A day at Kew

This morning, after much drama and annoyance with the tube, we decided to bag our original plan (going for a walk in Kent) and instead to go to Kew Gardens. We thought Evie would like to see all the flowers blooming and to look at the trees.

We started with breakfast at Polly's, which is a nice little cafe near where we live. IN the life of Jim and Claire (and Evie, too), food never fails to improve moods. Plus we love poached eggs. Yum!



Then we hopped on the overground. Evie is getting used to our main modes of transportation (tube and overground at this point. I haven't braved the bus with her yet)and likes to look out the window.


Unfortunately, by the time we got to Kew Gardens, Evie was pooped from the excitement of being on the train and proceeded to sleep through almost the whole visit. Jim and I still enjoyed it, though. The magnolias were in full bloom! And there are daffodils all over the place.


Jim caught me in this oh, so natural pose, as I gazed sentimentally up into the magnolias. What pensive thoughts was I having? Probably something like, "I need to find a place to change Evie's diaper."


Jim gazes as well. He was considering lunch, I'm sure:


We find that we often leave Jim behind as he takes six million pictures of whatever has piqued his interest...in this case it was magnolia buds.


We thought that it would be a nice idea to take a picture of Evie with these blue flowers in the background. She was asleep in her pram and thought differently (as evidenced by the look on her face). Lucky for us, she had a good scream and then promptly went back to sleep. That was the last time we woke her up and in future pictures of our day, she is represented by her stroller. She's kind of like our own garden gnome, whom we take pictures of in various places...except she comes in the form of a stroller.


Evie in front of the River Thames:

Evie at the Pagoda:

Evie, zen-like, in the Japanese gardens:

We almost stepped on this green woodpecker, who was pecking around on the ground for bugs.

Unlike Evie, I always am willing to ham it up for the camera.


After a bottle and diaper change (and standing out in the cold for at least 10 minutes while two women took ENTIRELY too long to change one baby...note to parents of babies: don't dawdle in the changing room!!!) Evie was awake, but still not feeling Kew.

But then...we went into a Green house! She really liked looking at all the giant palms and also was glad to be super warm, I think. I guess when she's older, she'll be more excited about Kew Gardens, but we are glad that she at least enjoyed a little bit of it this time!


Sadly, the weekend is over AND it's cold and grey but hopefully next weekend will get here quickly and we are really looking forward to our (please warm and sunny) trip to Barcelona in a couple of weeks, so there is much to be excited about!

A few pictures of Evie (who else?!)

This is not good. She prefers music videos with lots of strobe lights and special effects. She's especially a fan of Hip Hop.


First bath with no tears! It's a process, but SOMETIMES bath time isn't so horrible.


Evie and her doudou (a 'favorite stuffed animal or blanket' that Aurelie gave her)..so happy together!

More good times with Kate

One of the fun things that London provides for people with babies is movie showings for babies (the movies are for the parents, but you can bring your babies. They are called 'scream' showings). So Kate, Evie, Jim and I went to see Marley and Me at the Everyman Cinema:


Evie thought it was a snoozer:


But the rest of us were pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed the movie, which is about a beloved family dog (we were expecting it to be pretty bad, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to the Scream movies. You watch what they show.)

Sadly, Aunt Kate had to go home, but before she left, she and Evie had a meaningful chat:


We miss you, Kate!!!

Never fear...

I have not abandoned the blog. We've just been busy because Kate was in town (hooray!). And now I shall chronicle our adventures with Kate in London!

Evie and I took the tube in rush hour (never again) to Victoria station to meet Aunt Kate. Finally she made it, but unfortunately she interrupted Evie's bottle AND her obsession with watching the gigantic TV screen in the train station. So Evie was a little grumpy.

Fortunately, she cheered up in the cab on the way home (sorry grandparents...the cab was not my original plan, but after the horror of rush hour tube with baby, I wasn't going there again. Next time she'll be in a car seat!)


We headed home to drop off Kate's luggage and she gave Evie some cool kicks before we decided to head out and enjoy the beautiful, sunny and pretty warm weather.


Breakfast at Giraffe:


Followed by a walk in Hampstead Heath:


And then home for some hard core playing in the jungle gym. Aunt Kate does a great monkey impression, which I think I thought was funnier than Evie did.


The next day was a typical day. We woke up early and played and read some books:


Evie had a spit bath and massage:


Then she threw up (thanks to Kate for most of these pictures). Kate is very impressed by the sheer amount of spit up that comes out of Little Evie:


Then we dressed her in her "That Seventies Show" outfit and headed to the pub, where we met Jim and some other friends for a little while:


On Saturday we had a lunch party! Ruth, Apollo and Alex came, but I forgot to take pictures until after they left. Our next door neighbors Simon and Jack came and Aurelie and Jim's friend John and his wife and two kids. It was the perfect excuse to buy mass quantities of delicious French pastries at the Hampstead Market:


Hampstead High Street:


After gorging ourselves on quiche and French pastries, we decided to go for a walk. Everyone and his/her dog (literally) was out on the Heath, so it wasn't exactly peaceful, but it was still nice to get out and walk around:


Sunday was Mother's Day in England and the most important Mother's Day of all for me--my first! Evie could hardly contain her excitement and was really happy to give me her card:


Besides waking up to an excited and happy baby, we had great plans to go to Oxford, so we packed ourselves up and headed to Paddington Station to take the train. Evie was great on the way there and not as great on the way back, but that was understandable after a long day of watching Morris Dancing in Oxford:



There was a folk festival going on in Oxford and the streets were filled with Morris Dancers! You may remember that I spent some time commenting on the leprechan-esqueness of Morris Dancing on a previous blog many years ago and I got totally bashed by Morris Dancing fans and told to go back to America, etc. etc. SO...yeah, won't be doing that again (although I still think that it does have a leprechaun vibe to it) Anyway, it was a lot of fun to see the people dancing in their costumes and with rings on their fingers and bells on their toes (I assume that is where that nursery rhyme originated after seeing so many bells everywhere on the dancers). It was all very festive and Evie really enjoyed it (as did the rest of us. And feel free to tell me to go back to America if you don't believe me...I can monitor your comments. Muhahahahhahah!).

These people got the prize for best costumes (in our opinion). Funky!


Watching the dancers:


Torturing Evie outside of Oxford Castle:


Jim does his own version of Morris Dancing (would have been better with bells, I think):


FREE Mother's Day flowers from a random man (that would NEVER happen in London)


It's never to early to emphasize the importance of a good education! (Evie at oxford University):


We also were lucky enough to have a great tour guide in Oxford--Kate's friend, Cade--who showed us around and even let us into his college.


Kate, looking ever fabulous in the streets of Oxford (with Evie...in her stroller).


After a long and fun day, there was nothing left to do but demonstrate poses that I have developed for when I become America's next middle-aged top model:



I think I've definitely got a future...