Happy 9 Month Birthday!

It's a short post today, just sharing some pictures of Tyler celebrating his 9 month birthday, a couple days late and in an empty flat.  Today we are off to go to lunch, go to the park, and find out if there are any Halloween activities to do tomorrow. 

Happy 9 Month Birthday Tyler!

It's getting harder and harder to keep him in one spot for these photo shoots!

Rainy Days on the Italian Riviera: Our First Trip to Italy Part 2

Friday evening we took a 3 hour train ride to Monterosso, the largest village of Cinque Terre.  It was a packed train and we sat in a full train cabin.  Tyler enjoyed making friends with an Italian young lady and she entertained him for quite some time.  When we arrived in Monterosso it was raining and we didn't know how to get to our B&B, Pietre di Mare.  Monterosso is a tiny village and most of it is not accessible by car so the roads weren't really on GPS.  We decided to call the owner of the B&B, Moreno, to get directions.  He met us in one of the little squares and helped us get to the B&B.  He had brought a friend who speaks better English with him to explain the situation.  She explained that they had been having heavy rains and it was the 1 year anniversary of a devastating flood/mudslide that they had last year.  To be cautious, the police shut down all businesses in the village at around 7pm.  So she explained that Moreno had picked up some dinner for us (yummy pizza and fococcia sandwich) aand milk for the baby so that we could eat because everything was now closed.  We graciously thanked them because we were starving.  We put Tyler to bed and found a wine shop that was just about to close.  They let us buy a bottle of local Cinque Terre wine and we stood on the street under an umbrella and the open windows of our room so that we could hear Tyler if he woke up.  That gave us some space to talk and have a nice dinner.

We were hoping that the weather would break on Saturday but when we woke up we found out that all the shops and restaurants were still closed and it was still raining.  So we had some energy bars that we had brought and I thankfully had brought some baby food too for Tyler.  There was nothing to do so we all took a nap with Tyler.  When he woke up we decided to venture on the train to another little village to see if anything was open there.  The 5 villages are all accessible by hiking trails, train, or boat.  All the hiking trails were closed to the the weather so we hopped on the local train and got to Corniglia.  There was a bus there that took you to the top of the cliff where the village is perched.  Corniglia was beautiful and had such a cool little downtown where everything was open.  We had a wonderful lunch outside under a tent while it poured off and on.  We took some pictures and headed back on the train to Monterosso to catch Tyler's afternoon nap.  By the time he woke up things were opening again but the weather was still pretty bad.  We walked a bit when it cleared up and found our dinner spot.  We had a lovely dinner and headed back to the B&B, hoping Sunday may clear up.

Sunday brought more rain, even heavier rain than the previous two days.  We asked Moreno if we could have a late check out and tried to pay him for our dinner Friday.  He did not want to take the money but finally took 10 Euro and then gave us a voucher for a free breakfast, so I think we still ended up ahead!  We met his wife, Sabrina, and she told us that the building had been in their family for generations but they just opened the B&B 3 years ago.  The stone in the building was the original stone of the building dating back to 1500!  They were the nicest people and showed us pictures of their 3 year old daughter, Lynda.  She joked that in 20 years Tyler can come back to the B&B and rent a room from Lynda.

Even though the weather was dreadful, there was something so sleepy and romantic about it.  And even in the rain, the views were incredible.  We had a wonderful time and left feeling well rested, well fed (pizza, pasta, gelato and wine every day!), and thankful to have met some of the nicest people in the world.  We definitely look forward to the next trip to Italy!

Beautiful shoreline of Monterosso

Eating breakfast (Nana notice the t-shirt!)

More Monterosso

Loving the train ride to Corniglia!

Narrow village streets of Corniglia

Somebody had too much fun in Corniglia and took an early snooze waiting for the train

The wine bar that stayed open to let us buy a bottle!

Loving the Ergo carrier instead of the stroller!

Church in Monterosso

The sun peaked through for a couple minutes!

We had the whole train cabin to ourselves on the way back.  Plenty of space to play!

