Hiya from Pudsey!

Well, we made it! And we're even on our way to getting over the jet lag. Ellie was a champ on the way over -- she snoozed from Dallas to NJ, LOVED exploring the airport in NJ (no wonder since she loves bright colors and lights), and then slept almost the entire flight from NJ to Manchester -- she fell asleep before the drinks service was over and didn't wake up until we arrived at the gate. We lucked out and had an empty seat between us so we were able to set up a little cave/den for her like we did last time -- the blanket over the tops of the seats made it nice and dark for Miss Ellie. Unfortunately, for Mommy and Daddy, Ellie is quite a bit longer than she was last time so Daddy got kicked the entire flight and Mommy ended up with Ellie's big head taking up over half of her seat. ;-)

Yesterday, we went straight to Auntie Emma's house. Ellie had a great time watching her cousins,Thomas and Joseph -- it's probably the only thing that could have kept her awake and happy given how tired and sick she was (her cold has gotten quite a bit worse -- I'm sure the long flight didn't help). Nana came over (bringing delicious scones and cookies with her) and Uncle Brian even took a dinner break from work, so it was great to see them. We'll see Auntie Georgina later this week on her day off, and then we'll see Grandma Sue and Auntie Sarah next weekend.

Last night, we got settled in at Peter and Sue's house and after a few false starts, Ellie slept from 11:00 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. -- not bad! She took a nice nap this morning (2 hours...1 1/2 of them with me) and is in the middle of her afternoon nap. I'm guardedly optimistic that we're on our way to figuring out what time zone we're in.

Ellie is loving her new environment! She gets to sit in her travel highchair in the kitchen while we're cooking, cleaning up, and eating...she thought it was VERY fun to sit right next to Daddy during breakfast this morning (and Daddy enjoyed the prunes that Ellie wiped on the back of his arm)...and she was happy to see her old friend, the weeble-wobble duck that Nana got for her.

Oh, and in case all of that wasn't exciting enough, Ellie had her first bite of banana today! I was eating one while she was playing on the floor and she kept reaching for it. I thought, "what's the harm? She'll just put her mouth on it and enjoy (or not) the taste/texture." Wrong! She took a HUGE bite of it...and loved it (although I did fish it back out of her mouth). I don't know why that surprised me -- I should have known that she wouldn't cautiously gum/lick it like a lot of other kiddos would. I think we'll have to get some of those netted teethers that let kids gum food without swallowing large pieces.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow!