The Wallaces

Georgia: 14 months

2012-01-28T22:54:00.002Z

This month has definitely been a challenge for Dave and I. Georgia is starting to test her boundaries, testing us both physically and mentally. Throwing food off the high chair, running away from us on walks, refusing to eat what we give her and so on. I know its just the begining of what people call the "Terrible Two's" and considering we have a strong-willed child, I'm expecting the next year or two... well 18.... to be challenging for us!

Weight: 22.8 pounds (estimate)
Length: About 32 inches
Diapers: size 4
Teeth: 10 - cut two molars this month!
Words: 10-15
New words: "apple", "Bell" (her friend Annabelle), "birthday", "bath", and possibly "step"

On a high note, the good things about being a parent get even better! Georgia is communicating really well and can usually "tell" us what she wants. She knows how to make us laugh and can entertain us by dancing or making silly faces.

She loves reading books. We own about 40-50 books for her, and we read most of them at least once every day. Many days can go by without her playing much with her toys, but all the books will be strewn about on the floor. Her favorite ones are "Bear Hunt" and "Spot Goes on Holiday".

Eating: like I mentioned earlier, eating has been a challenge. Every mealtime is a battle. She still has her favorite foods: meat, cheese and clementines. Anything else there is a high possibility that it will be thrown on the floor. We've started implementing time out, but haven't seen much improvement yet.

I am still waiting for her to learn to play by herself. It is hard for me to get anything done because she likes me to be in the same room as her. Even if we have toys or books in the kitchen, if I am trying to do dishes or hang laundry or make food, she will ask me to play with her or read books to her.

Sleep: She is getting better at sleeping, but not yet sleeping through the night. We have been working on eliminating the night feedings. Now on an average night, she will wake up once anytime between 2am-5am and nurse just a couple minutes. Then, she will wake up closer to 6am or 7am for another feed. I then get her to sleep for another hour or two! Dave has been a big help in getting up at night with her. She is still taking two naps (most days).

Georgia also got her first haircut! I did it tonight right before she went to bed, so I don't have pictures yet. I'll post them soon!

Our Everyday, Week 3: create

2012-01-27T22:38:00.003Z

Pretty much the only thing we "create" around here is artwork.

Okay.... we also create lots of messes!!!

ps... I'm standing in the very corner of the living room to take this picture. Isn't it teeny-tiny? And that's why I have so many pictures of us at the park. We can't play for long inside because its too difficult.

pps.... also notice how Georgia's books are pretty much the only thing out? (besides the blocks). All her toys on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf haven't been touched. They could stay like that for DAYS... seriously... she only reads her books. We read them over and over and over....

The best thing

2012-01-24T22:02:00.000Z

Looking back on 2011 I can say I was so thankful for what our little family of 3 has become. Besides the lack of sleep (seriously, I don't think I slept for one single 8-hour stretch the whole year, and maybe not even one 7-hour one, either!), having Georgia and doing life with Dave and her has been the best thing ever. I love our family!

I know I complained a bit about the lack of space in our house, the terrible weather we have in London, not having a car or dish washer or dryer, not being near family or friends.....

But honestly I feel like we (Dave, Georgia & I) have something that would not have been possible in the US. We don't have as many distractions here. It is just us. Did I mention we haven't watched TV since November? (We do watch football games and our favorite American shows over the Internet, but we "unplugged" our TV). Our life is simple.
Dave walks to the store with Georgia and I.
We make dinner together. (and we don't kill each other!!)
He washes the dishes (yes!).
We go to the park when the weather is nice.
We adventure into London and try to find decent food.
We laugh about not seeing the sun for days or how bad the food at our local pub is.
Dave reads to Georgia before bed.
We eat lunch together most days.
Dave & I play board games in the evenings.

Snuggling with baby doll while Daddy reads to her

I love not having a car. I used to get mini panic attacks driving on the freeways. I felt like life was so fast-paced. It was go, go, go, go. All the time. I felt the need to keep up with the Joneses. Now we have a much simpler life. It is great. Yes, it is hard. Yes, it is different. But we have each other.

Our Everyday, Week 2: Dry

2012-01-15T20:36:00.000Z

This week's theme is dry - I have two pictures again!

This is pretty obvious - taken right after her bath

Georgia loves to help me do laundry. Since we hang everything to dry, she's been helping me take out the wet clothes and will hand them to me as I hang them up. I have such a great helper!

Our Everyday, Week 1

2012-01-08T23:08:00.000Z

I'm going to be doing a 52-week photography project, aiming to take at least 1 picture a week (we all know I take a lot more than that!). I'll probably share a couple pictures a week, all related to the theme of everyday life. Each week will have a specific topic. This week's topic is "happy".

Both of these pictures were taken at the park. Georgia loves going to the park and she is happy!

Our internet here tonight is terrible. This aren't quite the pictures I want to put on here, but I'll have to fix it tomorrow.

My favorite 11 photos in 2011

2011-12-31T22:54:00.000Z

This year, though, I learned a lot about photography. A little over a year ago, my wonderful husband bought me my camera and I have slowly been learning about it and putting it to good use. So, without further adieu, these are my favorite pictures that I took this year!

This was taken in January in London (obviously!). This was the from the first batch of pictures that I edited using Lightroom.

This is from the first set of pictures I took with my Lightscoop - it changed my photography world! Such a cheap piece of equipment could help me take better pictures in my dark house.

This was in March in Colorado, bathing Georgia. I cropped and edited and edited and edited. I thought it looked wonderful! Looking back now, she looks a little fake ;-)

We probably see Grandpa Wallace the most of out all the grandparents (thus I have the most pictures of him), but I think Georgia with any of her grandparents is special!

A friend lent me his camera lens and I fell in love with it!

This picture was taken by my father-in-law (although I arranged us and set the settings and edited it)

As the weather got warmer in June, I was able to plan "photoshoots" where I could take pictures of my stationary child. Ah... those were the days!

Some of my favorite pictures are spur-of-the-moment ones! This one just happened to work out perfectly! This was in July when we were packing to go back to the US and Georgia was sitting in my suitcase. I just love that it turned out so well - in focus, great lighting, and her eyes really pop in this one!

In October, some friends of ours had their baby dedicated at church and asked me to take some pictures. I had a blast and did a fairly good job with them (I think!) and now the church is even using one of my pictures in their latest marketing campaign. Pretty cool!

In November, I did two "photoshoots" with Georgia, one in this bath tub and one doing a cake smash. I was shocked at how many pictures turned out good. I learned a lot from these, and enjoyed them immensely!

I'm amazed this picture turned out so well! Georgia was cranky and this was taken right before her nap. I was laying down sideways because our room isn't large, and Georgia had to be as far away from the lights as possible for this picture to work. Also the lights are way too bright because they're from America (120 volts) and I plugged them in here (240 volts!) and they definitely had a "wow" factor!

13 months

2011-12-28T14:15:00.000Z

Chasing birds in the Common on Boxing Day

This has been a rough month for us. We flew back from Colorado the day before Georgia's birthday and it took a good week to get back into the correct time zone. We had a birthday party for Georgia and a couple days after that, she woke up in the middle of the night with the croup. The croup turned into some sort of virus, and she was sick for about 10 days. She lost about 2 pounds over the course of two days, and was a sad sight to see! She is finally better again, yippie! And just as happy as could be. We had a wonderful Christmas as a family, and have enjoyed having Dave on vacation with us.

Doing the Advent Calendar together

Weight: 22.2 lbs, 55th percentile (but she was down to 20.5 when she was sick!)
Height: about 32 inches, 95 percentile
Diaper size: 4
Teeth: 8 still, but lumps where the molars are starting to come through
Words: 12: hi, bye, mama, dada, grandma (possibly? ma-ma-ma), bird, book, dog, diaper, birthday, where is it? and there it is!
Signs: eat, please, all done, milk (and she has signed please, followed by eat!)

This month, Georgia gave up her pacifier (yay!). I had been slowly weaning her off of it, as she had been using it less and less. When she got sick, she was unable to breathe through her nose, so I just stopped giving her the paci and she hasn't missed it yet!

We love having Aunt Kate live near us!

She is more and more fun each day, and also more and more work. When she's in a good mood, she is playful, giggly and a whirlwind. She moves from room to room carrying toys, keys and Christmas cards around. She loves reading her books and turning on all the toys that have sound. She will run away from me when I ask to change her diaper or put her coat on.

I just love this picture!

Mealtimes have become a difficulty. I've been in the process of night weaning, so I want to make sure she eats enough during the day. That being said, she doesn't like to eat. I'm not guaranteed that she'll like the same things twice. She has been throwing any and everything off her high chair tray. I'll tell her she needs to eat what is on her tray before she can get eat anything else, and she will toss if off as if she understands what I am telling her. The two things that she will always eat are meat (most of the time, although this week its been iffy) and tangerines, her newest favorite food.

playing in the park

We are still nursing strong and Georgia shows no sign of stopping. Because Dave has been home, we are trying to do night weaning. She has never once slept through the night (yawn!) but we will get there soon! She now wakes up around 1 or 2am and around 4 or 5 am. I give her minimal milk and am cutting down on the amount she gets every time. If she wakes up too soon after a feeding, Dave goes in there and calms her down and puts her back in bed. She is probably drinking 1/2 the milk at night she did a month ago, so there is great improvement!

my sick girl

Talking about sleep, other than her night wakings, she has been sleeping great! She sleeps 12-13 hours a night and still takes two naps a day, usually around 3 hours. The good thing is that she is flexible, so we are able to get out of the house for longer periods of time as long as she has one good nap that day.

a muddy day in the park

The other thing that is very fun is watching Georgia develop relationships. There are several kids close in age to her that we see on a weekly basis. It is very obvious that Georgia is an extravert like her daddy and loves playing with her friends (as much as they can do when they're this little!).

playing on the piano she got on Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

2011-12-27T10:59:00.004Z

Thanks for all your well-wishes and prayers! Georgia is feeling much better and is back to her old ways. She has spent this last week giggling, being a handful and running around the house like normal. Tomorrow she turns 13 months, so I'll have a blog post about her ;) Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Why the NHS sucks, reason #183.

2011-12-16T14:42:00.002Z

If you are British or live in the UK and are a fan of the NHS, please don't get offended by this post. There are some good things about the NHS. Its simplicity and relative ease of use. I do enjoy going to the doctors office and not worrying about filling out forms or calling the insurance to see if I am covered or not having to hand out my credit card at the end of treatment. But,
That's about where my praise of it ends.

This has been on my mind since Georgia is sick. She work up last Thursday (8 days ago) with a croup cough at 10pm. She had been completely fine all day. It was a rough night, with her sleeping in our bed, me sleeping on the floor in her room, and then for the majority of the night, I held her in the rocking chair so that she could sleep.

I called when the doctors office opened and made an appointment for Georgia. The doctor we saw basically said that Georgia was "fine". She didn't have any symptoms at the time, but she prescribed a low dose steroid for her to take based on my description. Dave went and picked it up (not paying anything, presumably because Georgia is a child and they have free prescriptions) and we gave it to her. Friday night was a bit better than Saturday night. Her cough wasn't quite as bad, and Dave was able to help hold her since he didn't have to work on Saturday.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, we soon realized that Georgia wasn't herself. She was having trouble getting enough air to breathe. Her heart was racing and she was breathing heavily an quickly. She had a fever and was pale with bright red cheeks. We went to the A&E (ER) where they gave her another steroid and ibuprofen and paracetamol (tylenol) to help lower her fever.

Sunday she seemed sick, but her cough was better and her breathing was normal. Monday she slept 18-19 hours. Even when she was "awake", she was still very much out of it and not herself. I'd lay her down in her crib, and she wouldn't make a peep. If I sat down while holding her, she would fall asleep within 30 seconds. Meanwhile, she wasn't eating or drinking much. She'd have a few bites here and there, and thankfully she was still nursing.

Tuesday came and she began vomiting. She refused any liquids (including breastmilk) and didn't want any food. I took her to the doctor. The doctor I saw gave me a lot of attitude. Basically I was over-reacting and she was just sick. She was still alert and looking around (yes, my child is an extravert!), so obviously she was fine and not dehydrated. After interrupting me several times, he basically said that she had croup and of course she's not going to get better overnight!

Tuesday night I thought that Georgia was starting to be dehydrated. I googled it. She had basically every symptom for moderate dehydration. She had lost 8-9% of her body weight, she hadn't been drinking anything, very little pee, dry lips, irritable, etc. I went to the drug store to look for pedialyte (or some sort of rehydration solution for kids). I explained to the chemist what I needed and she said they couldn't give it to me. I'd have to have a prescription or a child over the age of two. On the box it says for ages 2 and up, therefore they can't give it to me. (Stupid government regulations!)

Wednesday brought another doctors appointment. I saw another doctor (3rd one in a week) and he was a bit more sympathetic. He agreed that she was ill and not doing well, but didn't really offer any help. He just suggested that we watch for urine every 8 hours.

Now it is Friday. Georgia is still not eating (much). She had a couple bites of my toast. She still has diarrhea and because she's lost so much weight, her diapers aren't fitting well. Every-time she pees or poops it leaks out (her skinny legs and non-existent tummy) Yesterday she had 2 wet diapers. One was at 8am and one at 4pm. She had another at midnight and one at 11am this morning. Definitely dehydrated. She is unbelievably cranky and irritable. She is weak (not eating for 8 days) and has trouble pushing buttons on some of her toys and will just fuss and whine until I come help her.

And this is where the NHS sucks. Money speaks. I don't pay anything to see the doctor here. They have no motivation to treat me kindly or to give helpful suggestions or to even spend more than 5 minutes with me. They get paid the same amount whether I am happy or not. I can chose to go to another doctor, but it won't do me any good. This is one of the big failures of the NHS. In the US, of course it is expensive to go to a good doctor! That is because they are GOOD! You pay for their services. You want the best doctor (you can afford) so you will find them. If they don't treat you well or you are not happy you will take your money and go elsewhere. Here, there is no incentive (at least none that I know of) for a doctor to be the best that they can be.

I am really tired of going to the doctors office to have my concerns ignored. I am not someone who overly worries about things, and I really do think that having a daughter pee only twice in one day is a major concern. But, I'll wait another day or two because she's not "lethargic" enough and her extrovert personality will convince the doctor that she really is "ok". Until then, I'll continue on, doing laundry and trying to force liquids into Georgia, hoping that she will get better without another trip in to see the doctor.

One Year Old!

2011-11-27T19:19:00.001Z

Georgia with her great-grandma, Georgia, whom she is named after

So, today, my little baby is one. I am continually amazed at how she is growing and the changes I see in her every day. We spent most of this last month in the US. We had two weeks with Dave's family, one of those weeks being spent celebrating the wedding of Matt (Dave's brother) and Kyan. Georgia also had her first ear infection and was very miserable (as was I, getting up 5-8 times/night with her) for a couple of days! We then went to Colorado to see my family and spent that week celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Georgia's birthday. Needless to say, although this trip has been our longest back to the US since we've moved, it felt very much like a whirlwind. We are so thankful though, that Georgia is able to get to know her family!

Excited for a bath at Grandma & Grandpa's house

Weight: I'm guessing 23 pounds
Height: 31 inches (measured today)
Diapers: Size 4 (both in the US and in UK)
Clothes: I just put away all her 9 month stuff. She is mostly in 12 or 12-18 month, although I have pulled out some of the 18 month outfits
Teeth: Still 8!
Words: dada, mama, diaper (bah-buh), bye-bye, dog (bah), bird (bi), book, ball. My mom believes she said "pretty" when looking at the Christmas tree, and when we were in California, it sounded like she said "grandpa" a couple of times. Who knows!

Dave and Georgia in front of Notre Dame in Paris

Sleeping/Eating/Nursing: In all honesty, since we have been traveling across time zones (and got her first ear infection), her body clock has been off. We're going to start working on sleeping through the night now, getting on a good schedule and night weaning. I'll let you know how all this goes in a month ;-)

Some things that Georgia loves:
- reading books
- listening to music and dancing
- dogs (and any other animals)
- doing everything herself - brushing her teeth, brushing her hair
- pointing to things and having us tell her what they are
- playing with other kids. She is always interested in the toy they are playing with
- clapping for herself

Georgia has just started trying to do things herself. I have been giving her a fork (kid-friendly, of course) at meal times and she loves trying to use it. She has a lot of trouble getting anything to stay on the fork, but can easily get it into her mouth.

When we were in Colorado, my siblings were trying to teach her body parts - nose, eyes, mouth. It seems like she's picked them up because most of the time if you ask her where her nose is, she can point to the right thing!

We had a "cake smash" in honor of Georgia's first birthday.

We are so thankful for this girl that is a part of our family. She has such a big personality and it is so fun to see her light up a room. It is exciting thinking about what her future brings. Happy Birthday, darling!

Paris

2011-11-09T17:29:00.000Z

About ~~a month ago~~ two months ago, we did a two-day trip to Paris. Dave had had meetings with his work, his friends from the office in Monrovia. We did the trip with them - another couple and a baby the same age as Georgia and two single girls. Doing a trip this short with Georgia was a very crazy idea. We left early on Saturday morning, taking the train from our place, a switch to the tube, and finally the Eurostar (a fast train ride from London to Paris), and arrived in Paris around 10am.