Dinner Dates and Duomos: Our First Trip to Italy Part 1

I tried to post this on Friday but was having wireless issues so there are 2 fairly long posts today... We arrived in Milan Wednesday morning and Tyler has become quite the international traveler. An Italian woman sat next to us on the plane and Tyler spent some time bouncing around on her lap at her request. We have found that Italian women just ask to take your kids for a while.  A woman that worked breakfast at the hotel did the same thing while we ate.  It was kind of awesome to get a little break!  When we arrived in Milan, JJ headed off to work and Tyler was in need of a nap. He's become a bit of a sensitive sleeper which makes sharing a hotel room with him difficult. Usually in the US we try to put him in a closet so that he is shielded from noise and light but over here the closets aren't big enough so now Tyler snoozes in the dark hotel room while I hang out in the bathroom for 2 hours emailing and today, blogging!  The first afternoon he decided to take a 3 hour nap so that gave me plenty of time to research our activities over the next few days in the bathroom. He woke up so late that I figured we should probably stay close to the hotel to make it back in time for bed. JJ had a late meeting, one of many over the past couple weeks, so Tyler and I were left to dine by ourselves. I've done this a few times with him now, sit down for a proper dinner just him and I, and its quite hilarious.  As much as I love him, he is a horrible dinner date. He's messy, demanding, drops things, and doesn't talk back. Wednesday night I decided that I wanted pizza and wine so we found a pizzeria nearby. Unfortunately we found out that restaurants don't open until 7pm for dinner. This is pushing it for the little guy but I really wanted pizza and wine so after going first at 6:15pm, and getting turned away we went back right at 7pm.  We were the first ones to arrive and I wanted to sit outside. It was probably in the mid sixties and felt great to me. The waitress looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Are you sure? Isn't the baby going to be cold?"  I said we liked it and watched everyone else sit on the heated patio side or inside. Everyone was also wearing winter coats which I found humorous. I guess coming from Chicago and now London this felt almost tropical to me!  So we sat outside by ourselves and Tyler made a complete mess of the table and floor as he attempted to eat some of my pizza. He loves food. He wants to have whatever you are eating and sometimes refuses the spoon and wants to eat everything himself. This makes mealtimes a bit stressful for me when traveling but we are getting by ok.  The deliciousness of the pizza and wine made up for it!

On Thursday we set off in the morning to tour Milan's city center. We took the Metro subway from our hotel to downtown and got off at the Castello Sforzecio stop. It's a big castle with museums inside and the exit of the castle is one of the biggest parks in Milan. This looked like a good place for us to start. I got a focaccia with prosciutto and mozzarella for the little guy and I to share. On this trip Tyler has become quite a bread eater. JJ thinks he's getting a little chubby with all these extra carbs but if it relieves his teething I say whatever works. He loved the focaccia and we walked to find a playground. Tyler played on the swings for a while and then I took him over to a rope ladder to stand by where some bigger kids were playing. While we were on the rope ladder we attracted a little crowd of local kids. One Italian girl about 4 years old was very curious about us and came over to talk. She was speaking in Italian and I had no clue what she was saying so I just smiled and nodded. She kept repeating it and looking at me for an answer like, "Duh I'm asking you this simple question."  I couldn't remember how to say I don't speak Italian so I just mumbled "no Italiano, English?"  Her mom was watching and started laughing and broke in and said to her daughter, "she speaks the happy birthday language."  I smiled at her for saving me and we set off to do some more strolling.  It was time for Tyler to take his nap so I started strolling around the park. The park wasn't very big so I made it around the whole thing 3 times, kept passing the same guys trying to sell me a rose, and I decided we needed to venture out. I knew this was risky since there was a lot of road noise that could wake the little guy up, but we headed on to the city center.

The center has a cute little cobblestone road leading from the castle to the duomo that is shut down to traffic so it is lined with shops and cafes and people are everywhere.  We went to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which has all the high-end shops to check it out. I also wanted to see what the deal was with the tradition of spinning on the bull painted on the tile floor there. I had read something unusual about this tradition that if you spin on the bull's balls that you will have good luck. I saw a crowd of Asian tourists crowded around something and figured this had to be it. Sure enough they were all spinning on the bull's balls. The floor is even dented in this area of the bull from so many people spinning throughout the years. I must read more about the origins of this tradition but I waited my turn and spun on the bull's balls. This wasn't an easy feat with a sleeping baby in a stroller but I did it and sleeping Tyler spun with me!

