Now that's love!

We made it back to Dallas! The journey, although extremely long, went very well. We had an extra seat on each flight and Ellie was a champ. She only slept for about an hour the entire time, so Damian and I were exhausted and totally out of "tricks" by the time we arrived in Dallas, but Ellie didn't mind -- she fell asleep within 2 minutes of getting in the car, opened one eye when I got her out of the car, changed her diaper and put her in PJ's, and slept for a total of about 14 hours. She's handling the jet lag better than both Damian and me!

During the journey, I witnessed the sweetest expression of love. We were about 6 hours into the Manchester to Chicago flight, enjoying the pre-landing snack/lunch, and I was desperate for anything to keep Ellie entertained...even non-organic grapes, which are on the FDA's "dirty dozen" (gasp!). Damian said he would give them to her. A few minutes later, Damian hadn't given Ellie any grapes, so I started cutting some in half and gave her one. Damian said, "I said I would give them to her." I thought he was either doing his grumpy old man impression or he just wanted the honor of giving her a treat. I went back to enjoying my pizza and then noticed, out of the corner of my eye, Damian give Ellie part of a grape that had been in his mouth. I thought he was eating half of each grape and giving Ellie the other half. Strange when he had a knife on his tray, but who am I to judge. Then, I noticed that he was actually giving her both halves of each grape, so then I thought it was really weird that he was choosing to bite the grapes in half rather than cut them. After observing for a few more minutes (I certainly wasn't going to ask him given how convincing his grumpy old man impression can be), I figured out what was actually going on...Damian was sucking off the pesticide from each grape. Sort of weird? Definitely. But it was also the sweetest thing I've ever seen -- he loves his little girl so much!

Are you sure? Measure one more time.

So the other night, Damian came across the measuring tape that he had taken to the furniture fair and he thought it would be fun to compare the diameters of our waists (I don't know why married people get the reputation for being boring!). He suggested it with a can't-wait-to-laugh-at-how-big-you've-gotten sort of glimmer in his eye. Having spent the night before coming up with a way to convert celsius to fahrenheit in our heads, I couldn't think of anything else fun to do, so I agreed. Damian measured me up and was confused to find that my 'waist' is an inch smaller than his. He actually insisted on measuring both of us three times and then explained that he was a bit bloated from dinner, so it shouldn't really 'count' (at 5 months pregnant, I was really sympathetic about a little bloating ruining his waistline). What fun will we think of next?!

Words, words and more words

Ellie is talking so much now! We realized that we should make a list:

1. Baby
2. Dada/Daddy
3. Mama/Mommy
4. Papa
5. Gaga [refers to both Gaga and, apparently, anything delicious and fruity (i.e. smoothies, baby granola bars, etc.)]
6. Nana [refers to both Nana and bananas]
7. Hi
8. Bye-bye
9. Doggie (dadoo)
10. What'sthat? (wasstha?) [it's definitely one word]
11. Ohmygoodness [also one word and sometimes just 'ohmygoo']
12. Jackson (Jajin)
13. Joseph (Jojiph)
14. Cat (Ca)
15. Woof-woof (do animal sounds count? Not sure, but I'm including them)
16. Meow (Maow)
17. Moo
18. Baa/Bah
19. Eeh-eeh [Monkey sound -- Damian didn't think that was self-explanatory]
20. Bite (bye?bye?)
21. Please (peas)
22. Rain [she learned this one after being in the UK for less than 24 hours]
23. Thank you (dank ewh)/Ta [British for thank you]
24. Oh no
25. Go, go
26. Oh wow!
27. Ellie (Lellie)
28. Sarah (Shersha)
29. No
30. Milk
31. More (mo')
32. Elmo (melmo)
33. Bath (baa)
34. Bubbles
35. Eat
36. Food
37. Ball
38. Sit
39. Boo
40. Book
41. Nose
42. Maizy (May-may)
43. Water (wah-wah)
44. Teddy
45. Uh-oh
46. Away [as in 'throw away']
47. Stop it (top it)
48. Teeth (tee-tee)
49. Shoes
50. Cheese (chee)
51. Apple
52. Burp
53. Poopy [52 and 53 aren't words we encourage in public, but they're some of her clearest words]
54. Oh whoa!
55. Yuck/bluck (uck-uck) [Ellie often gives us a 3 second warning before she puts something gross in her mouth -- if you hear 'uck-uck', you know you've got to find her quickly and check her hands and mouth!]
56. Ah-ah-achoo [sneeze]

I'm sure there are others -- I'll have to add to the list as I remember them!

For the birds

For some reason, the following exchange with Lesley made me laugh (and continues to make me laugh every time I think about it):

Me: Lesley, Ellie and I were out in your back garden today and I think Gemma [Lesley's cat] or another cat has been getting sick out there.

Lesley: Oh no, that's just rhubarb crumble.

Me: Uhm...well, there are two brown piles too?

Lesley: Yeah, that's chocolate cake.

I didn't realize it, but Lesley shares her leftovers with the birds and the hedgehog in the backyard. Lucky animals!

Car boot sale, flowers, and food

Yesterday, we visited the Dales with the boys, Uncle Brian, and Nana. I've been many times, but still couldn't point to it on a map -- I also don't really understand what 'the Dales' is, but I guess it's a portion of the country that is grouped together because it's even more gorgeous than the rest of the country. There are beautiful villages with rock walls throughout and a river (or many?!) that runs through them. Yesterday, we stopped at a car boot sale (my first!) in Bedale. It's sort of like a flea market, but the sellers are, for the most part, just individuals who have stuff/junk/treasures to sell -- they pull into this grassy field, park in rows and then sell stuff out of their trunks/boots. It's sort of like a huge garage sale! Across the road, the church was hosting a flower show and serving refreshments as a fundraiser. It was so fun to watch all of these older women selling delicious homemade cakes, scones, sandwiches, etc....and it was fun to support the cause. ;-)

After the car boot sale, we continued on to Leyburn for a food and drink festival -- my kind of event! There was all kinds of fantastic food -- I ended up having a spinach and cheese pie, a chocolate and strawberry crepe, AND some black currant ice cream (my OB is going to die at my next appointment when she sees how much I've gained). Ellie had her first pickle -- a spicy one, no less -- and she seemed to like it. She didn't want another one, but she had a few bites and given her recent hunger strike, that's a pretty rousing endorsement!

Ellie loved walking around the festival, meeting new people and their dogs. She was particularly interested in a 15-month old boy. They just stood looking at each other, calling each other 'baby' -- then Ellie tried to give him a hug and he pushed her down (she took it as a compliment). It was actually pretty funny to watch the exchange because Ellie was talking up a storm and the little boy just kept saying 'baby' -- he was a good 3-4 inches shorter than Ellie, but she'll have to get used to shorter men if she keeps up this growth pattern! Ellie's other highlight of the day was the New Orleans style brass band -- she walked right up to the front and danced for the audience -- I guess she didn't get any of her mother's stage fright!

After enjoying the beautiful weather and tasty food for a few hours, we headed home, but not before Thomas jumped on the trampoline. He was so brave! With the help of some bungee cords, he was at least 15 feet in the air and didn't seem to mind at all -- guess it helps that he thinks he's Spiderman!

Come again?

Sometimes I feel like Americans and Brits don't actually speak the same language. It can be so confusing here. An example...we ate at a restaurant that was in a strip mall (of course, it was old and historic and charming -- not cheap-looking and run down like the strip malls in the US). Directly outside/in front of the restaurants and shops was a brick area/sidewalk that was about 5 feet wide. Beyond that, there was curb and then asphalt. The sign on the building said 'No parking on the pavement. Walk way only.' Huh? Wouldn't that be confusing if you were driving? To me, that says 'Please park on our sidewalk, not in the parking/asphalt area.' Apparently, they call a sidewalk a 'pavement'...but then what do they call pavement? So much to learn!

Hirst Family Vacation: UK

We made it...again! On Sunday, in the midst of the not-so-fun stomach bug, Ellie and I managed to get packed up and make our way to London where we met Damian (who had been in Milan for the furniture fair) and then drove up to Leeds. Our flight left at 7:20 p.m. and I hadn't actually decided until 3:30 p.m. (when Ellie woke up from her nap in a decent mood) whether Ellie and I would be traveling -- Ellie was still under the weather and I was terrified that her stomach bug would flare up in the middle of the 9 1/2 hour flight! Luckily, Miss Ellie seemed to be cured by the transatlantic journey -- she was so happy to be around a bunch of strangers (friends-to-be, in Ellie's world) and although her appetite still hasn't made a total comeback, she hasn't seemed to feel sick since we left. So although Ellie wasn't sick, which was awesome, she also didn't sleep much. We lucked out and had an empty seat next to us and a very nice woman on the other side (it was a middle row of three), but Ellie is now so tall that she couldn't sleep comfortably, even though she had a seat to herself. She ended up waking up every 20-30 minutes throughout the flight. By the time we landed, I thought my eyelids were lined with sandpaper and Ellie was completely zoned out...Damian thought I had resorted to doping Ellie on Benadryl, but she was just so tired that she didn't even react when she saw him -- poor thing! We both slept very well on the way up to Leeds, so we were feeling a little more human by the time we saw Nana (Ellie was very confused when she saw Lesley -- we had been telling her that we were on our way to see Nana, so Ellie was surprised to see Lesley, not a banana -- should have thought about that before I started calling bananas 'nanas'!).

We've had a great time since we got here. On Tuesday, we saw Auntie Georgina, Auntie Emma and Cousins Thomas and Joseph. Ellie and Joseph are so cute together -- they look like they could be twins and they're very interested in each other. Joseph seems happy to have someone his own size to play with and Thomas likes having two little ones to show around -- at one point, he walked up the stairs and then called from the top, 'come on, kids!'

On Wednesday, we stuck close to home and then Ellie and I walked down to the park after her nap. There were two little boys playing football/soccer and Ellie was desperate to join in! I guess we might have a little soccer-player on our hands! Grandma Sue came over for dinner later and Ellie enjoyed her position at the head of the table...she thought it gave everyone a much better view of her and her antics. ;-)

On Thursday, Damian, Ellie and I went for a walk in a gorgeous park! It's HUGE (you can't even see the city that is all around it) and it has a great little tea house on the lake. Ellie loved walking along the path and through the grass -- she is so stable on her feet these days and she seems to be able to walk forever.

Today, Nana watched the boys and we went to a neat little city farm with them. There were cows, pigs (and piglets), sheep (and babies), chickens, ducks, etc. Ellie practiced her animal sounds and was happy just to roam the area, and the boys liked feeding the animals. And tonight, Damian and I had a date night -- thanks for watching Ellie, Nana!

And now you're caught up. ;-)