After checking into our hotel, I put Georgia down for a nap while Dave sat with her and the rest of our group went to get some lunch. One thing we learned about eating in Paris (well, Europe, really!) is that everything moves at a snails pace. So, before we were done eating, Georgia had woken up and Dave joined us. We then decided to head towards the Louvre.

We spent a few hours in the museum, and although it was a neat museum, I was not very impressed. There were way too many people and the museum was not very stroller-friendly, with lots of stairs that Dave and I ended up carrying the stroller up and down.

Everyone looking at the Mona Lisa

We saw the big things: the Mona Lisa and the Egyptian section (Dave wanted to see the mummies). One of the wings was also closed, and it made navigating a little more difficult.

Dave & Georgia walking around the museum

Georgia was just starting to walk more and more. Before this trip, she mostly walked in the evenings if we encouraged her to. During the trip, she decided she wanted to walk all the time. The second day there, she wasn't okay with sitting in her stroller. She only wanted to walk. Thankfully she was okay with us holding her hand as being in an unknown place with many people around.

Anyways, after we spent a couple hours at the Lourve, we thought that we would go to the Eiffel Tower. Not knowing the city, we thought we would walk. We walked and walked and walked. It was a beautiful walk along the river, but it went on and on and on.

It started drizzling.
We kept walking.
It took maybe an hour.

We finally got there! We got there right around 7pm (I think!) when they do the light show. And of course right as we got there and the light show started, the rain came down! And it poured and poured. We had the rain cover for the stroller but of course we couldn't find the umbrellas. And, if you've been to Paris you know that the underground stations are few and far between. So, we walked about 10 minutes to the nearest station with the rain pouring and a baby fussing (having been awake for 14+ hours already) and all of us hungry and tired (remember walking for 3 hours at the Lourve plus the hour long hike to the Eiffel tower). Needless to say, I was pretty unhappy.

The view as we were walking away from the Eiffel Tower in the rain

That night, we had reservations at a little place by our hotel for dinner. We didn't expect much, but we were all blown away. It was a fun non-touristy, authentic French restaurant. I think the meal took us 2 hours to eat, but the food was wonderful and the atmosphere was great!

Day 2: We (Dave & I) explored the city with Cole & Sharon. Cole works with Dave and they have a little girl that is 2 weeks older than Georgia. We kept a bit slower pace because it was easier to do with the girls.

We walked to Notre Dame, let Georgia chase all the pigeons she wanted. We walked down the Champs-Elysees, and Georgia just wanted to be out of the stroller. Thankfully she was a good hand-holder, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible to let her do this.

We made sure to see the Arc de Triumph, but this is the closest that we got to it. By this point, we didn't need to touch it!

After this, we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and have some dinner. We rushed to the train station, and got back into London around 11pm. It was an absolutely crazy trip and we were exhausted! We only scratched the surface of everything there is to see and do in Paris, but will wait until we can take a trip without our kids (or in many years when Georgia is older!).

Another note: Paris is not very child-friendly at all! It is very difficult to take the stroller on the underground as there are lots of stairs and the strollers don't fit through the turnstiles. Also, not a single place we ate had a highchair. The people themselves were fairly friendly but didn't speak much English. It seemed that they knew what we were saying, but either didn't know enough English to respond or didn't want to try responding in English.

11 months

2011-11-02T23:25:00.002Z

We officially have a toddler in the house! Although we still have one month until Georgia is a year old, she has begun toddling around. This month has been very busy for us. Dave's mom was here at the beginning of the month and his sister, Kate, is now living in London for the school year, so we see her a couple times a week. We had a church retreat, Dave went to Costa Rica and had another work conference an hour away from here. My brother came to visit ~~and this weekend we're going to Paris~~! (okay, okay, I wrote this paragraph a week ago... we went to Paris and are back home again.... more on that to come!)

Georgia was watching the light on my camera that flashes when the subject is in focus. Normally she doesn't notice it because I take pictures during the day. She kept blinking and making silly faces!

Weight: Almost 21 pounds
Teeth count: 8 (still!)
Word Count: 5, maybe 6: dada, mama, do (dog), bi (bird), bo (book), ah! (hi)

Georgia has been walking more and more. Just a couple days ago, she began taking off on her own, and now walks from room to room. She walks probably 80% of the time.

I have said it a lot lately... Georgia reminds me of a little boy. I guess I don't know many other kids her age, and she just seems so active and rebumctious, she reminds me of what I think a boy should act like. In my mind, girls are supposed to be dainty and clean, and Georgia is just about the opposite of this.

She loves doing anything that she can do to get dirty - eating sand, chewing sticks, putting food in her hair, etc. She is rough and tumble, climbing over anything that she thinks that she can. At the park, she loves climbing on the little play structure, and going down the slide.

She also takes after her daddy in her personality and voice. She definitely has her daddy's loud voice and loves to use it, talking loudly throughout the day, especially in places where it is most inappropriate: libraries, church, sightseeing at very quiet places (Cathedrals, museums, etc). She has the gift of WOO and loves waving at strangers, smiling broadly. She also loves kids, especially those a bit older than her. She follows them around and tries to mimic their activities.

Sleep: Georgia is becoming a lot more flexible with her naps (yay!). She still needs two naps a day, but can survive on one nap a day. This has made trips like Paris much easier because she is unable to sleep in the stroller. She takes 1.5 hour nap in the morning and 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon. She still sleeps 12 hours a night, and is close to sleeping through the night. She did a 10 hour stretch this last week. Unfortunately with our upcoming trip to the States, her sleep schedule is going to be upset.

Eating: Georgia is nursing 4 times a day basically (plus if she wakes up at night): when she wakes up, before her naps, and before bed. She eats regular meals with us that are always hit and miss. She always will eat meat, but everything else depends on the day. She has taken a liking to Grape Nuts (the cereal) and will often have that in the morning. For lunch, she usually eats lunch meat and frozen peas. Dinner she eats what we're having.

Georgia's favorite thing has to be animals (still!). She often sees birds before I do, and will exclaim, "Ba" followed by panting (the noise she makes for dog.... although now it has become the noise made for any animal that she sees).

Georgia got into a bottle of olive oil, and I stripped her down and had to wash the floor. She loved the sponge and ended up eating just as much soap as she used on the floor.

A year ago...

2011-09-27T20:50:00.001+01:00

last minute goodbyes at the airport before we leave

In one of his sermons, Francis Chan says something to the effect of, "There is nothing like moving to remind you that this world is our temporary home." How true that is!

A year ago we were saying goodbye to all our friends. We packed up our life into 10 boxes and suitcases and got on a plane to move to a new country. And what a year it has been.

Finding Mexican food after living in London for about a month. Dave was excited! (and cost us a fortune! one of the most expensive meals we've ever eaten)

An absolute whirlwind. Living in a hotel. Finding a house. Work trips for Dave. Buying furniture for our house. Registering at the hospital. Ultrasounds. Having a baby. Trying to figure out how to get around without a car. More work trips. Finding a church. Figuring out how to set up utilities. Waiting a month for internet. Meeting people. Feeling settled.

For those of you who have never moved internationally or even just across the country, it can be difficult, to say the least. Culture shock hit us quite unexpectedly. The first month or two we were here, it was a challenge just reading a menu, let alone figuring out where to buy a vacuum cleaner. Things that we thought should be simple like opening a bank account proved to be a challenge when you needed an address to open an account. But to rent a house, you needed a bank account.

Right around the time that Georgia was born, things got easier, only to get difficult again a couple months later. I now knew where to buy my groceries, which buses to take to go shopping, how to use a credit card, etc. But, things were so frustrating and made me mad. It is part of the culture shock. I looked it up. On Google. And Google knows everything. Anyways, everything just made me mad. Grocery checkers that sit down (and are SO slow). People who ignore you when you walk past them on the street. Our stupid carpeting all throughout the house. White carpeting. With a baby. Not being able to watch the TV shows I like. Not having an outlet in the bathroom to plug in a hair dryer. Having to blow dry my hair without a mirror.

I just found this one and it has nothing to do with this post. Isn't it so cute??!! Georgia is taking a nap on Christmas day.

There were many days I trudged to the grocery store, upset at our tiny fridge that makes grocery shopping a daily affair, muttering about the stupid people drinking beer at 11am sitting outside at the pub in the cold, rainy weather (even though it was May), or the stupid youths that walk slowly across the entire width of the sidewalk completely oblivious that you - the lady with the baby - are trying to walk around them, the stupid cars that don't stop for people crossing the street and the stupid groceries that were so dang expensive.

I tried not to complain a lot. I knew the things I was upset about were unreasonable and it was part of moving to a new place. Things are different here. Much more than I would have ever guessed. And then one day, it was gone. It was right after our trip to the US in July. Before we left we were homesick. Very much so. Missing the food, and the people, the nice weather.

Georgia with some church friends over the weekend.

And something changed. I'm not sure what it was. I think it was time. We arrived back in the UK in the beginning of August. It felt like home.

Hannah and Dot, some friends from church

There are still days which are rough. Certain situations you encounter that are unfamiliar. Days when you want some Taco Bell. Haha. I don't think I will ever say that I like the weather. And I will probably complain about the food here a little more. Sorry - just being honest. But overall, this is our home. Friendships have grown. We have gotten involved in our church and community. We are trying to serve and love. We are home.

10 months old!

2011-09-27T18:44:00.000+01:00

Not quite 10 months old here, but the most recent picture I have

As we are coming up on her first year birthday, I see the toddler side of Georgia creeping out. Okay... its basically burst forth! She is taking many steps (but still prefers crawling for getting around), she is very interactive and mimics noises and sounds we make. She roars when wrestling with Dave and sings with me when I sing. She climbs the stairs at an amazing speed and knows (probably even more than I think) what I am saying. She even has begun to say a couple of words. See??? She's not a baby anymore!

She went through a phase of putting things in her mouth.

Weight: right around 20 pounds

teeth count: 8 (almost 9)

clothing: mostly 12 month stuff. I've put almost everything else away.

Looking at birds outside while eating blackberries

She is extremely active. I have nothing to compare her to, so I assume she is normal. She loves playing with toys. We try to get out of the house at least once a day, whether it is to the park or the library so that she has a change of scenery and can play with new toys or see new people.

at the park

Sleep: She is taking 2 naps a day, the first around 10 and the second around 1 or 2. She goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps until 8 or so, waking 2-3 times to eat during the night.

Georgia is very familiar with Skype. She's laughing at Daddy, while he was in Tanzania.

Food: This is still something I need to figure out. Some days Georgia nurses extremely well, and other days she doesn't. I should probably put her on a more ridged schedule to see if that helps, but right now she nurses when she's grumpy - normally 2 or 3 times during the day, and 2 or 3 times at night and eats at meal times. I often give her a snack in the afternoons because she seems to need it.

She still loves animals. She can now say "do" which is dog and "bi" which is bird. She has only done these a couple of times, but I'm pretty sure that's what she's trying to say. Our daily activities include looking for animals (out the window or on our walks).

She of course can say da-da and she says it all the time! Dave is absolutely in love with that ;-)

She is starting to use her hands more. She can wave goodbye and hello, and when you tell her to dance, she waves both hands in the air. We've only done a couple sign language signs, but she can sign "milk" (and oddly enough does it all the time, whether she wants it, or not!) and has just started signing "all done" at the end of the meal (but only after I do it first).

California, Part 2

2011-09-20T12:17:00.000+01:00

Kyle, Devany & Kyanne came to visit us

Seeing that it is September, I should hurry and get this post out before it is even more outdated! During our week in California, we got to see so many wonderful people! Like I said previously, we had a party for all the Wallace clan, and it was so good to see them and to have all the great-grandchildren together.

Georgia's first time at the beach - she loved it!

Dave and Georgia and I went to our small group, at Paul's house (congrats for being a new home-owner!) From Sunday through Friday, we stayed down at Newport Beach and it was amazing! The weather was perfect and it was so relaxing. Here's some pictures from the week at the beach house.

Georgia helped Grandpa shave...

Georgia helping Matt win his game

We had a lot of great family time, relaxing and enjoying the sun and surf. Dave and I think that the beach is one of our favorite places on earth, so it was great to be able to spend a week there (and with family, too!).

Practicing their parenting skills ;-) This could be them in a year or two! (and yes, Georgia would love having cousins!!)

Aunt Linda and Uncle Craig came to visit one evening!

I had a lot of time to take photos (lots, and lots of photos!)

It was fun to see our first baby - French Fry! Georgia just loved her, too.

Brits and their food

2011-09-18T22:26:00.001+01:00

Around this time of year when the weather gets colder, I like to start baking. Well, I like baking all throughout the year, but during fall especially. Pies, muffins, cakes all seem to taste better when its cold outside. Plus the hot oven seems to warm the whole house with the smell of wonderfulness wafting through. As we are coming up on our one year anniversary of living in London, I'm getting frustrated (again) with British food (and supermarkets!). Specialty items I cook with such as Karo syrup, molassas syrup, velveeta cheese and pumpkin pie filling is very difficult to come by. I have eventually figured out where to buy most things - thanks to a Whole Foods (about 1 hour away), Amazon.uk and suitcases filled with goodies from home!
Here are some other odd food related observations coming from an American.

Hamburgers are eaten plain. Sometimes with cheese. And maybe mayonnaise or ketchup. But you won't find the bacon and avocado with lettuce, cheese and tomato burger here. Sad. No wonder people don't eat them very often!
Also, hamburgers are made by mixing ground beef (or whatever meat you use) with bread crumbs. This only creates a dry burger. And one impossible for a gluten-intolerant person to eat.
If you were to tell a friend, "I will bring a pie for dinner tonight", it means that you're bringing the main course. It can either be a pie crust with a meat filling on the inside, or a meat (usually seafood) casserole with mashed potatoes and cheese on the top, broiled until brown.
For those Brits who read this blog -a pie in America is a dessert - apple pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie and so on. Unless you specify Chicken Pot Pie, which is the only pie that is for dinner. Mmmmm. Pie.
I have been so frustrated with buying fruit here. Lately, the day after I buy it, I will find parts of it going moldy. I know food here is supposed to be bought fresh and eaten soon after buying, but sometimes I don't get through all 4 peaches in one day. Shocking! I would really appreciate if it stayed mold-free for more than a day or two.
In all honesty, pub food is no good. Every pub has practically the same menu, and it includes fish and chips, pasta, sausage and mashed potatoes, ham and eggs. Its really depressing going out to eat for me. You know that nothing is going to "wow' you. The one thing that Brits do well is Indian food. They do make a really good curry.
British beef is also not good. Whenever possible, we buy Scottish. According to the CEO's wife (of Dave's company), the reason for this is that British cows are unhappy. This is just applied when we go out to eat (if ordering a steak, get a USDA or Scottish one) or when at the grocery store.
When people eat things with whipped cream, like strawberries, the cream they use is not sweetened. They use a whipping cream or double cream, but add no (or very little) sugar to it. Why not show sugar some love?
Words like tortillas and jalapenos are pronounced phoenetically... aka tortillas sounds like "tor-til-as" rather than "tor-tee-yas" and jalapenos are pronounced with an "n" rather than an " ". Paella is prounounced pie-el-a.

I don't mean to come across too negatively, but it has been hard to get used to food here! We went from eating out often (and for cheaply) to eating out (or getting take-out) maybe once a week. I get exhausted from menu planning, finding substitutes for the recipes I have, making sure the recipe is gluten-intolerant-friendly, walking to the grocery store daily, and doing dishes all.the.time. Seriously. Cooking would be so much more fun if I didn't have to clean up afterwards! Someday we will have a house with a dishwasher. someday.

Georgia walking

2011-09-06T18:55:00.000+01:00

here's a video from today! She is very controlled on her feet, but still prefers crawling for getting around

9 months

2011-08-28T10:43:00.000+01:00

Loving the swings!

This month we've seen significant growth in Georgia's motor skills! She is growing up so quickly, its hard to believe.

Weight: 18 pounds, 3oz (done at home)
diaper size: 4
teeth count: 8
clothing size: some 6-9, mostly 9-12 or 12

Blackmail

It is so fun to see Georgia grow up, especially in two areas: social and physical. Socially, she is just like her daddy. She loves people - especially kids close in age to her and babies. She will spot them while she is in the stroller and will reach for them and "ooh" and "aah" until she gets close enough to touch them or they leave her sight. She will smile at strangers and loves getting the attention.

Most of the pictures I try to take now look like this. She could care less about "sitting still" or "looking at mommy!"

Physically, Georgia's motor coordination is amazing. She has great pincher grabs, able to pick up peas and teeny, tiny fuzzies off the floor. If you remember from last month, she had just learned how to sit. Well this month she learned how to go from her back to a sitting position, to crawling, and to standing up, couch surfing, and then to taking a couple of steps on her own. We've been busy, to say the least.

Showing off her crawling skills

Sleep:
Georgia is still a fairly good sleeper. We went through a rough patch when she was learning to stand up because all she wanted to do in her crib was stand. She would pull herself up, and be unsure of what to do next and so she'd cry and cry. If we laid her down again, she would cry even harder. It was taking about 1 hour for her to fall asleep for naps and bedtime. This lasted about a week. She has also dropped her third nap (sad for me!) but now takes two pretty solids naps a day. She wakes around 7:30 or 8 (!!!!) and takes her first nap around 10 and her second nap around 2 or 3. She then goes to bed around 7:30 or 8.

