Happy birthday, Gaga!

We love you and miss you!

Christmas Eve and Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas! We missed seeing the Ellis/Baxter/Galyon side of the family, but we had a great time with the Hirst/Ennis/Fox side of the family! And what a big family it has become. There were ten adults and three kids at all of the festivities!



Nana hosted Christmas Eve and made a great dinner -- salmon, ham, salad, a great cheese platter, four desserts, etc. We didn't end up with a picture of everyone at the table (I'm not sure it would have been possible to get everyone in the frame), but here is Auntie Emma, Cousin Joseph, Auntie Georgina, Uncle Mike, Grandad and Nana:

After dinner (and apparently before we had a chance to wipe her face), Ellie put on her Santa costume. Thomas and Joseph were SO excited to see a little miniature Santa crawling around!

It looks like Santa has been hitting the mincemeat pies a little too hard -- check out that belly!

The boys trying their hardest to impress Santa:

It's not a good idea to strangle Santa on Christmas Eve, Joseph!

On Christmas, we went over to Emma and Brian's for another amazing meal! Turkey, ham, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrot and swede mash, bacon wrapped sausage, etc. Ellie tried some carrot and swede mash, but I don't think she like the texture:

Those lips were sealed tight -- no more mash for me, thanks!

The chef and Joseph:

Me, Georgina, Mike, Sarah, Lesley, Sue, and Peter:

The traditional Christmas pudding was set on fire after dinner -- I was tipsy just from the fumes coming off the cake (so I think that means it was really good)! The pudding is made far in advance (often a year in advance, frozen and then defrosted several weeks before Christmas), then it's given 'drinks' of brandy periodically to make sure that it's thoroughly saturated on Christmas. It's then steamed for about six hours, set on fire with more brandy, and then covered in brandy butter and brandy sauce. Delicious...if you like brandy!

After everyone ate, the cousins had a bath together! You can tell from Ellie's face that she wasn't thrilled about having a bath with the boys -- I think it's the lingering PTSD from her bath with Alex.

But she warmed up to the idea pretty quickly:

The boys are SO sweet with Ellie. They seem to understand that she's younger than they are and that she's a girl. They both like hugging her and touching her head. SO cute!

They're not always so sweet to each other:

Some post-bath peek-a-boo fun:

You go bye-bye

Ellie's new-found waving skills came in very handy yesterday. Jack, Georgina's manic (but sweet) lab came over and absolutely lost it when he saw Ellie! He started whining, barking, jumping and generally doing everything he could to get to her, while Georgina did her best to hold him back. Ellie, who had just woken up from a nap and was already feeling a bit delicate, was terrified, burst into tears and started waving at him. I thought it was just a coincidence until she did it again later when Jack scared her again -- she seemed to be saying 'okay, you're very scary, you go bye-bye now!'

Our little parrot

Miss Ellie is so vocal these days! It seems like she's saying a new 'word' every day. She's said doggy, birdie, baby, daddy, etc. Of course, she doesn't know what any of them mean yet and they're all sort of variations of 'dada' and 'baba', but we're still pretty impressed! She's also been pretty consistent about waving lately -- she had started waving several weeks ago and then stopped. It's so fun to watch her learn! It's also fun to be the recipient of her cuddles. Every once in a while, she'll just lay her head on my chest for a quick cuddle -- it's so sweet! Since she doesn't slow down long enough to cuddle often or for long, I relish every moment...and then I notice that she's chewing on the buttons of my shirt and I'm reminded that in some ways, she's still more puppy-like than human.

Rules

So the rules are just a little bit different at Nana's house!

I win, I win, I win!

Miss Ellie has now taken two little, independent steps! The first one was on December 19th, but Damian said it didn't count because she took a little step and then immediately grabbed on to him. Fine by me, because the second step came yesterday on the 20th...the day I predicted! Woohoo! If only Vegas had games that involved gambling on Ellie -- I would be rich!

So back to the walking. Yesterday, Ellie took that little step and then continued to stand on her own for ages (probably 20-30 seconds). She is so steady on her feet -- it just seems to be the motivation to walk that is lacking. I guess when she decides that she wants to walk, she'll do it all at once. No tentative steps followed by big crashes for this little one!

