Visiting the Brits

We're back from visiting the Hirst side of the family in a very cold, but very Christmas-y Leeds. We were there for two weeks. The visit was great, but the actual traveling was an absolute nightmare. The flight over was the biggest beating of a transatlantic flight ever (Ellie slept for maybe 2.5 hours total) and the drive from London wasn't much better (instead of taking 3.5 hours, it took SEVEN, which felt like 20 since both Charlie and Ellie cried most of the time). The transatlantic flight on the way back was much better than we expected -- we ended up with lots of extra seats and Ellie even took a little nap -- but it all went downhill when we got to Chicago. Our flight ended up leaving about four hours late, which meant we didn't get home until about 10:30 p.m....nearly 24 hours after leaving Leeds! Given what they had been through, the kids did very well, but Damian and I were ready to drop!

Luckily, the visit was much better than the traveling. We stayed at Nana's house, so we were very well cared for...and we ate like kings! Since her house isn't Ellie-proofed, I was really nervous about being there alone with the kids (Damian had to work everyday), but I only ended up being on my own a couple days. Granddad and Sarah both came over and helped me out -- I don't know what I would have done without them!

This should really be divided into about 5 posts, but since I didn't post anything during the trip, I'm taking the easy way out and just doing one post with a ton of pictures.

Look at those cute siblings:

Ellie loved Nana's phone -- it's the first one that she's ever seen with a cord and dial tone! Her face in this picture cracks me up -- clearly Daddy interrupted an important conversation when he took the picture. I bet we'll see a lot of this expression in about 10 years!

Both kiddos got pink eye while we were there. It was pretty scary to wake up and see that Charlie's eye was swollen shut. He looked like he had been in a fist fight.

Ellie being extra charming in an attempt to avoid going to bed:

One morning, Damian put our breakfast on the table and then went back in the kitchen to work on Ellie's breakfast. When he went back into the dining room, this is what he saw:

Cousin Joseph LOVES his Superman costume and insisted on wearing it for Sunday lunch:

Ellie and Joseph are about 6 months apart, but they acted like twins -- they played well together and they fought well too. At one point, they were watching a DVD and they kept pushing each other out of the way to get closer to the TV. It's pretty funny to watch. Here's a picture of the two...and Ellie's yucky pink eye:

Cousins Thomas and Joseph, Uncle Brian, Granddad, Grandma Sue, and me at Sunday lunch. Now can you see why I wasn't worried about missing Thanksgiving dinner? Lesley makes the equivalent almost every Sunday!

More sibling love:

I tried convincing Ellie that wearing a cozy vest did not mean that she could skip the pants, but she didn't agree:

Nana knitted an adorable sweater and hat (I don't have a picture of it, but it's in one of the videos that I'll post later) for Charlie:

Charlie took dozens of naps on Nana's couch. He was so good -- for the most part, he went right to sleep once he was swaddled, had his pacifier, and his little lovie blanket:

Grandad and Charlie:

Ellie modeling the gorgeous hat and scarf that Nana knitted for her (and Charlie's pacifier):

Nana couldn't stand the hair in Ellie's eyes so she gave her a mid-dinner haircut:

Charlie's first laugh!

In the midst of running around in a pre-flight, last minute packing frenzy, Charlie just gave me the most wonderful stress-relieving gift...his first laugh! He had previously uttered some happy grunts that sounded a bit like a giggle, but this was the first real laugh. So cute! He's definitely ticklish...unlike Ellie who didn't really get ticklish until she was old enough to understand that it was fun to be tickled; and even now, she's sort of selectively ticklish -- if she's not in the mood to laugh, you can tickle her until you're blue in the face and she won't even crack a smile. I don't think Charlie will have the same self control!

Happy boy!

Despite being sick for over three weeks now and continuing to struggle with reflux, Charlie has turned into such a happy little boy! For the most part, he cries only when he's done nursing (he doesn't subscribe to the theory that you can have too much of a good thing) and when he's tired. Other than that, he's full of smiles and coo's.

Ellie loves, loves her baby brother. She likes to keep him company when he's doing tummy time and show him the features of his bouncer. We're still working on what "gentle" and "soft" mean, but we're making progress!

The day the world changed

Just when we were getting comfortable with our routine, it all changed in an instant. I had put Ellie down for a nap and was nursing Charlie as I listened to her chatting away on the monitor. She started to cry at one point, but wasn't terribly upset and I frankly didn't think much of it because she often cries when she's finally about to fall asleep. After a couple minutes of fussing, she went back to chatting away and I finished feeding Charlie. Then I heard a bang and thought someone was trying to break into the house. I raced to the landing and saw no evidence of a break in and found Gracie snoozing away on the stairs -- since she wasn't growling or anything, I thought I had imagined the noise. Almost as an afterthought, I checked Ellie's monitor only to find an empty crib! I put Charlie down, ran into her room and found her sitting on the floor, pacifier in mouth, checking out the contents of her changing table (which she had emptied). I guess she had climbed out of her crib and, judging from the bit of blood on her nose and tooth-shaped mark on her tongue, bit her tongue on the way down, which explains the crying (don't' worry, I feel sufficiently guilty for not checking the monitor when I heard her crying). She clearly got over the pain when she realized that she had free reign in her room!

