Just a quick update......

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update regarding our move and such.  To be honest, it hasn't been the best couple of days.  So, I am going to keep it short and sweet, because we are really enjoying being here despite all of the problems we've faced.  I really don't want this blog to be a Debbie Downer blog, lol!

Here goes.....

Friday was move day.  Chris picks up car from rental car company.  He almost takes out a wall exiting onto the road.  Driving on the right side of the car is more of a problem than driving on the left side of the road.  Lots more car to the left of us than we're used to.  We get all but one bag into the car that we rented.  That requires a trip back to our place later.  We make our way to our new place.  It isn't so bad driving on the left, but it is hard to use googlemap directions without pictures to show you the turns.  Maps are better.  We get to our place a few minutes early.  The check-in agent doesn't show up until 40 minutes later.  She finally arrives and takes way too long to check us in.

We get in the car, drive to IKEA.  Again, driving not so bad.  Eat lunch at IKEA and then spend a small fortune equipping our apartment with dishes, pots, pans, bedding, etc.  No fun.  We then go to ASDA, owned by Walmart, in hopes of finding a seat for Reed.  No dice.  Must order online.  We find our way back to our place after a few wrong turns.  Again, maps are better.

Chris makes 1,000 trips into our place unloading the overly stuffed car.  He then heads out to return the car with a phone battery on low.  He gets lost, at least he saw Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.  He finally finds his way, thank goodness.  While he's gone, circuit breaker has a problem and we lose power to bedrooms and bathrooms.  Power is still out.  That makes for fun times in the bathroom.  Haha! 

We are continuing to have issues getting internet in our new flat, but hopefully that will be cleared up tomorrow.  The one good thing that happened this weekend is that Chris's parents hooked up Slingbox at our home in Marietta, so we can actually watch our TV here.  We just need internet to be able to use it while Chris is at work.

Today, we went to Buckingham Palace and saw the tail end of the changing of the guard.  We plan to get there much earlier next time to get a closer look.  Pictures to come later.  After that, we went to Harrod's to let Reed play and I lose one of his shoes.  Ugh.  So, that was our weekend in a nutshell.  It is going to get better.  It is going to get better, lol!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat!

Waiting patiently for story time.  Yeah right, he was up from this chair a half-second later.

The most exciting part of story time for me on Monday was the knew knowledge of additional lyrics to Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  I always wondered why the song was so short and why it was so popular.  Well, it's because it keeps going!  All the kids at story time loved it, so I am definitely going to have to start singing it to Reed.  

Now, we all know how the beginning of the song goes.....

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

But, how many of you knew these verses?  So great!  And, of course, you have to act out the last line of each verse.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the river.

If you see a polar bear,

don't forget to shiver.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

If you see a crocodile, 

don't forget to scream.

Row, row, row your boat, 

Gently to the shore.

If you see a lion,

don't forget to roar.

I have seen many, many more verses when searching for these online.  It is certainly a song that will be used in the Jarrett household from now on!

Hmmm...........

Bain was nice enough to provide us with a few things in our flat upon arrival.  It wasn't much and honestly not what I would have expected for a few snacks and necessities.  Especially this......

A box of milk!  Unrefrigerated, boxed milk.  I don't think so.

"After opening keep refrigerated and treat as fresh milk."  Am I supposed to imagine that it isn't milk before I open it?  LOL!

By the way, they also don't refrigerate their eggs here.  Maybe they do once they get home, but they don't in the grocery store.

Dr. Jack Shephard is coming to London!

Does one go see a play, In a Forest Dark and Deep, only to see one of my favorite LOST actors in person?  I think it is a necessity.  A little play like this could warrant me actually getting to talk to him or even have my picture taken with him.  And, the play could be good as well, right?  Do you think he would mind if I mentioned how I loved LOST or is he over it?  Hopefully not.

So, I was just looking online at London film premieres, because I am all about a celebrity sighting, when I saw on the sidebar that Matthew Fox was coming to London to be in a play.  Ah!  Chris, we seriously need to find a babysitter, so we can go to this!!

Weekend Activities

This weekend was not one for much sightseeing, as it was very cold, but we did get out and take a walk to some areas that we have had yet to check out.  This will probably be a regular occurrence, as I doubt we will ever be able to see every thing here.  There's just so much to see.

