Rambling Round One: It Rains in London

(I thought I would begin our first ever blog by stating the obvious)

Yep, we're in London, the Aggarwals three. We spent our first week+ in Bromley with Sanjay's brother, Anant (bhaiya) and sister-in-law Pooja (babhi). They took great care of us while Sanjay and I spent our days and nights house-hunting. Olivia warmed to them immediately. They have been charged with teaching me Hindi...we'll see how that goes. I am eager to learn.

We celebrated Olivia's first birthday with them as well. She has three new loves: cake, pizza and balloons, especially with helium! In addition, she has become fond of kiwi (she whines for it the same way she would for a bottle), peanut butter and jelly toast, pears and bath bubbles. She is walking faster now, able to squat and return to standing with ease, forming new syllables, tearing paper, running laps through the kitchen, catching her fingers in drawers and diving off the bed. She injures herself daily, but seems to be learning what not to do, except when it comes to putting things in her mouth. I am in process of teaching her to exit the couch feet first. She thinks it's fun, but hasn't yet learned the value of the reversal.

We took her to the London Aquarium the week of her birthday. Her initial reaction to sea life was a bit of fear, but after a short while she watched, reaching for the fish. Her favorite seemed to be shiny and silver - I wish I had taken note of the name. We will be sure to take her to Shedd Aquarium on our first return to Chicago. I want to show her my favorite - the Belugas. After the aquarium we took a stroll along the Thames' bustling river walkway and had a taste of the local sushi with friends and former Chicago neighbors, Grace and Shariff.

We are currently staying in Canary Wharf, the newly constructed financial district where Sanjay is working. He started with Barclay's this past Monday and all is well. If all goes as planned we will have our first official London address in Greenwich Millennium Village 9/16. Canary Wharf is gorgeous, but we will get more bang for our buck (or pound) in GMV. It will be nice to finally get settled in...and for Sanjay it will be nice to have his black suits! I guess tan is not the "it color" here.

As always, I am enjoying exploring the world around me by foot (with stroller of course). It is interesting to see the demographic and cultural contrasts from one neighborhood to the next, though they are only blocks apart. It's also fun to pass through different areas and notice how they remind me of familiar places such as Chicago's South Loop or the southeast side of Cedar Rapids, though there are usually distinct differences.

More to come later...

Liz