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.