The Olympics Are Here!

It's such a fun time to be living in London!  We are right in the middle of all the excitement!  The first weekend of the Olympics was amazing!  On Friday, we stood on the Chelsea Bridge and watched the Olympic torch float down the Thames.  Friday night, Chris and I went to an Opening Ceremonies party.  Saturday morning, Chris and I woke up bright and early to catch the Thames Clipper down to Greenwich to watch Men's Gymnastics.  By the time we got home, Casey and Nathan were already standing at the end of our street trying to catch a glimpse of the men's cyclists coming down Fulham Road.  We waited about 30 minutes before they came racing past us.  So exciting!  Nathan loved it!  On Sunday, we had brunch with an old friend of Chris'.  Then it was back home for nap-time.  Nathan woke up just in time to see the women cyclists come by.  This time we were smart.  We watched the race on t.v. so we knew just when to head outside to see them pass by (it was raining today, so we didn't want to stand outside longer than we needed to :)  We have lots of pictures and videos from this weekend.  Enjoy!

We're looking forward to the next few weeks of the Olympics!  We'll have more updates soon.

The Olympic torch going down the Thames.

On the boat to Greenwich to watch Men's Gymnastics!

At North Greenwich Arena for Men's Gymnastics!

Thanks Bryant for our USA gear!

The gymnasts entering the arena.

The Olympic Rings on the Tower Bridge.

Waiting for the cyclists!

Here they come!

Go USA!


The women cyclists!

Nathan and Uncle Casey relaxing after cycling.

Our Little Drummer Boy

Just a few fun pictures and videos from Purple Dragon (our kids club).  We had fun in the music room on Friday!

Chelsea's new boy band!

And, we're starting to try potty training.  We'll see how this goes.

Fun In The Sun

The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous!  It's been in the 80's all week (or, for all you in the UK, around 30 degrees Celsius - I'm trying to get used to this, but I still cheat by using the weather app on my phone which still lists the temperature in fahrenheit).  We're crossing our fingers that the nice weather lasts for the Olympics, but right now, it's saying temperatures are going to drop back down to the 60's and rain is coming Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday (of course, the weather forecasts here change by the minute, so we really have no idea!).  In any event, we are enjoying the summer weather while it lasts!

On Tuesday, we met up with friends at the Hyde Park Lido (a little splash pool and playground for the kiddos).  Despite the hot weather outside, the water was freezing, so Nathan spent more time playing on the playground than he did in the water.  Tuesday night, we took advantage of the weather and ate dinner outside on our patio.  Nathan was so excited to eat outside, he sat down at the table before Chris and Casey had even left to pick up our take-away and he just kept saying "eat outside, eat outside."

On Wednesday evening, Chris, Casey, and Nathan had a boys' night and I got to go have a girls' night with my friend, Susan, and some of her friends.  We went to the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park and saw a Mid-Summer Night's Dream.  We picnicked in the park before the play started and then headed to our seats in the outdoor theatre.  It was a beautiful night to spend outside and I met some wonderful people!

An Olympics update:  It's really fun to see signs of the Olympics all over our neighborhood.  The triathlon will be held in and around Hyde Park (not really our neighborhood, but close enough :)  The swimming portion of the triathlon will be held in the Serpentine Lake at Hyde Park (which is absolutely disgusting; I cannot believe that people will be swimming in all of that duck poo), so we saw everything all set up for that when we went to the Lido on Tuesday.  Today, the Olympic torch passed right by our house (well, it went down Kings Road, which is our high street).  Nathan was napping, but I sent Casey to take pictures and video!  And, the cycling race will go right by our house this weekend (at least I think it's this weekend, I better check the dates!)

Hanging out at the playground at the Lido with Uncle Casey. 

The splash pool.

This is at the playground by our flat.  It stays light until like 10 pm here, so we can go to the playground after dinner.

 Dance party with Uncle Casey!

Dining al fresco!

So, it's not the best video (a little Blair Witch Project even), but thanks to Casey, we got video of the torch going down Kings Road (he left the flat a little later than he should have because we were waiting for the camera battery to charge, so he had to run to catch up to it).  Thanks Casey!!

