It's September(!), the month I become a mother, the month Rob's and my family grows and our hearts swell and a new generation of Minkoff-Battistuzzi's enters the world and carries on the blood and love of our ancestors. We will have a new lexicon with cocktail, happy hour, and snooze button being replaced with nappy change, mummy and me, and, it's your turn. And of course the word we will surely soon utter more than any other is that of our sweet daughter's name.
This also marks 3 months since our move to London and the end of our first "summer" here (it was still in the 40sF when we woke this morning so it's difficult to call it summer). And while, for me, time has certainly not flown, it has been full of new people, new places and new experiences. There are many things I've missed about NY - BBQs, bagels (I'm pregnant so of course the list begins with food), brownstones, farmer's markets, and more than anything family and friends. But in 3 months we have made a comfortable home for ourselves, have made budding friendships and have opened ourselves to this opportunity and a life in London.
Check out a few captioned pics from our summer of exploration:
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| Afternoon walk past the London Eye |
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| Passing Parliament is still a treat |
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| Day trip to Cambridge |
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| View from one of the many footbridges that cross along a river which winds through the historic universities of Cambridge |
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| First take on my new photobooth app! |
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| Ian came to visit the first weekend of the Olympics. Here the boys sit contemplatively in our garden. |
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| One of multiple trips to this fab food market..a pregnant woman's heaven. |
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| Absolutely giddy ordering a corn-beef with mustard and pickles on rye - The most NY-y Jewish thing I have eaten since my arrival. |
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| Rob giddy sipping champagne and eating oysters - there's something to suit anyone's fancy. |
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| Satisfied! |
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Sunbury Antiques Market. A massive (and massively fabulous) furniture market an hour outside of London where I professionally haggled my way into 2 sweet end tables for 25gbp a piece.
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Footbridge to Putney, a charming neighborhood on the South Bank of the Thames that I never would have discovered if I weren't a local.
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| Proms at Royal Albert Hall. Baby loved the music! |
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| The opera house in Holland Park where we watched a screening of The Artist |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| An evening stroll in Chelsea after a delish Vietnamese dinner. Albert Bridge in the background. |
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| Illuminated by 4,000 bulbs, I picture Cinderella crossing this bridge in her glass carriage. |
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| Richmond Park. More like a nature reserve than a park, it's a 20 minute tube ride west of my apt. and home to hundreds of deer. |
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| View from our picnic spot in Richmond Park. |
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| Justin and Diana, our most British, British friends. Born and raised outside London they are faithful royalists. Diana, a teacher, has taught real-life gypsies (as in my big fat gypsy wedding). The stylish couple are currently planning their tea themed wedding (does it get more British than that?), on our second friend date Diana took me to a milliner and I've had to ask her to reiterate herself at times because she speaks in straight up Britishisms. |
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| This was the only hot weekend in London with temperatures reaching the upper 80s..I was so swollen and grateful when the swelling went down with the temperature. |
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Heading for drinks in Richmond, a posh neighborhood on the water where, rumor has it, Brangelina have a home. In high tide people just hike up their pants and carry on.
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| Live music and sunshine drew crowds on the river walk in Richmond. |
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| Skyline from Tower Bridge |
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A Friday night open air dance party near Tower Bridge - The Olympic rings under the bridge were replaced with the Para-Olympic symbol.
Yes, that's the electric slide. Brits are weird. |
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| Notting Hill Carnival - May be the last place a 9 month pregnant person should be. Crazy crowds and drunk teens. I kept calm and got out of there quick. |
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