The London trip with Mom was great overall, but it was tough dealing with an eight-hour time change and the bone-crunching fatigue of early pregnancy. The first time I went to London, I was 21, single, just out of school and ready for an adventure. This time, I was 29, pregnant, travelling with my mother and pretty much always ready for a nap.

Still, we managed to see almost everything we wanted to: the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, Shakespeare’s Globe, Westminster Abbey, the cabinet war rooms, Buckingham Palace and even Edinburgh Castle as part of a day trip to Scotland. Aside from the monsoon-like rains we encountered in Edinburgh (we couldn’t even see out the bus windows because of the rivers of water streaming down), the weather was warm, sunny and just picture-perfect. It was kind of a bummer when we landed in Calgary on the return trip and discovered it was barely above freezing and had recently snowed.

Apparently Justin had been pointing at my picture a few days before we got back, so maybe he missed me, but he sure didn’t show it when I got home. He was happy to see his grandma, but he completely ignored me. I think it was payback for leaving him for a week. He seemed to forgive me by the next morning, though, especially since I was the one who got up and gave him his breakfast.

The little man gave up his morning nap just before we left for London and I’m still mourning the loss of some free time, but c’est la vie. At least now we can join some of those activities that were off-limits back when he needed a mid-morning snooze.

Back to the ol’ grind…