My still blue-eyed girl!

Eating:
She has become a champ at this! She eats pretty much anything we eat and her favorites are: lunch meat, eggs, cheese, meat (especially steak/ground beef) and humus. She is nursing really well, actually! She nurses a couple hours before she wakes up in the morning (around 6), either before or after her nap (depending on how much she ate at breakfast), before or after her 2nd nap, and then once or twice in the evening. She usually wakes up once or twice still at night to nurse.

wrestling with daddy

Fun stuff:
Georgia now knows that a doggie pants. And she can show you! She does get a bit confused because she has started panting when she sees any animal.... birds especially. Sometimes she confuses "daddy" with "doggie" and also starts panting when you say, "daddy's home" haha!
She loves books! Its so fun to have a reader in the house. She can spend lots and lots of time flipping through the pages, especially books that show pictures of animals.

Our trip to California, part 1

2011-08-23T11:26:00.000+01:00

I know this will be a multiple-part series. I have probably over 1000 pictures from our trip. Don't worry... I won't subject you to that, but it does mean that a lot happened.

We left London on Thursday morning. Georgia was a bit grumpy in the car ride to the airport, and had been grumpy a couple of days previous, too. I think she was teething. The transit time is 17 hours, door to door (which is a very, very long time) and with the time change, its a 36 hour day. So. Long.

We had so much fun seeing our old friends. Georgia had some fun, too!

On the flight, we had two seats, and held Georgia in our lap. We do not travel lightly anymore and had three large carry-ons, plus the baby and stroller. Once on the plane, she did have a half hour nap right after we took off, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't want to nurse at all. Not once. Thankfully I brought my pump, and it was a bit awkward with the business class people (who face backwards at those of us sitting in the first economy class seats) staring at me as I pumped (under a nursing cover).

We enjoyed the weather, walking to dinner on Friday night. Mmmm... American food!

Anyways, long story short, G did not eat or sleep. I put her in the Ergo and walked around and around the plane and she slept for about 30 minutes halfway through the flight. Once we landed and got in the car, she slept for about 30 minutes on the ride home. Needless to say, she was miserable. By the time we got to the Wallace house, she was crying. A lot. And she normally doesn't cry. We knew she was tired, so we tried to lay her down, and she just screamed.

The highlight of the trip was spending time with family.

She spent most of the night in our bed. She thought it was morning at 4am and spent an hour crawling between Dave and I, eventually falling back asleep curled up next to us. It took about 3 nights of this before she adjusted to the time change.

We had so much fun seeing everyone. We had a party on Saturday to see Dave's side of the family, and it was the first time all 7 great-grandchildren were together. Aren't they all so cute?!! Someday we'll move back here so all our kids can grow up together....

On Sunday, we went to our church and it was so good to worship with people and see everyone! After church, we headed down to the beach, because Dave's parents had rented a beach house for the rest of the week.Can I just say that there is nothing as relaxing as being at the beach?? Nothing! It was absolutely gorgeous. We went the perfect week. The week previous and the week after we were there it was about 10 degrees cooler and cloudy. We had sunshine and warm weather the whole week. Amazing!

More pictures from the beach to come....

this and that

2011-08-20T22:21:00.000+01:00

A "good" walk is now defined as one in which we see at least one doggie and chase a pigeon or two. Georgia loves seeing animals and will "ah" and "ah" until she can no longer see the doggie or birdie. She often sees them before I do, and I will know by her noises that she sees an animal (or another baby or kid close in age to her)
I have FINALLY found a cheese here that I like!!! This is a huge step up in our quality of life. The cheddar cheese here does not taste like American cheddar cheese. But, there is a cheese called Red Leichester and its the only yellow cheese they have here. It is so yummy and tastes quite similar to Amerian cheddar.
Oh yeah.. G took her first steps! Isn't she too young for this? Where'd my baby go??? She still needs help getting into a standing position on her own, but once up, she can take one or two cautious steps before doing a head-dive. Yesterday was the first day she pulled herself up on her crib and the poor thing can't figure out yet how to sit. This is making nap times difficult!

ten months ago...

2011-08-18T16:57:00.000+01:00

September 2010

Notice one baby and three pregnant ladies??

July 2011

Now there are 4 babies and one pregnant chica!

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing these wonderful people that we shared our lives with for 2 years. I'm not great at keeping in touch, but when we see them in person it feels like we never left. I love you guys!

ps - more vacation photos to come!

Rockin' it

2011-08-08T10:12:00.000+01:00

Georgia is now rockin' 8 teeth. The first two broke through the end of June, two days before she turned 7 months. She has gotten one or two teeth every week or so since then.

I just thought you might want to celebrate with us and wish us many months until the teething starts up again ;-)

First time on swings

2011-08-04T14:03:00.000+01:00

This was Georgia's first time in a swing. As you can see, she loved it!

8 months

2011-08-03T16:02:00.000+01:00

This post is a couple of days late, because I wanted to wait for our "official" weight and height from the appointment on today.

We had an extremely busy month. Grandpa Wallace was out in London for a work trip the very end of June, Dave had a work trip the beginning of July, then we went for 2 weeks to the States. We did a week with Dave's family (and our home church and friends) in California and then a week seeing my immediate and extended family in Wisconsin.

It makes me so happy when Georgia gets to spend time with family ;-)

Weight: 18 pounds, 2 oz (50th percentile)

Height: 72.5 cm (28.5 in - above 90th percentile!)

Clothing size: some 6 months 6-9 months, and then mostly 9 or 12 month

Diaper size: 4 in the UK

bathtime beauty

Georgia has bloomed overnight. She has become a happy child (not that she wasn't before), and laughs a lot and smiles at everyone. It is so fun to see her personality! She tries to communicate with us by "talking" and fake-coughing, mimicking what Dave and I do. She also says something that sounds strangely like, "hi, dada!" She loves other kids, and will scream when she sees them, flaps her arms and tries to reach them.

Georgia's first picture sitting, 4th of July weekend

That's right! She finally learned how to sit on her own!

This is a common face we see, it makes me anxious for her teenage years

Food:
She loves to eat! (solids, that is!). She loves American cheese (we haven't convinced her on the British stuff yet, but then again, we don't like it that much either), refried beans, rice (and she LOVED some spicy Indian rice she had the other night), bread and potatoes. When she's in the mood, she'll eat yogurt, baby food, raisins, bananas, and other fruit and veggies.

Nursing:
Still going, but unsure how much longer I can keep up. She has been unwilling to nurse during the day and instead wakes up 3 times to eat at night. I am tired, and she is hungry during the day. I'm not sure how to solve this problem, but hoping that as she gets older she'll need less nursing and more solids and it can take care of itself.

Sleep:
She is still loving her sleep! She takes 3 pretty regular naps a day, and goes to bed around 8pm, waking up between 7 and 8. She takes her first nap about two hours after she wakes up, her second one is around 12 or 1pm and her third one is around 3 or 4.
She loves making noise, so a metal bowl was perfect for banging on. She also had some spoons/measuring cups that she could play with.

She eats anything she can get her hands on, including pinecones at the park.

Her favorite thing in the world: walking

Activity: She loves playing with other kids. She watches them, yells at them, tries to touch them (or poke them), and is basically a big bully. She loves walking (with help), and this is her preferred method of transportation. She will roll and scoot her way around, and she also gets up on all fours, but can only rock back and forth. She loves playing peek-a-boo. She loves reading books. Her favorite books are a picture book I made that shows pictures of our family, and the other book is a Dr. Seuss book (for little kids). We read each of those books every day.

Picture in California, Grandma Wallace reading to Georgia before bed

7 months old

2011-07-04T09:46:00.000+01:00

Already?? Can someone stop time, please??

What?! I'm 7 months old??

This month started with a trip to see the Rose Gardens in Regent Park. The following week, Grandma and Grandpa Wallace came for a visit (on their way home from Israel) and Dave had a work trip to Geneva, Switzerland. We went through a noticeable growth spurt just after she hit the 6-month mark, waking up 3-4 times a night to eat (and eat a lot!). We experienced teething the end of this month for about a week and a half, and the teeth finally came through a couple of days ago.

taken the very end of May

Weight: who knows? We go to get weighed next month. Guessing 17 lbs.

Height: still growing. I did a rough measurement at home and she is around 27 inches.

Clothing size: 6-9 or 9 or 12 month sizes

Diaper size: 4, but thinking of moving up to 4+ for nighttime

She doesn't do this anymore. Now she tries to climb out (and has a couple of times!)

Our little bug is growing up. She has become a "toddler" overnight. She has been rolling for quite a while, but now seems to understand that she can roll to get to where she wants to go. She has also started to do a lame army crawl. I say lame because she only uses one arm as she scoots herself around, and the other remains tucked underneath her. It gives her a "limp". I'm sure she'll figure it out soon, but its pretty funny!

When I was making dinner, Georgia rolled across the floor and ended up here. I'm sure (yup, I know) she did it on purpose. She was so cute I had to run to grab my camera and went right back to where I was so I could snap this picture.

Georgia and daddy in the rose gardens.

Eating: She is still nursing 7 times a day. This is still rather high because she eats 2-3 times a night. She nurses every 3-4 hours during the day and then usually eats around 10 or 11 (before I go to bed), once around 3-4 and then once again around 6ish. I can usually put her back in bed and she will sleep (and I will too!) another hour or so after that morning feed.

This makes my heart happy. Georgia and grandpa. It's going to be so good to see family in a couple of weeks.

Solids: Georgia went through a "I-hate-solid-food" phase this month. Probably because of the teething. She also became very independent. So, we try to do 2-3 meals a day. Sometimes we only do 1. Or sometimes she refuses to eat. She is also really picky. She hates apples. With a passion. Gags on them every time. I thought it was just the home-made stuff, so I bought some jarred ones. Still hates them. Now, she feeds herself most of the time. I plop her food on her tray and let her go for it. Right now, her favorite foods are pita bread and yogurt (mixed with a fruit).

Sleep: Still diggin' the sleep. She takes 3 naps (although if we're busy, out and about and she misses one she can cope). She goes to bed around 7 and wakes up around 6 or 7. I'd like to push back bedtime to closer to 8 so that she'll sleep in a bit in the morning. It would be nice to have a little more free time in the evenings and some time in the morning before she wakes up. Like I said earlier, she is still waking to eat 2-3 times a night. Oh well. She's on the skinny end, so I'm not going to worry about it for a while.

Crazy Hair!!

She is getting more and more talkative. She loves to say da-da-da-da all day long. Dave thinks its pretty cool ;-)

Father's Day

At our neighborhood park

Playtime

2011-06-29T12:15:00.000+01:00

I do have Georgia's 7 month post coming. I am a bit behind. And Grandpa Wallace is here today, so blogging ain't gunna happen. So, here's a little something to hold you over until tomorrow. Enjoy!

Things British People Say (that just don't make sense)

2011-06-27T20:48:00.000+01:00

Car Park - A park for cars? What do they do? Walk around and look at the scenery? Talk to each other?

Cotton Wool - Is it cotton? or wool? Which one? How can it be both?

Save me!!!

2011-06-22T14:21:00.000+01:00

Between teething, dishes, laundry, and lots of rain, I need a vacation...

22 days until California!

I should note that *most of the dishes are now done.

And I should also note that we will never live in a house without a dishwasher again.

Happy Birthday, Dave!!

2011-06-16T16:37:00.000+01:00

My wonderful husband is turning 29 today!

He is a wonderful father, spending lots of time with the baby. He has changed more than his share of diapers and always has time to play with Georgia, feed, or bathe her. She just absolutely adores him, and it is great to see their relationship grow.

He is a great husband. I enjoy having him work from home (most of the time!). It is so great to get to see him all day long, and share our days together.

He has been an encouragement and support, especially through my pregnancy and our move. The last year has certainly been trying, but I'm so blessed to have him by my side.

I love you, happy birthday and I hope this next year is just as wonderful as the last.

Trip to California, Part 2

2011-06-14T13:08:00.000+01:00

Earlier, I posted quite a few pictures from our trip in February to California. Some pictures I did not post were from Courtney's baby shower. Courtney is Dave's cousin and was in our small group back home. She just gave birth to her son, Sawyer and we have to wait another long month until we meet him! Gah!

Anyways, here are a few more pictures from the end of our trip in California.

Our good friend Julie. She was in the couples group that we were a part of. Man, Georgia is getting big!

Courtney is on the end - the obviously pregnant (and cute!) one. Heidi (second from right) just had a little boye! We will get to meet him in July ;-) Carrie is on the other end with their little boy, Wyatt. Georgia is going to have quite a few "boyfriends" when we move back to the States.

The "family" Kate, me, Courtney, Gail and Kyan.

This is our good friend Lori and her daughter Carly. I got to observe in Lori's 2nd grade classroom when I was getting my teaching degree.

Another family friend, Babs. I also got to see her wonderful 1st grade classroom.

My loves - Julia and Cassy. They are representing the youth group at our church. I miss them!

Finally, here's the Wallace photo we took before we left.

Scotland Vacation, Pt. 3

2011-06-13T22:15:00.000+01:00

We sadly left the Isle of Skye the next morning. We enjoyed the island lifestyle, but were on to bigger and better things.

It was a rainy drive, but still beautiful, driving through the Glencoe Valley.
We happened across the castle that was in Monty Python and did a quick stop there. I don't have any (good) pictures of it, but it was a really neat castle! Not touristy... just the ruins, explained by signs in each room.

The next stop we made was at the Wallace National Monument in Stirling (just north of Edinburgh). It was actually built in in the 1800's... it seems like a fairly new, clean building!

The downside of it being an old building means that there was no elevator. So, Georgia and I climbed up a narrow spiral staircase just like this.
It was really neat to see some of the Wallace history and also the views from the top were amazing.

After the Monument, we headed to Stirling Castle. I don't have any pictures that are blog-worthy. I was getting lazy, what can I say?
We then drove to our hotel in Edinburgh, and did a quick walk around the city before bedtime.

The next morning we went to the museum (name?) in the city. It was a museum with lots of artifacts - very neat. Pictured above are some chess figures from a really old chess set. (maybe the oldest one ever found?) Can you tell I'm forgetting/getting lazy about this?

Here I am with Dolly. I'm in a grumpy mood. Georgia was refusing to eat, and then refusing to sleep. She finally fell asleep in the stroller (hence the blanket over the top) and slept like half an hour. Sigh.

They had a Formula 1 Test drive that Dave wanted to do. He got the 2nd highest score of the day! (granted it was 11 am)

After Georgia got a nice nap in (breathe a sigh of relief!) we went to explore more of the town. This is one of the cathedrals.

The Edinburgh Castle overlooking the city

Georgia (and her teether)

The view of Edinburgh. Overall, a really neat city. Probably the oldest city I've ever been in.

Dave with Adam Smith, an economist.

The Scotland Parliament building. The buzz on the street is that Scotland might be trying to make themselves their own country. Anyhoo...

On our way back home, we did tour the Edinburgh Castle. It was super touristy. Like Disneyland. I was not a fan. But, this is a view from up on the castle, overlooking the city, to the north. The water is actually the ocean. Pretty cool.

Anyways, that is just a couple of my 1000+ photos I took. It was a really great trip - really the first "vacation" we've done as a family (not counting things with parents or our honeymoon). Hopefully this is just the first of several more trips. Any ideas for the next one????

Scotland Vacation, Part 2

2011-06-12T20:40:00.000+01:00

The sign that can either represent "Elderly People" or "Disabled People"

We spent our third night in Fort Williams, which is a little town in the Highlands. It was big enough for McDonald's (which we had for breakfast! I was able to get a McMuffin - or whatever-it-is-called-here... unfortunately they don't have the McGriddle.... mmmm... cue Homer Simpson...) but not for a Starbucks (the nearest one was 100 miles away).

Castle Urquhart on the shore of Loch Ness

We left early in the morning after that healthy breakfast for a long day on the road. We had some distractions as we stopped at a little town we had seen on TV at the south end of Loch Ness. They have some lochs that run up the river. I hopped out to grab some snacks (Tomato Ketchup chips/crisps... yummy!)

Georgia and me at the castle, overlooking Loch Ness. It was beautiful! Please don't comment on Georgia's matching pants (trousers) and socks. Our big-foot is in need of some new socks...

We got back into the car (and Georgia promptly fell asleep) and we were off towards the Isle of Skye. We stopped once more, at another castle - Eilean Donan.

Honestly, all the castles are beginning to run together. It was beautiful though, on the edge of a loch - a couple of miles from the ocean.

This was just leaving the castle, the bridge to the Isle of Skye.

I made it my personal mission to touch a sheep. Everytime we drove past one that was reasonably close, I made Dave stop the car and I tried to run and pet one. It didn't work, but we have lots of great pictures of my behind!

We spent our two nights in Portree, the largest city on Skye. It was a cute town, but not much to photograph. We left early in the morning to drive around the island.

There were phone booths all around the island - probably due to the fact that cell service wasn't very good.

