Globally Big

I survived my first week alone here with Tyler as JJ headed off to Milan for work for a few days.  He didn't get back to the restaurant by our hotel that had the delicious pizza, but sounds like his trip was productive.  He was able to attend Tyler's pediatrician appointment before he left on Tuesday.  One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post was her funny comment about Tyler's size.  She took his measurements and then looked on their growth charts to see where he was.  She made a comment like, every country is different so let's see what he looks like on these charts.  After marking her dots on the high end of the percentiles she said, "Well there we have it, Tyler is globally big."

Tyler had a great week and must have known to take it easy on mum, who was doing everything herself this week.  We both made great strides toward making some friends here.  First on Monday we met up a woman that I had met when we first moved here back in October.  She is from the US too and has two adorable little girls.  Her girls were in school but she met Tyler and I for coffee and it was nice to chat.  Then on Wednesday we met up with JJ's coworkers wife and her son again for a playdate here.  Her son Nathan is just over 2 but he and Tyler played pretty well together and I was glad that we had gotten Tyler some bigger boy toys for his birthday so Nathan could have something to play with.  We got crepes for lunch from the crepe stand by our house and it was interesting for both of us to carry 2 crepes each plus our toddlers up basically 4 flights of stairs.  I thought I was going to lose them but the crepes came out unscathed (and so did the boys).  It was nice to have friends over and I think that Tyler enjoyed having another little person over as well.  Then I joined a playgroup here through the Hampstead Women's Club.  They have a pretty narrow age range which is nice because all the tots will be within about 4 months from each other.  The playgroup was full but the woman running it said there was a second group that just started up because there were a lot of kids in that age range.  Then she suggested that we meet up because she said she remembered how hard it was to meet people when she first moved here.  So we went over to her house on Thursday evening.  Her son is 14 months old so a bit more advanced than Tyler (although Tyler was bigger than him!) but the boys seemed to really like playing together.  At one point they both toddled back to the other boys room to play and it just seemed like such a real little boy thing to do - come look at my trucks!  I got a little sad realizing that my boy is growing up SO fast!  Anyway the other mom was really nice and I knew I would like her when she asked if I wanted rum in my hot chocolate - hey why not!  It was around happy hour :)  We had fun over there and hopefully we can meet up with them again.  Like pretty much everyone else I have met, they are Americans also but it seems much easier to meet the American folks around here because they have the instant ability to sympathize with your situation.  The playgroup meets next Wednesday so hopefully we will make even more friends next week.

Today we went to Mini-Mozart and this week went better than last.  Tyler took a good nap before so he was a little more chilled out and sat on my lap most of the time.  Last week I wanted to slap whoever made the bubbles - they were super soapy or something and they didn't pop when they hit the ground or any surface really.  Tyler is obsessed with bubbles, specifically popping them.  So you can imagine his frustration when he saw bubbles everywhere - sitting on the ground, on other mom's heads, on other babies hair, coffee cups, etc and I wouldn't let him smash them.  I had completely lost him then and we basically just walked around smashing bubbles on the floor so he wouldn't terrorize other people and he lost interest in the class altogether.  This week the bubbles were nice and pop-able so we didn't have the same issue. 

We don't have any plans for the weekend yet, we may just stick close to home and enjoy the family time after JJ was gone all week.  We are busy planning for future events though now that we have babysitting options.  We bought Bon Jovi tickets for July - they are playing in Hyde Park!  And we are also thinking about going to Tim McGraw who is playing at the O2 center in March.  I also joined the U of M Alumni London group and it looks like there are some upcoming events with them as well.  We also need to get on to planning our Easter holiday trip.  JJ has 2 bank holidays so we need to get out.  I'm thinking somewhere warm - Spain, Portugal, etc.  Maybe that is what we will work on this weekend!

The last monthly photo shoot :(

He sure is tough to pin down now. This photoshoot lasted about 2 minutes.  He thought it was hilarious to try to get away from me!

Finally a good one!

Mini Mozart today.  I tried to sneak one without him looking but he always has one eye on my phone!

Our new babysitter Alison got him this Arsenal "football" for his birthday and it was the first thing he took our of the toy chest the next morning.

The picture that breaks JJ's heart, Tyler waiting for Dad to come home after dinner (not knowing Dad was in Italy).