Life In London

Life in London is quickly becoming our new "normal," so I figured I should jot down all the things that make living here unique - good and bad - before it all just becomes so routine that I don't notice it anymore.  

And, for those of you who follow this blog solely for the adorable pictures of Nathan, I have included some of those too :)

Things we love about living in London:

• We love being back in a real city (sorry, but LA just is not a real city) where we can walk everywhere or take public transportation.  We love just walking around our neighborhood and exploring all of the little parts of it that we haven't seen yet.  Plus, there is so much to do here - museums, historical sites, etc.
• There are so many beautiful parks and gardens here to explore and play in.  
• European travel - it is so easy to travel around Europe from here.  We have already been to Barcelona (1.5 hour flight) and Paris (2.5 hour train ride).  And, we have a trip planned to Marbella, Spain (2.5 hour flight) in November.
• Weather - well, this one is a pro and a con.  It's kind of nice to not have all of the crazy heat waves that we had in Pasadena.  And, so far, I am really liking having seasons again.  Fall is definitely here now - the weather is brisk and the leaves are changing color and falling off the trees.  But, we did kind of miss summer, we didn't have too many hot days here.  And, I am reserving the right to retract this one, come the middle of winter :)
• Our garden - our flat is working out so perfectly for us.  Having the garden right outside our backdoor for Nathan to run around in is perfect!  It's like having a huge backyard for him to play in!
• British people - everyone here is so friendly and helpful!  

Things that are "unique" about living in London:  (Chris said I shouldn't do a blog-full of complaints, and I'm not.  These are just the things that have taken us a while to get used to.  I do really love living here, even with these quirks!)

• No electrical outlets in the bathrooms (apparently there is a law against having electrical outlets in the bathrooms) - yeah, so this means no hair dryers, curling irons, straightening irons, or even electric toothbrush chargers in the bathroom - fun!
• Combined washer/dryer - it is almost impossible to find a flat here with a separate washer and dryer, instead, they all have combined washer/dryers.   They hold about 1/2 of the clothes that a normal washer/dryer holds and it takes about 6 hours (not kidding - I have actually timed it) to run a full wash and dry cycle.  This means I do laundry pretty much every single day!  Oh, and we also have a drying rack so that we can hang-dry clothes.  Believe it or not, this is sometimes easier than drying clothes in the machine, because for some reason, the clothes get so wrinkly when they are dried in the machine.
• Smokers - everyone here seems to smoke all the time.  You can't walk down the street without inhaling a ton of second-hand smoke.  And, every once in a while it creeps into our apartment through the vents.  We bought an air purifier for Nathan's room to make sure he is not inhaling too much of it.  
• The metric system - so annoying when you are cooking using an American recipe (which all of mine happen to be).  Thank goodness for Google.  I am constantly looking up Fahrenheit to Celsius conversions and ounces/pounds to grams conversions.
• Grocery shopping - everything here comes in smaller packages than what we're used to.  There is definitely no bulk buying (and you really couldn't anyway, because the refrigerators and freezers are smaller here).  So, if it's something you go through a lot of in a week (like milk for Nathan), you have to make sure to buy several at one time.  The other tricky part about grocery shopping here is the language barrier.  Although, technically, we speak the same language that they do, it is not entirely the same.  Many things, especially food items, are called something else here (or they just don't have what you're looking for and you have to research what a suitable replacement is).  Here are a few things I have learned so far:  a zucchini is a courgette; they don't sell graham crackers here, but you can use digestives as a replacement; powdered/confectioner's sugar is called icing sugar here; if you want the kind of bacon we get in America, you have to buy the streaky bacon; etc.  Chris always wonders why it takes so long for me to do my grocery shopping (I do it on-line).  He doesn't realize it's because I have to do research every time I do my shopping :)

And, what you've all been waiting for - the pictures :)  These are some pictures from August (I know, so late, sorry) that I forgot to post before:

When it was still warm out, Nathan loved having picnics in our garden! He always asked me to "eat outside; night night outside" (meaning he wants me to put the blanket outside).

Being silly with his toy bins.

He finally likes vegetables again after going on about a 6-month vegetable strike.

Eating lunch in Holland Park.

Playing with an oversized chess set in Holland Park.

Taking a break on our walk.

And, a few more recent pictures and videos:

This is what happens when the weather changes and your son still insists on having a picnic - you convince him that it's way more fun to have a picnic inside!

Nathan's 2nd Birthday in Paris (2 of 2)

Our little boy turned two on September 17th.  He is such a sweet and loving boy, but also all boy!  He loves all sports - soccer, football, baseball, smash ball, tennis, volleyball - pretty much anything that includes a ball.  And, he's actually really good at all of it - I have no idea how he is so coordinated.  He also loves balloons, trains, riding the bus, and animals (ducks, cats, dogs, even the peacocks at Holland Park). He likes going to the playground and riding the slide and basically just running all over the place.    He's a bit on the shy side when he meets new people and takes a while to warm up, but if someone offers to give him a high five, he jumps at the opportunity.  He loves his mommy and is even a bit clingy (but, I'm not complaining :) ).  But, he also loves Daddy and Uncle Casey and likes for us all to be together.  He is also really into singing right now.  He loves to throw out requests for people to sing and he also identifies the person he wants to sing the song (i.e., "Daddy, Row, Row Boat").  His favorite songs at the moment are Row, Row, Row Your Boat; The ABC Song; Hickory Dickory Dock (aka "Tick Tock"); BINGO; and Snowflake.  He also likes to sing though (when he thinks no one is listening).  I often will find him singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat ; Happy Birthday To You; and Snowflake.  We have loved every minute of the last 2 years and can't believe how quickly Nathan is growing!  We can't wait to see what is in store for the next year.

