New Year's in London

Going out into the big city to watch fireworks at midnight gets a little tricky when you have a six month old, so we had to find a creative way to ring in the New Year. I think I like our way better.

Christmas Socks!

Mail is one of the most exciting things ever. Christmas by mail is unbelievably exciting. And it didn't stop on Christmas! We had presents arrive on Wednesday, and another one today! Thanks so much!




Paige handled Christmas morning like a pro. She put up with us waking her up early, dressing her up in all sorts of clothes, and shoving every toy in her face. Yes, that is a towel on her head...Moving on.




She made out like a bandit. Look at all that booty!


She has enough socks to last her until she's twelve. Every time I think I've collected them all and put them in her drawer, I find another pair hiding under a toy or blanket. She got so many toys too, she didn't know what to do with all of them.


She was super excited about the spatula she got from Grandma Tucker. She's been perfecting her eggs benedict.


Mum, Dad and baby in our new duds. We're a pretty snappy-looking bunch!

Special Ed Moose

Growing up I remember my dad telling stories about his clueless-city-kid cousins coming out to his family's dairy farm. Jeff and I don't consider ourselves country kids by any stretch of the imagination, but even we couldn't help laughing when we saw this mounted on a "ranch style" restaurant on the London boardwalk.

We're trying to figure out how we could steal it and ship it to the States. Specifically to Maryland...where do you get an estimate on overseas shipping for moose heads?
P.S. Merry Christmas!

Hi again!

Today's outing was to Covent Garden, which is famous for its street performers, shops, and Christmas decorations. As we rounded the corner to the main square, this is what we saw. Poor guys, they looked really cold. They kept encouraging people to come in and break the wind. "If you come in closer, it creates the illusion...of an audience!"

I had to laugh when I saw them though, and this is why. Notice that none of the people in this picture are bundled up in seven layers and freezing with dripping noses? That's because it was taken in the summertime, a year and a half ago. It was a nice throw-back.

evolution of a baby dinner

In honor of Paige's cutting her first tooth, I've decided to show you what she's been munching on lately. Aren't you excited?!

Here's what a typical dinner starts out as. We've started measuring Paige's diet primarily in fishes. Cubes equal two fish, and would store more food, but they're a pain to get out of the tray and then we have no ice. And they're not fishes.

The fish melt faster too, though this picture is deceptive because bananas reheat really fast. The carrots are my favorite here. They're mixed with Greek yogurt since Paige doesn't really like them by themselves. She doesn't like Greek yogurt either, but she really likes the two mixed. Go figure.

Here's the final meal, with a little plum puree drizzled on top. Elegant, huh? Lucky for me, elegance and anti-constipation go hand-in-hand.
While we're in the kitchen, I thought I'd take the chance and show you of the things we've taken note of since we've been here.

First off, the milk comes in a differently-shaped bottle, and the largest size is a half-gallon. It's made to fit in the fridge door and last for about 3 days. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the soda bottles are also skinnier and taller. Sprite is called lemonade here.
They have a lot of different fords for things. A zucchini is called a courgette, and cilantro is called coriander. Maybe I was the only person who didn't know this, but porridge is just oatmeal. My first thought when I saw this was, "Why would bears be eating oatmeal?"
The kettle is cool because it boils water in less than a minute. It's a standard house-hold appliance that I've grown fond of, though I guess they don't work in the US because the voltage is so low.
The hot chocolate is amazing, and we buy the super cheap stuff. That bag costs less than a dollar. It's half gone, by the way.
The baby food is notable because they have different brands and encourage a lot more variety of baby food here. I saw a recipe last week for baby curry and another one for baby fish pie.
Digestives are really common to have on the table for tea. We get the basic kind, but they have chocolate and caramel and other fancy ones too. They're good for digestion, I guess? I dunno. They're about a quarter for a package and taste kind of like graham crackers. Perfect for cocoa.
Not pictured: cereal. The raisin bran here has shredded coconut, banana chips and hazelnuts in it! It's really good.
Finally, in case you didn't notice, we favor the Sainsbury's Basics food. It's hands-down the cheapest anywhere, and except for their spaghetti sauce, tastes pretty good. We're definitely down with that.

Decor

It makes me happy.

Chocolate Christmas

I ate too much sugar today.

I blame Jeff, who made cookies on Thursday. I was supposed to buy groceries yesterday, but got distracted and ate cookies for lunch instead. And again for breakfast this morning.
Then we went to a chocolate festival! Mmmm, five-layer cake with dark ganache filling...















At what point in your life do you think to yourself, "I'm going to go into confectionery fashion and design?" More importantly, how do you break that to your parents? "Mom, Dad, I'm going to make trains and shoes out of chocolate for a living." And what kind of parent lets their kid do that? That said, how amazing are those gloves?

One of the events at the festival was a talk by Deborah Cadbury, who wrote a history of Cadbury chocolates. Did you know the founder was actually a quaker, and one of the first companies to mass produce a confectionery? Did you know that Cadbury once made a chocolate and lichen product? Chocolate Wars is now on my to-read list.

On our way back home we tried to take pictures of cool London-y things. Like really cool street performers, and giant ferris wheels, pretty bridges, and old buildings.















We also tried to get pictures of us with said cool things, but it didn't work out so well. This is the best we got.

Having burned off all those calories, we decided to swing by the ward Christmas party! Paige told Santa she wanted pear pie and chocolate ice cream for Christmas. She was pretty mad that we didn't share. Have you ever had pear pie? It's like the delicate, crisp, beautiful cousin that apple pie would forever be jealous of. Super good...
I need to go eat a carrot.

race to the top

when paige's health visitor came to visit us a little while ago, she made sure to remind us that when we put paige to bed, we should put her "feet to the foot" so she doesn't get tangled in the blankets. in other words, her feet need to be against the bottom of the cot. she also starts out the night on her back. an hour or two in, however, this is what we find, and this is how she insists on sleeping:



in the morning, this is how we wake up:


for someone who can't even crawl, she sure gets around.