A pretty church  near Oxford Circus.  Not exactly sure the name of it.

We decided to check out a telephone booth for probably the first and last time.  They weren't very clean.

Chris was brave enough to touch the phone with his gloves on!

We found another toy store, Hamley's, for Reed to check out.

We discovered another toy store, Hamley's, for Reed to play in.  He found this little stuffed horse to take a ride on.

LOL!  Too funny!

He spotted this Buzz from across the room.  He kept coming back to it.

This has to be on the busiest pedestrian and car, for that matter, intersection!  This is Oxford Circus.  It is a circus, that's for sure!

On Sunday, we took a very abbreviated walk around Regent's Park, which is just north of where we are staying.  It was just way too cold for a walk, so we headed back to our place before meeting some of Chris's HBS sectionmates at a nearby restaurant.  It was very nice to get together with people that we know in the city.  They were very helpful with their recommendations for what trips we should take outside of the country as well as weekend trips here.  We certainly look forward to beginning our tour of Europe soon!

Random observations from our first week.

• Smoking is very commonplace.
• The major fashion trend here currently is tights with short shorts.  And, if you are a little cold wearing the shorts, then you just pop on some thigh-high socks over your tights to add to your look or warm you up.  I honestly don't blame them for this, although I hope they remove the socks once they get to their destination.
• Everything is smaller here, living space, refrigerator, dishwasher, and food packages, just to name a few.  Milk even comes in a oddly shaped jug that will fit nicely in the small refrigerator, however, I don't think it's possible to buy a gallon.  The largest I have seen has been 6 pints or 3 quarts.
• It has only rained here maybe one or two of the days we've been here and that rain was very bearable.  Hopefully it will stay this way.
• Londoners are very nice.  I don't think I've met a rude person yet.  Just the other day when I took Reed on the Tube by myself for the first time a young woman grabbed his stroller to help me keep him steady on the ride, very nice.  And, a man asked people to move out of the way so that I could get off of one train.  It is so helpful in a new place to be surrounded by friendly people.
• It appears that although they drive on the left side of the road, they tend to walk haphazardly on the sidewalks.  Maybe all the weird walkers are foreigners like ourselves.  Either way it makes it difficult to maneuver on the sidewalk.
• Lots of Londoners drive.  There are tons of cars parked everywhere and lots of traffic.  And, if they do drive, they are driving nice cars.   We've seen more expensive cars driving around here than we ever have anywhere.

Playtime with Reed!

If you see words that appear to be darker than the rest of the post, that means I have added a hyperlink to give you more details on the places that I am discussing.  You know, just in case you want a little light reading in addition to reading the blog.  Enjoy!

On our first outing to the Knightsbridge area on Tuesday, we ventured into the most amazing department store ever, Harrod's.  Seriously, this place is awesome.  I have since been in Selfridges and it just doesn't compare.  And, you wonder why this would be included in the post about playtime with Reed.  Well, they have the most amazing toy section.  I think we could probably play in there for hours and he would never have to be in the same area more than once.  We skimmed through the toy floor briefly before we had to head out to check out a flat, and he was none too happy with the short stay.  We will definitely be taking him back here for some good playtime.

The kid has literally seen parts of SpongeBob before, but he ran directly to this poster.

He loved the giant stuffed animals, especially the lion.  It was only a sweet £700 ($1,100).

Today, after venturing to check out the flat we made an offer on one last time, we headed to Kensington Gardens to play on the Princess Diana Memorial Playground.  Thankfully it is semi-close to our new place, so we will certainly be making frequent trips there.  It is so cool.  We arrived just 20 minutes before it closed.  Needless to say, Reed was none too happy.  We really should plan these things better.  Next time, next time!

The pirate ship that is the main fixture in the play area.  There were mostly big kids, so it wasn't his cup of tea.

Getting pushed on the swing by Daddy.

Loving every minute of it.

Driving the ship.

Just two seconds later, this little girl pushed him aside.  He lost it.  Okay, onto the next thing.

Coming out of one of the teepees.

Playing with Mommy.

Is this our place?