Here are pictures from Nathan's birthday day and Paris.

The morning of Nathan's 2nd birthday.

Another favorite souvenir from Disneyland - a fun little container that held popcorn.  He walked around Paris with this on his neck :)  Glad he got some use out of it - this little thing of popcorn cost 9 Euros!

Eating ice cream in front of the Eiffel Tower.

At the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Drinking his milk at dinner.  Even though he could barely reach it, he refused to let me help him - that's my 2-year old:)

Happy birthday Nathan!  He loved blowing out his candles.  After he blew them out the first time, he kept saying "candles on."  He had us re-light them 3 more times so he could keep blowing them out :)

In front of the Arch de Triomphe.

On the boat tour.

Listening to the commentary on the boat tour.

Riding a motorcycle back at the resort.

And, and airplane :)

Oops - forgot to post this one with the Disneyland pictures.  Family carousel ride.

Nathan's 2nd Birthday in Paris (1 of 2)

Instead of having a birthday party for Nathan this year, we decided to go to Disneyland Paris and Paris for his birthday (because he really only has one friend here so far :) ).  On Friday evening we headed out on the Eurostar train that took us to the little town outside of Paris where Disneyland is.  The Eurostar is so quick and easy.  We will definitely be taking another trip to Paris in the future!

We stayed in one of our Marriott timeshare resorts, so we had a cute little townhouse just down the street from Disneyland. Because we got in kind of late Friday night, we decided to have a low key day on Saturday and just stay around the resort.  This turned out to be a great decision.  Nathan had a blast!  Just outside of our townhouse, there was a little pond with ducks and a garden that housed about 7 little kittens.  We spent most of the day feeding the ducks and kittens (they baked fresh baguettes on the premises and it turns out that is great duck and kitty food!) and Nathan had a great time chasing them around too.  

On Sunday, we headed to Disneyland, or as Nathan calls it "Mickey Mouse's house and Nemo's house."  We had such a fun day there.  From what I can gather, Dumbo was Nathan's favorite ride.  At least, that's the one he talks about the most.  

Monday morning (Nathan's birthday), we had a quick little birthday celebration - surprise balloons and the first of many renditions of "Happy Birthday" - and then we took a short train ride to Paris where we saw the Arch de Triomphe, strolled down the Champs de Elysee, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, took a boat tour down the River Seine, ate great crepes and French Onion Soup, and had yet another birthday celebration Monday night in our hotel room in Paris.

I think Nathan had a good birthday celebration!  We still can't believe our baby boy is 2 years old.  He brings so much joy to our lives and we are having such a great time watching him grow up.  Happy birthday Nathan!  We love you!

Chris and Nathan on the train.  Nathan loved that we got to "eat on choo choo."

Nathan and Daddy hard at work on the train :)

In the garden behind our townhouse.

Feeding the ducks!

Disneyland Paris!

Main Street

First ride.

Dumbo ride.  Nathan still talks about it.  Mommy and Nathan were in the "green Dumbo go up" and "Daddy and Uncle Casey pink Dumbo."

Teacups

Mickey Mouse.  Sadly, this and the stuffed animal Mickeys were the only Mickey Mouses we saw all day.  We didn't see any characters there :(

Nathan and Uncle Casey in line.

So tired - nap time.

Nathan's birthday present from Great Grandma and Grandpa Russom.  He got to pick out whatever he wanted from Disneyland and, of course, he picked a Cars baseball and baseball bat.  He loves it so much.  He now calls Disneyland "Mickey Mouse's house, Nemo's house, and baseball bat's house."

Nathan's First Day Of Football

Nathan started Little Kickers today!  So much fun!  He was a bit unsure at first and wanted mom or dad right there with him, but his reservations started to disappear when he realized he got to run around and kick soccer balls.  He had a great time and loved his coaches!

Ready to go to Little Kickers!

Warming up.

Drills with the football - we're really trying not to call it soccer, because I think we're starting to confuse Nathan :)

And, walking Suka after Little Kickers.

Korean Food And More

So, this post is a bit out of order, because it's actually from last weekend.  But, better late than never, right?

Korean food was always readily available in LA.  Koreatown was only about a 25-minute drive away from us and, of course, Chris' mom cooked Korean food for us whenever we saw her.  But, here in London, it's not so easily accessible.  After not having eaten it in a while, last Saturday, Chris said he was craving Korean food for dinner, so I quickly hopped on-line and found a Korean restaurant that was fairly close (Soho) and had received good ratings on yelp.com.  It was a bit of trek getting there, because we took the bus, not realizing that there was some kind of street fair going on and that all road traffic was being diverted around the exact area we wanted to go to.  But, we finally made it and we were pleasantly surprised to see that many of the tables were filled with Koreans eating dinner - this is always a good sign :)  The food ended up being pretty good.  Nathan ate more than we have seen him eat in a long time - I guess he was missing Korean food too!  We will definitely be going back to this place in the future.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

On the bus heading to Soho for Korean food.  This may be around the time we realized that the streets were all shut down and the bus was being detoured away from where we wanted to go.

Starting to get bored on the bus, because it is taking way longer than it is supposed to.

Yum - Nathan loves Korean food!

We learned our lesson - we took the tube home.

Nathan loves his Uncle Casey!

A quick weekend breakfast at Cafe Nero.  The coffee here is our favorite.  It tastes more like what you get in the States.  For some reason, even Starbucks tastes a little funny here.  

The fort we built in the living room.  Saturday was a bit rainy in the morning.

Nathan in his fort.  I have had to limit the fort to rainy days, because otherwise he wants it up all the time.

Nathan and I in the fort.  We were reading books in the fort with his little mini-flashlight :)