Blog slacker

Sorry to be so bad about blogging lately. We've been lying low waiting for our baby to come and I've had the camera packed away with all the hospital stuff. No baby yet, but here are some pictures from the past year or so, which are from my Iphone. Some are recent and some aren't.

Fierce Finchley caught mid-yawn:


In Seville we had this yummy tomato paste stuff on our bread for breakfast:


On our way to a country walk...in April or May!


Looking beautiful in a park in Kilburn:


Random art outside of a studio in Kilburn:


Finchley gets dressed up:


The farm in August. Soon after taking these pictures, I almost got sprayed by a plane dropping pesticide. Dad had to come out and rescue me:



Jim's special edition converse on some trip we took


Jack in the bathtub in our old hood (yes, there was carpet in the bathroom):


Cats contemplate (old hood again):


Hampstead Heath in September:


And in December (early in the morning, walking with Jim to the train station):



A blackbird having a bath in Hampstead Heath:


View of the stage from the disabled section (should be renamed 'the pregnant lady section') at the James concert:


Christmas tree recycling pile in Hampstead Heath:


Ice on a pond in the Heath..last week:


And yesterday, while killing time, we painted some pottery for our baby. The artist at work:


The next blog will include pictures of our new baby...who is coming soon!

Pregnant People Unite!

Today we met up with most of the couples from our prenatal class for lunch at a pub near our house. It was fun to see everyone outside of class and we were all looking round and ready. Here is a picture of all the women...most of our babies are due this week or next. Exciting!

Meg's birthday and New Years celebrating!

Last year, we arrived back in London on New Years Eve after a Christmas visit home. We were sleep deprived, but managed to stay awake until midnight, after which we went to bed and proceeded to sleep 14 hours straight. So this year it was great to have Meg and Dan in town and to be able to celebrate Meg's birthday AND the New Year with them!

We started with a rich and decadent lunch at a place called the Ledbury, where many partridge parts were consumed and Jim and Dan experienced the taste and texture of speared hearts. Unfortunately, I did not catch their facial expressions on camera.


The cheese cart was pretty impressive and we ended up getting some cheese AND desserts.


I didn't have the cheese, but it was interesting to hear the commentary. Some of the cheeses which were expected to be good ended up tasting like 'feet' and 'unimpressive.' The one that was the stinkiest, ended up being one of the favorites.


I can say that Meg's dessert was DELICIOUS:


After our extreme lunch, we went home to digest and then regrouped for a light and healthy dinner followed by and some un-light carrot cake in celebration of Meg's birthday:


The guys arranged 29 candles in Meg's initials:


Many cheesy New Year variety shows were on, and we danced a little before heading out to see all the fireworks on the London horizon. It was a happy night!



Happy New Year!!!!!!

Walking to the doctor

Now that we have about 10 days until our due date, I'm going to the doctor weekly. To get some exercise, I usually walk to the doctor (a few miles). Jim was home from work this week, so he came along with me and took some pictures on the way.


About to head out to the doctor. We bundled up because it was cold:


The big mosque outside of Regent's Park:


Seagulls on a frozen pond:


The BT Tower off in the distance:


At the doctor's office, which is in a big, historic building on Harley Street. We found out the baby's head is engaged, but other than that, nothing exciting to report. Here they don't check for dilation or anything like that, so we'll just keep waiting.

A view down the stairs:


The BT Tower up close and personal!

Finchley poses

Better late than never, Finchley finally agreed to look cute with the Christmas tree:


The Ikea bag is the best place to be these days.


Guarding the car seat...or jealous?

What happens after the day after Christmas

Lots of coffee:


A much needed walk:


And plenty of rest and relaxation in awkward positions and on top of heaters:

Christmas in London

This year was very different than our usual Christmas experience because it was the first year that we have been away from our families. And, our first year to be in London for Christmas. Despite that, we managed to have a really nice Christmas week and day and are looking forward to being back to normal next year!

To kick off our Christmas spirit, we went to see the Nutcracker. Due to the limited number of seats that were available by the time I bought the tickets (more than 2 months before the performance!), we had no choice but to sit really close to the stage, which was great! The Royal ballet does a really beautiful and different version of the Nutcracker than what I'm used to and we both really enjoyed it.


Then, of course, Jim had to make his famous cheeseballs and snickerdoodles, which were a great hit with me and amongst our friends.


Meg and Dan are back for a couple of weeks, having a rest between fabulous travels, so we've had a really nice time catching up with them. On Christmas eve we all hung out and had a low-key dinner before attempting to watch Its a Wonderful Life (not a success, as we only made it through half of the show):


Jack is so happy to see Meg and Dan! And they look great--tan and rested after just returning from South Africa.



We all got some rest and regrouped on Christmas morning. Meg made delicious scones!


We got all kinds of fun stuff in our stockings. Jim gives me the evil eye after I made some comment which I now can't remember. But you can see that he has a 'flyer kit', which was given to him by Dan. We have lots of not so great flying paper airplanes all over our house now, which Jack has enjoyed chasing around.


Only a couple of more weeks until our baby is due. I'm looking pretty robust in these pictures. Serious overeating has not helped me to feel less waddlesque.


Group picture!


We tried to get the cats to pose in a friendly manner, but they weren't cooperating. We had to accept this 'aloof' and 'cool' picture. Lucky for them, we forgot to put them in their Santa suits. Next year!


New socks!


New Jacket!


New Art!


New Underwear!


Jim as Kenyan warrior. Thanks to Meg and Dan, we now have some really beautiful art and blankets from Kenya and South Africa.


Cheers! Mimosas.


Between eating our faces off, we took a walk on Hampstead Heath. There were lots of happy people out enjoying the gray day.




After a few hours of questionable food preparation (like, were my rolls going to rise? Miraculously, YES! But he of little faith went out and bought some more bread, just in case. HUMPH!) we had a delicious Christmas dinner. Meg made really delicious beef tenderloin and brussel sprouts and Jim made creamy scalloped potatoes, I mixed together the Yorkshire pudding and Jim and Meg put it in the pan and we also had homemade rolls. There was food in abundance!


Jim cuts the beautiful Yorkshire pud!


We had a little rest before we got to dessert.


THEN: lemon meringue pie and chocolate pie. Jim's lemon meringue pie was BEAUTIFUL when it came out of the oven. He put it on the counter to cool and left the room. Fifteen minutes later he came back in to find Finchley with his greedy face buried in the meringue. BAD PIGGY CAT!!!


Here is the culprit, post-pie consumption. We removed the part that he was chowing on, which left a slightly less perfect looking pie (still delicious!):


Thanks to modern technology, we were able to talk to and see our families on Skype! Not as good as seeing them in person, but it helped to make them seem not so far away. It was almost a perfect Christmas, full of family, friends, lots of food and happy times. Merry Christmas!