On the northern-most point of the island. There was a castle ruins that we explored (on the very far right), and this was looking out from where the castle used to stand.

There were more animals than people on the island. An example of a Scottish cow. They are very hairy. And taste yummy.

Fairy Glen is a magical place with these round hills (large ones on the left and small ones on the right) and lots and lots of sheep. The sheep like to chase humans. Seriously.

Aren't the hills crazy-looking? You ever see anything like that?

Remember earlier I mentioned my obsession with sheep? Well, this is where it ended. I climbed up to the top of one of these tall, steep hills and surprised this lamb. And it surprised me, too. I snapped this picture, and then it charged - baa-ing and head butting. I ran for my life, trying not to twist an ankle or drop my camera. Dave was in the car and had no clue where I was, and I was picturing myself being a lamb's lunch....
Needless to say I did make it to the car, and my little lamb followed me all the way. Dave said it was baa-ing and trying to head butt the car. New meaning to the song "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

We heard about a place called Coral Beach, so we made our way to the parking lot and set off on our walk. It ended up being a long walk - probably about an hour there and another hour back. But, this was the view (complete with cows on the beach) when we arrived.

Georgia was happy riding with daddy. After we did a bit of walking and enjoying the beach, she got hungry so I fed her on the beach. I have to say its the most random place I've ever done that - on a secluded white sand beach on an island in Scotland.

By the time we were done with our hike, it was early afternoon and we had about an hours drive back to the hotel. We only got to explore half the island (some other day!) but we had dinner plans and a tired baby (see how she fell asleep that night?!).

Next post: Edinburgh

Scotland Vacation, Pt. 1

2011-06-03T16:29:00.001+01:00

A month or two ago, I mentioned that we had a vacation to France planned. That trip ended up being cancelled because Georgia didn't have a visa. She wouldn't have been allowed back into the UK if we had left. During that same week as our France vacation (and Dave's time off), there was an appointment up in Glasgow. We decided to take our vacation, but instead of going to France (and being denied access back into the UK) we would go to Scotland and get Georgia her visa.

We loved it! Scotland is absolutely amazing. We flew into Glasgow and stayed at an amazing hotel right next to their Central Station. We had one "touristy" day in Glasgow and really liked it. A lot of people had suggested we skip it altogether, but I'm glad we didn't. In the travel books we got from the library, they gave a suggested walking tour that we did in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. It allowed us to see much of the city and get the lay of the land.

Our walking tour ended at Glasgow Cathedral and Necropolis which was stunning. Glasgow Cathedral is pictured above, and Necropolis below. Necropolis is a giant hill next to the Cathedral and overlooking the city, which, has (according to Wikipedia) 50,000 graves and 3500 monuments. It was unlike any place I have ever been before.

In the afternoon, we went to the City Chambers (their City Council) and did a tour of the building. They have the world's largest marble staircase.

The second day in Glasgow, we had Georgia's visa appointment (which took forever!) and then we hit the road. It was a rainy day, but the drive was absolutely gorgeous. We were heading to Fort Williams, on the northwest part of Scotland - the Highlands. We stopped probably every 15 or 20 minutes to take pictures. Highlights of the day included getting stuck behind a herd of cows and seeing all the castle ruins.

The weather was cloudy and rainy all day - but beautiful!

Inveraray Castle (impressive from the outside, not so much on the inside)

Some castle ruins (I forget which ones these were) we drove past

These were the cows/shepherds that went maybe 1/4 mile down the road. On an unrelated note, do you see the striped white line on the middle of the road? They have this whether its traffic going in both directions or just one. In the US, when there are cars going both ways, the stripes are yellow so people know what side to drive on.

Another castle ruins we came across.

Next, we went into the Glencoe valley. The mountain that's here - Ben Nevis is the highest one in the UK.

So... that's enough pictures in one post. Next time: Loch Ness and the Isle of Skye!

Half a year

2011-05-31T22:13:00.000+01:00

Six months ago Georgia came into this world. It has been a crazy (but good) 6 months - new house in a new country and a new baby!

can you believe it?!

Weight: 16 lbs, 1 oz (we're loosing percentages... just under 50th now)
Clothing: sizes 6-12 and some 6 month
Diaper size: 4 (again, different from the States sizes)

Georgia and daddy in Glasgow before bed one night

This month she has grown up so much. I know I say that every month, but is starting to seem like a little toddler, rather than a baby.

Georgia in her car seat after visiting Loch Ness (see Nessie?) in Scotland

Georgia now rolls everywhere. She rolls very easily both directions, and will roll all the way across the floor to go wherever she wants. She still does not sit by herself (well, she can for about 2 seconds). Everytime I try to put her into a sitting position she straightens her legs, wanting to stand. She can stand with minimal help from mom and dad and will "walk" around if you hold onto her hands.

Georgia and daddy on the Isle of Skye in Scotland - hiking around Coral Beach

Georgia loves playing with anything she can get her hands on. She especially likes mommy and daddy's "toys" - the remote control, our computers, and our phones.

her "turtle" face

She is now eating two meals (usually) a day of solids. She has done quite a few flavors and likes most of them. She especially likes to feed herself, using the mesh feeder. We think that she is gluten intolerant like her daddy. We'll have to do a bit more testing to make sure, but we tried some wheat cereal this week and she was not herself for the rest of the day.

mommy playing with a new camera lense

We are still breastfeeding. It is definitely difficult as Georgia would much rather explore the world than eat. I don't think she's eating as much as she should be, but she is continuing to gain weight (although slowly) so we will increase her solid foods .

Her nap schedule has changed quite drastically. She now takes two, maybe three naps a day. She sleeps 10-11 hours at night, and gets up between 6 and 7 en la manana. Thankfully her naps are longer, but it is a chore to get her to take a third nap in the afternoon (which I'd like because then she can go to bed a bit later and wake up later in the morning, hopefully!)

I have more pictures to put up, but its late here, so I'm off to bed!

Happy 6 months, Georgia!

Friday Foods: Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

2011-04-29T20:24:00.000+01:00

One of my favorite deserts in the past month (and I've got several.... the five pounds hanging around my tummy agree) is fruit crumble. I found a recipe online here and I'm just going to tell you the shortened version.

First you start with some fruits. I did rhubarb and strawberry. You could pretty much add what you have in your fridge. As long as their fruits. If you add meat or bread, that might be nasty. Just warning you!

Another time I made this I had a few raspberries left over, and I threw those in along with the strawberries and rhubarb. Now, depending on the fruits, add some sugar. For fruits that are more sweet (like strawberries and blueberries) you can add less sugar - maybe 1/4 or 1/2 a cup or so. For fruits that are more tart (rhubarb) add more sugar.

Next you take a lemon and grate a bit of the rind then squeeze the juice out of it. You'll also want to add a bit of cornstarch to the fruits. This will make them a bit thicker - not so runny after its cooked.

For the crumble part, you mix flour, sugar a bit of salt and some melted butter. I also add just a pinch of cinnamon for flavor (or you could add some lemon, too). Dig your fingers in there and mix it up.

Place on top of the berries/fruit. Bake until the top is brown and the fruit is all bubbly and warm. Yummy!

And very easy too. Now go make one!

5 months old. Warning: lots of pictures!

2011-04-28T21:48:00.000+01:00

I cannot believe we have a 5-month old in our house! Seriously. The time if just flying by! And she is getting so big!! Ah!

after bathtime

5-month stats

Weight: 15 lbs, 8 oz
Length: (just guessing based on the fact she seems pretty tall/skinny and following her growth curve thus far) around 25.5 inches

Clothes sizes: mostly 6-9 month sizes. She has grown out of a pair of 6-12 month size shoes from Gap. Our little girl has big feet.

Diaper: We're still using size 3, but the next box we'll buy will be size 4.

with daddy at Blenheim Palace

Georgia has such a personality. She is a silly girl who is really enjoying learning about the world around her. She is very active and busy all the time learning about the world around her. She seems to be very high energy compared to other little ones her age.

Smiling at daddy. She does this everytime he comes into the room!

We've had some excellent (read: better than California!) weather here this last month. We had two weeks of 60s and 70s. Absolutely beautiful! One of the best things about the warm weather was getting to dress Georgia in some of her summer outfits. I just love seeing her little arms rolls and her toes:

Development:

Just in the past week or two she began rolling from back to tummy. She does this all the time! But it mostly happens while in her crib and will then cry until we come to turn her back. She has know how to roll from tummy to back for about 6 weeks now, but seems to forget how to do it on occasion.

Nothing is safe anymore. She grabs at our food, our computers and our phones. She loves eating paper and the noise that it makes when it crinkles.

She no longer sits quietly on our laps. She is trying to stand, trying to reach out for something, trying to make faces at people. She still loves people. She will do anything to get attention, starting with smiling, laughing, cooing and finally screaming if they don't give her the attention she wants.

Eating:

This is becoming increasingly frustrating for me. Georgia is extremely distracted. She is interested in her feet, her hands, my shirt, the flower on my bra, or anything else within eyesight/reach. Pretty much she is interested in anything other than nursing. We give it a try every 2.5-4 hours, depending on if we're out and about. She never eats when we're outside of the house anymore.

She has started taking some solid foods. She eats a few teaspoons of rice or pureed foods once a day. We've done sweet potatoes, butternut squash, banana, avocado and green beens. She doesn't seem to love any of them, but usually tolerates the bananas.

Sleeping:
We still have a good sleeper on our hands! We moved her crib into the other room a week ago. She is a light sleeper, so would wake up when Dave and I walked around in the room. She goes to bed around 7 at night, and will get up around 8 in the morning. She eats 2 or 3 times at night, but goes back to sleep well.

She is taking 3 naps a day. The first nap is about an hour and a half after she wakes up, and she'll sleep for an hour. The second nap is about an hour or two after she wakes up and is usually a long nap - 2 hours or more. And then she'll take a 3rd nap around 3 or 4. It'll usually be about an hour long.

Easter!

5-month picture

Grandpa's visit!

2011-04-26T15:35:00.000+01:00

We had the privilege of seeing Dave's dad, Jon this last weekend. He was completing an around-the-world trip and this was his last stop. He stayed two nights, and we got in lots of walks, enjoying our beautiful (unseasonal) weather and eating good food.

Hanging out with grandpa before bed

Grandpa playing on the floor with Georgia and taking some self-portraits.

Its such a blessing to see family since we live so far away. It makes the world seem a little bit smaller. We definitely enjoyed having him visit and look forward to seeing him (and grandma) in a couple of weeks.

Visa Update

2011-04-19T14:33:00.000+01:00

This past week I wrote a post asking for prayers for Georgia's visa. Because the laws in the UK have changed, we do not have her visa yet - meaning that we cannot leave the country (she won't be allowed back in!). We had a trip planned to France the beginning of May, but unfortunately had to cancel that because we don't have her visa yet. The good news is that we got our money back (yay!) and the sad news is that I still have not been to France. Maybe someday soon.

We finally heard back from the office that is making arrangements for the visa and our appointment is the first week in May in Glasgow. We want to see the UK, and this gives us an excuse to travel up north and spend some time in Scotland. So we will be going to Glasgow for two nights, Stirling (the Wallace Monument), Loch Ness, the Isle of Skye and Edinburgh. We're really excited about this trip and if you have any suggestions or ideas feel free to pass them along!

Trip to the States: California, pt. 1

2011-04-14T11:02:00.001+01:00

Grandpa Wallace & Georgia

Excuse the late post.... gosh... our trip was in February almost 2 months ago. Wow. Someone needs to play catch-up!

Aunt Kate & Georgia going to church on Sunday. Georgia doesn't fit into those shoes anymore... sniff

The end of February, beginning of March, our little family went back to California and Colorado. In California, Dave had to do some work back in Monrovia, so we made a mini-vacation out of the trip.

Our dear friends Brandon (and Carrie) and their newest guy, Wyatt. He is 2 months younger than Georgia.

We ended up being in California for a little over a week. The first weekend we were there we had a little ~~party~~ open house to see as many people as possible. Lots of family and a few church people came over.

Dave's bestie, Ben and Georgia

We kept very busy, shopping for items they don't sell in Britain, buying lots of baby clothes for Georgia and seeing many, many people. Here are some of the pictures from the trip:

Dave's Uncle Craig and Aunt Linda.

Matt's (Dave's brother) girlfriend. Love you, Kyan!!

Kyan, Jeremy (Kate's boyfriend) and Kate

Julia, me and Cassy (some of the youth from our church)

Matt (Dave's brother)

The Wallace family

Friday Foods: Thai Red Chicken Curry

2011-04-08T13:47:00.000+01:00

I have been branching out from the traditional "American" foods and trying some new things. This is SO easy (only uses one-pan) and very tasty. It really tastes like its take-out!

First, take a package of chicken - the amount doesn't really matter too much.... I use about a pound. If there's more people or you want leftovers, feel free to use a bit more. Chop up into bite sized pieces. Sear in a pan to brown, but don't worry about cooking all the way through. Add an onion and a few cloves of garlic, chopped.

Let it cook for a minute or two, and then add a can of coconut milk. I've been using regular, but I would assume the non-fat stuff would be okay, too! Chop up a red pepper to add. I've even added a green pepper before...whoa! crazy! No, but seriously - if you like lots of veggies, you can add more! At least one pepper and you get to choose the color.

Take one lemon grass and place it on the counter top. Grab a rolling pin or a jar and pound it. Its really satisfying! There's a nice crunch. Ah. It releases the good flavors. Just put it into the pan whole - you'll remove it when you're done cooking. Into the same pan grate some fresh ginger. If you are lazy, you can add a little bit of the spice. It just won't taste quite as good. Make about 3/4 of a cup of chicken stock and add it to the pan.

The special ingredient is Thai red curry paste. Add two tablespoons - more or less, depending on how spicy you want it. You also really need a tablespoon of soy sauce. This is really important - we made this once without any soy sauce and it felt like it was missing something. Lastly, take a handful of coriander (if you're British) or cilantro (if you're American) and chop it up. Towards the end of cooking, add about half of it, and the other half you can sprinkle on the top for some garnish.

You let it simmer all together until the sauce is a little thicker and the chicken is cooked. Somewhere around 15 minutes should be good. Serve with rice.

Ta-Da! See? I told you that was easy! For the original recipe, click here.

Visa Issues

2011-04-07T21:48:00.000+01:00

Georgia does not have her visa yet to live in the UK. We've applied for it, but the laws have changed and we actually have to go into an office to get her "biometrics" taken (fingerprints). Yeah. Seriously! When she and I came back into the UK (Dave had come home a week ahead of us) the Immigration Officer allowed us to enter the country for a maximum of 2 months. That means that we need to have her visa taken care of by the beginning of May. This wouldn't be a terribly big deal normally (we could live here illegally until our appointment) but we have a trip to France coming up (yay! a vacation!). The fear is that they will not let Georgia back into the country.

We have finally contacted the company that is "taking care" of the visa, and there are no appointments. None! They said the first appointments are in July. We're hoping that there is another office somewhere else in the country that we could travel and take care of this. Another option would be that Dave and I submit our own passports for 5-6 weeks. This is pretty much impossible because Dave has trips for work coming up (and our trip to France). The last option is that Georgia and I fly to the US to try to take care of the visa there.

Please pray for us as we try to figure this all out!

2 months vs. 4 months

2011-04-04T21:48:00.000+01:00

2 months old:

4 months old:

4 months old!

2011-03-30T11:46:00.000+01:00

We have a sick 4-month old in our house today! The poor thing has a runny nose and is stuffed up, making sleeping and eating rather difficult. Other than that, we're in pretty good spirits around here!

Stats (as of two weeks ago)
Weight: 13 lbs 12 oz
Height: 24.5 inches
Clothes: size 3-6
Diaper size: 3

Georgia and I in Colorado

This month was pretty crazy. We celebrated her 3-month birthday in the States, and have since come back to the UK. Dave went on a two-week business trip to South America and is back again. So, its been a busy month. Its amazing to see Georgia grow up so much. She is becoming much more like a little person and less like a baby.

During bath-time in Colorado

Development:

Georgia is now rolling over pretty easily from tummy to back (see previous post for a video!). She has very good head strength when on her tummy. I've seen that she is trying to push up onto her knees, so crawling is approaching us fast! She is becoming much more coordinated with using her hands, grabbing items placed in front of her or on her lap and moving them towards her mouth. She is pretty interested in toys, especially the rattles and hard toys that feel good on her gums. One of her favorite things lately is to stand up. She loves being on her legs!

"spitting" on her fingers (or being "cheeky" if you're British)

Social:

Georgia is still a very social baby. She gives smiles easily and seems happy to see new people. I've noticed she's a little less willing to be held by other people, but no tears yet! She goes through phases of finding her voice. One phase was spitting or blowing raspberries. We're now in the screaming/squealing phase. She has just recently learned how to laugh. We have to work hard to hear it, but it is so precious.

Another bath-time photo

Feeding/Sleeping:

This is about the same as last month. I've been trying to keep track of her schedule to see if there is any pattern. A few insights: most days she takes 4 naps. Occasionally she'll get away with 3 longer ones. Her wake-up time is getting a bit earlier (probably the sun coming into the room!), usually around 7. She takes two morning naps, the second one is always at 11am. (which is terrible because church is during this time!) She's been going to bed around 6:30 or so every evening. She wakes up twice to eat, once usually at 9:30-10:30 and once around 4:45 (almost without fail!). This doesn't mean I get five or six hours of straight sleep - she does wake up once or twice in addition and needs a bit of settling - a pat, or her pacifier.