After looking at several places all over the city, we may have found a place to rest our heads for the remainder of our six months here.  We haven't even placed an offer yet, but it seems to be the highest ranking place we've seen so far (although Chris did like the one he saw last night better, a colleague said the Gloucester Road area was a more prime location).  It's actually a basement unit on Gloucester Road in Kensington.  What do you think?

What a couple of days it has been?!?!?!

This blog was started at 5am EST, 10am GMT while Reed was still sleeping.  We certainly have not been able to adjust to the time change as quickly as we'd hoped.  And, after our trip to the emergency room last night, he certainly deserves some extra sleep, as do the rest of us.

Aside from the fact that we have uprooted ourselves and moved to a new country, our little boy gets sick for only the second time yesterday.  This is certainly not what you hope for when first arriving in a country where you've never been, ah!  But, let's save that for later, let's start with the fun stuff first.

Our flight from Atlanta to London wasn't as bad as expected.  There was hardly any turbulence at all.  Reed was exhausted before we even got on the plane and was almost asleep after takeoff when the flight attendants turned on the lights to give out the entrance cards as well as dinner (at 12am!).  So, needless to say, Reed had a very difficult time going to sleep.  Once they did turn off the lights, I had to take him to the middle of the plane to get him calm.  Once asleep, he slept for a few hours in his carseat and then became restless, so I had to hold him while he slept for a few more hours.  Then, at 5 am, they switched on the lights again to serve breakfast, ugh.  Enough with the lights.  Anyway, we landed safe and sound shortly thereafter.  Thank goodness!

We arrived in London on Saturday around 11 am London time (6 am EST).  Our driver was waiting for us just as we got off the escalator.  With a sign, of course.  I've always wanted to have a driver with a sign greet me in Atlanta, lol!  We packed all six of our mega-heavy checked bags and four carry-on bags into the van and headed into London.  The ride probably took around 20 minutes.  He dropped us off at our place and Chris proceeded to carry all of those previously mentioned bags up to our third floor temporary flat.

Our home for the next two weeks is certainly not the biggest thing around, but I think it's of a decent size.  It has two bedrooms, two baths, a nice sized living/dining area and a small kitchen.  I actually don't mind the size at all.  It means less cleaning for me, and if you know me, you know I dislike cleaning.

The exterior of our current residence.  I promise to post photos soon.

After getting somewhat settled into our new place (throwing our bags on the spare bedroom bed), we headed out to grab some breakfast/lunch.  We stopped at a local restaurant called Pizza Express.  It was very yummy.  And, being typical Americans we opted for McDonalds for dinner after we all took about a 3 hour nap.  We were all exhausted for sure.  We didn't do much exploring the first day.  We have plenty of time to do that.  We needed sleep.  Chris did make a trip to a Tesco express, a small grocery store, in the area.  It seemed like the prices were pretty comparable to US prices.  Hopefully everything will be like that, at least in things that we will buy more of like food.

On Sunday, without an alarm to wake us up (too scared to turn on our cellphones for fear of major data download charges) we slept until 11am GMT.  Whoops!  Oh well, we needed it.  We woke up, had breakfast and then the fun with Reed began.  Okay, let's continue to the skip that, it's just no fun to read or write about.

While getting ready to head out we discovered that neither my hair dryer nor my flat iron work here with a converter.  Yuck!  Bad hair for the first day for sure.  Our first order of business was to find me a new flat iron.  We took a scenic walk south to find a flat iron, which we did, but on the way we saw the Marble Arch and Hyde Park.  We also got a glimpse of several people at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, where you are allowed to stand on a platform and speak your mind, as long as you don't disturb the peace.  Very interesting.  It was a very dreary day, so we didn't venture into the park at all but it was very pretty and green.  That's probably from all the rain.  We walked by Chris's office that is just across the street from Green Park.  Thankfully for Chris there is a Starbucks in the same building, and we made our first Starbucks stop of the trip.  Coffee is definitely one thing that is a little more expensive here.

Marble Arch

Reed taking a little siesta while we toured part of the city.

Speakers' Corner....you can tell there are a few people taller than others, those are the ones on platforms.

