Tip top, Cheerio!

We made it through day 1 of Katie working and Patrick with the kids.. barely. The good news: my office is only 20 minutes away door-to-door -- only 2 stops away on the metro. The office in London is great and I've seen a lot of old Google friends and am making new ones, too. I received a really warm welcome and the office has all the perks of the home office including free food. The other good news, so far, is that I found a great nanny, Irina. I found her through a nanny agency here and she's from Argentina, speaks English well and knows London in and out. She started today though we're still nervous about essentially having a stranger bring our kids around London (she'd never have all 3, just one).

The bad news: the kids are pretty jetlagged and especially grumpy. Ellie was really well behaved but Declan and Caleigh were a bit off their rockers. They were restless and louder than normal. And to our ultimate horror, even one of the neighbors came by and asked us to be quieter. She was very nice about it, also American, but noted she has 3 small kids and the proximity here is quite tight so we hear everyone's business. It's also hard walking around here when the kids are so tired and also grumpy. Ellie, at one point, got fed up of walking with the twins and walked right into the road until I screamed "STOP" as a taxi eeked just past her. I don't think my heart ever beat so fast.

The first few days are always the hardest getting your bearings so we're trying to be patient. We're really grateful for the experience and hope to get the kids into a routine so everyone can enjoy this!

Now, time for me to take some Ambien so I'm not grumpy tomorrow! :)