Giggles

Sophie giggled for the first time yesterday.  What more exciting sound is there than your baby giggling?  I'll try to capture it on video sometime soon.

More Living in London

Our car was broken into last week. Basically right in front of our house. We had left our GPS holder visible on the dashboard. Somebody smashed in a side window and opened the glove compartment, presumably to look for the actual GPS unit. We hadn't left it in the car, and there wasn't really anything else to take, so the would-be thief doesn't appear to have taken anything at all in the end.

But it's a pain. You always feel a little less secure when something like that happens (which it does ridiculously often in London). And I hate having to even think about insurance. Hate it. I suspect we won't bother making a claim -- it's a very small window (the Honda Fit/Jazz has a really small side window in addition to the main side window) that should hopefully be relatively inexpensive to replace, and the hassle and potential premium hike probably aren't worth the short-term savings, if any.

Random Thoughts from New York

1)  On average, people in New York seem vastly friendlier than people in London.  They don't try to push ahead of you in line.  They open doors.  They say please and thank you and engage in friendly small talk.  They keep their music to themselves.  No doubt my perception is colored by the fact that I live in the equivalent of the Bronx in London.  But I think it's an accurate generalization nonetheless.

2)  I like cold weather much better when it's snowing.

3)  The financial crisis is definitely hitting big law firms.  One of our chief rivals just laid off nearly 10% of their lawyers in London.  If it came to that at my firm, I can't help but think that my practice area and expat package wouldn't exactly help me.

4)  I miss my little family!

Goodnight Sophie

I try to make it home from work in time to put Sophie to bed whenever I'm able (which ends up being maybe twice a workweek).

Sophie's cousin Jack gave her "Goodnight Moon" for Christmas. Here we are reading it together earlier this evening:

(Sophie is snuggled up in a swaddling blanket that's almost like a straitjacket, but she loves it!)

Projectile Poop

Sophie celebrated the end of 2008 with some festive projectile poop:

That's what I call celebrating in style! She was in such a celebratory mood that she did it twice!