Early September

Because Stephen has a lifetime membership to the National Trust, we spend a lot of weekends in the warm months going to historic houses. On the weekend of September 2/3, we went to Chartwell, once the home of Winston Churchill. It has lovely gardens to look around- Esme had fun burning off some energy!

Noah sat in the grass and laughed at his big sister.

He is such a placid, laid back baby!

Esme in the garden- stops to smell the flowers <3

My beautiful little fam bam!

The house

We had a lovely time exploring the garden and house and then stopped for a cup of tea before setting off. I think an old man made a comment about me breastfeeding (with a cover!) but I just ignored it. Most people in England don't even use covers! Oh well! You can't please everyone!!

On September 9, I went out for Liz's going away pub crawl. She was in England for over a month visiting her boyfriend Max(who randomly happens to be roommates with one of our friends through no connection- small world!). They started early in the morning on the Monopoly pub crawl and I joined them after Stephen got home from work. We had a ton of fun and I have the scars to prove it! I tripped on a cobble stone and fell flat on my face, skinned my knee and hand and bruised my ego. To add insult to injury, I tried to cook myself a piece of chicken when I got home and burnt myself on the oven. Note to self: do not drink and cook. We didn't make it to the final few pubs- something to aspire to next time she is here!

The next big event was Noah's first taste of solid food! He had organic rice cereal with breastmilk. Watch the video and judge for yourself...but he didn't like it!! This happened the day he turned 6 months- September 10, 2011.



Take 2



A few days later, we tried some carrots and that was a no go, too. I meant for his first real food to be avocado but the one I bought didn't ripen in time and I had to move on to plan b: organic carrots and potatoes. Baby food is different in England. In the US, we get all sorts of single variety baby foods- apples, carrots, pears, etc. Over here, 90% of baby foods are mixed and I had a hard time finding things that I felt comfortable giving his delicate little tummy.



While Noah was learning to eat, Esme was polishing her rock star skills. This kid is going to be a performer- she lives for the camera and loves to sing and dance. Here are adorable videos of her swaying her hips to the Seinfeld theme. This is NOT how she normally dances- she is letting the music inspire her!



take 2

I have lots of videos to catch you up on. Here is a cute one of Noah scooting across the floor of our first corporate apartment



I really wish I would have kept up with this blog religiously! My new year resolution will be to update once a week! It is hard to remember everything I want to remember.

Esme has a funny curly patch of hair on the back of her head. I think this is where her hair rubbed off when she was a baby and it grew back with a little wave.

The Docklands Museum became a regular haunt of ours while living on Canary Wharf. They have an area called Mudlarks where there is a soft play area and some other interactive displays for toddlers and babies. Esme loves it there.

We found a cool little seat for Noah so that he and Esme could start taking baths together. So sweet!

The kids went to a trial Gymboree family music class that they absolutely loved but when we realized how far away it would be when we moved to Greenwich, we decided to give it a miss. We also went to story time at the Canary Wharf library. As soon as we find things to do, it is time to move on! Grr!