Peas

Grace had peas for her first time last night-- what a mess! She sucks her thumb after every bite...is this her way of learning how to swallow her food?

I could only get her to open her mouth for the spoon if I let her hold it.

Classic fist in the mouth shot...

dinner time

The weather has been rainy on and off the past couple of days (surprise, surprise for London). We wanted to take advantage of the refreshing evening by having dinner in the communal garden. It was just the three of us. I guess nobody else our idea, or maybe the garden is old news to them. Michael and I were both pretty tired and it would have been easier to just stay in, but we are going to take advantage of the nice summer weather while it lasts. I head October-December gets pretty rough and gloomy over here.

Here are a ton of Mommy and me and just Grace pictures. Michael was having a good time playing with our camera and taking pictures of his girls. I think he captured a couple priceless shots. Enjoy.

In the last picture, Grace is demonstrating her "new talent." She has found a new noise she can make with her lips. This is usually joined with lots of bubbles. 

solid foods

I wanted to wait until Grace was adjusted with the time change to introduce her to solid foods. Today has been the third day of her eating rice cereal and she loves it. I tried my best to take pictures while feeding her. I'm getting really good at multitasking with her. :)

I haven't done too much research about baby food, so any and all advice would be greatly appreciated from my newer and veteran mommy friends. I know to introduce oatmeal first, then vegetables and fruit (veggies because babies usually love the sweetness of fruits) and lastly meats. I've also read that she will get the majority of her nutrition still from breast milk until she is 1 so basically I'm just introducing the different types of foods and teaching her how to eat. Honestly, any more than that I would love to hear the Mommy thoughts.

I shipped a ton of Earth's best level 1 and 2 jars to introduce foods to her and once I figure out what she likes and isn't allergic to, I plan on making my own. (Thanks, Amanda Vetor for the suggestion) The baby food in London is different (ie lamb and liver pie). Plus making her food will support my healthy goals of eating healthier and making more food for Michael and me.

Speaking of eating healthier and making my own food. I was so proud of myself last night that I had to take a picture of our dinner. I wasn't planning on posting this picture, but I thought the details of the food textures were awesome.

English strawberries are in season- yummy! 

taste of heaven

There was a dog party in our communal garden last night!!! I was in heaven-- so many dogs plus wine for a meet and greet. Yep, we were those unsocial Americans who were in their own area enjoying the sunny evening by eating our picnic dinner. We would have joined, but it was 5 pounds each and was almost over. I tried taking pictures the best I could from a distance so I didn't look too creepy being that girl taking pictures of other people's dogs.

The moving company delivered our things yesterday and helped me unpack. Ahhhh...the feeling of being settled. Now, to find places to put everything...

Side note: I was able to get a coffee from our corner cafe before Michael headed out to work. There's a 5 pound minimum to use a credit card so the barista told me to pay for it Friday morning (her next work day) when I come back. Hmmm...how lovely! Something I'm pretty sure wouldn't happen in the states, but makes sense because of course I will come back- clever!

I'm currently having problems with transferring the pictures to my laptop. Pictures to come..

Weekend explorations

To celebrate our first weekend evening in London, Michael and I decided to go out to a pub in our neighborhood for a traditional English meal. This included a pie sampler platter,  mashed potatoes, mashed peas and of course a pint. I've never liked peas so I'm not sure why I even tried them...yuck! The pies were beef, chicken, lamb and liver. I'm pretty sure it was my first time trying liver- not bad. I didn't mind it, but I did prefer the others. The pint was of course lovely.

"Where was Grace?" You might be wondering. There are no rules or restrictions when it comes to babies, kids or dogs. They are everywhere and everyone is family friendly- pubs included. Their motto is the more the merrier. Sweet! That's pretty convenient for us. Good thing Grace just goes with our crazy lifestyle.

Grace started getting fussy at the end of our meal so I decided to start walking back home. I knew our place was very close, but I got turned around pretty quickly. What's with having the same street name on different streets? Why have one street name on one side of the street and a different one on the other side? Is it really necessary to have Bolton Gardens Road, Bolton Gardens Street, and just Bolton Gardens? I was able to find my way home after only a couple of minutes but I was flustered because Grace's fussiness had turned into a full blown bloody murder, lip quivering cry. As this was all happening, Sam and Amber called to see if they could check out the new place. I said it was a good time as long as I found my way back.

Saturday morning we had to check out of our hotel (which Maggie and Tommy Hughes just recently stayed) and bring our last load of things over to our new flat (which might I add I LOVE). Thank you, Michael for being such a researcher!  We strolled over to Hyde Park to watch the Blossom's son's football game as well as enjoy a picnic with wine included.We got a lot of random things we needed (towels, linens, soap, toilet paper, etc.) Amber was a life saver once again showing us where to go. I wonder how long it would have taken us to figure out where to get the little things like these. Before heading over to Sloan Square/Chelsea area, which might I add is amazing, we relaxed in our communal garden! Only the people in the surrounding apartments have access to this garden which gives an extra level of security and comfort. We see ourselves spending time there this summer enjoying picnics, bottles of wine and time with Grace. Perfect photo opp...

Grace has a new trick- the baby tripod! She is on her way to sitting up by herself. Amber actually showed us her new talent when her and Sam stopped by Friday night. 

This is my favorite picture of Grace to date.

I thought Grace and I had wandered to Sloan Square the other day-- definitely not. I'll be going back this week. They have tons of unique baby shops and I've already asked about their next sales. We stumbled into a random off the beaten path Italian restaurant where we made friends with another couple. They are originally from NY and have been living in London for the past 10 years. They have 3 kids- 2 of which have become citizens this weekend since they have been living in the UK for 5 years. This was all in between Grace's naps. We ended the evening sharing a pint with Derek Ashbaugh (BP guy, went to IU, ATO frat guy). Anyway, Grace came too-- like I said before- no baby or dog restrictions. I went home to put Grace to bed and Derek properly welcomed Michael to the UK.

view across the street from the pub

Sunday morning began with a latte at the corner cafe. I really need to stop eating pastries for breakfast! The weather said there was a 0% chance of rain after 2:00 pm so we decided to take the bus to Buckingham Palace area. Of course it down poured from about 2:00 and on through the night. We jumped off the bus, bought an umbrella (ours are currently in the air somewhere), and had oven roasted pizza at a tiny Italian restaurant by the Victoria tube stop. Welcome to London! After taking walking around and taking the bus back we cleaned up in time to get our first taste of London Thai- yummy!

Have I mentioned yet that our second bedroom (aka the room where we are going to find a small crib to shove in the corner) has a double bed? We also have 2 bathrooms. *hint hint

PS I'm currently doing my first load of laundry. 2.5 hours later and it's still not done. I wish I was exaggerating! ahhhh...

random memories

Thursday was a day that everywhere I looked the most random things kept popping up and reminded me of people back home in the states. Bare with me on this one because this is definitely going to be my most random post.

Grace and I started our morning in a cafe (today's choice was Paul). This brings me to the first person who I thought about- my cousin, Samantha Henry. She has recently spent time in Paris. I believe she was taking a class. Samantha, please correct me if I'm wrong on the comment section. She fell in love with macaroons during her travels. You may remember a previous post where her mother, Aunt Donita, and I went to several French cafes in Chicago seeking out macaroons to be brought back to Kentucky for Samantha. This was also the scary post about the waitress who spilled the hot tea pot and coffee on the 1-year-old girl! While in this cafe, I noticed the delicious macaroons so in Samantha's honor I had to try one. Unfortunately, I now share the same appreciation for macaroons (specifically raspberry flavored) as my cousin. Thanks a lot, Samatha! ;)

After breakfast, we were just strolling along, following cool looking buildings and areas. (Mom, don't worry- I'm surprisingly getting really good at using a map and I keep track of where I am...well, most of the time.) Oops...except for that one time this week where I thought I was lost. More on that later.

As I was saying, Grace and I were strolling around and walked toward this particularly cool looking building, which ended up being the Natural History Museum. I later found out there are about 3-4 museums next to each other and they're all FREE! Perfect activity for Grace and me to explore. I do think I was more excited to check out the architecture of the actual building than what was inside. For school-age kids this would be a great afternoon outing/field trip. (Once a teacher...) Everyone else seemed to agree- the place was filled with families and school field trips. It reminded me of the Chicago Field Museum- they even had their own "Sue" dinosaur welcoming you in the front hall. Side note: The founder of Sue is from Munster, Indiana and graduated with my mother-in-law, Maureen!

cool looking building

main entrance to the London Natural History Museum

This brings me to the second person who I thought about- Matt Nierengarten. This placed was filled with cool interactive exhibits of natural disasters, evolution, etc. Not to mention the many animals and creepy crawlers they had preserved. Grace's favorite exhibit was the sparkly, shiny room filled with precious stones- we may have a problem in the making. I was just picturing Matt's head on a swivel constantly looking round and round. It made me think about his many "at home science experiments" from Kathy Eberle like the skull head he puts in water near Halloween and shows everyone who stops by how big it grows. 

Speaking of the creepy crawlers, this brings me to the third person who I thought about- Dawn Buckley. She was the former art teacher at Elliott Elementary School in Munster (my Mom's former school as well as my elementary school). You may remember my former post about Grace's play date with her two beautiful daughters. On Wednesday evenings, Dawn has been teaching an art class for kids and adults with disabilities. I think she said the age is anywhere from babies to 28 years old. I thought this would be a perfect activity for Matt and I to do together while Grammie Mo and Grandpa Den hung out with Grace, but things got a bit hectic the last month I was home. Hopefully her art class continues to be a huge success and we make something real cool when I get back. Dawn, how cute of an idea is this to incorporate science into teaching the color wheel? I could have seen you and Julie Glavin collaborating on a cool unit.

What was supposed to be a quick view of a free museum, ended up being over 2 hours...oops! We then headed toward Kensington Gardens. Talk about a huge, beautiful, active park! I'm pretty sure I will get myself lost in there. I was trying to follow the signs to see Princess Diana's waterfall memorial and playground- either the signs/paths are confusing or I need some help. I did run into the Peter Pan statue, which brings me to the fourth person who I thought about- Mrs. Casciari. In the past couple of months I have had the pleasure of getting to know Rachel's family, especially her mother. Grace and I might possibly refer to her as the Disney lady from now on. My first Disney experience (I was pregnant so does that mean I can count it as Grace's 1st too?) was with Michael, Rachel, and Mrs. Casciari in California. We had such a blast with her. When Grace was born she bought her a a Minnie Mouse sleeper, which currently fits and she wears all the time. I'm pretty sure she expects us to come back to Cali with Grace to really see Disneyland-- okay, twist my arm... Right before our move we were all at Rachel's new fabulous apartment in Chicago actually watching the Royal Wedding and the one thing her Mom reminded me that I had to see with Grace is the Peter Pan statue since the story was based out of London. Well, Mrs. Casciari, I'm proud to say I can check that off my list after 3 days of moving here. :)

Alright...this is it for now. I warned you this was going to be random. 

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.