Daily Life

I have always regretted not taking more pictures of my day to day life - I would love to have photos of my highschool room, our first home together, little duplex...you get the picture. So I am trying to take more pictures of the mundane and here is a glimpse of our morning routine in the UK.

We have this large (for UK) living room area, which has been wonderful since we spend most of our time inside. I have decided that winter is for the birds. When Hadley gets up, after eating breakfast, we put out a large soft blanket. We have berber carpet and it is a bit rough for her. I have 3 baskets with toys that sit in the bookshelf so we rotate between them. She pulls out all the toys and strews them about the room as she explores, it gives me time to check important things like FB and blogs.

I wanted to make a little corner for her to play in so we got this darling bookcase and little table for her. Pretty much everything is bought online here, most companies dont have storefronts, so it has been interesting trying to guess the quality and appearance. I have now purchased a bed/mattress and childrens furniture online among other small items. She will need to grow into the table but she is already interested in the books and she can almost get them out herself.

The house stays a mess all day as we putter around and we do a big clean up after dinner so we have space for a dance party before bath and bed. I have been playing the same cd for a month now and if I have to hear "eating goober peas" one more time I might poke my eyes out. Any kid song suggestions?

Her Favorite

I thought it might take a little longer, but Hadley has found her favorite. When daddy comes home she lights up, wiggles with excitement and give him her best belly laughs and giggles. I love watching them together.

He is pretty great, I can't blame the girl.

New Tricks

We have been trapped for the last few weeks with a cold and now a high fever. Combined with Jamie's busy season, to say we are going stir crazy is an understatement. From other blog posts it sounds like 'tis the season. So we are watching trashy tv (well through 2 season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) rummaging through our cupboards for wayward sugar and trying to plan future trips so I can convince myself winter really will end. I am also considering doing a few things off my list of items I wanted to do before Hadley turns 1. At the top is a book about her first year, my SIL had a book made for her little girl about her first months and as a toddler she loved it! I loathe scrapbooking so it will be the closest thing to documentation Hadley will get. I was really good about writing each month down when she was little but have been slacking the last 3, so here is a quick list of fun facts since Christmas.

Crawl!! She just decided one day she wanted to start moving and she was off!! Spent a few days doing the army crawl and then after one evening on hardwood, figured out how to get her little bum up and moving!

She escaped before I could get jammies on her, although I do love me a neekid baby.

She now loves to pull herself up to kneeling/one leg straight position. I am ok with her not walking for awhile....

She can say Mama and Dada, she is way too young to speak but considering she yells MAMA whenever she wants something/be picked up/attention I think she is catching on. Not quite the sweet sentiment I was expecting.

Sits on her own in the bath, I am too cheap to buy the plastic things to go on the bottom so she had to pretty coordinated before she could sit unsupported.

Please notice how she preserves her modesty with an artfully placed ducky. I am so proud.

She dances anytime music comes on - from her little British toy, singing time and the above mentioned Buffy theme song.

She can spot an electrical toy a mile away, favorites include the TV clicker, my laptop and iphones. She has already figured out the little play one is just a ruse, she is her father's daughter.

Two of the cutest teeth you ever did see!

She still loves people, she had her first "playdate" with another little 10 mos old and they lovingly pulled each others hair and sucked on the other ones toys. She was in heaven! We did go to a little tumbling class and after a minute they had us go on little obstacle courses by ourselves, the ladies wanted her to crawl over a ramp but she just stared longingly at the other children, seriously sad! We have a swimming class in Feb and I am trying to decide on a singing class so hopefully friends will be in her future.

She can mostly feed herself, still working on the spoon part but any pieces make it in her mouth and she drinks her own sippy cup like a champ. She is a great little eater and has started to eat mashed versions of our dinners, when you make your own food any shortcut is cherished. This may contribute to the fact last time I weighed her she was 24.5 lbs.

We will work on portion control next...

She claps! She hasnt caught on to waving yet so we have her clap goodbye to grandma when we hang up skype.

Assuming you are also homebound with nothing to do and still reading this - the rest of my list is to make a book of our wedding pictures for Hadley and practice making her birthday cake. I have always wanted to do a rolled fondant cake and sounds like a good excuse. I want cake made from scratch, real whipped buttercream and learn to roll fondant. Maybe I will start practicing the cake part today.....

Also does anyone have a book making company they like? Something easy and foolproof? I have kept all my pics uploaded into smugmug so I think they can just transfer. Or has anyone tried the smugmug book making? Seriously looking for the "non scrapbooker" version.

Game Changer

I love to grocery shop. I love checking out new foods and reading the ingredients. When Hadley was younger I would throw her in the bjorn/ergo and she would happily come along while I check out exciting new granolas - she is one lucky girl.

When we moved to England it got less fun - we walk to the store so she is in the stroller, which she enjoys...as long as it is moving. By the time we get to check out I am singing 'froggy went a courtin' and she is letting me know she is done shopping. Combined with the fact I can only purchase what I can carry and then have to haul it up the hill, grocery shopping moved down the list of desirable activities.

Then came OCADOS

When Jamie's boss told me about a delivery service that brought groceries to your door, I have to admit I brushed it off. I am not working full time, surely I can get to the grocery store! But when it was below freezing outside I couldnt bring myself to take Hadley on a half mile walk each way, so I gave it a try. You can judge if you want - but it changed my life! For 30 bucks a year I get unlimited delivery of groceries directly to my door whenever I want! You go online, pick a slot, select what you want at your own pace and you can even go back on and add or take away up until 12 hours before delivery. It is a higher end grocery store so a bit more pricey, but I find that I spend less bc I only buy what I need. I can run and check my fridge if I am not sure if I ran out of cheese or not and there are no impulse buys! It is truly a win-win. Pain au Chocolat is just better when it arrives at your door.

Hampton Court

Jamie has the week off so we decided to do some exploring - the real reason we came! We headed over to Hampton Court, otherwise known as Tudor Palace. It has been at the top of my list, I find the Tudor time fascinating. We were able to get a palace membership for the year that includes London Tower, Kensington and Kew - where else can you get yearly access to Castles?

Hadley is really excited to enter the palace!

Everyone is dressed in period costume and they do scenes a few times a day, here is the older King Henry VIII and Catherine Howard.

Watching in the front courtyard

Gorgeous ceilings, almost every room was done beautifully - I want to say this is the Queen's sitting room but I will need to write them down in the future. The most impressive was the chapel but since it is still operating so no cameras were allowed.

Amazing paintings, especially from the Tudor time, Henry was reported to be extremely vain. Hadley is making sure she takes it all in.

The Palace Kitchen, it was so small considering how many meals they had to prepare with old fashioned methods!

The Palace Gardens, it was pretty cold so we are planning on coming back to visit in the summer. There is a maze they said noblemen and their mistresses would get "lost" together.

Jamie in the central courtyard. The palace was nicely kept and there were placards describing the history - you need a chart with you at all times to remember the family trees and shifts in power! They offered headphones with an audio tour but it isnt extremely practical with a baby, so the info was good but I would love to do some more research before we go to other sites. A fact I didnt realize is that this was the location of King James of the King James bible translation lived, one of the most popular versions. I also didnt realize that not every King/Queen lived here, depending on the family and the time they would chose new locations. This one housed quite a few though and was built to impress the rest of Europe. The rooms and perks are to die for, but I am not sure it is worth it to be a Queen of Henry VIII!

A Different Kind of Christmas

This Christmas was different and I can honestly say it was wonderful. I realized that our typical Christmas consists of running around like crazy - work parties, busy time at work, cookie parties, baking cookies, making presents for friends, friend dinners, random presents for bosses/unexpected gifts and then we head to our families and try to cram an entire month of traditions into a few days. By Christmas day I am ready for it to be over!

This year was quiet, for all intents and purposes we settled here 5 weeks ago and know only a handful of people. I attended an ornament exchange that a woman who just met me gave me an invite, I met the other hostess at the door, and a casual EY party and a Church activity. The only baked goods I made consisted of cookies for Santa and a pan of peppermint brownies, a plate of which I took the the only neighbor I know. The last week we were snowed in so we spent alot of time in our Jammies and drinking hot cocoa. I am glad every year will not be this quiet, I miss surrounding ourselves with people we love, but it was nice to realize how wonderful it is to spend time with just our family during this season. I hope to remember to slow down in the midst of the chaos in the future. Here is a look at how we spent our Christmas together -

Christmas Eve Dinner - Gammon (Bacon cured Ham) and Yorkshire Pudding

Reading our Christmas Book - It is a collection of pictures, hymns and Scriptures that my Mom put together when I was a child. We read it every Christmas Eve.

Setting out cookies for Santa!!

Hadley hanging out in her loot! She wasnt able to pull the wrapping paper off, but she seemed to like the new toys. The box to the left has a talking toy my mother ordered - it has an English accent and is hilarious (although it might be one of those toys that "loses" its batteries from time to time...) She got a set of cute ladybug beanbags I fell in love with - she kept trying to hold all 6 of them at once. Her favorite toy seemed to be the clementine in her stocking and the wrapping paper!

My favorite gift to open - chocolate shaped bath fizzies. Jamie also gave me a beautiful necklace we are trying to ship from the states.

We spent the day playing with our new toys and watching Muppet Christmas.

Raclette for dinner, so easy and delicious! On the top of the stone you cook pancetta and sausage and underneath you melt cheese and add green onions, then you pour it all over potatoes and bread. We ate until we felt slightly ill.

There is an English tradition where you pull "crackers" - a tube of toys/a hat/sayings that cracks when you pull it. You are supposed to pull it with another, we bought the penguin game set where each cracker had a wind up penguin, I think mine won.

The next morning was Boxing Day, we looked it up and it says it is a "second christmas" derived from when the rich would "box" up their leftover food and small gifts for the poor the day after Christmas (or so says Wikipedia) so church was only 1 hour but it let me dress her up in her first Christmas dress! As you can see she had enough festivities by the time we got to pictures.

All in all it was a wonderful first Christmas with Hadley!

One Long Catch Up Post

My last few posts have been mostly about sleep (interesting to me, lame to you), so this is what we have been up to the last month -

Started off trying to take family photos for a Christmas Card, we put the camera on a timer and this is about the best we got (love the radiator in the background). I finally chose a picture of just Hadley bc she is the cutest one and called it good.

We then headed out to London on the first weekend for a party with the other EY Americans, we took the chance to check out Harrods and the lights downtown. Harrods was breathtaking with gorgeous window displays - I loved the toy section, coveted the 400$ little girl dresses that I would never buy and the food section was a high end Candyland. The place was packed so the only picture we got was from the party!

The second weekend we went hunting for a tree - we had heard of a place called "Christmas Common", we figured a town that was literally named after Christmas had to be amazing! It ended up being a very large barn with trees stacked a la Home Depot and it appears that trees are shorter here. We did find one, and although it is about my height, we love it.

Jamie turned 30!! I had a big trip planned to Barcelona where he served his Mission and then decided to wait for better weather. It worked out well because Jamie had the flu of death that week. We ended up celebrating at home with a hideously ugly cake.

We went into Reading and did some shopping for presents we couldn't order online and checked out the lights. We went to the church party as well, the people were so very kind, I kept hearing how reserved the English were but they have been extremely welcoming.

Then it snowed and England shut down. Literally, everything stopped. England doesnt have snowplows and last year they ran out of salt. Airplanes, trains and cars were all stuck in 3 inches of snow. We had planned on heading to Hampton Court (Tudor Palace) and to a traditional service at Church of England but couldnt make it out of the driveway. So we....

Built snowmen...

Hung out in our jammies...

Wrapped presents....

Ate lots of pumpkin bread...

And played inside all day, especially with our favorite - clementine peels.

I really, really wanted Hadley to meet Santa on her first Christmas. They dont have him visit the major stores and the few places that had him booked up online. Jamie's work had a party and we heard Santa might be there so we busted out of our house and took the trip. He didn't have the kids sit on his lap but we did end up with a photo of her next to him!

That about sums up our December! We listened to lots of Christmas music (streamed it from CA) and danced, Hadley will bop to Rudolph, and ate lots of Christmas cookies. Now we cant wait to open presents!