Hello London!

After a few fun days in Wisconsin spending time with my family, we were on our way to London.  The flight did not start out looking too promising.  Our flight from Green Bay was delayed over an hour so by the time we got on the (tiny) plane from Green Bay to Chicago, Colin was already a mess.  After nearly knocking out half of our fellow passengers trying to get to our seats in the last row with our three carry-on bags and car seat, we wrestled to get the car seat buckled in and settled in for 30 minutes of Colin crying en-route to Chicago.  We landed in Chicago right as our flight to London was supposed to be departing.  We sprinted to our gate and by some miracle made our flight.  It was delayed for a number of passengers coming it late due to earlier thunderstorms. 

After a repeat occurrence of struggling to get to our seats and get the car seat secure (and some yelling by the flight attendant who was not aware of the rules regarding backward facing seats on airplanes), we had to wait another hour before the flight was even able to depart.  Colin was going downhill fast.  Fortunately, once we were up in the air, we launched some Sesame Street episodes on the iPad and all was well in his world again.  He watched his shows and then drifted off to sleep until the plane landed in London.  We couldn't have asked for a better flight with the little guy!

We landed and immediately proceeded to the baby changing room.  A must after no diaper changes during any of the flights (yes, we are bad parents but had to rush to catch our plane in Chicago and weren't about to wake him up mid-flight on the way to London).  Upon leaving the baby changing room, we exited that part of the terminal through one way automatic doors.  As the doors shut, I turned around and looked at David.  He was not carrying our diaper bag which included our passports.  PANIC!  There was no way to get back through the doors.  We thought we were the last ones off our flight but by another miracle someone came through pushing a wheelchair, and we were able to dash back through and grab the diaper bag.  At this point, we figured our luck must be turning around but at custom's my fingerprints were not registering as a match with my visa.  We were then detained for awhile.  I am not sure what happened in the background, but we were eventually allowed to go through customs.  I think they felt sorry for us!  Hopefully, this isn't a problem every time I take a flight from the U.S.

Things started going much better after that.  All of our luggage was in a nice pile for us when we came out of customs (all other passengers from our flight were long gone at this point), and our driver was waiting for us even though we were over two hours late.  We checked in to our home for the next two weeks - a two bedroom corporate housing apartment located in Islington.

Over the weekend, we took the tube all over West and South London looking at various areas that have been recommended to us including Notting Hill, Holland Park, Maida Vale, Chiswick, Fulham, Clapham, and Richmond.  Every area seems to have pros and cons so I am not sure where we will end up, but it was at least good to get a sense of the neighborhoods before our massive apartment search with our relocation agent on Wednesday.

Today is David's first day at work and my first day as a stay at home mom.  David has a two day orientation and then will be off on Wednesday for our apartment search.  Colin and I will stay close to home this week as I am not brave enough yet to deal with the tube alone.  Most stops are not handicap accessible so require carrying a toddler and stroller up numerous flights of stairs.  I need to work up to that.  For now, we are going to the parks in our temporary neighborhood and doing a lot of shopping.  Grocery shopping will be a daily task until I figure out how to order things online.  Juggling a stroller and grocery basket means I can only buy a few things each trip.

We haven't done any traditional tourist activities yet, but here are a few pictures of Colin enjoying the parks this weekend.

London has great playgrounds

Colin is fascinated by all of the pigeons here

Of course, Colin has already introduced golf to our corporate housing