Tyler woke up shortly after spinning so we walked to the duomo. It's a magnificent building with ornate details. You can walk through the inside of the cathedral so we entered. Tyler is having a really hard time with his top two teeth coming in and he hasn't been a very happy baby lately. He started screaming when we entered the cathedral and we made a bit of a scene. We walked around a bit more and I had read that you could go to the top so we looked for elevators but I couldn't find them. At this point Tyler was screaming off and on so I decided it was best that we left. I saw a sign that said that the elevator entrance is actually outside so we walked around the whole outside of the building until we found them. Tyler was refusing to sit in the stroller so I carried him while pushing the stroller and started sweating. After waiting in the elevator line I realized two things- 1: it was 12 euro to get to the top. This seemed a bit outrageous to me and 2: I needed to get tickets somewhere else. That was it for us, I exited the line and we were both done with the duomo and never made it to the top. At this point we were both tired and frustrated so we stopped on a corner to listen to some Italian music that was being paid by two street performers. We sat and danced and it was a nice, much needed break.

Now we were both hungry and JJ had to work late again so we found a nice ristorante in the city centre that was open before 7. They were so nice to us there and we sat on the street and people watched and ate delicious spaghetti. Tyler is pretty lucky to have tasted his first pizza and spaghetti in Italy!

Now today is rainy and we are going to stay near the hotel to get ready for our next adventure to Cinque Terra tonight (Friday). The only thing we didn't get to do was go shopping, but that's just another reason to go back!

Always loves to swing!

The castle

Duomo

Spinning on the bull's balls

The hottest dinner date in Italy, fully enjoying his spaghetti

The park outside the castle

Inside the Vittorio Emanuele II

Go Blue (and other good stuff)!

Sorry Sparties, I had to name my post that today!  We finally figured out how to stream Michigan football from our computer with BTN2Go International on Saturday so that we could watch the game.  It was definitely not the same as being there or even watching it on real TV, but much better than watching the score update on ESPN.com.   It was on at 8:30pm here so Tyler was sleeping.  Because we live in such a small place right now, JJ was "scream whispering" at the computer so he didn't wake him up.  Sometimes it was an angry scream whisper (with words I will not repeat) but at the end it was a scream whisper of victory!  So that was nice to be able to tun into a little piece of home.

In other news our air shipment arrived in Hampstead on Friday.  In the shipment were a handful of things that will make life livable in our flat: air mattress and sheets, towels, dishes, more toys for Tyler, etc.  We also got our cable/internet/phone hooked up so we can watch a few more channels here.  I was excited to find out that we get new Modern Family episodes and also the E! channel so that I can continue keeping up with those Kardashians.   We also even get a few NFL games, but no baseball so we are probably out of luck to see those Tigers in the World Series.  A side note about British TV - there are a few shows that are on all the time including Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother (but not the new ones), South Park, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  I've found that at any point in the day, any day you will find one of the above shows on.  There is also a network that JJ and I love - Challenge.  It has these crazy 80s British game shows.  The games make no sense, the fashion is heinous, and they are incredibly entertaining.

Now that we have the air shipment, we are going to fully move into our flat tomorrow!!!  I love it up there and the neighborhood just feels like home.  We stayed there on Friday night and we all slept in the next morning, I think Tyler was enjoying that there was no water heater strobe light in his room.  Saturday morning we went for a delicious breakfast at a little cafe down the road.  The place had a very European feel and there are just a few big tables there so you sit with random people.  We weren't sure how Tyler would do with that but he had a blast watching all the other people and was very well behaved.  Then we headed into Hampstead Heath, the huge park by us to go to the playground and Tyler very much enjoyed another round on the swings. 

We headed back to our place in central London and did some sightseeing in Westminster Sunday.  It was a cold and rainy day but we made it over to see Big Ben, the London Eye (from afar), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and St James Park. Tyler is teething again and his top two teeth are coming in.  From what I can see about the placement of them so far, it appears that he is going to have a significant gap between his two front teeth :)  He is a champ though and aside from grabbing for anything that he can put in his mouth, it hasn't affected him too much.