After checking her from head to toe and explaining that she was not allowed to climb out of her crib because it was very dangerous, I put her back in the crib and told her to lay down and take a nap. I then closed the door, sprinted back to my bedroom and checked the monitor, just in time to see her hook her leg over the top of the crib and start scaling it again! I ran back to her room and told her to lay down again and stay in her crib. Closed the door, checked the monitor and saw her climbing out again! We repeated this cycle about 10 times before she finally gave up and went to sleep. Now I have the volume on the monitor turned all the way up, listening for the first sign that she's awake...and ready to start climbing again!

So much for leaving Ellie in her crib in the morning while we snooze. And what about naps?! She very rarely falls asleep right away -- she normally lays in her crib and sings, talks, etc. until she falls asleep. I have a feeling, that won't happen anymore! Agh!

Dinosaur smoke

Miss Ellie and Prince Charlie have had nasty colds/coughs for the last two weeks so I finally took them to the doctor yesterday. Charlie has an ear infection, but amazingly, his lungs are clear (he sounds horrible!). Ellie, on the other hand, has bronchiolitis/reactive airway disease and has to be on breathing treatments and antibiotics (I'm just glad she doesn't have pneumonia -- they were concerned that's what it was after listening to her lungs, but her oxygen levels are high and she's responding well to the breathing treatments, so they're pretty sure it isn't pneumonia). The little mask for her breathing treatments has a dinosaur face on it so during her breathing treatments, we tell her it's dinosaur smoke -- she's big into smoke right now because Daddy has been teaching her how to blow out candles (practicing for her birthday, I guess).

Daddy held his breath for an impressive 15 minutes to avoid inhaling the leaking "smoke"

Charlie meets Papa

Gaga and Papa are here on their way to Cozumel and we're all enjoying their visit. As always, we're doing a horrible job of taking pictures, but here are a few of Charlie meeting Papa:

Little monkey

Ellie is going through a phase where she HAS to climb! She will push a kitchen chair (they're tall) over to a window so she can stand on the window sill and then climb up onto the chair) or climb up the back of one of the armchairs in the living room so she can get up on the wet bar (I caught her in the act just as she was reaching for a glass pitcher). The other day, she figured out that if she climbs up on a chair, she can get up on the counter in the bathroom...and check out my perfume. Nothing is safe anymore!

Wheat-a-what?

It seems like Ellie is eating something new everyday now! We had a big weekend and went out to eat twice (pretty unusual for us) and we couldn't keep Ellie out of our meals. She loved Damian's spicy Thai coconut soup, my favorite noodle dish, and our paneer masala. And now she's eating this "delicious" cereal called Wheatabix (or something like that) -- apparently the Brits love it, but I can't even get past the appearance:

Ellie's new man?

Today, my MOMS group got together for a Thanksgiving lunch. Hillary made a fantastic turkey and we all brought side dishes -- yum! There were tons of kids there and Ellie loved running around with them. She spent a lot of the time playing with two boys -- Dylan, who is 2, and Jake, who is 3.5. She and Jake became quite fond of each other. They followed each other around, eventually snuggling up on the couch and tickling each other. Then, when Jake's mom told him it was time to go, he started kissing and hugging Ellie. It was so cute seeing him kiss Ellie's hand. As he was walking out, he said "I'll see you again, Ellie." And then when he was standing near the car, he told his mom "If Ellie comes out here, I'm going to kiss her again." SO cute!

Luckily, Jackson didn't seem threatened by the new man in Ellie's life -- I think he knows that she's young and needs to explore her options before settling down with him.

Like mother, like son

If only he would sleep this soundly at night!

I did it!

I went out in public with both kids! And only 2 out of the 3 of us ended up in tears (it's not important which 2 it was) -- yippee! Ellie actually did such a good job of listening and holding my hand. I only had two moments of panic when I screamed "ELLIE!" as she ran away from me. Not bad.

They just grow up so darn fast!

My favorite part about this video, other than the cute kiddo in the driver's seat, of course, is Damian's truck driver dance, which can be seen in the reflection on the window!

Happy birthday, Grandma Sue!

We hope you're having a wonderful day and we wish we could be there to help you celebrate!

Charlie's 2 month stats

Charlie had his 2 month check-up on Tuesday and he is (was) perfectly healthy! He weighed 11 lbs, 9 oz. (40th percentile), is 23.5 inches long (62nd percentile), and his head is in the 59th percentile. We were sort of shocked that he was so little after getting used to having a baby who is consistently off the charts, but I guess Charlie is just taking a little longer to start packing on the pounds. The doctor thought it might be related to his reflux, or it could just be his normal growth pattern -- we'll see what he does in the coming months.

At two months, Miss Ellie weighed 12 lbs, 3 oz. (85th percentile) and was 24 inches long (95th percentile).

Charlie's first cold

Well, Charlie has his first cold. The poor little guy is congested and has a yucky cough. The worst part is that he keeps forgetting that he can breathe through his mouth so he gasps and sputters like he's suffocating, and then cries and cries (and who wouldn't if they though they were suffocating?!). Poor guy. Hopefully both he and Ellie will start feeling better...quickly!