Say what?

Lately, Olivia's vocabulary has been exponentially growing.  It seems like daily I hear her say at least one new word.  Until recently, her vocabulary was a little slow to develop.  It seemed like at one point she went months without adding any new words and she was slow to repeat or mimic words she was hearing us say.  But that's changing and we are developing quite the little talker.  She hasn't yet reached the point of sentences and is still only putting together two words at a time, but I'm sure sentences are just around the corner.  Here are a few of the things that she's saying that I want to remember from this stage:

• "Bye-bye Beebo" - Olivia has a book that's about the belly button and in the book they refer to belly buttons as Beebos.  So Olivia has taken to affectionately calls hers the same.  She has a pair of one piece footy pajamas.  You know, the kind that zip from the foot up to the neck.  Since her Beebo goes bye-bye when they get zipped up, she has started calling them her Bye-Bye Beebo jammies.  She also says "Hi Beebo" in the morning when we unzip them.

• She has started counting.  It usually goes something like "Two!  Eight!  Tive (five)!"

• Olivia recently picked up the word "Guy".  We occasionally have men stop by our flat for maintenance work or to delivery packages and she always calls out "Hi Guy" or "Bye Guy" which usually produces a chuckle out of them.

• Even though she knows their names, Olivia refers to certain animals by the sounds they make rather than their names.  For example, monkeys she calls "Ooo-Ooo" (after Ooo-Ooo, Aaa-aaa), dogs are "Wow-wow", cats are "Meow" and an elephant is "Pawooooo".

• Olivia knows and recognizes all of the letters of the alphabet, but can only pronounce about two-thirds of them.  She hasn't yet mastered certain letters that are trickier to pronounce such as S, F and W.

• She currently LOVES all things Winnie-the-Pooh and Mickey & Minnie Mouse.  She refers to both Mickey and Minnie as "Minnie", but when she is specifically referring to Minnie, she calls her "Minnie Bow".  I also hear a lot of "Tigger bout (bounce)" followed by her jumping around.

• For whatever reason, she hasn't gotten the hang of the word yes.  She doesn't even attempt it.  Instead, her response when you ask her if she wants something or is in agreement with you is "Huh".  She has been saying this for months and months.  Not sure where she picked up that one, but I'll be excited when she finally moves beyond just Huh.  

• Olivia and I talk a lot about baby sister joining our family soon.  She recognizes babies when we're out and about and she knows where baby sister's room is, that baby sister will have poo-poo and drink milk.  We also talk about the fact that baby sister is going to have body parts just like her.  Except teeth.  She seemed pretty confused by this at first.  But I think she must have figured it out because now when we talk about baby sister, she says "No, teet (teeth). Huh, mout (mouth)".  

Virtual tour

Recognizing that probably almost everyone reading this blog will not make it to London while we are here to visit us (although you are most certainly invited!), I thought I would at least provide a virtual tour of how these Americans are living in London.  

Welcome to our home!

Entry way - This space is a bit awkward to do much with, but Olivia has discovered it's perfect for driving her little car in and other running antics.  Along the left hand wall is a half bath and in the back left corner is the master bedroom/bath.  The door to the right of the bookshelf leads into the kitchen and the other door in the right corner goes into the living room.  In the right front corner, just around Olivia's car, is a bathroom, Olivia's room and the baby's room. Over my shoulder from where I took this picture is a hallway that leads back to the 4th and 5th rooms and another bathroom.

Living room - We brought with us all of our own furniture.  There were a few pieces that got left behind in storage because there either wasn't space or they just weren't worth the effort to ship over.  With the exception of a piece of the guest room bedframe that didn't make it which now prevents the headboard from being properly installed, all furniture arrived in perfect condition.

Dining Room - The back wall of the house has big windows/doors that look out over the patio and backyard.  As with the patio and backyard in general, we are looking forward to when the weather gets nicer and the days are longer so that we can enjoy the view.  Gray skies or darkness is typically what we see these days.

Play area - This was another bit of awkward space just outside the kitchen and adjacent to the dining room.  I don't recall how the previous tenants used this space, but for us, it's a perfect play area for Olivia.  That way she can be right there playing while we're in the kitchen, dining room or living room.  It has also lended itself to another bedroom of sorts when my family was here with the use of the sofa bed by my brothers.

