Snow Day!

Well the hype about the snow proved to be true and so far there is an inch or two on the ground and it hasn't stopped since about 9am.  It's unusual for London to get snow, especially snow that sticks so people are a little out of sorts about it.  JJ has heard that the tube has lots of delays when it snows so his commute home might be interesting. 

We ventured out in the snow for our Mini Mozarts class and out of 12 or so babies in the class we were one of three to show up (I mean there is only an inch of snow on the ground but people here don't know what to do with that).  But the small class size was actually very cool.  The woman leading Mini Mozart today was the co-owner and she had to have a career in theater because she had an absolutely beautiful strong voice and also played the violin.  She had a woman with her that was playing the piano.  Tyler loves class.  They weave in a story about a princess and a frog to tie all the songs together.  He gets a little bored and antsy during the story part but as soon as the instrument starts playing he is captivated.   And since the class was so small today he got a lot of personal attention.  He is in the class for babies - 15 months but is the oldest in the class.  Most of the other babies are around 6 months old and just kind of sit and stare but he is all over the place.  The woman today did a very nice job of reeling him back in when he started to drift.  And his Nana has certainly brought out a love of piano from him.  Now that he can move he is much more opinionated and he decided today that he wanted to play the piano with the woman (it also didn't help that the woman playing was very cute so he wanted to flirt a little too I think!).   So while all of the babies were sitting under a parachute I was trying to wave the parachute with one hand and stop him from playing the piano with the other!   Everyone was patient with us and we survived.  Afterwards the owner made a comment about him being the firecracker of the classroom.  I guess all we needed was for him to walk to come out of his shell! 

Now we are home and Tyler is napping and I'm trying to get motivated to clean up the messy lunch he just had.  Here are some lovely pictures of Hampstead in the snow!

Big T Making Big Moves

Tyler is officially mobile!  After taking his first steps in Chicago at the Reeds' house, Tyler has come a long way and can officially walk all over this flat.  Check out his moves:

 

He gets so proud of himself that he is actually moving on his own.  And it's nice for his parents to not have to be led around the house by our pinky fingers because he needs the safety net of our hands while walking.   And now that I have learned to post videos on Blogger, here is the other video from a while ago of him dancing.  A lot of people have already seen this when we were home but it's hilarious so here it is again :) 

We had a busy week meeting with potential babysitters and we ended up hiring the American girl from Philadelphia to start watching Tyler a couple hours a week.  She had a lot of flexibility for us and we immediately had a lot in common just by both being American.  She is super nice and Tyler seemed to like her quite a bit.  And we have a lot of babysitting contacts for the evening now.  JJ and I need to plan our first London date!

In other news we have been busy exploring the neighborhood and going to classes like we do.  We went to Rhyme Time at the library for the first time and it was a bit of a cluster for T and I.  The small room was full of kids, there were toys strewn all over, and no one was really paying attention to the woman leading the "rhymes."  So it turned into a free for all shoving match for the toys on the floor because not many kids were listening to the rhymes.  It was a little stressful for me as I tried to keep Tyler cool.  I think I've had it with "sharing."  Tyler loves toy cars and there were a few of them to play with.  Every time he picked a car up and started playing with it a kid would yank it out of his hands and run away and I would frantically try to find a diversion toy so he wouldn't lose it while mumbling something to him about "sharing."  I didn't want to be the maniac mom who chases after a 2 year old who stole her kid's toy but we both got a little frustrated and I think were both thankful when it was over :)  Maybe since I am only child am not schooled in "sharing" and maybe also that is one class that the babysitter can take him to! 

I'm still experimenting with new dishes (going to try homemade granola bars today!) and I joined a couple women's clubs here so I think we will be busy filling up our social calendars.  Nothing else much new to report here except we are due to get 2-4 inches of snow here tomorrow.  We have heard the city shuts down in the snow so it could be interesting!

At Rhyme Time (before any mean little person took his car)

On one of our outside walks Tyler led me into the local bookstore that has a kids play area with toys and books out to play with

Progress, Progress, Progress!

Can you hear my British accent now pronouncing PRO-gress?  Things are really moving along over here.  We have all our pictures from home up on the walls, we have our February vacation in the Alps almost planned, and I have 6 interviews for babysitters/nannies this week!  We spent the weekend getting this flat to feel more like our home.  I also did a ton of research on vacations and babysitters.  We confirmed our reservations for a little owner run chalet in France in the Morzine area of the Alps for JJ's birthday weekend!  I'm SO excited!  The best part is that it is very common to get daycare for your little ones while the parents ski all day.  The owner of the chalet recommended a nanny service that will come to the chalet and watch over Tyler while we snowboard for 2 days.  The service is run by British folks and they bring over toys, etc and they said that they try to get the kids out in the fresh mountain air for a while during the day.  It all sounds amazing and we are going a month from today!  So that is a nice little vacation to look forward to.