This past weekend, on a walk we took

4-month birthday photo!

We have a roller!

2011-03-29T11:39:00.000+01:00

Georgia has been rolling since the beginning of March (just past her 3-month birthday)- she did it first for my parents when I was out with my brother. And she did it a few times since then. But, just this week, almost every time she is on her tummy she rolls over! I caught it on tape:

Sorry the sound isn't great - I was talking to my mom on Skype at the time.

She has yet to roll from back to front, but I'm sure if she really wanted to, she could do this because she can roll pretty onto her side. See??

Before we know it, we're going to have to start baby-proofing! This one is going to be a mover....

Friday Foods: Salsa

2011-03-25T21:09:00.000Z

I don't post as much as I should, but I was thinking of creating a new feature on the blog called Friday Foods. I can post step-by-step directions for foods that I made that week.

The first food that I've been making quite often is salsa. Dave and I have been looking for salsas that we like, but haven't found any yet. They sell the Doritos salsa and... that's about it! There's nothing fresh and exciting about that. So, I've been making my own salsa lately! It takes about 10 minutes and is yummy and healthy and pretty easy! I got the recipe from ThePioneerWoman. The only problem is she uses some ingredients that we can't get here. So, I've tweaked it a bit to make my own that is British-grocery-store-friendly!

Into the food processor, throw some canned tomatoes. I use one can of chopped tomatoes. I'm sure the whole ones would be fine. Just make sure they don't have Italian spices.... that would mix things up! (and not in a good way!)

Into this, I added some applesauce (home-made! I had heard that some Mexican places add some... who knows?! Maybe..). I just had a little bit left, so I added all I had - maybe a large spoonful, or two?

The green bits are "green chillies" as they're known here. Really, I have no clue. They might be jalapenos, or they might be some other type of chili pepper. They sell peppers in the bag above. They are sold by color and heat. So, these are green chilies with medium heat. I think most of the time they're jalapenos, but sometimes they're shorter and pointier, so I'm not sure what they are. Anyways, I take one of these (or more!) Dice it, add a little to begin with and then I can add more if its not spicy enough for me. I've learned this the hard way.

I also have these. I add one or two of them to add some flavor.

Add some garlic. Or lots. I tend to err on the side of a lot. Like 4-5 cloves.

Then some of this:

A handful of cilantro (or coriander, if you're British). I use a whole, small onion. You could put a half of a large one in (or if you like onions, use a whole one!).

I forgot to add some lemon juice (or lime juice, I'm sure would work!) Fresh-squeezed juice is the best!

Also a necessity is sugar and salt. I add little bits at a time... probably close to 1T of sugar and maybe about the same of salt. Blend well!

Overall, this is really easy, and tastes amazing. Its pretty healthy and disappears in a day or two. Its our little piece of Mexico in Britain.

Becoming like Europe... socialism

2011-03-21T20:04:00.000Z

Lets face it.

Most Americans today have an image in their minds of what Europe/Europeans is(are) like.

Equality. Beauty. Education. Idealistic. History. Romance.

Really - a lot of Americans think that Europe is better than America in many regards.

Why?

Is it because we go there on vacation? Because movies depict it as a wonderful place? Don't get me wrong. It is a great place! But yet there is a reason that America has been number one in the world.
That reason is:
God.
America was a country founded on Christian values and the freedom to worship God.
And I believe that God has blessed America because of that.
The second reason that America is so great is because of its democracy.
Seriously.
In America, we have the freedom to buy what we want to buy, to say what we want to say, and do what we want to do.
We vote into office people who share our values (hopefully!)
We pick the doctor who we think is the best. And we go there when we need to! We can call our doctor any time of night or day with questions we have.
The government has minimal say over the products that go onto the market. If you want to buy a breakfast cereal that has more sugar than a bowl of cereal, you can!
Taxes are relatively low (compared to other countries). You can choose where you live and if you want to pay fewer taxes, you can move to a city with a lower tax rate.
The role of the government is (or should be) to protect us.

Here's some things about Europe (well, namely England) that you may not know.

There are many, many regulations here.

Sales tax is high - VAT (that everyone pays, regardless of where you live) is 20%. This makes shopping feel really expensive (okay, it doesn't just feel that way. It is). For example, Rimmel Nail Polish. At Boots, it is sold for £4.59 which is a little over $7. At Walgreens, you could buy the same bottle for $3.99 which is £2.50. For you men out there, ground beef at Vons costs $2.99 for a pound (this week - on sale!) and here, in the UK you can buy a little over a pound (500 grams - about 1.1 pounds) for the price of £4 normally, but on sale £3.33 (buy 3 for £10). That's about double the price.

The government tells you what you have to recycle. Some people can't even throw away any food particles (scraps of food, egg shells, bones, etc.). They have to buy a special trash can with "earth-friendly" bags for it and put all their food "junk" in it for recycling once a week.

Police left a note on our front door that we should close our windows so that no one would break into our house.

It is difficult to buy medicine. The chemist (pharmacist) limits how much you can buy. When going into the store, you can only buy one or two boxes at each time. They will actually tell you they can't sell it to you. When I went to buy some CalPol (tylenol) for Georgia, the chemist asked how old she was. This is when she was an infant, and I lied about her age in order to buy it. We didn't use it until she reached the recommended age, but it is amazing that there is such control over medicines.

In the US, they recommend that breastfed infants get Vitamin D. I asked the doctor here and he said it wasn't necessary. Not only do they believe its not necessary, they don't even sell it. There are no vitamins that you can buy in the stores for infants.
You need to pay for "free" TV. There is a yearly licensing fee (£145 or $235) per year.
Health care is government-owned/regulated. Because of its inefficiencies, it can take a while to receive care. For example, one of my friends needed a mandatory surgery and has had to wait 5-6 months to receive it.

Inflation was set at 5% this past year.

There is probably more... but this is just a start. A little insight into some of the differences that are based primarily on the differences in government.

I really miss

2011-03-17T11:26:00.000Z

My craft-i-ness.

I miss it a lot. Much more than I ever thought possible.

I feel like I'm not able to be myself without it.

Its such an amazing thing to conceive and design, spending time to plan and create.

When we lived in the US I had the space and time to do it.

Now, I live in a 850 sq ft house with two bedrooms and barely any storage space.

We rent and I really shouldn't put holes in the wall or paint anything.

I have been putting my creative energy into taking care of a baby and cooking meals.

Seriously.

I now create by cooking dinner.

And it is something. Indian, Mexican, researching and making things I've never done before.

But, I still miss painting and sewing and fabrics and sandpaper.

I want a sewing machine. I want a craft room full of fabrics. I want to make pillows and pillow-case dresses. Seriously. How cute would Georgia be in this?

I want to make other dresses, like this and this.

(from kojodesigns)... seriously, how cute is this dress? and those leggings? ahhh!!!

Here's my list so far. Those two dresses above. Three, including a pillow-case dress.

I want to try making some hair accessories for the G-girl.

I could do this with felt and attach to a headband or hair clip.

And these! They are adorable!!

I could probably keep adding to this blog... gotta stop for now.

And for the record, I did get to make one dress for G while I was in the US. I'll post the pictures from that soon!

I also did buy some craft supplies - hair clips (alligator clips) and felt. I also purchased a hot glue gun, so I can try my hand at making some hair accessories. I'll let you know how that goes!

3 months

2011-03-11T12:10:00.000Z

Please excuse my lack of posts.

Dave, Georgia and I made our way back to the US, as Dave had a "work trip" and Georgia was able to visit grandparents and friends. We are back on the correct side of the pond, catching up on life and laundry.

I have some posts started, so hopefully over the next few days, I will be able to update this thing!

Moving on....

We now have a 3-month old living in our house! Crazy!! Its amazing how quickly time flies.

Weight: 13 lbs, 5 oz
Height: tall... growing out of clothes lengthwise.
Clothes: 3-6, some 6 month ones, as well
Diapers: size 3 (in the US, size 2)

Development:

Georgia can lift her head while on her tummy very well. She has great head support, and control over her head while we are holding her. She is able to grab things around her, her favorite being Aden and Anais blankets. They are soft and thin, and taste very good (I assume - they are always in her mouth)! She is just beginning to notice toys. She likes playing with Sophie the giraffe (its a teether that squeaks). Also, moms hands are one of the best toys ever created. Everything is beginning to go into her mouth.

Social:

Georgia loves attention. I think she has the gift of WOO (winning other over) like her father, and is probably an extravert. She has trouble sleeping when we're out and about because she is so excited to see where we are and who is there. She loves smiling with her whole body, which is so much fun. She is quite a talker, and seems to have a lot to say.

Feeding/Sleeping:

Because of our trip to the States, this is still unknown. With the jet lag, I'm not sure what is normal for her right now. She has been eating every 3 hours, night and day, so I am hoping that once we get into a more settled routine I can get more than 2-3 hours of sleep (at a time) at night. She has been sleeping extremely well. I've learned that she should only be awake for 45 minutes to an hour. (occasionally more). When she starts staring and slowing down, I swaddle her, turn on the sound machine, and into bed she goes. As long as I do this before she gets too tired, she goes to sleep without fussing at all! Its amazing! So, she takes 4- 5 short (45 minutes or so) naps a day. At night, she seems to need about 13 hours of sleep (minus getting up to eat).

Activity:

Georgia is a very active girl. While laying on her back, she enjoys kicking her legs in the air. She grabs anything thats within her reach. She loves to stand while we are holding her. She doesn't like being held in towards my body... but instead wants to be held facing outwards so that she can see the world. She loves to sit up on my lap. She seems to want to move, so I expect she will be frustrated until she can crawl or walk.

Language barriers: Baby

2011-02-10T21:05:00.000Z

Brits and Americans, here's a vocab lesson for you!

Dummy

Pacifier

Cot/Moses basket

Crib/bassinet

Nappy

Diaper

Buggy/Pushchair/Pram

Stroller/Bassinet

Wind

Gas/Burp

Creche = Nursery

Vest/Body Suit

Onesie

Other random Brit vocabulary: "I will go to hospital to have my baby"

American English: "I will go to the hospital to have my baby"

2 months

2011-02-04T22:18:00.000Z

Our little love turned 2 months old this past week, and in case I don't tell you enough about her, here is some more!

Weight: 5.38 kilos (which is a little under 12 pounds)
Height: 59 cm (a bit over 23 in)
Clothes: mostly 0-3 size, and some 3-6
Diapers: size 3 (I'm not sure what size in the US)

Development:

Georgia is smiling tons and will give strangers smiles, especially if they smile at her first. She has not laughed yet, but we are eagerly awaiting that moment! She is great at mimicking faces that Dave and I make at her, and will stick her tongue out and smile at us when we do it first.

She is also developing more head support (as you can see from the picture above!). She has great control over her head when she is being held or set upright. She cannot hold her head up much when doing tummy time, but can turn her head back and forth.

She seems to have discovered her hands, and can often be found looking at them and trying to put them (both, at the same time) into her mouth. When she finally succeeds at this, she often has a pained look on her face - maybe she ends up hurting herself when she bites them?

She is just beginning to show interest in holding onto things. She will hold fingers for a few moments, and will grab onto toys placed near her hands. This is all still on accident. She still seems to have very little interest in toys.

Sleep/Feeding:

She is beginning to sleep more and more at night. She normally sleeps 12-14 hours a night (minus the times she's up feeding), going to bed around 7 and getting up usually around 8am. The last few nights she's done an 8-hour stretch at night and gets up twice to eat. She has been taking about 4 naps a day, one after each feed. The naps go anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half. She really does seem to love her sleep, which is great for us! She eats every 2-3 hours during the day and usually twice during the night. We are breastfeeding and she probably has 8 "meals" a day.

We are so in love with her! She really is a great kid - thank you Lord for such a wonderful blessing!

Her first movie

2011-01-26T16:30:00.000Z

Yes, this happened about a month ago... (actually on her 1-month birthday!)

Going through old pictures. Isn't this just too cute not to share?

We went with Dave's family to see Megamind.

Georgia is a fan. Well, actually, she ate and then slept the whole way through.

I don't think she'd like movies that much now....or I should say other people in the theater won't appreciate us being there! Little G is becoming a noisy person these days...

After we took that first picture, she accidentally grabbed the tickets in her hands:

I personally think she looks pretty good with those 3-D glasses on!

Invitation!

2011-01-25T19:29:00.000Z

I got an invitation a few days ago in the mail! So exciting, don't you think????

What? What's the invitation for?

You really want to know?

You're not going to believe this.

Get ready:

"Your Cervical Smear Invitation"

oh goody! What I always wanted!!!

And yes... that's exactly what it said!

Just one of those days...

2011-01-24T20:09:00.003Z

Today was one of them. Sigh.

Was supposed to meet a friend for coffee and shopping, but had a sleepy little one, so just managed to have time for coffee before heading home for lunch. (I'm not complaining about the coffee! This was the highlight of my day!!)

I decided to try to make refried beans when I got home. I've done some research and wanted to give it a try. A can of refried beans here is about $1.70. That's just too much money for me to comprehend spending on beans. Seriously. Beans?! Why so much??? So, I got some dried pinto beans, soaked them for a while and put them on the stovetop on low to simmer for a while. I kept adding water and stirring. But then forgot. For about 20 minutes. I smelled it first. Burnt beans. I ran to the stove and poured some water into the pot, but I was too late. I couldn't salvage it. And now I have a burnt pan and a lovely smell still wafting through the house (8 hours and several open windows later).

After lunch I still had to do the grocery shopping that didn't get done. The bus stop closest to our house was closed (stupid on-going construction!), so I walked to the next one and missed the bus that whizzed past me when I was about 20 feet from the stop.... so I kept walking. I mean, I've walked in worse weather. It was about 45 degrees and not very windy. And its only a mile or so to the store....

And then the second bus whizzed past me less than a minute later. Again, just one of those days.

Did my shopping.

Finished shopping right at 3:25. Not my brightest moment.

School gets out at 3:30. The last time I tried to catch a bus at 3:30, I ended up walking home because the bus was so full. I had been waiting for the bus when school got out. Even though I was the first one at the bus stop, I didn't make it on the bus because the 50 elementary students around me can maneuver and push each other out of the way easier than a woman with a stroller full of groceries.

So, I walked home.

Past several really rude teenagers who feel like they own the sidewalk. They got the side-eye from me, and probably deserved to get a few words as well. On a side-note, people here are really not very considerate about their walking and being respectful of others in public areas.

Did I mention it was a long shopping trip?

Oh yeah and Georgia's visa? Well, the British Government decided that starting this year infants need to get biometrics (fingerprints) done in order to get a visa. But infants are too young to do the appointment, so what ends up happening is you take the infant to the appointment and they tell you the baby is too little and they cancel the appointment and give you the visa. Now that's what I call effective! The problem with this is that we're not sure we can get an appointment before our trip to the States in February. I'll be traveling with her back home by myself (Dave will already be in the UK) so we're hoping that we can enter the UK again!

Anyways, on my way home from the grocery store, I was listening to music and this song came on:

And I realized how true it was. So, I tried to savor the moment of walking home. Until I realized I forgot to get milk. Sigh.

Hard to Understand?

2011-01-24T20:09:00.000Z

What's harder to understand than an old, British man with a thick accent?

An old, British man with a thick accent who's holding a cigarette between his lips.

Something that is NOT hard to understand - how much fun this little one is!

toe nail polish, Glee and a sneeze

2011-01-13T15:00:00.000Z

Yesterday Amanda came over (see this post) and Dave watched Little G, giving us time to go to Wimbledon and grab some lunch and hang out (girl time!) and do some shopping. Our shopping was pretty lame, actually. We mostly did grocery shopping, but we did manage to duck into Superdrug to grab some nail polish.

Do you know in this country, they charge anywhere from 3.50 to 6.50 in pounds (so roughly $5-10) for "cheap" nail polish?! Anyways, it was much needed as it is now a balmy 55 degrees outside (for the first time since October) and I can wear my flip flops in the house. Also, I can now reach my toes! Yay!

Amanda brought up a good point of getting something bright colored so that it would look like spring. That's what we did. So, I am sporting a bright pink nail polish on my toes while wearing flip flops.

Take that, England!

. . .

One of the things I do in the privacy of my own home is to put on some music and sing along as loudly as I can. I think Little G gets a kick out of it. So today, I was singing along to Glee and I swear it looked like she was trying to sing too. In-between the smiles she was giving me, she was opening her mouth so very wide (not really any sound coming out) and I think she wanted to sing along. Future musician or singer? We'll see!

Another first for Little G - she went 6 hours between feedings last night! I fed her around 9 - a marathon feeding session! She ate for the longest time - much longer than normal. It took her a while to fall asleep. She was too happy, cooing and then pooping and then smiling in her crib. Somewhere between 10:30 and 11 she was finally asleep and she didn't make a sound until a little past 3! So wonderful.... I hope this becomes the new norm for us!

. . .

