off.  She just sat there in her buggy, chillin' out & looking cooler than the Fonz.  That child is a martyr to my obsessive sun-protection regime. 

Photoshoot

The frankly AWESOME Kristina has sent us a slideshow of some of our pictures from last weekend.  You can check them out here.  WOW!

Trade Marks Rock My World

Sad, but true. Inadvisable as it may be to write about work on the internet, I cannot let this blog ignore the excitement caused by the descent of virtually every IP lawyer on the planet on Boston.  Hold onto your lanyards folks, INTA is here!  And Boston has risen to the challenge by turning up the heat and bringing out the sun. 

I first went to INTA in 2005, when the meeting was in San Diego. It was an exhausting but tremendous experience. One highlight was my beachside bungalow on Coronado Island, which sadly I didn't see too much of as I was in meetings and at parties for about 18 hours a day.  Such is the INTA experience.  Business cards fly through the air, in-house lawyers are chased around cocktail receptions, dodgy-looking trade mark agents snog each other at the Corsearch party, and everyone goes home on the verge of exhaustion but looking forward to the shennanigans of next year. 

Tomorrow I've got some meetings and a lunch, so Daddy will be babysitting whilst Mummy goes to work for a change!  And on Tuesday when I have meetings Zoe will head to daycare for some networking opportunities of her own.  I am really looking forward to seeing some old friends (but not looking forward to having to get dressed smartly - the dress code on maternity leave certainly beats my working wardrobe), and showing them beautiful Boston.  However, this year I plan to spend a little less time swapping business cards with drunk Nicaraguans at midnight and a bit more time at home with Zoe.  It's just a shame we aren't staying in a beachside bungalow so we can enjoy the sunshine to the full!