Kitchen - While the kitchen is much smaller than what I was used to in Houston, it is significantly larger than almost all the kitchens we saw when we looked at various homes to potentially move into.  Yes, the countertop space is limited, especially these days when Olivia wants to "help" in the kitchen and ends of taking up or creating messes on two-thirds of the available space.  Yes, the oven is small, small enough that I had to go buy new cookie sheets and baking tins because my ones from home wouldn't fit.  Yes, the microwave is weird and sometimes acts funny.  But...I'll take it!  Oh and by the way, never install solid black countertops in a kitchen.  It's a horrible color that shows every single little crumb.  Drives me crazy!  :)

Olivia's Room - With our move over here, it was time for Olivia to upgrade to a big girl bedroom.  (Tear)  So we hit up Pottery Barn Kids pretty good right before we left.  For the most part, I think she's transitioned pretty well into it.  Hard to know for sure with all the other transition we've put the poor girl through the last couple months.  Anyways, this is my favorite room in the whole house because it gets the most natural light.  Plus, it's also probably the warmest room in an otherwise cold house where I'm typically wearing 2-3 layers.

Baby Nursey - It is currently in a state of DISASTER as I have been sorting clothes and baby gear in preparation for Baby #2's arrival.  Maybe I'll post pictures again when it's all ready.  By the way, for anyone wondering, we have decided on a name.  There was very little discussion to it.  I threw out a name to Geoff for his thoughts.  After thinking it over for awhile, he said he liked it and so that settled it.  End of discussion.  However, it shall remain nameless until she makes her arrival so you'll have to wait 4-5 more weeks.

Master Bedroom -  It has doors that can open up to the back patio, but they currently aren't working.  Plus, we have no reason to go outside from our bedroom this time of year.  I didn't take pictures to show, but the master bedroom has lots and lots of storage space.  The wall to the right of the picture is all closet/storage.  Behind me from where I took the below picture is the master bathroom along with a entry way of sorts with more closets and storage.  All the great storage in the flat is something pretty rare for these old homes in London and another reason we are grateful for this place.

Guest Room - Not much to show here other than a bed that is waiting for guests.  We are currently accepting reservations so let us know when you'll be coming!  :)

Other - There is a 5th room that is essentially functioning as our garage/attic.  Again, so thankful for the space to store stuff.  I've spared you pictures of the 3 1/2 bathrooms.  Before we moved in, the landlord had all bathrooms except one full bath renovated so they are nice and modern (with square toilets and fancy sink bowls).  She would of done the last one but ran out of time before we needed to move in.  Sometime this summer when we're out of the house for a more extended period of time for vacation, she'll have the last one finished off.

While there are times I have an overwhelming sense of homesickness and really miss our old house back in Houston, this place is becoming home.  We haven't yet done a lot of exploring of our neighborhood beyond the main streets we take to get to where we need to go due to the weather and short days.  So I'm very eager for the weather to warm up so we can get out for more walks and see what else is around us.  However, we know where the important stuff is:  There are two different train stations within 5-7 minutes walk. There are two grocery stores, Starbucks, various restaurants and three movie theaters within 5-15 minutes walk.  The local gym and library take about 7-10 minutes to walk to.  And there is a Baby Gap (very important these days) that takes about 15 minutes to walk to.  Olivia and I recently joined a neighborhood playgroup with other kids (primarily Americans) her age so I've enjoyed getting to met other local moms who are also good resources for things I need to know about the area.  So slowly but surely we are getting settled in to our new life!

It's the holiday season

Happy New Year!  I can't believe it's January already and a new year is here.  2012 was certainly an exciting year for our family - bought house, sold a house, found out our family would be growing, quit a job, started another job doing something I didn't think I would ever do full time and moved to another country.  Phew!  We are so, so blessed!  We are excited to see what 2013 brings and certainly can't wait for baby girl #2 to arrive in about eight more weeks.  