A sneeze for your enjoyment

1 month old

2011-01-08T22:55:00.000Z

Well, we're now at about ~~5 weeks~~ 6 weeks. That's what I get for ~~procrastinating~~ being a mom....

A little update on Georgia, for those of you who are interested. It is so neat to watch her grow up and become a little person. She is going to be an extrovert like her father - she loves getting out of the house, going for walks in the stroller or Moby. She loves looking around and has trouble sleeping because she's so interested in the world around her (and the people there, too).

She has been smiling socially for the last week or two. That has to be one of the neatest things ever - going to get her out of the crib and having her smile at me. She *seems* to have a sense of humor (well, as much as a 6-week-old can have), laughing and smiling at times when mommy and daddy are frantic about something:

A few days ago when Dave and Tim (my brother) and I were in London, we stopped for a bite to eat by Buckingham Palace. There was a small bathroom, so I took Georgia to change her diaper. I had just finished, when I noticed her pants were wet. Confused, I looked for the source of the problem and I saw that I had not fastened her diaper tight enough, and the brand-new diaper that I had put on less than 30 seconds earlier was now wet and soaking through to her pants. I gave her a "scolding", a little tickle and pulled the pants off to start again. She gave me the biggest smile... makes me think she knew all along what she was doing :-)

(taken on her one-month birthday - and in the outfit she wore at the hospital!)

I went to the Health Clinic here this week to have her "month" check-up (although thanks to Christmas break, it was really more like a 5-week check-up). All they did was weigh her, but she is now a hefty 10lbs 1oz. She is eating really well (if that weight didn't give that away!) and starting to look pretty fat. She was born at 6 pounds, so gaining 4 pounds in a month is amazing....

She got her first cold this week, thanks to Dave. She is still a fairly happy baby, sleeping and eating a bit more than normal. Her poor nose is completely stuffed, but I have a wonderful snot-sucker that keeps up. She had a bit of a fever, but some cool wash clothes helped cool her down.

Yesterday she actually started moving. She was laying on the couch next to me when all of a sudden she rolled over onto her side. Yes, she was on a slight incline, but still I was very surprised. I put her back, a little bit further away from the cushion crack, and she did it a second time! Here's a photo of her :-) She did this all on her own! I think she just wanted to be close to mommy.

We're trying to stick to the schedule of eat, play and sleep. I don't schedule specific times for these activities, our day depends on what time I can get out of bed in the morning. It seems like we've been feeding 9 (usually when we wake up in the morning), noon, 3, 6 and nine and then putting her to bed. Again, this is a pretty loose estimate, and really depends on what time she wakes up in the morning. The best she does at night is 5 hours from the beginning of a feeding to the beginning of another feeding. This means that I get a 4-hour stretch of sleep at night. The rest of the feedings at night are usually a 4 hour one and then a three hour one.

She is also slowly loosing her hair. I'm worried she's going to end up looking like this:

But seriously, she only seems to be loosing hair on the top and sides of her head. I'm pretty sure she'll have a mullet in a month or so.

Anyways, that's probably way more than enough for her one month post....we're in love and can't wait for everyone to meet her!

Thankful for 2010

2011-01-06T20:04:00.000Z

What a year 2010 was in the Wallace household!

It started in January at Maria's wedding. It was such a great wedding and I was so glad to be a part of my cousin's special day. As Dave and I were driving the rental car back to the airport, we had a discussion about where Dave was in his career. We talked about several different opportunities that *may* present themselves in the next year.

Little did we know that over the next month Dave would begin talks with World Vision about moving to England.

And then at the end of March we would find out that we were pregnant.

The rest of the year was very full with me working as a substitute teacher and also part time in retail. Dave would continue in his job, slowly changing his role in preparation for moving. We had lots of discussions about moving, how to do it, and what we were doing.

But God put all the pieces into place.

Our renters fell into our laps when Dave's uncle recommended our place to some APU students. We didn't even have to advertise.

Some wonderful people from our church back home lived in Wimbledon and were a wealth of information about the area we were moving to. They suggested places to live and the church we began attending once we arrived. They were able to help us meet people in this country before we even arrived.

Our finances worked out despite our worries and concerns.

We moved when I was 33 weeks pregnant, and we had no place to live once we got here. We didn't have a doctor or a hospital.

The people at our new church helped us find a place to live. They gave us rides. They gave us a kitchen table and chairs. They answered questions and had us over for dinner. They made us feel welcome even though we asked funny questions and complained about England.

Our house was only available because the other people who made an offer the day before us had requested a dishwasher. Our house is perfect for us (minus the dishwasher ;-)

Our next door neighbors (who we are slowly getting to know) have a little girl that is 6 weeks older than Georgia.

Once we found our house, things with the doctors lined up. The whole NHS system was very strange to us, but the doctors office took us without complaining and we got into the hospital that is the *best in the area.

Georgia decided to come a few days late, and she was teeny-tiny, but otherwise healthy when she arrived.

Its amazing looking back how everything lined up in God's timing. If I had been more pregnant, we wouldn't have been able to move because I wouldn't have been able to fly. Although Dave was concerned about having a baby, it has made the move over here complete. We have met so many people that we wouldn't have otherwise spoken to. I really believe that our ministry over here will center around families - and it is all because of God's gift of Georgia.

Pray for us as we try to figure out what that ministry is. I am trying to get out of the house and find opportunities to meet people and get involved in the community. It is easier said than done, but I am excited to see what God will be doing over the next year.

Here's to what God has planned for 2011!

catch-up

2010-12-29T14:53:00.000Z

So, I think I can say that December has probably been the busiest month of our lives. We've had my mom come and stay with us, my brother come and stay with us (and he's still here!) and Dave's family come for Christmas. And there's the fact that we have a one-month old baby and its Christmas time. Yeah.

about 2 weeks old

So, I have a lot to blog about, but will do that at another time. I'm still alive and functioning - although some days better than others. Georgia has been such a dream child. She cries when she is hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper. Other than those times, she is a happy baby, very smiley and easy to take care of. On good nights she'll go 5 hours between feeds, meaning that I can sleep about 4 hours straight.

Hanging with Uncle Tim

Here's a few pictures for those of you who aren't on facebook very much....

I do put pictures up on facebook more often than I do here, so check it out!

Georgia's first weeks

2010-12-14T17:58:00.000Z

I was thinking the other day how its amazing that God chose Georgia to be in our family. He chose the right combination of personality and strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes that would be exactly perfect.

We have been blessed with an amazing child (so far!). I am probably a little biased, but I know that our little girl is as close to perfect as I could hope for. She is an extremely quite child. She rarely cries, and when she does, its more out of frustration, "mom, don't you know I'm hungry?" She is slowly working on her set of lungs - she's begun groaning, talking, and whining more and more each day. I think she's going to be an early talker. She's also becoming more active, moving her legs and arms a lot. Dave said today, "She's going to be an active toddler!" So, its possible that we have a great infant, and will have a more challenging toddler.

Pretty much all she does is fill up diapers, eat, sleep and look around. When awake, she enjoys sitting in her swing, and the last two days has really seemed to enjoy laying on the floor. Dave's boss and wife stopped by on Saturday one of the things they gave us was a little stuffed animal duck. Georgia has really enjoyed staring at it. (Sorry mom, she seems to like the duck better than Lambie).

She sleeps really well at night (with only one exception in the past two weeks). We have our last feed usually around 9-11pm, and then we have feeds every four hours or whenever she decides she's hungry. So last night, she ate at 10, 2, 6 and 9. On the down side, she's a slow eater, so we do get to spend lots of awake time together in the middle of the night. She is a little noisy (grunting and moaning) when falling back asleep, but does not seem to have a problem otherwise.

Today was the first day I started putting her in her crib for nap time. Up until now we've been letting her sleep on the couch or in her swing or in our arms. But, I don't want to start any bad habits, so I decided that it was time to start using her crib. This last hour I went and set her in the crib and she didn't make a peep!

I'm sure there's more I could say. I could talk about how she's gaining weight so quickly... how she's so easy to take out in public, or probably many other things. I could talk about how both Dave and I just love her so much, or how Dave is surprised that he cares so much for this little baby. I could also talk about the number of dirty diapers she has a day, or how the diapers are too big for her, so occasionally when she pees it sneaks its way out. I'm sure there's much more I can tell... I'll just save it for another day!

Our November 'Holiday'

2010-12-11T10:34:00.000Z

The last week in November, Dave's dad came to visit us. He was hoping to meet Georgia, but she had other plans! So instead, while he was here, we were able to show him around our new hometown. We went to a German Christmas Market one of the nights he was with us. It was a fun evening, we took the train into Waterloo and met some friends from APU that also live out here.

There was a fun Merry-Go-Round for the kiddies

We found the Chipotle in London! Walked all around the city, and we found it! From left to right: Dave, Jon (Dave's dad), Jared and Amanda.

The view walking across the Thames River.

We also got to show Jon around our part of the city. We spent time exploring Wimbledon and Kingston.

I think that we were really trying to induce labor by walking. We did a lot of that, including Wimbledon Common. It was a really cold day, and we got some nice hot coffee so we could enjoy the scenery.

It was also Thanksgiving, and Jon and I were able to do some cooking. Well, he did the cooking and I tried to do some baking. I made some molasses cookies (yummy!) and ruined a pecan pie (ingredients are different here... oh well!). We had Jared and Amanda over for dinner. They like to make fun of the way I stand, with my hands resting on top of the bump, so we took this fun picture, too.

We had such a good time having Jon spend the week with us. Unfortunately he didn't get to meet Georgia, but he was able to get a sense of our town so that when he comes back at Christmas time, he can be the tour guide for the rest of the family.

Georgia's Birth

2010-12-10T17:25:00.000Z

I woke up on Wednesday night, with some contractions. These were the first ones that I had ever had, but I knew instantly what they were. I had a few throughout the night, but when I awoke in the morning, they were gone. This trend continued for the next three days, getting progressively worse, especially in the afternoon and in the middle of the night. I would get my hopes up that, "this was it!" but then they would stop completely.

Saturday afternoon and evening I thought for sure that labor had started. The contractions were every 5 minutes apart and pretty painful. I took a shower and the contractions even got stronger and more frequent! So we packed up the bags to go to the hospital and called. The midwife told me to take some Tylenol (paracetamol) and call back in a couple of hours. At this point, it was 11pm, so I thought I'd try to sleep. To my surprise, the contractions slowed down and I fell asleep. Although I was disappointed, I now realize that God blessed both Dave and I with a last good nights sleep.

Sunday morning I awoke feeling rested, and had a few slight contractions, so we went to church. Around noon, I realized that they were coming every 5 minutes or so, but were rather mild. Around 2pm, I called the hospital to let them know that my contractions were getting worse and we would soon be coming in. The midwife again said to call back in a few hours. I tried taking a shower but couldn't relax so I knew we were getting close. We called someone from the church to take us to the hospital, and finished packing our bags. I called the hospital again, and the midwife again urged me to wait a bit, but I told her that we were on our way.

Arriving at the hospital around 3pm, we were put into a room at the maternity ward. We were assigned a midwife, Sue, who was a wonderful motherly-type woman who was a relatively new midwife. She was with us, in the room the whole time, helping through the contractions and offering pain relief. I tried the gas and air (laughing gas), but didn't like that too much, so labored for a few hours without any medicine. I was at 3 centimeters dilated when we arrived at the hospital, and the contractions were fairly quick and strong. I asked Sue about average labors, and she said the first one usually lasts from 12-16 hours, starting in "active labor" (which they say begins around 4 cm).

The contractions kept getting worse and worse. I was on the monitors the whole labor because Georgia's heart rate was a little fast. They had a doctor come in and give me an ultrasound (because of my uterus shape) just to check that she was still head-down. They also ordered an IV for me to keep me hydrated and help Georgia's heart rate slow down. I labored mostly in bed because of this, but was allowed to also sit on the birthing ball for part of the time. Around 6 pm, I was checked again, and was now at 5 cm (yay!)

After lots of thought, I was getting tired and the contractions were very strong, I thought it might be nice to have a little relief. So, I asked for the epidural. It was the right decision. It took close to an hour to actually get the epidural, and the pain was so immense during that hour. Dave was a little queasy during the procedure and actually had to leave the room to clear his head. I probably would have been too, if I had seen the needle they put into my back :-)

The epidural provided just a small bit of relief. I think I only got the test dose, although I was offered a top-up, the midwife discouraged it because I was progressing so quickly. I could still feel (very strongly, too!) every contraction, but it wasn't quite as bad as it had been. After receiving the epidural, they were no longer able to find Georgia's heartbeat on the monitor, so they called the doctor in to break my water and apply a monitor to the top of her head. The doctor came to do that, and almost immediately I progressed to 8 cm. I was beginning to feel the urge to push, and it was very difficult to hold back.

I kept asking to be checked, and finally about half an hour later I was checked, fully dilated and was allowed to push. It was so relieving and also very hard. I pushed for about half an hour, and Georgia was born at 8:20pm. She was a tiny thing, weighing in at 2.71kg (6 pounds) and 19 inches. We had been in the hospital for just over 5 hours, and I had the epidural for a little over an hour. Because of the meconium in my waters, we were put on 24 hour observation.

Dave cut the umbilical cord and also put on her first diaper and change of clothes. He was so in love with her, it was really sweet to see!

The recovery went fairly well. We spent two nights in the hospital (and Dave got to sleep at home - thats how they do it here!) and were discharged Tuesday afternoon in the middle of the first snowstorm of the season.

I really appreciated spending two nights in the hospital. We had some issues with breast feeding - both Georgia and I were slow learners, and it was very helpful to have the midwives come in for every feeding to give suggestions and help.

Introducing....

2010-12-02T10:28:00.000Z

Georgia Ruth

Weighing in at 6 lbs and 19 inches, she was born on Sunday, November 28th at 8:20 pm after a quick and furious labor.

We are so in love with her - she already has daddy wrapped around her fingers.
More to come...

Around the house

2010-11-21T23:01:00.000Z

Many of you are probably wondering what our house is like! I'd love for you to stop by for some tea (its much better than the instant coffee that's so popular here, believe me!) so that I could show you our little neck of the woods. I know this isn't really possible, (unless you live in the UK and then you are more than welcome to come by!), so here are some pictures of our house as its coming together.

This is our bedroom (well, a bit of it!). The end of our bed (with clothes that I hadn't put away yet), the chair that I will most likely be spending a lot of time in, the crib and dresser.

This is our eating area/clothes drier looking out to the backyard. I didn't put the table in the picture because it was a mess, but we do have a table and chairs, thanks to a wonderful family at our church!

And here is our kitchen with our huge fridge (really, it is big for the UK!), and brand new appliances (amazing!) and kitchen. We really have a nice kitchen. There's not a whole lot of cabinet space, but I don't even use it all because I haven't purchased all the kitchen items (i.e. baking pans, slow cooker, etc.) that I will be using in the future.

This is another view of the kitchen. You can see our washer/dryer in the corner. You in America (or those of you with wonderful machines - no complaining!) It would take me 5 hours to do a load of laundry - washing and drying for it to be completed. Most of the time, I just use it for washing, and then I hang our clothes up to dry (like in one of the pictures above). Also, you can see our state-of-the-art dishwasher. Known as the kitchen sink and dish drainer.

This is a picture from our living room. This is the final couch that we got this week - a half-price purchase second hand. It is really in great condition, and although its not the most comfortable thing, it has lots of space (probably 3 people easily) and looks pretty cute in our room.

This last picture is Dave's office/guest room. The couch folds out to make a bed, so we will be putting our guests in here.

The good news is that all of our major purchases are done! On the downside, we do not have any decorations up yet. I did bring a few pictures with us to remind us of our home in the States, but we don't have nails or screws, so they aren't hanging up. We have lots of empty walls still around the house, but I'm working to slowly make our place feel more like home - and its working!

Births in the UK

2010-11-20T16:16:00.000Z

I know a lot of my last posts have been baby or food related. Those are just the top two items on my mind these days :-)
I'm terribly sorry if they're boring, but you get another one of them today

The whole birthing experience is quite different in the UK, compared to the US. I've decided that the best way to describe it is that in the UK, because of the NHS (National Healthcare System), the hospitals/doctors/government are all concerned mostly about cost. In the US, because of private healthcare, they can be more concerned about comfort.

First, the good:

- During the actual labor (from what I've heard), the midwives push you to do as much as you can without any drugs, especially without the epidural. Depending on your point of view, this can be a good or bad thing as you can have a more "natural" birth experience with a birthing tub or ball. (which are much cheaper than drugs and more medical doctors). And if you decide you want drugs, they may not be available as there are limited doctors at the hospital who can give you these drugs.
- They are very unlikely to induce labor here unless there is a major problem. They won't talk about it until you're at 41 weeks.
- The rate of c-sections is fairly low, compared to the US. This can be attributed to the low induction rate and probably also the lower rate of epidurals.
- The midwife visits you at home several times in the week following the birth. This is also a cost-cutting measure as new moms are less likely to run to the hospitals with questions or call the doctors office in the days following the birth.