After walking by his office, we headed to Piccadilly Circus.  I think this is London's version of Times Square in NYC.  While it certainly isn't nearly as big as Times Square, it does have the neon signs and video display like Times Square.  I was somewhat disappointed that the first thing I saw when walking up was Ripley's Believe it or Not.  I couldn't believe that they have this here, lol!  We didn't get a good look at everything at Piccadilly Circus due to the rain, but we will definitely go back to check out the Shaftesbury Memorial and Statue of the Eros as well as see a show in one of the many theatres.  I am thinking Les Miserables.

A cool building on the walk from Chris' office to Piccadilly Circus.

Just to prove it.

Cool street off of Piccadilly Circus.

The center of Piccadilly Circus.  I am sure it will be much prettier once they are finished with the construction and it isn't raining.

By this time, we'd all had enough of the cold and the rain, so we decided to head back.  We took the Tube for the first time.  We had to seek help from one of the ticketing agents, but I think we now have it figured out.  Reed absolutely loved the train.  This is a good thing, since we will be riding it quite a bit.  Later that evening Chris got to have his first bite of fish and chips.  I think he enjoyed it!  And, that was the fun part of our day.

Reed and Daddy on the Tube for the first time.

Reed loved the Tube, even though it may not appear that way based on his death grip on the pole, lol!

Now, onto the not-so-fun part of the trip thus far......

We woke up late on Sunday, as I mentioned before, ate breakfast and then as I picked Reed up and put him in my lap to change out of his pjs he vomited all over himself, me and the couch.  I assumed that it would just be a one time thing, so I yelled for Chris to come help.  Then, he vomited again, so I made my way to the bathroom where he vomited again.  He seemed fine afterwards, which is exactly how he was after the last time he did this.  So, we gave him some time and then got dressed.  We went out and did everything that we mentioned before.  We returned back to our flat after eating dinner and were talking with my mom and grandmother on Skype when Reed vomited again but just a little bit.  Just a short little bit later, he vomited again and this time was not little.  This was the first time he had actually cried about it.  Ugh, can she not say vomited again?!?!?  LOL!  I think that's it.  But, my poor baby, he was such a trooper.

After this last time, we decided to call the nurseline at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  They recommended that since Reed bumped his head on Friday, we should probably take him in just to make sure it wasn't a concussion.  Take him in means going to the emergency room in a foreign country where we just arrived, yuck!  We called BCBS just to make sure it wouldn't be an issue.  So, we headed to the ER at the closest hospital.  Fun times!  We were there approximately 3 hours and all they told us was that they didn't believe that it had anything to do with him bumping his head, but they had no idea what was causing the word-that-I-promised-not-to-say-again.  To make a long story short, he v#$!&*@ again after breakfast this morning, spoke to BCBS nurse again and they recommended that if it happened again to take him back to the ER, thankfully there has been no more, and we just received confirmation from Reed's pediatrician that we shouldn't be concerned about the possibility of a concussion.  That made Chris and I feel better.  Let's hope we never have to use the v-word for the remainder of our stay in London.

Playing with the stroller in the children's area of the ER.

We were all worn out by the end of the night.

Today is the day!

Yes, my friends, today is the day that we are relocating our lives for six months to London.  Be thinking about us as we make our long journey across the pond this evening.  We certainly need extra prayers today, because if you know Chris and I, we absolutely hate to fly.  I am sure Reed will be a rockstar flyer again today, but who knows about us, lol!

Continue to check the blog for regular updates about our adventures in London.  I have also added a Twitter section on the right side of the blog, so that I can give more real-time updates regarding our time in London.

The next post will be coming to you from London!!!!

Is it bad?

Is it bad that I want to see the movie Take Me Home Tonight?  The movie certainly doesn't look like it is going to be much, but the trailer gets me every time I hear one of my favorite Eddie Money songs, Take Me Home Tonight.  Any movie with this as its theme song and title has to be good, right?

What I am going to miss.....

Family, of course.  This is a no-brainer.  It has been wonderful being so close to our families this past year and a half.  And, we hate that we are moving away again so soon after returning, but this was just the best time for our family to make this adventure.  Can't wait to get back and spend time with them!

Friends, both ours and Reed's.  We have some great friends here in Atlanta.  It is going to be hard to miss out on their lives for six months.  We look forward to many catch-up dinners and playdates upon our return.

Now, onto the ones that are not so important.

