Where To Begin?

So, we are here, though there was initially a big question around IF we'd able to stay. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, the flight. We were sooooo excited when, approximately 5 minutes after finishing her bottle and 10 minutes before take-off, Eleanor fell right asleep with no fussing whatsoever. The adventure of getting to and through the airport was enough to exhaust anyone. (Oh, and for anyone traveling with a 7-month old soon, baby food is considered a liquid, so if you don't put it in a baggie, they have to test it to make sure you aren't going to make a sweet potato bomb.) So Ellie's asleep, we take off, she stays fast asleep, they set up our baby cot, and we lie her in it. Within 5 minutes, she was awake. Any time we tried to put her in the cot, she'd wake up. I spent 7 hours holding that baby to keep her asleep. Needless to say I did not sleep for longer than 10 seconds at a time and am still struggling to fully straighten my left arm.

Once we arrived in London, Eleanor was in a good mood, even though she only slept for about 6 hours compared with her usual 11 1/2, and we even got to skip the 2 hour immigration line as a reward for traveling with a small baby and head straight toward the biggest English jerk one has ever encountered. Our immigration officer must have been on some sort of power trip that day because he decided that Ryan surely needed a work visa in order to travel for business. Um? Ryan does this ALL THE TIME. His office has people come over and work for a few days to a few months ALL THE TIME. NO ONE EVER HAS A WORK VISA. He told us he wouldn't have let us into the country if it weren't for the fact that we were traveling with a baby, put some stamp in all of our passports to warn future immigration officials that we are all suspect and clearly trying to pull a fast one, and said we could enter the country but that Ryan was not allowed to work at all. Oh, and he was going to sent immigration down to the Economist to see who else is working here illegally. Ryan's office was shocked and appalled, and they are all working with an immigration lawyer to make sure Ryan is able to start working, though they did say the worse case scenario is that we'd have to "do this another time" and figure out a day to go back home. No one thinks that is really going to happen, but let's just say I still haven't unpacked my suitcase.

But the place we are staying is nice, looks very much like the pictures, though it is extremely LOUD. It is a charming old English rowhouse with all the charming squeaky doors and floors and those fabulously thin walls. As for Eleanor, let's just say she is "taking her time to adjust."

The following photo series is called In Pursuit of Plant.