The not-so-good
- Hands-off mindset: I really think this comes down to cost-cutting. It is cheaper to have midwives verses OBs. Also, it is better for the government to provide fewer ultrasounds and tests (such as the Glucose test for gestational diabetes and the Group B Strep test towards the end of the pregnancy). In the US, they do everything they can to prevent something from happening. In the UK, they wait to see if there is a problem and then they will treat it if one arises.
- The lack of testing worries me a bit. I did not get tested for GBS (or Group B Strep). Its a infection that can come and go in women and can be passed on to the baby during delivery. This can cause higher rates of meningitis in babies (and then possibly death). They do not test for that here, although you can order tests online and do it yourself and send it in for the results.
- I have heard multiple stories of women who's waters break (some even early - around 32 weeks!) who go to the hospital only to be sent home because they are not in active labor. In the States this is unheard of because they are worried about infection.
- I've heard that some of the hospitals are rather "dirty" or old by American standards (The doctor at my local clinic told me this!)
- Husbands do not spend the night at hospitals. Even if you're in early stages of labor, they will send the husband home with a promise to call if you make progress. Also, after the baby is born they will send the husband home an hour or two after the baby arrives. Also, you can be discharged up to two hours after giving birth if you are able to go home.
- You rarely see the same doctor twice. This is a pain because you have to explain who you are and why you're there. The doctors do not talk to each other - so the person examining me at the hospital will not know the person who did the ultrasound or the doctor in my local clinic. I carry my own medical notes around, and they look at that when they need information.

I do have more thoughts on the NHS as a whole (not just relating to births) but I will save that for another time.

Week in Review: Dorking

2010-11-19T08:25:00.000Z

A few weeks ago, Dave had a work conference in a city half an hour south of Wimbledon called Dorking. Actually there was a little "town" closer called Wotton, but it consisted of a bus stop and a pub. We stayed at an old retreat centre by the name of Wotton House. It was the house of the novelist John Evelyn (if you know who that is, ahem, mom...)

We took the train down to the city of Dorking, which was quite a feat. The train and tube stations here were not designed for anything that has wheels - wheelchairs, strollers or suitcases. And, since we were still technically homeless, we took four suitcases with us. The rest of our belongings were at two different hotels awaiting our return. The first feat we managed was taking the bus down to the train station with our four large suitcases. We only got a few dirty looks.

Then, we had to get on the train. The station has a ramp up to the first platform. Very nice, and although it was a long (and steep!) ramp, very do-able. Then, we had to cross the platform to get to the other side. Of course it was only stairs. So, up we started. Dave would take up two of the suitcases a few stairs, and then come down to get the third one while I took the lightest of the bunch and slowly made my way up. Then, we had to go down. Without thinking, I just pulled the suitcase down the stairs behind me, bouncing all the way down. I have to say we were very lucky that none of the electronics (such as laptops) broke!

The same sort of thing happened once we got into Dorking. Again, we had to cross platforms, and again there were only stairs. So down we went, dragging the bags behind us, and then (finally!) a nice man stopped and offered to help me carry one of the bags up the stairs!

Anyways, we got a taxi and took it to the Wotton house, arriving to this spectacular view. It was so beautiful on the property, and I got to enjoy it fully while Dave and his co-workers had meetings every day.

I have to admit that the service was less than stellar. Upon arrival we had to ask for two keys (they thought we'd share one room key!), had to wait until 7pm to eat dinner. We got kicked out of the dining room because we were there too early! They had a pool/fitness area that I thought I'd use one day, so I went by the front desk to ask about it, and the only way to get a key to the fitness area was to give them my room key in exchange. I had to beg and plead for them to give me a key without taking away my room key. I told them I was going to come back in my swimming suit and I think that scared them :-)

One of Dave's co-workers who had a car was able to take me to the city of Dorking one of the days that we were there. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera because I was planning on spending several hours there and wanted to carry one less item, but it was very charming.

I did take plenty of pictures of the Wotton House though, so if you'd like to see them, you have some options, well, one mainly.

Click here for that link.

Since we had such a difficult time reaching the retreat centre, we rented a car for the ride home :-) I have to say that Dave is getting very good at driving around here. He still likes to ride the left curb and stalls every once in a while, but I feel pretty comfortable in the car! And that's saying a lot....

So attractive right now...

2010-11-17T15:29:00.000Z

Yup. I'm that big.

Autumn

2010-11-16T13:29:00.000Z

Dave says I'm not putting enough pictures on the blog. Too much writing. So, here you go!

As we are in a waiting pattern, Dave and I have been trying to make the best of our time as a family of two. I have drug him out of the house, promising Starbucks, in exchange for spending time in the cold outdoors.

These are some pictures from the last few times we've gone out. We caught a bus near our house and took it up the hill to Wimbledon Common area.

Sorry about the raindrop on the lens... oops. That's what happens when we have no umbrella with us.

We ended up getting off the bus too early and then had trouble finding an entrance to the park, so instead we walked through some of the more "posh" neighborhoods. It was a cooler afternoon and we had some sprinkles as we started the walk (unfortunate because I forgot the umbrella).

But, it did clear up pretty quickly and then the sun peaked out just for a bit. It really was a beautiful evening.

This is the name of the borough we live in.

Here's a picture of me... I am around 37.5 weeks here.

Vinegar and HSBC

2010-11-15T16:12:00.000Z

They do not sell vinegar in the UK, at least not at the 4 grocery stores I've been to, or the others I've looked at online. Poop.

Its not that distilled vinegar (without spices or malt, thank you!) is that much of a necessity. Really. I'm pretty sure I can get by without it. Its just the annoyance of trying so hard to find something and not being able to find it. Anywhere.

They do sell vinegar - malt vinegar (in many different colors), pear vinegar, balsamic vinegar, vinegar for canning, and any other type of vinegar you can think of. Just not the plain, clear, white one without malt flavoring.

I don't use it all that often - I do like to make my own buttermilk. Add it to some milk, and pretty much instantly it becomes buttermilk! We save a fortune when I make pancakes and waffles because I don't have to buy buttermilk. But I can buy buttermilk. I'm not opposed to it... Its just that for the price of a can (or jug) of buttermilk, you could get two or three jars of vinegar. Although you have to admit that buttermilk tastes better than milk + vinegar.

Dave was a little annoyed that I was getting so worked up about it. Until I found a recipe for Carne Asada (we'll talk about Mexican food another time....).... One of the ingredients you add to the marinade was vinegar. And then, he felt my pain.

. . .

Banking is a whole new ball game. Nothing about opening a bank account and figuring out payments and direct debit has been easy. Nothing.

Dave checked, and our rental payment that was supposed to go out on Friday had not gone out of the account... So our rent was overdue. We had filled out a form asking that they just automatically take it out of our account every month. This was the first month and so I first tried calling our housing manager who told me to try calling the bank.

So, I called the bank. Mind you, this is an 0800 telephone number. If you were in the states, it would be no big deal. But here, you get charged (not just minutes by your phone company... also get charged for the call itself!) when you call one of these numbers. And like a significant amount. For my phone call today, it'll probably cost around $7. So, not cheap.

Back to the story.... The computerized voice asks me to put in my account info, my sorting code, and then asks for my date of birth. I put mine in, but it says it does not recognize it. So, I try Dave's. It works just fine. In the States, this is not a big deal! We have a joint account, both of our names are on it, and we both have credit cards from the same account. So who cares if I'm using his date of birth or mine?!

When the call finally gets answered, the lady proceeds to tell me that I've locked Dave's account. In order for him to access it, he has to go into the nearest branch (which is NOT in our town.... its a bus ride away) and have them re-open basically his part of the account. She continues that she can help me, since my "part" of the account (of our JOINT account - do they have a different meaning for the word here????) was still active. But, because I had not set up a password or pin number in my own name, I would have to prove who I was. No problem. Date of birth, full name, number of my credit card. Then, the last question threw me - I had to tell her "something" that had taken place in our account over the last 7 days. So, if we'd made any purchases using the account, I would have to state the exact amount, the place purchased, and the date. If I were to get it wrong, I would lock my part of the account.

So... I spent a full 10 minutes on the phone with her, trying to find a receipt from something in the last week. But of course this is the week that we've switched to using cash, rather than our debit cards. And I ended up hanging up the phone, rather than tell her something inaccurate and screw-up our account further.

Dave and I take a trip into the bank to sort everything out. First, they have to re-set his part of the account so that he can use it. Then, we have to add my information (i.e. date of birth) so that I can call the bank without feeling like a thief. Then, we try to figure out why our direct debit has not begun to work. They have a copy of the form we've filled out in their computer system with our authorization of the direct debit.

Ah hah.

Dave's signature doesn't match.

Yup. They've become the signature nazis over here.

Someone, somewhere decided that Dave's signature on the direct debit form did not match his signature given to the bank when we opened our account.

The bank has been calling us the last week to try to sort it out. BUT... because of the laws and regulations they have, this is what the call goes like:

"Hi, this is your bank calling (they can't even say the name of the bank because of privacy laws). Can you give us your phone number and account number to prove who you are and then we'll tell you why we're calling?!"

And Dave hangs us because he doesn't give his information out over the phone.

So, its been a headache.

I think Tariq at the bank might become the baby's godfather. That's how much he sees us.

Differences: food

2010-11-05T16:29:00.000Z

Last night while eating dinner, Dave told me, “Your cooking has gotten so much better - I don’t mind eating at home all the time!” haha..... I told him it was that his options (i.e. eating out) were not that good, making my food seem even better. And then, yes, after thinking about it for a while, he amended his statement, “I can’t think of anything that we’d go out and eat that would be better”

People in America, eat an In-n-out burger for us tonight.

The first complaint about food here is that it is impossible to eat for less than 10 pounds (for the two of us), which is around $16. And that is a cheap meal. At In-N-Out (which we frequented too often), we could eat for $7. Easily.

You wouldn’t think that there were that many differences in the food here. But you would be wrong.

Ranch dressing is obsolete. They do have other dressings by Kraft.... just not ranch. And the Cesear dressing here is the “real” stuff with anchovies. Eiw. The closest they have to ranch is “garlic and parmesan” which is like eating a spoonful of mayonnaise with bits of herbs in it.

Mexican food consists of Old El Paso taco and fajita kits. Either that or Spanish tapas are pretty popular here. And I guess people here think the “Mexican” is too spicy because they just launched the “Very Mild” version of Old El Paso. On the topic of Mexican food, corn tortillas here are only partially corn and then mostly wheat. Not good for a glutard like Dave. We’ve had to buy Masa so that we could try making our own corn tortillas. The best salsa we’ve found is the one made by Doritos.

Pickles here means something that has been “pickled” which is usually onions or beets. Do people just eat canned onions? I find that hard to believe.... They have very limited quantities of what we would consider pickles. I have yet to find the ones you can put on sandwiches (the sour variety).

I’ve been missing fall foods. And I will be missing them for a few years. Pumpkin filling (for pies or breads) does not exist. Well, I haven’t found it yet. So no pumpkin pie this year :-( On the subject of pies, I don't think I will be able to make Pecan pie either. The "Karo" syrup is not the same.... we'll give it a try though.

If you know me well, you know I enjoy my morning cereal. The good news is that there is Kellogs and Nestle (which I believe is the same as General Mills). The bad news is that they only sell about 10 different varieties of cereal total, and that includes Coco Puffs, Frosted Flakes and Honey Cheerios (yes, its different from Honey Nut Cheerios). They have some cheap imitation of shredded wheat, but its a soft cereal, instead of the crunchy that it should be. I miss my American Cereals. What I would give for a bowl of Quaker Oatmeal Squares right now.

Don’t get me started on chips. Instead of flavors like chive, or cheddar, they have “roast chicken” and “prawn cocktail”. I’ve heard they’re actually good, but with names like that my appetite is ruined.

Its a good thing I like to bake (thanks Dad!) because their selection of boxed cake mixes are very limited. Actually, I’ve seen two or three total: Devil Food cake and maybe a vanilla. They are low on the baking supplies I'm used to. Karo Syrup and Molasses syrup are things that are difficult to find. Also, Crisco is also non-existent.

Velveeta is non existent here, too. What am I going to do when I want a grilled cheese? It just isn’t the same with cheddar.... you need that velvety cheesy goodness.....

Can anyone tell I’ve been missing American foods????? I think they need an American section in their grocery stores. Or a store that sells American brands of foods. They have pretty much every other type of food here.

Don’t even get me started on their obsession with beans - only baked beans. It is impossible to find canned pinto beans. Refried beans cost about $2 a jar. AND.... they eat these baked beans for breakfast! How does that rhyme go? Beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you..... well.... you get the idea

That is the plus side - if you want a really good Indian curry, some decent Chinese or even Korean, you’re able to find it very easily. Just not American.....

If you’re English, or you like English food, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend you. Just go to America and try the food there. Its transformational. Like change your life good.

We have a compromise....

2010-11-03T10:28:00.000Z

When we get back to the States, I have an opinion that we will probably need a mini van (or at least something bigger than a car) to lug around kid(s) and everything that you need when you have kids.

Dave has been vehemently opposed to that idea.

Until today.

He found this online.

A swagger-wagon. Stretch-limo mini van.

His actual words, "I would drive that!"

Ticking Time Bomb...

2010-10-30T17:28:00.000+01:00

is exactly how I feel. Being a bit past 36 weeks pregnant, I know that our little girl could decide to come any day. Most likely it still won’t happen for a bit, but I want to be prepared for it, so I have been cleaning and organizing and sorting like a crazy lady. Actually, it is really crazy for me, because I don’t usually have this much of an urge to clean!

Another reason I want to be ready is because I *think* that she will decide to come early. I have an arcuate uterus (sorry if this is TMI), but basically, my uterus is heart-shaped. Because its shaped differently than a normal uterus, my little girl is basically running out of room. She has started measuring small, and I would guess that its because there’s no more room (or at least less room) for her to grow in there. In the last few weeks, I have been measuring small. The doctors here were a bit concerned (at one point I was measuring 4 weeks behind!) so they ordered an ultrasound. She was looking just fine, and happy in there, kicking away! She was a little on the small side, but within “normal” range. My doctor back in the US made a guess that she would “run out of room” when I was close to 34 weeks and would probably deliver early.

I hope I’m not jinxing myself by thinking that our little one will be arriving early. She’ll probably come late, just because I’m writing this post now :-) But, that doesn’t change the fact that I feel like a ticking time bomb. I know there’s only a small chance that she’ll come today. But there’s a bigger chance that she’ll come tomorrow, and an even bigger chance she’ll come the day after that. Every day she doesn’t come, the likelihood that she’ll come the next day rises.

I’ve been able to keep very busy nesting. I have an irresistible urge to make sure everything is ready. I have been shopping as much as I can - mostly for household goods such as storage bins, light bulbs and stuff thats not quite as “fun” and also for groceries. We don’t have a car, so I hop on the bus which literally stops 100 feet from our front door and take it to whatever store I need to go to. I don’t have much energy anymore, so I will usually just do one or two trips a day.

The rest of the day I spend cleaning the house, arguing with the washing machine (and I’m still loosing, I’m afraid!) and washing dishes (thanks to no dishwasher). We have Ikea memorized, like the back of our hands - taking an average of 2 trips a week there, and have spent our life savings, I’m afraid. Dave is now an expert at putting together their products. And slowly, our house is starting to feel more like a home.

p.s. sorry for the delay in posts. If I haven't mentioned, we have no Internet in our house until Nov. 11th, so it'll be a few more weeks.... sorry!

Random thoughts

2010-10-19T21:49:00.000+01:00

This is an awesome TV show. Even for a woman to watch (or me, if I count as a "woman"). They are totally funny and do some awesome stunts. We've watched them jump a mini off a ski jump, and play "soccer" using their cars.

Ketchup here tastes funny. It can seriously ruin a meal when you think your fries will be good, but then are in-edible because of the stuff they call ketchup. The good news is that you can buy American ketchup in the grocery store :-)

The people who created the roads here must've been drunk when they did it. Seriously. Try going to one of the major stores (Tescos) around here, and there is only ONE entrance (even though its in a major intersection) and you can only enter coming from one direction. So, woe to you if you live south of the store and have to drive to get there.... add another 10 minutes onto your commute just to do a u-turn in the middle of the crazy traffic!

Another point about roads is that NONE of them go straight... heavens forbid they make it easy to get from point A to point B!

Customer service is excellent. Everyone you talk to is very lovely and polite. But that's only if you're okay waiting forever for anything! For example, we called to set up Internet service. Next available date is Nov. 11th. Seriously?! We're going to be without Internet for almost a month!

Americans have perfected many things. I never realized how wonderful things were like fridges that were full-size and that dispense water and ice at the touch of a button. Freezers that don't have frost coating the inside of if (even if its considered frost-free freezer!) Also, how about a washer that is easy to understand and takes less than 2 hours to complete one cycle (and that's just washing... no drying included in that 2 hours!)

Difficulties in Purchasing items

2010-10-18T09:23:00.000+01:00

A few days ago Dave asked me something simple - could I please pick him up some Dayquil? He had a slight cold and wanted to take some medicine. Simple, right? well.....

I walk down to Boots. Find the pharmacy department. After a quick scan of the medicines, none of the brands are the same. Lemsip, Nurofen, Medised, Tixylix and Benilyn. Nope. Don't know any of those. Hmm.... okay.... start looking at the labels. Some of the medicines I've heard of - caffeine, aspirin. Those are good things to start with. But then it ends. Paracetamol, and other unknown substances make up their medicines.