Now today, since it is our last full day in central London, we headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum which has been on my list of things to do while we are so close.  The museum is beautiful, free, and huge.  It has little bits of just about everything from sculptures to paintings to various artifacts and it had two special exhibits - Hollywood Costumes and Ball Gowns.  It's quite an interesting place, but I quickly realized its not the best place to take a child as young as Tyler.  I think Tyler might enjoy it more when he is a year or two older but today he was not a happy camper.  After a few minutes of carrying him and pushing the stroller I decided that was enough.  JJ checked in to see how it was going and I compared it to how I feel walking into Ikea on a Saturday - completely overwhelming.  But it is definitely a place to go back to when Tyler is older or maybe without him.

Now here are lots of pictures!

Unpacking and playing in our new living room in Hampstead

Our tiny new kitchen that actually feels huge compared to the kitchen in our temporary home!

Our new park - Hampstead Heath

Big T meets Big Ben, while teething...

View across the river of London Eye and Aquarium.  The dirty hand in the picture is of a person on the street asking for money to make kids smile.  We didn't need his assistance!

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Tyler and some busts before his complete meltdown at the V&A Museum today

Playdates and Progress

Today we had our first playdate here in London!  A wife of one of JJ's co-workers invited us over to play with her and their 2 year old son in Chelsea.  They moved here from California a few months ago and she had some great information about life here and suggestions for children's activities.  It was a great outing for us and nice to meet some friendly folks.  And our air shipment is finally expected to arrive tomorrow! So we will be at the flat in Hampstead all day to receive that and wait for the cable/internet hook up.  Then we plan to move into the flat over the course of the next week.  We will be living off only what is in our small air shipment since our sea shipment probably won't arrive for another few weeks but it will be so nice to have a bit more space and be in a more child-friendly area.  Also we have confirmed our travel to Italy next week!  JJ has some business in Milan so we are going with him next Wednesday and then headed to Cinque Terra (Monterosso - one of my favorite places on earth!) for the weekend. Reena - if you are reading this- it will bring back fond memories of our trip!

Apparently here it takes a few days to actually hook up the internet so I probably won't be blogging again until next week.  Have a great weekend everyone!

The Bank of England

First of all, congrats to our friends Kathleen and Craig on the birth of their new little boy Charlie last night!  We can't wait to meet him!!!  This is the second baby born since we left that I am missing holding as a freshie - Will and Emily had their son, Rush, the day after we left!  I can't wait to squeeze them both in December!

It was another beautiful fall day here in London.  After spending the day in Hampstead yesterday, waiting for our TV and my phone to be delivered (I have a phone again yippee!!!), we wanted to do something downtown near our temporary home again today.  We are located very close to the Bank of England and "Bank" is our closest tube stop so when I saw that there was a Bank Museum I figured that could be a good activity for Tyler and I today.  This is another museum that is free so Tyler and I wandered around a bit.  The bank was established in 1694 and is one of the oldest banks in the world.  There were little educational pieces around the museum and artifacts like old bank notes, gold bars, etc.  A gold bar was enclosed in glass with a window that you could try to lift it and feel how heavy it was.   Today I decided to take Tyler out and about in the Ergo Carrier (a front carrier) instead of the stroller since I read that there are quite a few steps leading up to the bank and a security pass through.  Plus I wanted to see how he liked it since he really hadn't been in it since he was a small baby.  He LOVED it!  He kept looking around and tilting his head back, spreading his arms out and closing his eyes.  It was the cutest thing and it was actually not that uncomfortable for me to carry around all 22 lbs of him!

After the museum I had read that there was a free "recital" at a church nearby that was open to the public on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  I figured that was a great activity to get the little guy some culture.  When I opened the doors I realized my mistake.  It was a very small church, all the folks there were all dressed up in business clothes, and there were no children.  Everyone stared at us when we came in and I couldn't have felt more out of place in my yoga pants that I've been wearing for the past three days (because our air shipment still hasn't come yet) and a baby strapped to my stomach.  Oh and someone was video recording it too.  I thought, OK we can do this, and looked for a seat near the back.  All the seats at the back had "reserved" on them so I turned around and tried to just stand in an open area.  I heard some opera-like music coming from backstage and then Tyler began to fuss because it was getting close to both eating and nap time.  I figured this wasn't the best idea and darted out the door.  We tried!  Next time I think we will stick to the children music classes that are available up in Hampstead instead!

Tyler and I outside the Bank

One side of The Bank of England

Kensington Gardens Saturday & Sleepless Sunday on the Prime Meridian

We had an eventful weekend taking in all the sights so the blog is a little long today! 

Saturday we left early for Kensington.  As usual, it was an adventure getting there on the tube with a lot of crowds and not much space for us, a stroller and a kid.  Regardless, it was a beautiful fall day in London and we headed straight for Kensington Gardens into Princess Diana Memorial Playground.  Poor Tyler hasn't seen a playground since we left the states and its a huge playground with beautiful landscaping.  Since it was a Saturday morning it was packed and kids were running everywhere.  We found the infant swings and were surprised to see that there were only 4 in the whole place!  So we got in the unofficial "queue" and waited for our turn.  When it came, Tyler was so excited to be on the swings so we tried to maximize our time that we had waited for and got a good 10 minutes.  Then we headed on to find lunch and walk around.  JJ and I often laugh about how things are so different now that we have a kid.  Lunch destinations are now determined by if the restaurant has a high chair and if it is not busy, and naps on the go mean that we spend a couple hours aimlessly walking while T sleeps in the stroller.  If we slow down or stop, Tyler wakes up and the whole day is thrown off.  So we lunched at Subway and then from 2-4pm we walked nearly every corner of Kensington Garden while Tyler slept happily in the stroller.

Loving the swings at Princess Diana Memorial Playground!

Beautiful day in Kensington Gardens

JJ strolling Tyler in the Kensington Palace Garden

Kensington Palace - Princess Diana lived here

Royal Albert Memorial and Hall

By the time Tyler woke up we had reached the museum campus.  One totally awesome thing about London is that nearly all the museums are free.  I wanted to check out the Science Museum so we headed there and Tyler loved it!  There were so many cool things for him to see, hear and touch.  They even have a little indoor playground there in the basement.  After the Science Museum we headed to Harrods.  We spent about 5 minutes in Harrods and that was about all I could take.  There were a lot of people walking around and with a stroller it was impossible to get anywhere.  So we walked through the expensive purse section and then walked right back out.  I suppose that is a place to go on my own or when someone visits!

Loving the US Space Exhibit with Dad!

Horsing around at the Science Museum

More horsing around....

 He loves the spring door stoppers at home so this really blew his mind!

Harrods

On the way back to our apartment we stopped at the Tesco (grocery chain here) to pick up our favorite dinner - 2 pound (money, not weight) chicken and bbq pizza - and had a surprise on our way out.  The "Occupy London" protestors came through and banded arms blocking the doorway chanting "nobody in, nobody out."  It wasn't clear exactly what they were protesting, or why they chose Tesco but Tyler thought their chant was rather catchy and was smiling and clapping at them.  The police broke it up within a few minutes and we were no longer held hostage in the Tesco so we headed back with tired legs, looking forward to a quiet evening at home.  Unfortunately quiet doesn't describe our night at all.  First of all we are situated right between two apparent hot spots on Saturday nights - a wine bar and a club.  From about midnight to 3:30am we heard all the bar-goers talking, smoking, and riding their motorcycles.  Then after getting about an hour of sleep Tyler woke up screaming at 4:30am.  Nothing could soothe him, we tried everything!  His sleep has been really erratic since we got here.   It could be the jet lag, or that the water heater that is in his bedroom/laundry room lights up like a strobe light anytime the radiator goes on, or teething, or 8 month sleep regression (when they are so excited about their new skills they don't sleep) or just karma for having a baby who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks.  Who knows, but he isn't sleeping well here.  So at around 5am JJ just decided to keep him up and play with him.  

