blood pudding

I vowed NEVER to eat blood pudding, blood sausage, anything with a head (or feet) still attached - mystery meat of any kind while here in the UK. Well... I've gone against my word yet again. And to be truthful, it was a pleasant surprise.

Tim and I went out with friends of ours, Sarah and Lloyd, this past weekend (sans children). We visited a great tapas restaurant in Soho and since Lloyd is English, he had some insider info into a few of the English (with a Spanish twist) "meat" dishes that we had never been brave enough to order in the past. The blood pudding was more than tolerable, it actually had a lovely smokey quality to it. Almost made me forget I was eating congealed pig's blood. Almost. The second dish that piqued our interest was pork belly. I hear all about this latter delightful treat on the food network and the travel channel, but had never had the nerve to try it personally. Unfortunately, this might be a new addiction. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Though I swear my pants tightened the second this delectable treat hit my lips.

So while Tim and I dipped our toes into the English delicacy pool, Charlotte had her own adventurous moment. Well, an American experience would be a better way to describe it. She had... ready for it?... Pancakes! With maple syrup and berries! She ate an entire kid's portion yesterday. Perhaps not that impressive... but being in the 9th percentile for weight, this little stinker can sure hold her own at 18 lbs 9 oz.

Future Rocket Scientist?

For sure...

Wow - I love walking blindly into walls. That is, until it hurts and I cry.

Mom, did you know that banging your head on the cabinets is more fun while wearing a colander?

379 days down, 352 to go...

If my math is correct. It is difficult to acknowledge that we have lived in London for over a year now, and our days here now seem numbered. Our adventurous plans to travel last year seemed to fizzle a bit and were postponed until our second year. Well, that time is NOW so we have to get on it. BTW - traveling with a toddler is not an easy task... as we so naively thought otherwise before our first trip. But we are determined to do it this year regardless.

We are reviewing our remaining days here with mixed feelings - we are anxious to get back into our home and have Charlotte play in our yard, but we also like the freedom of not having to do house maintenance/yard work, etc. We look forward to Charlotte getting to see her cousins (and cousins-to-be) , aunts/uncles/grandparents more frequently, but we also realize that the time we spend now is much longer in duration. After being in the States over Christmas, we don't look forward to the car seat wrangling that occupied so much time. We found ourselves missing the ability to walk everywhere! I even missed the tube (Tim would vehemently disagree with this statement). 

So if you want to come visit, you have approximately 351 days and 10 hours to do so. And if you do, please bring a box of US Cheerios with you.