I figure I'll ask the lady behind the desk. First I try asking her about Dayquil - a simple cold medicine. She has no clue what I'm talking about. But I thought that might be the case. So I try acetaminophen. She looks even more confused! Seriously?! She tells me she hasn't heard of that before, and doesn't know what it is. How does she not know what acetaminophen is?!

So, I resort to asking her to take several different medicines off the shelves and try to study them to see what is in them. The poor lady thought I was nuts. I kept getting the eye from her. She probably thought I would run off with all the pills and make meth or something like that :-)

I finally picked some out that looked like they might be promising. I asked to purchase them. She told me no - I could only buy one or two of them, but not all three. I had to settle for two of them. For future reference, I got the Benilyn and Nurofn. I think Dave liked the Benilyn.

Pregnancy update

2010-10-14T16:33:00.000+01:00

God has been so good to me!

Since arriving in England, I have been feeling WONDERFUL!

Really. I don't know why that is.

Maybe the fact that I walk everywhere? I'm definitely getting more exercise.

I have been getting more and more tired, but still have all the energy I need to do what needs to be done.

I just walk a little slower going places :-)

This picture was taken a day or two ago, so a little before 34 weeks.

The way the system in England works is that you have to have an address before you find a doctor - everything depends on where you live. So, once we got our lease papers, I took them to the GP Surgery (just their name for Dr.'s office). It is literally one block away from our house. It would take longer to drive there than to walk.

Anyways, they have been pretty helpful with getting everything done. I am now registered at a hospital (although it took several nagging phone calls on my end) and have had a "check-up". But by "check-up" I mean the doctor handed me papers to fill out, and said to come back in a few weeks. So, I guess I'm good to go! I have to go into the hospital tomorrow to discuss payment because I am not technically covered under the NHS (since we're so new to the country). I also have an appointment with a midwife at another hospital tomorrow, I think some sort of check-up or informational meeting.

On a funny note - can I just say that I was weighed in stones? That's how its done here :-) The nurse and I had quite a time trying to figure out how much weight I've gained and translating everything from pounds to stones.

There is still so much to do - other than the baby items I brought with us (mostly clothes & blankets), I don't have a single baby item. Well, I did buy diapers last week because I figure I'd need those if the baby were to come soon! Like I've said before, finding baby stuff is just more difficult here because I'm not used to it. I don't know what stores carry what items, or where the best place to find "xyz" is.

Prayer for us as we continue to navigate this journey. There is lots to do with getting the house ready and the bags packed for the hospital. We still have to figure out payment for the birth and getting reimbursed (hopefully!) from our insurance in the States.

House Hunt

2010-10-13T16:00:00.000+01:00

You deserve an update on the house hunt.

Well.... ta da!

We have a house!

And by that, I mean, we turned in paperwork and a deposit, so we *should* get a house.

Hopefully.

I posted on f-book (yeah, I know, some of you don't check that all the time) some pictures.

So, here are some pictures from our hopefully-house for those of you blog-followers:

So, I learned that this little brick building (now used as storage) was originally built as a bomb shelter. Yup. Every time bombs started dropping in the area, the family would run out to the shelter. 12-inch thick walls.

This is our one and only bathroom. But it is VERY large for bathrooms in England. A full tub (including its awesome lions-paws), shower, toilet, and sink. Plenty of room for all 3 of us to be in there, if need be.

This is the kitchen. It was just remodeled, and not quite done yet, when this photo was taken. Ikea cabinets (with the self-closing hinges), new hob and oven and new sink, and refrigerator. No dishwasher. And that funny looking thing is the hot-water heater for the house. Brand new, also!

And finally, this is Alison. She was our relocation agent. Quite a hoot. Originally from South Africa, but fully England-ified, she is quite proper but lovely as well. Full of information, and willing to help us in any way possible. We loved her!

So, if all goes according to plan, we should get the keys on Oct. 16th. We have Ikea delivering a bed and two couches on Oct. 20th. So, we should be moving in sometime around then. We still have lots of shopping to do, but unfortunately everything is very expensive here. I've been on the hunt for gently-used kitchen table and chairs and other pieces of random furniture that we will need. Also, I've been feeling the pressure to start getting baby stuff ready. We still have much, much that needs to be done! It will be wonderful once we can start getting settled.

Wimbledon

2010-10-12T16:00:00.000+01:00

This last week I was exploring the London area alone as Dave went to Azerbaijan for work. I was able to fill my week up really well with looking for properties, starting to buy baby items and getting to know the area of Wimbledon pretty well.

I've been finding that everything takes much longer than it should, just because I don't know the way its done. For example, buying laundry detergent is difficult because I don't know where in the store its found, what it looks like, or what the brand is called. And when the laundry detergent is next to the dishwashing detergent, forget it!

I'll have some more posts about the details of house hunting, but I will leave you with some pictures from Wimbledon.

This is the view from the hotel room (when you lean out the window). I have no clue what the building is, but it's pretty cool!

Just some of the beautiful leaves changing colors.

This is an average row of houses in the Wimbledon area.

I did take lots of other pictures - go to facebook to see them!

Our first Sunday in London

2010-10-11T20:13:00.000+01:00

I'm really behind in blogging.... wrote this a week ago! Here you go!

This past Sunday, we knew we would attend the Raynes Park Community Church since that was the church that our friends from back in California used to attend. Its a Salvation Army church in a city very near where we're staying in Wimbledon. Thanks to Facebook, some lovely people we had never met before invited us to tea and croissants before church. We had a wonderful time with them and it was really neat for us to be invited to someone's house! People have warned us that proper English people are not very warm and friendly at the beginning of relationships. Well, they haven't been to this church!

After our croissants, we walked to the church and enjoyed our time there. It is a small church with maybe 75 adults and 50 (or more!) kids. The Sunday we visited was a bit un-traditional which we were told happens once in a while. They have a gospel choir that led worship and then for the sermon, it was a group participation activity. The one thing we really loved about the church was how warm and friendly everyone was. People were very inviting and talkative. There are several young babies and other pregnant women and some other young couples, so it feels like a place we'd fit into. I think this next week we will try another church just to see what churches in the area are like.

After church, a family had invited us over for lunch. It was really a "lovely" time! The food was wonderful - and homemade - even better! (We've been eating out every single meal since we've been in this country!) We had lots of good conversation and it was just wonderful to relax and get to know them better. It really made for a perfect day. It was so nice of all these people to open their homes to us, feed us, and spend so much time with us!

It feels like....

2010-10-07T15:07:00.000+01:00

The little wiggly-poo in my uterus is trying to scratch her way out.... yeouch!

I just bought my first packs of nappies (diapers) and wipes....

the baby will probably be sometime in the next 40 days!!!

I think nesting has set in. I also bought laundry soap today so I can start washing her clothes. I've been searching online for cots (cribs) and nursery furniture. So much to do and so little time!

Differences: Media

2010-10-05T18:44:00.000+01:00

We've only been here a short time, and every once in a while I'll discuss some differences between the countries.

Media
Seriously now.... open up a newspaper and there will be a picture of a topless woman. Right in front of you. Awesome! (Catch the sarcasm?)

Along the same line, nudity on TV is also more acceptable. We've caught several clips of things that, in America, would be censored, but in England, they can show it. For example, there is a TV show here that shows funny YouTube videos. All of a sudden (and out of nowhere!), they were showing a gay workout video from the 70s in which all the men were naked. Like I said - I did not sign up for that one!

Swearing is also more common on TV (I've heard its after 9pm). I was watching Hells Kitchen, which, in America would be bleeped out (since they do use those words that I don't dare repeat). Well, in England, they just go ahead and let all of them fly. In fact, I think they added in a few extras.

The BBC is the broadcasting center, and was, up until a few years ago, the only programming on TV. People pay a yearly fee for TV (somewhere around 100 pounds or so) but more recently they have been also purchasing satellite. Anyways, the BBC has at least five channels. (Then there are others on our TV because we have satellite in the hotel). The funny thing is that some of the channels don't even turn on until nighttime or a certain time of the day. Anywhere from one-third to one-half of the channels on my TV, at any given time, are "closed".

First Saturday in London

2010-10-04T21:29:00.000+01:00

Saturday was a really buys day for Dave and I. Well, actually, the whole weekend was busy.

After a quick breakfast at our hotel (that's where we eat every breakfast - thanks World Vision!), Dave's CEO, Scott picked us up. He drove us around the area so we could get a feel of what SW London is like. If you know the area, we went all the way from Wimbledon through several "commons" - like this one:

This one is Bushy Park. It looked almost exactly like this picture (including the trees changing colors!), although I found this one online. We did see several deer in this park although we saw even more in Richmond Park.

We also went through Thames Ditton, which was founded in the 16th and 17th centuries, so it has lots of older buildings. Its a very neat place. This is what some of the buildings look like:

Its just a quaint, beautiful place.

Drove through Esher, Claygate, and Walton on Thames. Got lunch at an awesome pub in Cobham - an old building with 6 foot ceilings, the classic English pub. Drove through a few other cities such as Kingston, Surbiton and Weybridge. One of the things that are shocking to Dave and I is how close everything is to each other. Most of these towns sort of "merge" into each other, and their downtown areas can even be half a mile or a mile from each other.

After we got home, we decided to have a "touristy" night and go to downtown London. We took the tube from Wimbledon to Victoria Station (about half an hour ride) and did some walking around in that part of town. We just did a quick overview (I don't have as much energy as I did a few months ago) of Westminster Abby, Big Ben and then walked past the Prime Minister's house on the way to Picadilly Square.

So we didn't get any pictures of Westminster Abby, just Big Ben. Here it is again :-)

We then looked for a place to eat, and found a little Spanish Tapas bar in the Picadilly area. It was actually really delicious. And expensive. But that goes without saying. Here is Dave in the Tapas bar.

It was a cute place - in the basement of a building. I think the kitchen was on the main floor. Just a cool atmosphere. Lots of the people in there were going to plays/musicals. We (well, especially Dave) were classing the place up with our clothes :-)

Sorry for the bad picture, but I didn't want to hand our camera over to some stranger on the street. This is us in Picadilly Square.

We ended up taking the rail home. Our hotel is actually really close to downtown London... somewhere around 6 miles! It seems much longer because the tube stops so many times in-between here and there. So, taking the rail is a bit quicker. Overall, a great Saturday - although I was exhausted!

Day with Relocation Agent

2010-10-01T13:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we met with a wonderful lady named Alison who is our "relocation" agent. She took us around the Wimbledon/Esher/Raynes Park/Thames Ditton area. We viewed 5 different properties and got a feel for the different cities.

It was great, except for the fact that we realized how great other parts of England are. I loved the feel of Esher/Cobham/Surbiton/Thames Ditton area. This is an area a bit more "country-ish". The houses are a bit more spaced apart, there is some room between towns, and the houses are much older. One house we looked at we really loved. It was built in the 17th century, and although its been updated, it still has the feel of an old house and has some unique molding. It has 3 large bedrooms (I think the master bedroom was larger than ours in California!), a lovely "reception room" (think living room) with dark wood floors. The kitchen was very nice and recently redone. The down side of the property is that it was in a small town (Thames Ditton) and although it seemed very friendly, we worry that there is not much to do there. We did see lots of families and little kids running around though :-) Also, the property comes unfurnished, so we would be buying furniture for a whole house. Dave likes that because we have the freedom to make it look however we would like. There is also only one bathroom. It is a nice bathroom, but still only one in the house. This property is within our price range, and seems to be the best "deal" that we looked at. It is within walking distance to the train, so we would be able to travel up to London area easily. We would probably purchase a car immediately. Here are some pictures of this place:

This is the communal garden. Pretty much the view from the front of the house. The houses on the left are also in the community. The place we looked at was a bit older than those, though, from the 17th century!

The view from the front door. Look at the wonderful molding around and the chandelier in the ceiling. New tile floors in this room and the kitchen.

My internet is slow, so if you want to see more pictures, visit facebook:
You'll actually have to go about halfway down in the album to see the houses. There are pictures of both places in the album.

The second place that we loved came at the last minute. We were meeting with an "estate agent' and he recommended another place that he had. More expensive (still do-able, but not much wiggle room) - around 200 pounds more a month than the first place. Yet, this is partially furnished (we would not have to buy almost any furniture!), and in the Raynes Park area. This is the area we *think we want to be near. There is a church in this area that we have heard many good things about and have some potential friends down the street. I say potential - we're meeting them on Sunday! The flat is huge! over 1400 square feet, with 4 bedrooms and an office. We might not need to purchase a car since we are close to shops and rail station. This place is currently un-occupied so we would be able to move into it ASAP (which is great for me!)

The living room. Isn't it just so wonderful? Love the wood floors....

The bedroom downstairs. The house has many built-in closets and shelves like this. Love it!

Okay... so now that you know all the info, what would you do? Place 1 - cheap, out in the country, unfurnished, large bedroom, 17th century or Place 2 - expensive, in the city, furnished, lots of room

Let me know what you would choose and why!

Baby update: So... we went to several General Practitioner offices yesterday to see how they would treat me. One of the offices said that I would be seen, but would have to pay out of pocket for everything - doctors visits and the hospital delivery until I have been in the country for 6 months.

The second office said that as soon as I filled out paperwork, I would be seen. But not for my pregnancy, since it is a pre-existing condition. So, I would have to pay out of pocket for everything pregnancy-related, but anything else would be treated under the NHS.

We have a call in to people who know more than we do. Hopefully they can sort this out, since I'm not trying to have an anchor baby! The options are that we can get the NHS to cover everything because we have long-term visas. Second option would be that we pay out of pocket and hope that our health insurance in the US would cover it. This might get tricky since we are now "residents" of the UK. I don't know how the US insurance companies would like that.

Well, pray for this situation! We have lots of decisions to make regarding both the house and the baby. We have limited time, which is making this even harder on us. We have temporary housing for the next month, and the baby could come anytime after that!

Arrival in London

2010-09-29T21:05:00.000+01:00

Here's a quick post to let everyone know we arrived in London! It was quite an experience, although I believe God gave us traveling mercies. It could have been much worse, traveling with 10 bags on a 10 hour flight when 8 months pregnant :-)

The bags that we took with us on the airplane. 5 of them... haha... so much for light traveling!

Check-in at the airport was fairly easy, thanks to Dave's Premier status (frequent flier miles do pay off! - we get to use the special premier check-in at LAX). We did have to re-pack one of the bags, but really for traveling with so many bags, that was easy. We also were in the Economy Plus section of the plane and shared three seats between the two of us. I was able to stretch out, and although I didn't sleep, it was really nice to have that extra room. Also, the plane had really fun touch-screen TVs on each seat, so I played some boring games (Bejewled or Memory anyone?) and watched two movies to pass the time.

Talking on the phone to people before we leave... saying last minute good-byes!

Upon arrival at Heathrow, we quickly found all of our luggage. We did have a problem with the stroller and stroller box that we brought. As Dave said, it looked like a bear mauled it. Pretty well said. Good news is the stroller still works. Has a bit of cosmetic damage. Bad news is that the bassinet is broken. We're in talks with both United and a company that "repairs" destroyed goods. So, we should either get a new stroller, a new bassinet or it will be fixed. I was so happy that it was just the stroller, because if any of the other boxes had been destroyed, it would have resulted in a "rainshower" of clothes/books/baby items!

Looking at the box, its actually amazing that there wasn't more damage to the stroller....

Here are some pictures of our day here!

Dave before dinner at the pub. I realized I didn't have any pictures of him!

Our "traditional" dinner - fish and chips and "jacket" with beans and cheese.

Had to take the touristy picture of the double-decker bus. We'll have to ride one of them soon!

Just kidding!

Almost 32 weeks pregnant :-)

Another picture of the pub. Sorry for the bad order of photos.

The Countdown's On....

2010-09-27T21:16:00.000+01:00

It has been so neat over the last week or so to see the pieces fall into place for our move. Since we're not responsible for any of it, I know that its all God helping everything come together.

#1 - our visas have come through! This is probably the most important point. Without the visas, we would have not been able to go. But they arrived in the mail on Tuesday - even earlier than we were expecting!

#2 - The title to Dave's truck came in the mail. There was a mix-up at the bank and we were waiting on that before we could officially sell his truck. Since that arrived, we can finish the sale before we leave.

Dave had his last day of work on Thursday. They had a going-away party for him, and I was able to come for it. The women in his office did a great job - almost everything was gluten-free for him! They even went to a bakery somewhere to pick up flourless chocolate cake. He is going to miss that place so much and the people that he works with. I was struck by how blessed he was to work there. His "old" boss led us in prayer time for Dave and I.

Thursday was also the last night with our small group. It was very sad, but so neat to have shared the last two years with this group of people. Here's a picture of all of us from yesterday (Sunday).

Sunday we had our goodbye at church. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone. Donn had us and our small group come up to the front of church and we (well, Dave, the talker in our relationship :-)) told the congregation what we'll be up to. Paul then prayed for us. It was so sweet for the church to do that.

Well, we leave tomorrow! Gotta go finish packing. I will post many updates once we get there.