We all took a good long morning nap and decided to carry on with our plans to go to Greenwich, despite the fact that everyone was exhausted.  We got back on the river cruise and headed east to Greenwich.  On the way there we saw Canary Wharf, the newer business district.  It was another beautiful fall day here with lots of sunshine but pretty chilly on the river.  By the time we got to Greenwich it was time to walk around again to get Tyler to sleep.  There is a great park there and we walked around and saw amazing views of the city, One Tree Hill (its an actual location, not just the name of a show on the WB), and beautiful gardens.  This time, Tyler was protesting the nap and refused to sleep, but we still cruised around and he got some quiet time.  Then we went to the location that most people know Greenwich for - the Royal Observatory and place where the prime meridian is.  They have made a terrace where the actual prime meridian is and a line that you can straddle and take a picture.  The wait was a bit long but we did take a few pictures.  As you can see below, Tyler was far more interested in the plants and the bricks than the actual line so we got a lot of pictures of the back of his head :)  It started to get late and pretty chilly so we headed back for the boat to take us back.  Part of the plan was to go to a local pub and sit down for a Sunday Roast.  We still don't really know what Sunday Roast is, but it is some kind of meat roast that every pub does on Sunday.  On the boat and on the walk, Tyler made it pretty clear to us that because of his lack of normal sleep, he was not going to be fit to take out in public anymore.  So we decided that takeout at home was a much safer option!  Oh and I got my highchair and it has made my life 10 times easier.  I have a pic of it below.  It's actually a brilliant idea - it's a little cloth fold up thing that you can travel with and it hooks on to any chair.  I didn't want to buy an actual highchair since we have 2 coming on the Atlantic so I bought this and I think it is going to work out well for our travels!

This is the lifesaving highchair!!  Tyler likes it too!

Cruising on the Thames

Royal Observatory

The Kerns on the Prime Meridian!

Tyler wanted to crawl off the line and Chicago marker ASAP

So that brings us to today.... After a bit of a challenging week last week, I decided that Tyler and I need to get out of the house for one activity a day.  I saw a pamphlet for London Walking Tours and saw that one starts right outside our door on Mondays so that was our activity for today.  It was called "Hidden London" and was a guided tour through the city of London, where we are currently staying.  The actual city is only a square mile so it's very walkable.  Tyler was mesmerized by our tour guide Andy's accent and he was very happy for the first hour in his stroller.  We learned about the great fire of 1666 that destroyed 80% of London and 13,000 homes.  After the fire, there was a plan to totally re-map out the streets and city to more of a grid system.  Apparently though the people here demanded that everything be built back exactly how it was and Andy joked that this is why the streets today make no sense!  He is so right - it is really hard to understand where you are going because the streets go off in all sorts of directions and some streets are so narrow that a car can barely fit through them.  Anyway we learned a lot of little nuggets of knowledge, and then Tyler started to get a bit antsy.  I took him out of the stroller and carried him while pushing the empty stroller so he could see the sights and be closer to me.  Since it was a bit much to carry, a few people offered to help push the stroller.  I'm not one to really accept help, so I thanked them and said I was fine.  Then this woman from Colombia came over and slapped my hand off the stroller and said, "Let me help you now, just accept the help."  So off we went, Tyler and I and our new nice Colombian friend pushing the stroller, continuing on the tour.   She seemed tickled with her new job too.  Tyler of course charmed all the other tour-goers as well.  One woman came over and told me what a beautiful, brilliant smile "she" had.  And yes JJ, if you are reading this, I know our son needs another little hair trim so he doesn't get mistaken for a girl.  OK that's all for today!

My Little Wingman

I'm digging my new hobby of blogging!  Sorry for those that may get bored with my day to day nonsense, and I must warn you in advance not much happened today except for a few funny and cute Tyler moments.  Here they are...