We finished the year with a flurry of activity.  London had plenty of holiday activities for us to enjoy.  Our neighborhood had a festival of sorts to start the holiday season where they turn on the Christmas lights in the neighborhood streets.  The festival had food and various vendor booths, carnival rides and a stage with performers singing Christmas carols.  Olivia got to ride her first ferris wheel while we were there.  It wasn't a big ferris wheel, but it moved pretty fast and she yelled "WEEEEEE!!!" the whole time.

The view of our neighborhood area from atop the ferris wheel.

We went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park.  We had heard lots of things about it from various people so it was a must for us to get to.  Once there, we were a bit disappointed that it was actually just a huge carnival. Oh well.  Olivia enjoyed a couple rides and we went to this Magic Ice thing that had tons of massive ice sculptures and carvings.

Geoff and I were able to leave Olivia at home a couple of times for some adult activities.  This was the first time we've left Olivia with a sitter since we've moved and I was so ready.  Our first escape was to Geoff's work Christmas party.  The party was held way out in the middle nowhere (it took us two trains and a taxi to get there!) at some old abbey.  Unfortunately, it was dark so we didn't get to see much of the abbey and grounds, but location of the party on the property was pretty cool, full of old statues and paintings.

Our next date was to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir at the famous Royal Albert Hall.  The Orchestra and Choir performed a wonderful set of Christmas carols and various other holiday classics.  I felt like I was in the middle of a PBS special!

We had a first visitors come for Christmas!  My parents and four of my siblings made the trek across the Atlantic to see us.  They had a pretty busy itinerary of sightseeing around London in the seven days they were here.  Geoff, Olivia and I couldn't do everything with them since we needed to be home for some of Olivia's afternoon naps, but we were able to do some touristy things with them that we had not already done ourselves. 

The Tower of London

The highlight of the Tower of London was seeing the Crown Jewels which are housed there.  Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed so I have no pictures to show, but they jewels were something else and amazing to think that people actually wore the jewels at one point.

Harrods Department Store - 

Crazy big, crazy expensive and crazy with shoppers, but fun to see.  I did discover they had a whole section of the store just related to Disney Princesses, including a special princess salon, and a Disney cafe, so I'm sure we'll be heading back to Harrods at some point while we're here in London to check that out.

Victoria and Albert Museum - 

The museum had a special Hollywood costume exhibit that we were able to go to.  It was amazing and included hundreds of original costumes including Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Indiana Jones, Batman, Spiderman, and dresses from Gone from the Wind, Titantic and Breakfast at Tiffany's just to name a few.  Accordingly to the museum website, it took the museum curator and his team over five years to compile the costumes and put the exhibit together.  So cool to see these upclose.  Once again, no pictures to share.  :(  

We also wandered around the museum itself a little bit where Geoff found a coffee mug the perfect size for him to jumpstart his mornings.

Windsor Castle - 

We took a train out to the town of Windsor to see the Castle.  The Queen was suppose to be in residence while we were there, but much to our disappointment, we didn't get meet her or even see her. I don't know why they don't include that in part of the tour.  Just kidding!  :)  

We got there right as they were starting the changing of the guard ceremony which was cool.

Despite the innocent looking face in the picture below, Olivia was a bit of a disaster while we were there.  A good portion of our visit involved me huddled under an umbrella in the cold rain holding Olivia trying to calm her down.  Fortunately, Paw-Paw came to the rescue, calmed her down and got her to take a little snooze which finally helped get her out of her terrible mood.  Geoff and I definitely want to go back to Windsor when the weather gets nicer and we can spend more time exploring.  The town itself is quant and a nice change of pace from London.

Charles Dickens Museum - 

Cool to see, but probably wouldn't go again.  So if you're planning on coming to visit us and want to go to the Dickens Museum, you'll be on your own.

Christmas day was spent indoors in our house celebrating Christ's birth with presents, good food and game playing.  Olivia by far had the most presents.  She is definitely loved (and maybe spoiled?!?!) by her grandparents and aunts and uncles.  And her parents too!

I wish I had a picture of the expression on her face when Uncle Scott wheeled her little car out.  She had the biggest eyes and look of amazement on her face.  Priceless!

That's it...no wonder I'm tired!!!  

To anyone still reading this, may 2013 bring blessings, hope and joy to you!