I also got a huge response from my inquiry on babysitters.  I had to take down my ad from the website I posted on because the responses actually became overwhelming.  We basically want to have a couple babysitting options so JJ can go out for a date night once in a while and then I would like some help once a week during the day so I can run errands and perhaps pick up a little project work from a company run in the UK that is owned by the same parent company as Rust-Oleum.  So I'm flooded with babysitter interviews this week.  I met with a nice woman from Brazil today, then I'm meeting one more tonight.  Tomorrow I have an interview with an American girl looking to earn a little extra money.  She is here because of her husband's job and we joked that she should probably work for a real British family and that I should probably get a real British super nanny just for the experience, but it sounds like we might be a really good fit for her.  Then Wednesday I meet with another woman who is looking to nanny share with her 8 month old daughter 1 day a week.  I love the idea of Tyler getting a little social interaction again like he used to back in Chicago with our nanny share and all of our friend's kids. Finally we are meeting with a couple girls from Australia that are interested in babysitting later in the week so we are bound to find someone that works out of that bunch I hope!  Now my mind is wandering to what JJ and I will do on our first night out in London!

During the day Tyler and I are settling into a nice little routine.  One of the things I was really looking forward to when we left Chicago was having the time to sit down and have breakfast with Tyler.  I was rushing around so much in the morning back in Chicago trying to get to work and get on the road before traffic and I used to have breakfast in the car (if I had breakfast at all).  So the morning time is precious to me now and this morning reminded me of how much I love it.   Tyler and I sat down this morning and shared blueberry pancakes and watched the birds outside while I had a glass of tea :)  Lovely!  Then after his morning nap we usually go out for an activity before lunch.  We go to the park, or we go to a class, or we just walk up and down the High Street.  Right now Tyler's favorite activity is to stand up, grab your hand and lead you around while he walks like a big boy.  Our flat is tiny and I got tired of walking around in circles so I decided to take him on the street and walk with him outside.  He loves it!  He toddles around, stopping to say hi to the city cats and say hi to just about everyone that walks by.  It's pretty adorable, whenever someone passes he looks at them and starts shaking is little hand and shouting "Haaaa, haaaa" (he can't really say hi yet).  Some people walk right by without noticing him but a lot of people stop and smile at him and say hi and wave back.  The people that work in the outdoor cafes are starting to get to know us.  He seems to be liking his surroundings here and is opening up a bit at the classes we go to.  Yesterday we went to a little "open gym" for toddlers and he actually enjoyed the bounce house and some of the soft toys.

It's really snowing here today.  It's not cold enough to stick to the ground but there is a nice little dusting on the trees and rooftops and it's just beautiful!  Here are some pictures of our activities.

Floating balls at Toddler's World

Having lots of fun in the bounce house

Weeeeee!

Twins.... Tyler helping Dad hang pictures.

Tyler watching the birds at breakfast this morning

The picture couldn't quite capture how beautiful it is outside.  This is the scene down our little street this morning.

Homemade Goodness

We are trying to settle back in here in London.  Tyler's schedule is still off and he is sleeping in until about 8am and having a really hard time going to bed at night.  The extra time in the morning is nice though.  I'm about 2/3 through a great book and am enjoying the extra time in the morning to read.   JJ and I are now pretty much fully adjusted to the time and I'm sure Tyler will be waking up at 6am in no time so we will enjoy it while we can. 

Now I'm trying to tie up loose ends to really start life here.  We are getting the flat a little more organized, putting pictures up and getting the final things unpacked.  I'm also trying to find a babysitter around here so JJ and I can finally experience London post 7pm.  That will be exciting!  And we are signing up for local activities.  JJ is inquiring about local soccer teams to play on and I found a yoga class, "buggy" workout called Pushy Mothers, and a potential gym that we are going to check out this weekend.  As part of the gym deal I get 1 session/week of free use of the creche (daycare) and we also get access to Toddler World, an open gym for the toddlers.  As for Tyler, we went to a Gymboree class today and have our first music class tomorrow. 

We are also adjusting to the English food.  As those of you know who we stayed with over the holidays, Tyler developed a love for waffles.  He eats a whole Eggo sized waffle along with his fruit and oatmeal every day for breakfast.  I was disappointed to find they don't have frozen waffles here - only these potato waffles that looked like they had a lot of sodium and other bad stuff.  So then I looked into pancake mix and found that they only had Aunt Jemima and it cost a small fortune.  That prompted me to look into making pancakes from scratch.  In fact I'm learning how to make a lot of things from scratch that I usually bought in a box.  So far I've made delicious whole wheat pancakes and macaroni and cheese that Tyler couldn't get enough of.  The ingredients are so simple and I'm loving that I'm forced to make these things from scratch here both because there isn't processed food option and because I want to control the ingredients that Tyler eats.  Tonight I'm making homemade sloppy joes.  The funny thing is that the recipes I find for babies are usually the best tasting for us too because they are simple and are good for you.  I feel like my whole dinner playbook has transformed and hope to keep this up even when we return to the states!

The last thing we are transitioning to this week is cows milk for Tyler.  I thought he was going to be a tough baby to wean because he loves nursing.  Yesterday I tried giving him "semi-skimmed" milk in a sippy cup instead of a nursing session for the first time.  The kid pounded the sippy cup (there was milk dripping from the corners of his mouth).  Guess this won't be so hard after all...  We are going to give up one nursing session per week so my body will be completely mine again around the first week in February!  Won't that be nice!

