We've been here over a month now!

Hello everyone!! I know it's been awhile since the last post, but we have had a rough couple of weeks. The final week of my mom's stay (the first week of March), Emmett got a several-day fever, we think caused by 3 new teeth coming in, which caused his eczema to flair up, which all together got us acquainted with the health system here in the UK.  Needless to say, none of us slept all that much and my mom had a not-so-eventful last week in England.

Emmett was SO tired from his fever, he couldn't even march.

Though Spencer brought her and Emmett to London to see the Tower of London on the 5th of March, and she and I had a matinee date to see a show at the Windsor Royal Theatre on the 3rd. And we had fish and chips again, and we made it back to the brewery... so I guess it wasn't such a bad finale!

Emmett loves the guard hat that Grandma gifted him (an early 2nd birthday gift - thank you, thank you, thank you, Grandma Kay!) - he practices his marching at least daily. And we've seen the guards in the streets a couple of more times this month, too. We have frequented the swans on the river and the playground and library near our house the last couple weeks as well. Last Friday we went to our first "Messy Monet" class at an art studio near our flat that is designed for toddlers.

Emmett enjoyed painting class

Emmett loved painting, but even more, he loved walking around barefoot in all the glitter that ended up everywhere. We have his painted and glued Easter eggs hanging proudly in our apartment and Emmett likes to point at them and talk about the next time we'll go to the painting place.

Spencer, Emmett and I decided to make the most of the off-peak time in the area and had a beautifully sunny day in London last Saturday. We got to London around lunch time and shared our bag lunch sandwiches outside at a table where, in order to stay at the table, we ordered some Lebanese falafel and halloumi - grilled cheese. What a treat! It tasted as good as I remembered the food in Oman to be. We opted to skip the museum as we had planned and instead took advantage of the sunshine and walked through Kensington and Hyde parks while Emmett napped. We ended up again at the Eye of London (the ferris wheel) and bought our tickets to take a ride. Emmett LOVED the ride, of course, because he got to wander throughout the bubble talking to everyone around him. He also loved the idea of hanging on the doors which

Emmett really wanted to lean on the doors.

were clearly much more fun than anywhere else he could have hung around inside the bubble (and were off limits - thus his attraction to them). While above the city, Emmett's favorite was being able to see all the construction equipment below around the city - especially the excavators. My favorite was seeing Big Ben and the houses of parliament from above with the sun setting behind them. We finished our day in London eating some street food where I found a stand that offered gluten free flat bread with pesto, veggies, and mozzarella melted on top... yummm.

A few observations we've made in our first month here:
The serving sizes at restaurants and vendors are much smaller than we're used to in the States. Despite this, Spencer and I still convince ourselves that we should get two adult meals and just share with Emmett, but as Emmett eats as much as I do, we find ourselves not quite satisfied at the end of our meals. We may have to start ordering three meals while out.

Socialized health care has, so far, been very beneficial for us. As we are registered residents and are paying the local taxes, we were able to bring Emmett to a walk-in clinic when his tooth-pain, fever and eczema were at their peak. The doctor prescribed some antihistamine and otherwise told us to keep doing the pain/fever reducer, moisturizing ointments and hydrocortisone. Emmett was able to stop scratching enough that he finally slept which helped all the symptoms. We went in to our local doctor about a week later for a follow-up (and to meet him) and he prescribed some more hydrocortisone and ointment (as we're not able to buy it over-the-counter here). Though he wouldn't prescribe children's ibuprofen as he said that in the UK they do not ever prescribe it for babies under a certain age. Our doctor in the States recommends switching between acetaminophen and ibuprofen, though, so we've asked Spencer's parents to bring us some more when they visit. :) Even though we have to make an appointment with the doctor to get most children's medicine at the pharmacy, the appointments are free and so is the medicine.

The other healthcare related thing that happened was that once we registered at the clinic, the government sent a child development specialist to our house to introduce herself, the resources available to us as parents of a young child here, and to answer any questions we might have about the health system here. She also took note that Emmett is in a healthy living space and is caught up on his vaccinations. Spencer and I discussed the visit afterward and decided that though some may find it obtrusive, we thought it was a kind and unexpected gesture that has made us feel more comfortable with the healthcare system.

Spencer is feeling much more settled and useful at work. Though it has been a transition for us to have him at the office each day, his office is just a few blocks away from our flat so he has been able to come home for lunch most days. Emmett and I walked over to the office for the first time just yesterday and got a mini-tour. Spencer's coworkers loved seeing and meeting Emmett.

We're looking forward to some upcoming travel! We knew that we wanted to visit our friends in the Netherlands and in Switzerland while we were this close, so we thought we should get those trips in before Emmett turns 2 on May 10. Over the Easter weekend, we will visit the Landers family near Den Bosch. And at the end of April we'll see Matt and Tina and girls in Sion, Switzerland. We are so excited!

In other traveling news, Spencer's parents will be visiting toward the beginning of April after a conference they're attending in Italy. And my brother, Brian, has a work trip planned to Liverpool and Dublin, Ireland, also at the beginning of April, and will come and stay with us on either end of that trip! Emmett is so excited - he has been talking about Nana and Bapa coming on the "beeshoo" (airplane) for weeks. Then he asks if "Bobo" (Bodie - our dog) will also come on the "beeshoo" and we have to explain to him that Bodie is scared of airplanes. He misses Bodie and his friends back in Colorado, as do Spencer and I. One of Emmett's newest words is "home".

In other Emmett's-development news, he is loving to crawl up and over everything. And he will NOT let anyone help him, with anything ("NO! ME!"). He says new words every 2-3 days (some of his other newer words are "ba-co" (banana), and "no-note" (noodles). And about two days ago Emmett looked at me and said "I ook" (work), just like his Daddy. So he put his little "computer" (children's electronic tablet - thank you, Katie and Charlotte!!) into his backpack, but the pack on his back, and crawled upstairs where he opened the backpack, pulled out his computer and started typing at his step stool in the bathroom.

During Emmett's nap time, I have decided to start learning HTML (I am very much a beginner with this but have enjoyed learning to enter codes that change the fonts and colors of my words on a webpage). I've also ordered the needles needed to start needle felting with wool! I'm excited to create some colorful wool creatures (Kristen Lockie (my Colorado dog sitter) is my inspiration).

We love hearing from you all and we hope you enjoyed the latest installment. Keep in touch!

March 1, 2016

Our Windsor flat from the front

Lots has happened since last I wrote! Most importantly, we successfully rented an apartment here and have moved in! We signed up for internet, but they don't install the hardware for one more week (Spencer managed to figure out how to connect us to Wifi, though, for spotty coverage until then). We did some shopping for a few necessary home goods (namely, sheets for the beds and soap to wash our hands), but otherwise feel good living minimally! Our apartment is furnished so we have a few pots and pans and dishes in the kitchen, the furniture we need in all the rooms, and even a BBQ in the back patio. We love our place - the furnishings are in good condition and pleasantly arranged - but nothing beats our location. We are just a 5-10 minute walk from anything we could need on a day-to-day basis: several grocery stores, pubs and restaurants, Spencer's office, the castle and museums, both of Windsor's train stations (which is how we've managed to make it to London twice), the public library, playgrounds and parks, and the entire downtown shopping area. And despite our proximity to the hubbub of downtown, we are in a peaceful row house in a little cul du sac just two blocks off the main streets. We have a nice outside patio which we hope to frequent as the weather improves, and we have a parking space in the front, which we probably will rarely use (as we don't plan to get a car while we're here). And now that we're official residents of Windsor, Spencer and I were able to get "Advantage Cards" which allow us many privileges throughout the city - including free access to the Windsor Castle.

