Thanksgiving

From our home to yours, The Boy, The Babe, and I wish you 

a very very happy Thanksgiving weekend. 

Grammie's gone home.

Thank you, Grammie, for traveling with us to our new home, in a new country, with all the craziness that entails, and for spending 3 weeks with us being kind and patient and a babysitting goddess. Thank you. Thank you. A thousand times thank you. We miss you already. 

{Grammie and The Babe in Greenwich}

Today through my window...

Snow

A Recapitulation: Plane Rides

After the flurry of hugs and kisses and greetings from loved ones, the burning question everyone asked was: How was The Babe on the flight? The truth is he was lovely. OK. Yes. The first 20 minutes sitting on the plane were less than perfect. My guess is that The Babe was aware he was about to endure anywhere from 2 to 10 hours of sitting pretty much in the same place and he wasn't thrilled about it.  We tried everything we could think of to distract him. Toys, books, snacks. I even tried explaining to him that all these people didn't know how wonderful he was and that he was scaring them to bits, but this did nothing to stop the tears.  I'm sure that in those 20 minutes of crying every single passenger within earshot rolled their eyes and, with a sigh or a groan, did there best to resign themselves to a noisy kid on the flight.

Then the plane would take off and he became a whole different kiddo. I'd snuggle him close and breastfeed him and in no time at all he was asleep. On the shorter flights he'd sleep the whole time. On the longer flights The Babe would wake up, we'd walk around for a bit, and he would charm the pants off of everyone with smiles and waves. 

We have a habit of being the last off a plane if we have the time and several people commented on how good he had been. I couldn't help but hear relief in their voices and see gratitude in their eyes.

sitting on the plane at Heathrow waiting for

The Babe's very first flight ever

movie time with Daddy

right before takeoff, which he slept right through

A Recapitulation: Part I

The last few weeks we've been traveling fools. Seriously. It's been insane. The Babe has racked up so many air miles, been so many new places, and met so many new people I'm surprised his head hasn't explode with all the new experiences. Through it all he has been charming and good natured and we are very, very proud. So, without further ado, here's what we've been up to...

Last Day in London

On our last day in London, we wanted to do something completely touristy, something that screamed Britannia to everyone except a Briton. I had seen the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace no fewer than 4 times, The Babe once, but somehow The Boy had seen this spectacle a grand total of zero. So it was decided our day would go like this: Get up. Breakfast at Rhodes Bakery (of course) and then The Tube into London. Start at Buckingham Palace with The Changing of the Guard, stroll through St James Park and down Whitehall, seeing Trafalgar Square, Downing Street and Big Ben along the way, then across the river for a spin on the London Eye, and finally one final boat ride home to Greenwich. Whew! It sounds like a long day, but surprisingly it wasn't. Instead it was a fantastic, perfect kind of day for saying goodbye. 

last Tube ride

 At Buckingham Palace -the two dapper gents 

in the lower right hand corner are my guys.

 Downing Street

 The kid can nap anywhere. 

On the London Eye

It should be noted that the weather gods smiled on us this day. The day before and the day after were absolutely dreadful. So thank you, Old Blighty, for the sunny day.