Now here are some pictures that we took recently and also that I found still on the camera from our trip back to the states. 

Serious conversation with Auntie Kris

Fun with Auntie Kris

Here kitty, kitty, kitty....

Wait come back Juno, I'll be gentle, I promise!!!

Thanks Auntie Kris for giving this singing monkey back to my mommy at the white elephant gift exchange.  I love it and I hate it...

Dang it's good to be 11 months old.

Thanks Adrianne, Mike and Melanie for giving my mom the gift card to buy this nice warm stroller blanket that I can't kick off!

Back in London

Happy New Year!  We are back in London after having an amazing time in the states.  It feels like those 4 weeks just blew by so quickly.  Thank you to all of our friends and family who took the time to visit with us and we are extremely thankful for those who let us "crash" with you while we were home.  I think it was harder for me to leave this time because we had such a nice time and because we don't have a return trip planned yet. 

The trip back here was interesting.  This is definitely the most difficult time so far that we have had with Tyler traveling.  He's getting older, more independent and definitely more mobile so being confined for multiple hours was not fun for him.  We were in business class which was nice but the flight times were not ideal and we had a layover in Frankfurt so the poor little guy basically missed a full night of sleep (and so did his parents).   We had some typical travel hiccups, but in the end we made it back to London Friday morning and it took the whole weekend for us to re-acclimate to the time here.  Tyler is still utterly time confused.  He stays up until 10 or 11pm and is also sleeping in.  It's actually nice for me to have a little quiet time this morning, but it doesn't leave much down time for his parents at night. 

And now we are settling back in to life here and there are definitely some positives about being back.  We are busy planning our next trips.  We are currently researching skiing in the alps and visiting Iceland for whale watching and viewing of the northern lights- both of which we are very excited about.  Also the weather is very mild here.  It was 50 degrees most of the weekend so we have been enjoying lots of park time and walks.  I'm also trying to get Tyler involved in more classes here.  We have Mini Mozart music class on Thursday mornings, music classes at the library on Tuesdays, and a swim class to start in February.  There is also a Gymboree not to far from here that we are going to check out too.  About halfway through our trip, Tyler became much more comfortable around other kids so I want to make sure we keep up the little person interaction.

Here are pictures from our journey.  In the words of Miley Cyrus I like to call it our 4 week Party in the USA!

Annual Christmas Extravaganza!

Mr. & Mrs. Stead!  I did not take this beautiful picture, it was from Heather's Facebook page

All dressed up for the Stead nuptials

One of many playdates with Tyler's friends!

Fun with Grandma Kern

One of Tyler's favorite places:  Grandma Dean's cupboards!

Tyler loves his restored trike.

Fun with Great Auntie Sue

Fun with second cousin Melanie

He was such a brave boy with Santa - didn't even cry!

Kern family Christmas Eve

Loving Christmas morning!

So big!

Tyler had to fight for his food with dog cousin Hercules

Christmas day with Nana

He kept this U.P. hat on for only a second...

Hercules got fancy for Christmas day

The family on Christmas Day

11 month photos

My handsome boys!

Not so sure about all the snow in Oxford....

He loved playing piano with Nana

Bye bye USA!

Business class means more play room for Tyler

Homeward Bound!

This time tomorrow we will be on route to the airport on our journey home sweet home!  We are really excited but also bit anxious to see how Tyler deals with all the change and moving around.  It's a bit risky to leave him with a babysitter 2 of the first 3 nights that we are home for the Christmas Extravaganza party and Jack and Heather's wedding, but we are hoping that he adjusts quickly to the new time zone.   I have a feeling there are a few sleepless nights in our future though! 

This past weekend we relaxed at home and did a little Christmas shopping at markets around here.  We have lots of gifts to take home in our suitcases tomorrow!  It was nice to have a weekend that we weren't traveling and all felt healthy.  Tyler enjoyed playing at home and he has developed a new love for dancing.  It's hilarious.  I have a video of him dancing to his ChooChoo song where he puts his hands on his head and gyrates around.  It's adorable. 

Yesterday we went for a nice lunch with a wife of JJ"s co-worker and then met up with another co-worker's wife at the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park that evening.  I'm thankful that there are a lot of nice people that work with JJ that have been so welcoming to us!  The Winder Wonderland was a huge festival in the middle of the park.  There were a ton of carnival rides set up and they also had a big roller coaster and zip line there.  There were also a ton of pop-up bars and restaurants and shopping scattered throughout.  It was huge!  Tyler went on the baby carousel but that was about all he could do there.  But he enjoyed snacking on Cheerios and watching all the lights and action. We stayed out a bit past bedtime, but I figured that Tyler is going to have to get used to it anyway so why not. 

Today we are busy packing and cleaning and getting ready to get out of here!  I'm so excited to see friends and family very soon!  I probably won't post again until we are back here in London January 4.  Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Enjoying his new bead maze

Look ma, no hands!  He seemed really amazed he could pull this off, he kept doing it over and over again...

Carousel ride!

Winter Wonderland scene

Eating a snack and talking to the carousel horses

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park!