What is a Rookie Mama? Well, I’m a Rookie Mama. Before we had my eldest son 7 years ago I had never changed a diaper (nappy), I’d put on a baby grow once. It took an hour, and it ended up being back to front and inside out. And for me (& my American hubby) we’ve pretty much been making it up as we go along ever since.
You’ve probably noticed a few changes going on with our brand across social media. Recently we took the bold (& slightly crazy) decision to re-brand our little business from ‘Muklet’ to ‘The Letterman Co’. And we decided to did it right before our busiest time of year – the Holiday season!
Well, we’re now 10 months into our big Californian adventure. The adrenalin has started to wear off, the reality of flogging our London flat and squashing our worldly possessions into a 20ft container has pretty much sunken in.
This morning I was a ‘Hot mess Rookie Mum’. I’ve been flying solo this last week, as my American boy is up in San Francisco at a Virtual Reality conference… It wasn’t great timing as we’d just signed our eldest up for Little League, and this weekend was his first proper game.
There’s one thing that’s high on my agenda when looking for a job, finding people to work with and making friends. A sense of humour! A firm grasp and appreciation of sarcasm is an added bonus.
OK, political shenanigans aside, it’s been quite a year for the Muklet household too! We did indeed become ‘Stronger Together when we ‘Brexit-ed’. When ‘they (Sterling) went low, we went high’ (in the sky, in an aeroplane, headed to California!). As a trucker be-hatted Donald zig-zagged the country we were glamping in our new house on blow up beds and eating In and Out off of paper plates whilst our worldly possessions floated up the Panama canal in a shipping container.
I was first introduced to Thanksgiving day in November 2001 when I was a young and free 20 something working and playing hard in New York. A year later I had met my American boy (now husband) and was welcomed with open arms (and full tummies) into his family Thanksgiving feasts. Over the years we have had all kinds of Thanksgivings – the big noisy fun family ones, the small Brooklyn sized apartment ones complete with Wholefoods pre-prepped dinner, the budget ‘we’re too tired to cook as we have a newborn baby so we went to KFC’ ones – there’s no real tradition in this household! But the tradition we do uphold is downing tools, coming together with friends and family, and taking a moment to take stock and be thankful.
I’ve always been a inquisitive kid, you know the type – that one that ask’s a million “but, why?” questions. My eldest is EXACTLY the same. “He’s just like you, you know?”, my husband likes to point out. Often when I’m doing battle with a tidal wave of questions before Mummies morning coffee has had a chance to kick in.
Continue reading Raising inquisitive kids that don’t alway do what they’re told
Yeah, I kinda knew it wouldn’t be as simple as unpacking Varsity Jackets, and finding where the nearest Post Office was. Setting Muklet back up over here, has become quite the task. Without wanting to sound like a martyr it’s been a little difficult even finding time and opportunity to get the Muklet cogs turning.
To the unaccustomed one may think that moving from England to America would be an easy transition. They are both English speaking countries in the Western world, with similar customs and past times right?! Well, for the most part that is true…
Continue reading Observations of an Expat – Part 1 (of many)
The Rookie Mama 