Food - Oh, how I am going to miss so many different food items in the US, especially Chick-fil-a.  I don't know how I will survive without it for 6 months, lol!  Okay, I will survive, but what about the fact that there won't be any sweet tea there.  Yikes!  My hope is that the food will be so terrible that I will lose all the weight that I have been begging to shed from my body.  I also heard from my friend Maureen that they don't use ice in their drinks.  That should be interesting.

TV - You all know how much TV I watch.  Yes, it is embarrassing but at least I will own up to it.  I guess I will be doing a lot of TV watching on the internet.  I will have to drop most shows though.  I am thinking that Glee and Modern Family will probably be my only must watch TV while there, although I will probably read write-ups about the others that I watch.

Driving - It is going to be so weird to not drive for 6 months.  I am thinking that we will probably rent a car a few times to go sightseeing, but it is going to be oh so weird to not have a car to go jump in to run errands.

Our Home - Our first home!  It is going to be hard to leave it, but I guess I will just try to decorate from afar to feel like it isn't so far away.  My parents should expect to receive a lot of packages of hopefully great home furnishing deals that I have found on the internet.

There are probably tons of other little things that we will miss during our time in London.  Thankfully, this is only a 6 month venture and we will return to all the things we love sooner rather than later!

Holy Cow!

Just a week from today we will be doing last minute preparations for our move to London and making our way to the airport for our late night flight!  Ahhhhhhh!!!

We ordered some foreign currency from Bank of America, so that we could have some on hand before we get to London.  I guess we'll be seeing a lot of this lady soon!

You are looking at 85 pounds.  This equates to $137 dollars.  I am hoping with everything that I have that their goods aren't that much more expensive.  I'm going to guess that my hopes will be dashed upon arrival.  On the bright side, we'll think products in the US are super cheap when we get back.

17 Months!

Our little guy is 17 months!  I can't believe it.  Our little boy is growing and changing like crazy.  We are enjoying every minute of it.

Stats:
Height:
Weight: 25 lbs.

At 17 Months:

• Reed's words......ball, plane, lap, light, gymnastics (yeah, yeah, it doesn't exactly sound like that, but he tries), Thomas, cat, hat, cap, pear, egg, bat, goof, Mick (Mickey), bed, knee, tree, dog, house, everyone's name in our family, etc......
• He said his first sentence this month.  Unfortunately it was "Da at work". 
• This month he starting asserting himself a little more.  He has started asking for milk instead of waiting for me to prompt him to ask for it.  And, one single night, he came up to me just before bedtime and said "night".  Love this kid!
• He started saying "no" this month.  Mommy: Do you want more bananas?  Reed: No.;  Daddy:  Come see Daddy.  Reed:  No.
• He has finally learned how to turn on the water in the bathtub in our master bath.  This is one of his favorite things to do in our room now.
• When I am reading to him, if my finger is covering any of the illustrations he will push my finger away.
• He has started pushing all of the toys in his crib into one particular corner.  Usually they are very tightly packed.  Not sure what this is about, but it is pretty funny.  If he does pull any of the toys out, he has to stuff them back into the corner.
• He likes to help with laundry.  I asked him to get some stuff out of the dryer with me.  He would get one thing at a time and bring it to me.  When I ended up cleaning out everything from the dryer he was none too happy.
• He loves to watch movies while riding in the car.  His favorite is probably The Lion King.  He gets super excited and claps when Simba decides to go back to the pride land.  It's so cute!
• He got his first really major haircut this month.  I told the lady that I just wanted a little bit off and she cut an inch.  Ouch!  He looks like such a big boy.  Thankfully it has grown out a little very quick.
• He loves to read, especially his Dr. Seuss books.  His favorite book right now is probably Cat in the Hat.  He requests that we read it all the time.
• He loves to color.  Crayons are currently only allowed at the kitchen table.  He has started pretending the right on the wall with a tube of chapstick, so we may have an issue in the future.
• And, as always, I am sure that I am forgetting something.....so I will continue to post things as I think of them.

17 Months!

Kicking his foot around.  He thought it was pretty hilarious.

Chillaxin'.

Sweet baby!

Pointing out the "hooouussee" in Goodnight Moon.  His version of house is very drawn out and too cute.