Life Lately
Hi! My apologies for disappearing! We moved and then didn't have internet for over a week. If you haven't heard by now, we chose Flat #2!!
We have been in our new flat for almost two weeks and mostly settled in. I absolutely love living here although I'm still getting accustomed to all the UK appliances and being in such a small space. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, eat in kitchen and living room. I really love the neighborhood and location. We are right around the corner from a huge train station (Normer has a 40 minute train ride to work and his train leaves from here), restaurants, Starbucks and a grocery store is walkable too. Badge's school is just across the street and I will catch glimpses of him throughout the day walking to the bus or the park. :)
Life here:
- Dishwasher- Our dish washer is a drawer- not full size. I'm ok with the size since we only have a few plates and bowls. Even if we had a full size, I would still have to run it twice a day or we'll have no plates and forks by dinner time! I have purchased 4 products so far for this dishwasher and its still not working great. Its brand new, and I'm assured that the purchase of the 5th product will make it work correctly. Let's hope so. So far I have bought dishwasher tabs (didn't work), dishwasher powder (got the cheap kind so that didn't work), dishwasher salt (for the hard water here), and a rinse aid. Now I've ordered the brand name dishwasher powder and my fingers are crossed that it will work!
- I miss bacon. And pancakes! (Basically, anything in a good southern breakfast.) The bacon here is more like a canadian bacon or ham. And I don't have a large enough pan to cook pancakes at home.
- We way under packed. (Hence no griddle for pancakes). The move here was so stressful and we had so much on our to do list those last couple of weeks. It was almost impossible to go through everything in our house and decide what was going where. The movers packed everything for us, which was great, but there was so much that I wanted to bring that didn't get pulled out in time. In a way, we did a good job not bringing stuff we didn't need. It is tight in our flat but everything has a place (mostly).
- It is expensive here. We have spent so much buying all the things we didn't pack or new electrical items. Hair dryer, iron, ironing board, TV, sheets, towels, kitchen pans, silverware, plates, bowls, cups etc.
- The boys- they are so happy here. They love all the buses and taxis. We don't see too many trains where we are but they love those too. They love the playgrounds and icon sights (like Big Ben and the London Eye). And they especially love exploring the city and seeing new things. I am amazed at them. We have certainly had a few rough patches, with them being overtired and adjusting to sharing a room. I don't know when the going to bed will get easier. They are up until almost 9pm every night despite our best efforts to get them in bed by 7pm. We have to split them up sometimes to get them to sleep. The sun rises around 5:15am and they have been up to celebrate the occasion many times. 9pm-5am is NOT enough sleep for a 3 or 5 year old and we pay the price for it. :) But overall, they do love living here. I have asked Badge several times if he wanted to go back home right now. His response surprised me. He said, "No Mommy, not now. I will in a year." :)
-Badge loves his school. I was a NERVOUS wreck when I dropped him off his first day. I worried about everything! Does he have the right underwear?? Does he have the right uniform on? (The required uniform list has over 25 items on it). Is he going to fit in? What if the kids make fun of him? I was a mess!! My mommy heart practically exploded when after his 3rd day of school, the students in his class nominated him for their class representative at student council. I was so proud!
I was also worried because the school systems here are a YEAR ahead of American Schools. Badge is in Reception, which is the same as being in Kindergarten back home. He went from being in K4 (Pre-K) to Kindergarten. In the Fall, he will be in Year 1 (First Grade). He has done so well!! I just asked his teacher today about him and she said he is so confident and exceeding just fine. He is out in the city every day with his class. They take the bus to parks, swimming lessons, Sports (PE) or just out for a walk.
-Rowe has had the biggest changes of anyone in the family. Back home, he attended preschool 4 mornings a week from 9-1. Now he is at home all day with Mommy. It has been a hard transition for me too. :) He is such an easy going kid. He certainly has his moment (he IS THREE, after all) but overall he really loves being with me and I'm happy to have one on one time with him too. It was especially hard the first few weeks because I had so many errands to run and I had to drag him around with me. We didn't bring a stroller because we have no place to put it nor do we want to carry it up to the 3rd floor of our flat each day. So he has been walking, walking and walking. We joke that he won't be Big Belly when we come back home in a year. I got him a scooter so I could pull him around but he only lasts a few minutes on it right now. I'm hoping he will learn to like it more. He keeps asking when he can go to school with Badge so I know he misses it. We do plan to put him in this Fall at Badge's school. He will go 5 mornings a week from 8:30-12:30. We are BOTH excited!
We are loving life here!!