I Love My Little Guy!

I realize I have been a little slow with my posts lately, so I am making up for it today - three in one day!! :)  

Although it's not always easy, I really am enjoying my time with Nathan!  I love being around to see all of his "firsts" and see how much he is learning and growing on a daily basis.  It's really quite shocking how much he absorbs and how quickly he is learning things.  I decided to put down in writing all of the  little things he is doing right now so that I can remember them when he gets a little older.  By now, I have realized just how quickly he is growing up and how you can easily and quickly forget those little things they do, even though you swear at the time that you will never forget it.  

He knows all of his colors now (except for red - he always calls it yellow) and identifies objects by their color everywhere we go (at times, this can be somewhat annoying, but mostly it's cute and impressive!).  He seriously stops at every single little thing as we are walking to tell me what color it is (pothole covers, bicycles, lines painted on the street, house doors, even ducks (black duck, white duck, brown duck)).    

He also seems to learn a new word everyday.  His newest word is "peacock," because we saw a peacock at Holland Park on Saturday.  He can fully communicate with us now, which is very nice - no more guessing at what he wants.  And, to go along with his vocabulary, he has a memory that Chris and I are constantly amazed at.  It's much better than mine, that's for sure!  This skill can be a little challenging for a parent, because you have to be certain not to make any promises you can't keep - he will remember and he won't let you forget it either!  On the plane, I told him I would get him a balloon in London if he was good on the plane.  He was great on the plane, but for almost a week, I could not find a store here that sold balloons.  He asked me for a balloon every day until we found one!

Nathan's latest obsession is the "animals."  Any time I ask him what he wants to do today, he immediately replies "animals!"  This morning, I was talking to Casey in the hall and asked what he wanted to do today and before he could respond, we heard Nathan running out of his room and yelling "animals!"  I told you he has a crazy memory - we haven't been to the Battersea Park Children's Zoo since the first week we were here!

Just a couple of other Nathanisms and I will stop droning on.  Anytime he throws or kicks the ball well, he says "Nice."  He learned this one from Uncle Casey.  I need to get a video of this, because the way he says it cracks me up.  

He is also very interested in drains now (not sure where this one came from).  He likes watching the water go down the drain in the sink.  But, he also points to every drain we see on the sidewalk and says "agua drain."  I have to acknowledge that "yes, it is a drain," otherwise, he will not keep moving and he will not stop saying "agua drain."

These are the things that make me smile on a daily basis right now!

Sorry, no pictures with this one :)  

The Olympics Are Coming!

The city is bracing for the Olympics!  There are already a lot of extra people here and there are signs of the Olympics everywhere.  Chris picked up our tickets today (gymnastics and beach volleyball).  It appears that things are not running quite as smoothly as one would hope.  He stood in line for 5 hours before picking them up!!!  And, he said that some people were not so lucky - one guy stood in line that long and they could not find a single one of his tickets!  Let's hope they get it together before Friday and things start running smoothly :)

Our tickets!

This is not a very good picture - I couldn't figure out how to zoom in with my phone, but the Olympic rings are in the river now.  Try to zoom in to see them!

It's Finally Summer In London!!

I think summer has finally arrived!  The past three days have been beautiful!!  We, of course, headed outside to enjoy it!  Saturday, we went to Holland Park while we were waiting for Chris to get home from Chicago (poor Chris, he was supposed to get home at 8 a.m., but after a 5-hour delay, he finally made it home mid-afternoon).  Sunday, we headed to our local playground before lunch and then Sunday evening, we went with our friends, the Pappas', to a great burger place (it also doubles as a grungy biker bar, but luckily, yesterday they were doing a fundraiser to end child hunger, so they had balloons out on the floor- the boys were in heaven!).  And, today, we went over the bridge to spend some time playing around in Battersea Park.

Some videos from the great playground at Holland Park - Nathan loves all of the spinning toys!

One of the peacocks at Holland Park.

 This one is from the playground by our house - Nathan made a friend :)

Casey, Nathan, and Chris on the way to get pizza Saturday night.

Nathan and Aiden at the Meat Liquor with their balloons!

Casey and Nathan pondering life at Battersea Park.

