Happy 2010!

Happy New Year! A lot has happened since I posted last time, and we’ve been very busy! After our snow storm in December we finally had our “Buffalo Christmas” which was lots of fun. My aunt Johanne came from Toronto to celebrate with us so it was great to see her. Lyla had lots of fun and got tons of presents, some which she seemed to enjoy more than the wrapping paper! She got lots of toys and books so she has plenty to keep her busy these days.

On the 18th we set out on our great adventure—Lyla’s first trip to England! Lyla was a superstar traveler—we flew Erie to Philadelphia and she slept the entire plane ride. Then she woke up for our trek across Philadelphia airport, and as soon as we boarded our transatlantic flight she was out cold for 6.5 of the 7 hour flight! The flight went smoothly, no running across the airport as in the past (and future!). However, we did not get the baby bassinet that we had requested, and I was extremely uncomfortable all cramped in the seat holding Lyla. I did not find a comfortable position to hold her until an hour before we landed. Lucky for us, our flight left Philadelphia only hours before a major snow storm hit the east coast and closed airports for days. Phew!

When we arrived Mike’s entire family was waiting at the airport for us! It was so nice to see everyone and of course they were all excited to meet Lyla. We spent most of our trip just relaxing and visiting family—it was nice for everyone to get to meet Lyla, especially Mike’s grandparens. Lyla had a great time with her Nana and Grandad who just would not put her down, although they had to fight to hold her because Aunts Beckie, Sophie, and Amy wanted to play with her too! Lyla got a lot of attention and I think she probably spent maybe an hour the entire week on the floor!

England got quite a bit of snow (for their standards) while we were over. It snowed almost everyday which is quite unusual for them, and the roads and sidewalks were quite treacherous because they don’t have snow plows and shovels!! It definitely made driving difficult and unfortunately Mike’s family Christmas party was cancelled because the driving was so bad 

We had a great Christmas with Mike’s family—Lyla got a lot more presents, including the entire 50 book collection of Thomas the Tank Engine books from Nana and Grandad (at Mike’s request!). We had so many gifts to bring back with us our suit cases were busting at the seems! We had a great visit, Lyla seemed to really enjoy meeting everyone and was on her best behavior.

Our visit went way too fast and before we knew it we were leaving. When we got to the Manchester airport our flight was over an hour delayed because of increased security due to the Christmas flight bomb scare (which we weren’t aware of). This time though we got the bassinet for Lyla which was fantastic! Lyla didn’t sleep as much on this flight since it was daytime. But she was such a great traveler. She sat in the bassinet and played, and took a nice nap and ate some lunch—she really is very adaptable to new situations. Since our flight had left late, we arrived late to Philadelphia and made a mad dash all the way across the huge airport—having to pick up our luggage, go through customs, re-check our luggage, go through security, jump on an airport bus, then sprint across the terminal (with a baby, car seat, stroller, suitcase and diaper bag!)—only to find out that our connecting flight was also delayed—phew! We made our flight and got home safely.

Since being home I had an interview at Cleveland Clinic which went well and they seem to have a good program and Cleveland seems like a great city to live it—not too big and not too small. It was interesting driving since the interstate was closed because of wonderful Erie snow, so we had to take the back roads both there and back and the drive took four hours instead of two! One more interview left to go then I’m DONE! Akron is next Tuesday and seems promising.

Lyla has started doing lots of new things in the past month. She’s learned to wave and clap which is very cute. She also lifts her arms to be picked up. She’s very good at saying “dada” which is almost the only thing she says, but with varying intensity and inflections. She also is pretty good at “g” sounds and is now starting to say “baba” a bit—although “mama” is nowhere in site no matter how much I try. She’s been trying lots of new foods as well. She’s not so keen on eating pureed baby foods anymore (although she seems to eat it ok at daycare, just not for me at home!) She much prefers to eat finger foods that she can pick up on her own—like carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, and bananas. New foods that she’s tried are cheese and scrambled egg which she loves! Also pasta, yogurt, bread, kiwi and strawberry. We tried chicken which was too tough and dry, for her, so I tried pureeing it, and that was a disaster so I ended up buying pre-made baby food meats that we’ll try this week. She did eat a bit of the meatloaf we had for dinner this week and that went down well. She’s getting to be such a big girl! I can’t believe all the things she can do these days—she’s not a little baby anymore! It is really fun watching her mature and become a little person with her own personality. I definitely am enjoying this age a lot.

We have tons of photos from our adventures which I’m trying to upload on flickr—so check them out at www.flickr.com/photos/lylaellicott