We've arrived

This is probably going to be long since I'm just now posting my first London update...

We aren't able to move into our new home until tomorrow so we've been staying at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Cromwell Road- literally across the street from the Gloucester Road tube stop, for those of you who know this area better than me. Grace and I will be able to start moving our things in to our new place after we meet the owners to assess the inventory and their current condition at 11 tomorrow. The area in Kensington we will be living is Earls Court. Our flat is really close to the Earls Court tube stop. If you want the exact address, let me know and I'll email it to you.

After our loooong flight over and only being here for 3 days, I have decided having a baby with you is the way to travel. I'm pretty sure strangers go more out of their way to be helpful, friendly and talkative all because of Grace. I was just an annoying American blond bimbo before Grace (BG). Thank you, Miss Grace! :)

flight over- I had two goals: get Michael to sleep as much as possible since he was getting off the flight and going straight into work, and prevent Grace from crying at all costs. Grace couldn't have been a better traveler, especially given the rough flight. It literally took us 1 hour to get from our place downtown Chicago to the lounge at the airport. Security was a breeze, even bringing milk along. (apologies if that was tmi). I was really excited about this infant bassinet everyone has been raving about as well as flying business class (aka 1st class on British Airways) for my first time. When it was time to put Grace down "for the night" there was a comfy bassinet for her, which attached to the wall directly in front of our seats. I've decided she would have slept the entire flight if it wasn't for the bumpy ride. Every time the seat belt sign went on, Grace had to come out of her comfy bed and get belted onto me (the same procedure during take off and landing). After this occurred 3 times (twice in which her and I were sound asleep) I decided to just keep her lying next to me on my seat. It was pretty awesome having seats that laid down into beds- THANK YOU, BP!

tip #1: Sam Blossom told me he successfully told the flight attendants he was going to leave his infant in the bassinet unless it got too bumpy, at which time he would be right there to pick up his son as quickly as possible. I'm going going to try that next time and let you know how that goes from a Mommy's point of view.

Goal analysis- Michael slept a good chunk of time and Grace only got fussy a couple times. Given the craziness and the fact that there were 2 kids screaming, which seemed like most of the time, I'd give us a B-. Since Michael was able to sleep, but we weren't, Grace and I have been on completely different schedules than Michael has from the start. Like I said previously, he had to go straight into work, while Grace and I basically spent our entire first day sleeping and eating. Sounds awesome until Grace cried for almost an hour, didn't fall asleep until after midnight and I was wide awake and ready to party! The flight seems to have affected Grace's tummy- lots of dirty diapers and tears her first day in the UK. She seems back to her normal self so far as of yesterday.

The Blossoms welcomed us into the UK by meeting us at our hotel with roses and French wine. I was given the walking tour from our hotel to our soon-to-be new home to the Blossoms- including a helpful tutorial of how to properly walk in London. It's tricky with the whole driving on the opposite side of the road. That throws everything off for not only the drivers, but the pedestrians as well. 

Check out my fancy vase and Grace on the bed. 

Yesterday was our first exploration- very casual, but still exciting! We explored all the way to I believe it was Sloan Square and back. I decided to turn around because we started going beyond our map boundaries. Not before stopping in an adorable bookstore and getting a few things- 2 children's books- This is London and A Walk in London.  I also purchased a cute family travel guide- London Adventure Walks for families. It's 25 imaginative urban adventures inspired by a theme- some of my favorites are the Great Fire of london, Paddington Bear, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmations, the Romans, and Charles Dickens. Once a teacher...always a teacher I guess. 

We had breakfast at a cafe where the people were extremely nice. Grace was flirting the entire time with a man who spoke a language I didn't recognize. It's pretty cool how babies bring different types of people together. We couldn't communicate at all except for our facial expressions to each other and exchanging smiles with Grace.

Michael, Grace and I had a lovely, casual and reasonable dinner at Olive before we ended our evening with another long stroll past our new home we'll be moving in tomorrow!

The internet situation is a bit tricky at the hotel. I literally have to be right next to where Grace is sleeping. Since I'm only not exploring while Grace is sleeping, this isn't very conducive to mommy blogging. Once we move I anticipate this getting much better.