Emmett would like to be a castle guard someday

Speaking of the castle, Emmett, Grandma Kay and I have now gone to the castle 4 times. We've been taking it slow to keep Emmett's engagement high. He enjoyed finding flowers in the gardens, finding paintings of animals (mostly horses) throughout the inside of the castle, and seeing the toy cars in the famous Queen's dollhouse. His favorite part of the castle, though, by far, is seeing the guards. We've seen the changing of the guards from the outside of the castle as they march from the castle arch to the barracks, we've seen the changing from the inside of the castle where they've played several marching tunes, and we've seen the guards walking around inside of the castle - always swinging their arms and marching with their loud shoes in rhythm. Emmett has taken to marching and swinging his arm (though he hasn't mastered the legwork and arms going at the same time). We tried taking him to the Episcopal church service inside the castle last night, too, thinking he'd enjoy the music, but Spencer and Grandma ended up staying behind to watch the service while Emmett and I went back home to make dinner - Emmett doesn't understand the importance of whispering yet.

As Grandma Kay's visit is coming to an end (her flight is next Sunday, March 6), and we are officially residents of Windsor, we decided we had to start making Grandma's visit more touristy. So besides visiting the castle 4 times, we have also had some tasters at the local Windsor brewery (no gluten free beer, unfortunately, for me though), spent a day in London (last Saturday), walked to the Eton prep school's campus and visited their natural history museum (open to the public only 2.5 hours per week), found gluten free beer at the nearby grocery store (yay for me! I don't have to drink cider anymore!), tried a couple new restaurants, visited the local Windsor museum, and done some souvenir shopping.

Matt shows Emmett where we need to visit

A few highlights from these activities:

My good friend, Matt, who otherwise lives with his beautiful family in Switzerland, has a business client near London and took the opportunity to come visit us last Wednesday evening for a nice dinner. Emmett warmed up to him quickly and has already been studying up (with Matt, of course) on how to get to Switzerland to pay him a visit and meet his daughters.

At the brewery last Friday afternoon, there were a group of people hanging out drinking free beer offered by the staff, and chatting about rugby. One of the fellows started talking with Emmett, who is not shy and who offered the guy one of his pretzels. In exchange for the soggy pretzel, the guy gave Emmett a giant "lolly" that he had purchased as an "I'm sorry for ruining dinner" gift for his wife. We're still not sure what to do with a lollypop the size of Emmett's head - it's in our cabinet. The people there said we should visit again next Friday for some more beer. We're thinking we'll do just that but bring Spencer with us this time.

It was so cold in London

While in London, we managed to see a lot! Spencer smoothly navigated us around on the commuter trains and on the "Tube" (the subway). With our stroller in tow, we decided that public transportation in London is not very handicap-friendly, but we were grateful to have Emmett in the stroller for his short nap-time-while-on-the-move. We started the day at the Kensington Gardens where there is a giant playground that Emmett occupied for over an hour. Then we found some lunch at a little cafe inside of Kensington Palace. From there we took the tube to the other side of Hyde Park where we walked to the Buckingham Palace. From there we continued on foot to see Big Ben, other houses of parliament, the London Eye Ferris wheel and lots of beautiful bridges, walking paths, buildings and scenery. We were pooped by the end of the day. We came back to Windsor and had dinner near the train station at a new-to-us South African restaurant.

King Emmett I is a happy king

We spent the following day (Sunday) getting groceries, resting, and then walking over to Eton to see the campus of the famous prep school. They don't currently run tours of the school, but they open their natural history museum up to the public for 2.5 hours each Sunday. The museum was fascinating and kept Emmett's attention without a problem. Anything with animals will do that. We enjoyed walking through the town of Eton on our way back toward Windsor, too.

On our list, still, before Sunday is either a trip back to London to see the Science Museum or a matinee showing at the Royal Theatre here in Windsor on Thursday. We may end up doing both of those things (just not both on the same day). We have been cramming lots in the last few days - we'll see if we can keep up our energy. We hope you enjoy the posts and photos. Please keep in touch and keep well!