Playing catch up

You might have noticed that there haven't been many pictures on our blog lately. That's because our camera apparently heard us contemplating getting a new one and promptly stopped working. Damian gave us a fancy new camera as an early Christmas present and we've been making up for lost time! Here's a close-up in case you've forgotten what she looks like:
On Thursday, we went over to Emma's and had lunch -- Ellie had vegetable lasagna and LOVED it! She initially panicked over having something warm in her mouth since her food is normally cold, but then she couldn't eat it fast enough. It's just crazy that she's old enough for 'normal' food!



After the lunch, the cousins had fun playing and Thomas really enjoyed being the big boy in the group.

We were so excited to get a cute picture of all three of them looking at the camera AND smiling! It was an early Christmas miracle!

This was the first position that we tried and it was really cute, but we didn't get a single picture that showed everyone's face!

Ellie's exit strategy:

It's hard to believe that Cousin Joseph is 6 1/2 months older than Ellie -- they're nearly the same size!

After playing, we went to Thomas's swim lesson and Joseph and Ellie both swam with Nana. The water was so cold that Ellie wasn't her normal wild self in the water, but she still had fun!

On Friday, we went to a children's museum with the kids and Grandad. The kids had so much fun running (or crawling) around and checking out all of the fun things to do!

The tongue on this huge mouth was really slippery, so the kids ended up using it as a slide:

For some reason, we didn't end up with a picture of Thomas, but both Thomas and Joseph ran around in these wolf (?) costumes:

Ellie took a little break while being wheeled around in this wagon:
And then she got to work pushing Joseph:

This is unrelated, but I thought the picture and story were pretty funny. The only night, Ellie was blowing raspberries and Damian thought she was just being silly or that maybe she had a little fuzz stuck in her mouth. Then, she suddenly spit out this huge piece of carpet. Sorry, Nana!

Fancy Feast

Miss Ellie has a new favorite food. She goes absolutely mad for it and will cry (scream, really) if you stand between her and a plate of it. I thought she was a carbs girl since her previous favorite foods were Cheerios and pasta, but it turns out that she's more of a meat-eater than we thought (and than our experience at Thanksgiving led us to believe). So what is this delicious new food? Cat food! Not the dry stuff that might be confused with meaty Cheerios, but the disgusting wet stuff! She managed to get a big piece of it in her mouth yesterday and was VERY irritated when I fished it out. Then, she spent the rest of the day desperately trying to get into the kitchen to finish it off. It smells absolutely awful and even though I promptly washed her mouth/face, she still smelled like it for a couple of hours. It was the first time that neither Damian nor I wanted to kiss her. Bluck! So much for her all natural, organic diet!

We made it!

Well, we survived another transatlantic flight! We flew into London on Saturday (actually landed on Sunday) and then made the drive up to Leeds. Miss Ellie ended up with two full seats and slept almost the entire flight! Damian and I didn't sleep much at all, but Damian still managed to stay awake for the drive to Leeds (the snores coming from the passenger seat and the backseat didn't seem to bother him much).

We went straight to Peter and Sue's for a delicious Sunday lunch. Ellie was a bit sleepy and a little cranky, but she was still happy to see everyone. Thomas and Joseph have both changed so much! Joseph is a toddler now, not a baby, and Thomas is just a little man with lots to say!

The jet lag has been so much better this time (although Damian stayed up until 1:30 last night, so we'll see how his jet lag is doing later today)! Ellie slept for 14 hours the first night and 13 hours last night. It's the first time that she's slept later than both of us -- now if we could just make that a habit! ;-)

Santa and friends

Today, Ellie and I had so much fun with Jackson and Hillary. We met at the mall and took pictures with Santa. Ellie was not impressed at first and she cried whenever she saw me (so I spent the entire time crouching behind a picture-taking elf) but in the end, we got a cute picture:


Jackson, on the other hand, never warmed up to Santa. He seemed pretty certain that Santa could not be trusted, even when Mommy was there to protect him. It was sad to see him so upset, but I bet he will look back at the photo of him sobbing and laugh...I hope he will, anyway.

After the Santa excitement, we had lunch and then let the kids play in the soft/foam play area. They had a great time and we had a great time watching them. I feel so lucky to have such a great friend who loves to do the same things I do and whose son is such a sweetheart (it makes it very convenient that Ellie loves Hillary and Jackson too!).