No park trip is complete without a little soccer!

Finally, A Day Without Rain!

Yesterday, we finally had a day without rain!  It wasn't exactly sunny, but at least it didn't rain.  So, we took full advantage.  In the morning, we headed over to Kensington Palace and gardens and finally checked out the Princess Diana Memorial Playground (a Peter Pan-themed playground).  We only managed to make it to a couple of the playground areas and Nathan loved it, so we will definitely be going back to this one to check out the rest of it.  Sorry, I only managed to get a couple of pictures from the playground.

After nap, we headed out to Picadilly Circus to see all the lights and shops.  We also stopped off for ice cream there!  It was kind of a zoo - I remember it being crowded there the last time I went, but I feel like it was worse tonight.  I think London has already started to get an influx of people here for the Olympics.  It is going to be a madhouse here, I think.  

We also learned a very important lesson last night - don't take the stroller if you will be attempting to get on the underground at rush hour.  It was completely impossible - we ended up heading back up to the street to catch a bus (we then accidentally got on the right bus, but heading the wrong direction, so our trip home took much longer than expected).

Eating ice cream - yum!  (I also got a cute video of this, but am having technical difficulties with that right now, so will have to post later).

And, this was tonight - he was "helping" me make dinner :)

  

Big Boy Bed

The transition to a toddler bed has so far been an absolute nightmare, but not because of Nathan and his ability/willingness to sleep in the bed, but rather because of the logistical nightmare that it has been.  It started with the flawed attempt to convert the crib to a toddler bed (which resulted in the entire thing being thrown in the trash) and it ended today with not one, but two trips to the department store to pick up the toddler bed (I still don't know what the car company will charge us for that extra trip).  

As any mom with a toddler knows, it is just not always easy to get out of the house in the morning.  Depending on the morning, any routine task can be a struggle.  This morning, like many mornings, the struggle was over a shirt.  I wanted Nathan to wear a shirt, but he wanted to go topless.  As usual, I got my way, but not without a fight.  Needless to say, when the car company showed up to pick us up, we were racing around trying to find shoes, socks, etc. and get out the door.  In the midst of all of this, I forgot the order number for my purchase.  We got to the store to pick up the bed and, of course, they needed my order number in order to find the item I was picking up (why they couldn't possibly look it up by name alone is beyond me, but they said they couldn't).  So, it was back home to pick up the order number and then back to the store to pick up the bed.  Luckily, we also were able to make a pit stop by my friend Susan's house to pick up her glider, so the first trip was not a complete waste.  But, moral of the story here...we should have just had Nathan sleep on a mattress on the floor a couple of extra nights and opted for the free delivery.  

Anyway, we did finally manage to get the bed and put it together (I think we are finally done assembling things now - yay!).  Nathan seems to like it and more importantly, he seems to know that when it is bed-time, he is not allowed to get off of the bed (in order to avoid going to sleep, he just sits in the bed calling my name; he doesn't get out of bed - so that's something, I guess :)  It's still taking a while to get him to sleep (both naps and night-time), but I think it's starting to get a little better.  He did pretty well in the bed for his nap today, and hopefully tonight will go well (so far, so good).  I am just hoping he doesn't fall out of it, as the rail does not go all the way across the bed, but is only up toward the head of the bed.  We will keep you posted!  Although, this is probably already more than you all wanted to know about a bed and Nathan's sleep habits :)  But, this blog is not only for you all to keep up with us, but also for us to look back and remember our time here, so you will all just have to suffer through some of the more mundane posts :)

And, here it is, the new big boy bed.  And, our new glider, on loan from Susan and Aiden - thanks Susan!!

The other side of Nathan's room - not quite as cute and put-together as his nursery at home in Pasadena, but it will do for the next two years.

Nathan napping in his new bed.  Yes, his feet are where his head should be, but he'll figure it out eventually :)

So, these are the trials and tribulations of being a stay-at-home-mom - a little different than drafting briefs and trying cases, but so far I'm enjoying having this time with Nathan! 