We have been in our new flat for almost two weeks and mostly settled in. I absolutely love living here although I'm still getting accustomed to all the UK appliances and being in such a small space. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, eat in kitchen and living room. I really love the neighborhood and location. We are right around the corner from a huge train station (Normer has a 40 minute train ride to work and his train leaves from here), restaurants, Starbucks and a grocery store is walkable too. Badge's school is just across the street and I will catch glimpses of him throughout the day walking to the bus or the park. :)
Life here:
- Dishwasher- Our dish washer is a drawer- not full size. I'm ok with the size since we only have a few plates and bowls. Even if we had a full size, I would still have to run it twice a day or we'll have no plates and forks by dinner time! I have purchased 4 products so far for this dishwasher and its still not working great. Its brand new, and I'm assured that the purchase of the 5th product will make it work correctly. Let's hope so. So far I have bought dishwasher tabs (didn't work), dishwasher powder (got the cheap kind so that didn't work), dishwasher salt (for the hard water here), and a rinse aid. Now I've ordered the brand name dishwasher powder and my fingers are crossed that it will work!
- I miss bacon. And pancakes! (Basically, anything in a good southern breakfast.) The bacon here is more like a canadian bacon or ham. And I don't have a large enough pan to cook pancakes at home.
- We way under packed. (Hence no griddle for pancakes). The move here was so stressful and we had so much on our to do list those last couple of weeks. It was almost impossible to go through everything in our house and decide what was going where. The movers packed everything for us, which was great, but there was so much that I wanted to bring that didn't get pulled out in time. In a way, we did a good job not bringing stuff we didn't need. It is tight in our flat but everything has a place (mostly).
- It is expensive here. We have spent so much buying all the things we didn't pack or new electrical items. Hair dryer, iron, ironing board, TV, sheets, towels, kitchen pans, silverware, plates, bowls, cups etc.
- The boys- they are so happy here. They love all the buses and taxis. We don't see too many trains where we are but they love those too. They love the playgrounds and icon sights (like Big Ben and the London Eye). And they especially love exploring the city and seeing new things. I am amazed at them. We have certainly had a few rough patches, with them being overtired and adjusting to sharing a room. I don't know when the going to bed will get easier. They are up until almost 9pm every night despite our best efforts to get them in bed by 7pm. We have to split them up sometimes to get them to sleep. The sun rises around 5:15am and they have been up to celebrate the occasion many times. 9pm-5am is NOT enough sleep for a 3 or 5 year old and we pay the price for it. :) But overall, they do love living here. I have asked Badge several times if he wanted to go back home right now. His response surprised me. He said, "No Mommy, not now. I will in a year." :)
-Badge loves his school. I was a NERVOUS wreck when I dropped him off his first day. I worried about everything! Does he have the right underwear?? Does he have the right uniform on? (The required uniform list has over 25 items on it). Is he going to fit in? What if the kids make fun of him? I was a mess!! My mommy heart practically exploded when after his 3rd day of school, the students in his class nominated him for their class representative at student council. I was so proud!
I was also worried because the school systems here are a YEAR ahead of American Schools. Badge is in Reception, which is the same as being in Kindergarten back home. He went from being in K4 (Pre-K) to Kindergarten. In the Fall, he will be in Year 1 (First Grade). He has done so well!! I just asked his teacher today about him and she said he is so confident and exceeding just fine. He is out in the city every day with his class. They take the bus to parks, swimming lessons, Sports (PE) or just out for a walk.
-Rowe has had the biggest changes of anyone in the family. Back home, he attended preschool 4 mornings a week from 9-1. Now he is at home all day with Mommy. It has been a hard transition for me too. :) He is such an easy going kid. He certainly has his moment (he IS THREE, after all) but overall he really loves being with me and I'm happy to have one on one time with him too. It was especially hard the first few weeks because I had so many errands to run and I had to drag him around with me. We didn't bring a stroller because we have no place to put it nor do we want to carry it up to the 3rd floor of our flat each day. So he has been walking, walking and walking. We joke that he won't be Big Belly when we come back home in a year. I got him a scooter so I could pull him around but he only lasts a few minutes on it right now. I'm hoping he will learn to like it more. He keeps asking when he can go to school with Badge so I know he misses it. We do plan to put him in this Fall at Badge's school. He will go 5 mornings a week from 8:30-12:30. We are BOTH excited!
We are loving life here!!
One thing to consider for getting good is to consider a weekend trip to like Hastings or Devon. Things are somewhat cheaper out of London. :) My cousin who used to live part-time in London would do that when she had a large amount of purchases to make. She'd just have them shipped to her home from the store.
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