An early Christmas present

Ellie has given me the best early Christmas present! She's sleeping through the night (finally!). Once we stopped the nighttime feedings, she fussed for just two nights and then decided uninterrupted sleep wasn't too bad! She's waking up earlier now, but we usually don't here a peep from her for about 12 hours. Woohoo!

A wonderful break

Miss Ellie is working on getting her top two teeth and it has made her just a touch cranky. I seem to be working on getting a cold and it has made me a lot cranky. Damian suggested that we treat ourselves and watch Baby Einstein and eat Cheerios. He's a genius! Miss Ellie did her best impression of a teenager, hardly looking away from the screen while she double-fisted Cheerios...and I enjoyed sitting still for 20 minutes! I think we're both hooked!

Living up to her name

Someone (I'm not naming names, DAD!) made fun of me for liking Italian names when I clearly have no Italian roots; but today, Ellie proved that Annabella is the perfect middle name for her! She has a new favorite food -- pasta with marinara sauce and pureed pumpkin. It's so fun to see her starting to eat "normal," adult food!

Of course, if we had chosen her middle name based only on the foods she like, we could have named her Aarti since she also likes Indian, but we like Annabella better.

Anyone care to place a bet?

Gaga wants to start a pool about when Ellie will take her first step (it seems fitting since we were placing bets about Ellie (specifically, her arrival) before she was even born). So it's fair for everyone, I'll tell you what I know -- Ellie is a pro with the push toy. She can practically run behind it now, but she can't steer. She will walk holding on to just your fingertips, and she can move from one piece of furniture to another. And just recently, she's started standing for a few seconds on her own. Currently, her record is standing long enough to eat two cheerios:

So if you're feeling lucky and would care to place your bet about when she will walk, you can do so in the comment section!

An early Christmas

After celebrating Thanksgiving, we celebrated Christmas (naturally). The girls were spoiled rotten and ended up having to open a gift each time an adult opened a gift (i.e. Jamie opened a gift, Alex opened a gift, Grandpa opened a gift, Ellie opened a gift, Meme opened one, Alex opened one, Damian opened one, Ellie opened one...you get the idea), and they still ended up with a huge stack of gifts to open after the rest of us were done.

We gave a backpack to Alex and she had so much fun loading it up with the rest of the toys that she opened.

And we hit the jackpot with a Mickey Mouse cell phone for Alex and a princess cell phone for Ellie -- doesn't Alex look like a little grown-up?!
Everyone got a mug (Gigi got a plate) with the girls' footprints and handprints.
Gigi opening a brag book -- we probably should have included notes of apology for all of the women she plays bridge with. ;-)
Ellie got several new toys that she just loves!

More Auntie Jamie love

Just checking to see if Gigi needed any help

All of the present-opening make Ellie really hungry. We had to move a couple of chairs into the living room and feed her breakfast while everyone continued opening presents.

Ellie absolutely loves her Uncle Eric (dubbed "Uncle Daddy" after this trip)! She was all smiles anytime he was around.

After the girls finally finished opening gifts, and after Ellie had a little nap, Grandpa and Meme gave us all stockings full of delicious treats. Ellie got a little stuffed reindeer in her stocking and she thinks its hysterical...and delicious!

We headed home on Thursday (the "real" Thanksgiving) and it was so sad to say 'goodbye' to everyone. We had so much fun and the time passed way too quickly. Jamie and Eric were fantastic hosts! It was the most time that I've spent with Jamie since we were both in high school -- I hope we don't have to wait another 12 years to do it again!

Ellie's first Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving last Sunday and Ellie is a big fan of the holiday! Lots of food, lots of people -- what's not to love?! We enjoyed a big turkey dinner with Gigi, Grandpa, Meme, Wilda (Meme's mom), Auntie Jamie, Uncle Eric and Cousin Alex. And Ellie loved entertaining all of us. She tried turkey for the first time and it did not go well. She buried her chin, blew a raspberry, and spit it out. Of course, we all burst into laughter and from that moment on, Ellie pretty much blew raspberries after every bite (even after bites of food that she normally loves). This doesn't quite capture it, but you get the idea and you can see cutie-pie Alex hamming it up for the camera:

Our little butterball:

Unfortunately, we waited too long to take pictures (it was almost bedtime when we started and Miss Ellie was about out of smiles), but I'm so glad we got pictures of the cousins in my grandpa's old recliner because we have a bunch of similar pictures of Jamie and me in the same chair:

"Paparazzi, please!"