A Weekend At Home

Nathan and I were a little under the weather this weekend, so we stayed in for most of the weekend.  Sadly, that meant that we missed the grand opening of Harrods' new Toy Kingdom.  Our friends, the Pappas', said it was great, so I am sure that we will be checking it out at some point in the future - we will add that to our list of rainy day activities!  By the way, we're both feeling better now, so hopefully we won't be missing out on anything else.

By staying in, we did get some things done around the flat.  We finished hanging things on Nathan's walls (including a new height chart, so we can finally start keeping track of how tall Nathan is between doctor's visits) and we decided to convert Nathan's crib into a toddler bed.  He has not been a fan of the crib here (even though he loved his crib at home) and recently he has started trying to climb out of the crib, so that pretty much made the decision for us - I don't want to deal with any broken bones here.  Unfortunately, the previous owners of the crib (we bought it from our realtor) had not followed directions and had drilled a bunch of unnecessary holes into the crib, so when we tried to convert it to a toddler bed, it was so rickety that I insisted that we throw it out and buy a new toddler bed.  Of course, the new bed won't be here until Monday, so Nathan is sleeping on his crib mattress on the floor for now.  After we get the toddler bed put together, I think that will be the end of "building" things and that we will finally be all settled!  

We'll keep you posted on how this new big boy bed transition goes.  I'm hoping well, because my usually perfect sleeper is giving me a run for my money.  He's usually fine once he gets to sleep, but the process of getting him to sleep is getting to be a bit much (sometimes 45 minutes to an hour both at nap time and at bed time).  At home, all I had to do was stick him in his crib and he curled up and went to sleep - not so much here.  I am hoping that he is still just getting used to his surroundings and will settle back into his routine pretty soon, because mom is getting tired of it!  If any of you moms out there have any suggestions, I will take them!  We're also getting a rocker tomorrow, so that might help as well, because at home rocking in our glider together as he drank his sippy cup of milk was part of our bed-time routine - maybe he's missing the routine??  I don't know.

Have a great week everyone!

Chris and Casey beginning the process of converting the crib to a toddler bed.  Little did they know that this was a futile effort.

Nathan playing with his blocks at his little table.

Nathan's temporary "bed."

Nathan sleeping in his temporary bed.

Measuring Nathan - surprisingly he stood very still for this and actually let me do it.

The Science Museum

Another partially rainy day today, so we headed to the science museum.  Thankfully, the museums here are all free, so they provide lots of rainy weather enjoyment.  We'll have to go to this one again, because we only managed to make it through one of the 6 floors.  Nathan loved the hands-on children's area, especially the water feature.

Finally getting some use out of the stroller's rain shield - first time we have ever used it.  Definitely not in California anymore.

Having fun at the Science Museum.

Nathan LOVES water!  Couldn't get him away from this.

Experimenting with electricity.

Our Rainy Weekend

Chris decided to take Friday off of work, so we enjoyed a long weekend with him!  Unfortunately, it rained pretty much all weekend.  The only good thing about the weather was that Nathan was so excited to carry his new umbrella and break out his new rain boots and rain coat.  He likes the weather here much better than Chris and I do.

We had a fun weekend - Purple Dragon Kids Club on Friday morning (Dad finally got to go with us); Hyde Park on Friday afternoon (the rain cleared and it was a beautiful afternoon and evening - Nathan loved watching the ducks in the lake); Buckingham Palace on Saturday to see the changing of the guards (sorry friends and family who visit, but we will never do this again - it was madness - think about the most crowded day at Disneyland and then multiply that times 10, but Nathan did love the music and the men with "hats"); and we went to the Natural History Museum on Sunday to see the dinosaurs  (Nathan liked it, but I think he will like it much more in a couple of years).  

 And, to cap it all off, we finally got all of our things from home this morning!  Needless to say, I was working like crazy today trying to find a place to put everything.  It is not easy downsizing from 2,100 square feet to 800 square feet, but I think I have just about managed to find a home for everything.  I still have some more work to do tomorrow, but I think we can almost call this place "home"!

Here are some pictures from the weekend - enjoy!

He loves holding his umbrella (even when it isn't raining)!

Ready for the rain!

Such a boy!

Loving the ducks at Hyde Park!

                           

Such a big boy - standing on the bus!  He loves public transportation, because it means no carseat!