Our one task for the day was to head up to Hampstead to the flat to retrieve some packages that we had ordered from Amazon UK (one being a highchair - yay!).  I prepped for the journey as Tyler took his morning nap and made lunches for us to eat on the floor in Hampstead.  Then we woke up and we were off on our way to make the now familiar journey on the tube (subway) from the Bank station to Hampstead station.  While on the tube I had two big revelations:
1) I watched other "mums" navigate all the steps in the tube stations with a stroller and got some ideas to make our lives easier.  One of these is to back it out off the subway train when leaving and also back it up the steps.  Brilliant! A side note - British people are incredibly nice.  Each time I'm trying to carry Tyler in one arm and my stroller in the other and huff it down/up the steps in the station, someone asks me if I need help.  Every single time.  I have never taken anyone up on their offer since I figure the practice (and workout) is good for me, but I'm always appreciative of the sincere offers of help. 
2) Tyler is the best wing-man on earth.  The kid loves people.  When we are anywhere that people are around he will stare at them until they look at him and then he will shine the brightest smile you have ever seen.  People see him and smile and then they smile at me.  On the subway today I watched him and he was staring at a woman (usually it is a woman - he's already a ladies man) but she didn't notice him right away.  Then he started getting excited, looking a bit crazy, and kind of squeaking at her like "hey you, look at me, look at me, I WANT you to look at me..."  She looked over and then ensued a smile fest.   Usually then I get into a conversation with them about how old he is, etc.  I think he's going to be a great assistant at sparking up conversations with interesting people.

When we got to Hampstead I brought up all the packages and I fed Tyler some avocado.   While eating he proceeded to smash his face into the hardwood floor trying to climb up my knee.  This face smashing happens daily, the kid is crazy.  I need a padded room to just let him go nuts in.  Then it was naptime and I realized that I had made a very, very big mistake.  In my haste to get out the door today I forgot to bring the sleepsack and the sleep sheep to Hampstead - two things that are very important for my big boy to sleep.  So I tried to wing it and put him down without his beloved wearable blanket and ocean sounds and he was not having it.  Left without any other choice, I packed up and whisked him back on the subway to get back to our apartment here so he could nap properly in the laundry room with both his sleep sack and his sheep. 

That's it!  And now we are looking forward to a great weekend of sightseeing with JJ.  No pictures today although it was a lovely sunny day here in London!

Rainy Morning on the Thames

This morning was what I think of as a typical London day - 50 degrees and light drizzle.  That didn't stop Big T and I from going for a walk on the Thames.  I wanted to head back to the Borough Market since it is only open Thursday - Saturday.  When we went there over the weekend it was too crowded to really check it out with a stroller so we went back today right when they opened.  They were still setting it up but we picked up some fresh fruits and veggies, some farm eggs and meat pies for dinner tonight (chicken and steak pot pies that are popular here - will be interesting).  Housekeeping was supposed to come to our place to clean today from 9-11am so it gave us a good excuse to get out of the apartment.  And yes, I'm really enjoying there is housekeeping service here!  It was during Tyler's nap time but I was hoping he would take a stroller snooze.  However, there were just too many things for him to see and he resisted sleep.  After the market, I was determined to get Tyler to sleep so we took a walk west and saw Shakespeare's Globe Theater and walked along the riverwalk of the Thames.   Maybe Tyler is a Shakespeare fan or maybe he was just a bit cold, but he still didn't sleep.  He is back at home now taking a proper nap in his laundry room.

Along with all the new things to learn about living in a new country, I'm also learning so much about Tyler.  Spending so much more time with him I've really enjoyed learning about his little personality.  I am learning when he needs to cuddle, and when he needs some space.  I am learning when he wants to be at home and when he needs some fresh air.  I am learning when he needs help doing something and when he just wants to do it on his own.  I am learning that he is completely slap happy right before a nap.  He is a little giggle monster at this time and although I know he should get to bed, we spend a few extra minutes laughing away.  We also got to meet JJ at his work last night and walk home with him.  I'm really feeling blessed to have this opportunity to spend more time together as a family!

Here are some more pictures from the morning.  I apologize for the poor quality.  My iphone will be coming someday, and our actual camera is probably on the Atlantic somewhere, so until then I'm stuck with this blackberry from 2004 that takes fuzzy pictures.  Enjoy!

Borough Market

Apparently the rabbit is very fresh....

Globe Theater

View of St. Paul's Cathedral and Millennium Bridge