Another milestone

Elizabeth crawled last week just before her 9 month birthday. Daddy has taken a video and will probably post it. I seem to be unable to post any photos or videos lately. Working on it.

The rest of the England Trip

We headed down to London on the 30th and met up with my friend Emma (from Japan) and her fiance at a motorway stop. Not such a glamorous location for lunch, but a good opportunity to meet and catch up. We met up with Rosie and Jim headed off to train with a jitsu club.



Rosie, Elizabeth and I went to a delicious Vietnamese restaurant for dinner and then hung around the flat cleaning and catching up. Daddy got home late and was exhausted from running to training, training for 2 hours, having a pint, and then running home.



On New Year's Eve, we met up with Rosie and took Elizabeth to Hamley's, the enormous toy store in central London. Elizabeth was suitably impressed, as were Mommy and Daddy, and we purchased a xylophone for the bath and a Little Miss Trouble book.



Then we headed off to Sam and Kate's for New Year's Eve. We had delicious curry and champagne with old friends. Lizzy went to bed early, Mommy headed to bed at 3 and Daddy made it all the way to 6:30. On New Year's Day, we all went to the pub for lunch and then watched movies and just hung out.



On the 2nd, we checked out the Spitalfields Market. It is a really cool new area with lots of flats around the market area and shops. After that, we had dinner with Granny, Grandad, Rosie and my friend Liz, from Japan. Then Liz, Rosie and I went to see Manon at the English National Ballet.

Daddy got really sick that night and was coughing a lot (later to be the virus that we assume Elizabeth caught). He had to sleep in, but the rest of us went to Borough Market. Borough Market is famous for fresh foods like cheese, homemade breads and vegetables.

The flight home was uneventful except the start of Lizzy's illness and the loss of our luggage...again.

Jim has spent some time making claims for the luggage. We got money from British Airways for all the items we bought and United is replacing two bags and repairing one. Good one, Daddy!

Lizzy's illness

Elizabeth started with a nasty cough and fever on the plane on the way home on Saturday night. I took her to the doctor on Monday and we started nebulizer treatments with Xopenex. She was acting lethargic and generally looked ill all week and we had to hold her constantly to keep her happy. I went for the follow-up on Thursday at the doctor and Elizabeth's blood oxygen was in the 80's. And her ears were red. So they told me we had to go to the hospital. They put her on oxygen in the office and gave her a breathing treatment while we waited for the ambulance. We headed to Community North (no sirens on) and Daddy took and ride home in a taxi because he had carpooled.

When we got to the hospital, Elizabeth was kept on oxygen and admitted to the Pediatric Unit. They started her on azithromycin for double ear infections, continued the breathing treatments every 4 hours and did a nasal swap for viruses. She was negative for RSV at the office that morning. They also did a chest x-ray, which later came back negative for pneumonia. So it was generally determined that she had a virus and brochiolitis that was causing her difficulty breathing.

Mommy stayed at the hospital on Thursday night and Elizabeth actually slept quite a bit, considering nurses and RT came in every 2-3 hours. On Friday morning, the doctor told us she wasn't doing much better considering the oxygen and breathing treatments. So he suggested a steroid. We started that morning. Apparently, it tastes horrible because it took a long time to get in 6 ml and then Elizabeth threw it all up, including her milk and lots of slime. And suddenly, her lungs were much better!!

We had to stay another night in the hospital because she couldn't stay above 90% without the oxygen. I watched a lot of movies and was allowed to order trays because I was feeding Elizabeth.

Saturday was Daddy's 30th Birthday! Daddy came early to the hospital and we opened presents and had breakfast. Elizabeth seemed much better and she was off the oxygen from 6 am. Dr. Moore said if she could stay off the oxygen during her morning nap, then we could go home! She also said Elizabeth had Metapneumo virus, which is like RSV, but not as common. She was exposed to a lot of winter illness on our travels, and I guess her little body just couldn't take it. She went below 90% a few times during her morning nap, but was able to come up on her own. So we were discharged around 2:30 pm.

We had dinner for Daddy's birthday, but then I passed out at about 9pm so the party ended early. We are so

Elizabeth is so much better today. I have photos to post, but cannot get them loaded. We will continue the breathing treatments every four hours, the antibiotic for one more day and the steroid for 3 more days. Follow-up on Monday or Tuesday. But our baby is much better. Thank you to everyone for the concerned phone calls and offers of help. We are looking forward to a happy baby again and getting unpacked from the England trip and basically back to norm.

Christmas in England

We finally got our bags delivered to Woodhouse Eaves on Christmas Eve at about 8 pm. So we scrambled to wrap presents before heading to the Wheatsheaf for the traditional Christmas Eve pint. The pub was busy, but Elizabeth was happy to check out the revelers for a bit. Christmas morning came late as Mommy and Daddy had been sleeping in. We had a nice breakfast and opened presents. Elizabeth, having had some practice in Indy and since arrival in England, was more successful at tearing the paper off her presents. She received some lovely gifts and put them all in her mouth! Granny made an amazing Christmas day feast and we all gorged ourselves. Later, we went to visit Great-Granny and Great-Grandad and wish them a happy Christmas. Overall, it was a memorable first Christmas for Elizabeth, Daddy and Mommy. On Boxing Day (December 26th), Rosie, Jim and I decided to enter a running race. We ran a six mile course organized by the Barrow runners, which is apparently a quite famous running club in England. I complained much afterwards about the hills on the course and insisted I was lied to the day before when I was told it wasn't hilly. Rosie maintained that it wasn't and I had to admit to myself that I no longer live near the mountains, but rather near cornfields. Everyone had a good race: Jim 40 minutes Maggie 48 minutes Rosie 50 minutes. But Rosie won a bottle of wine for being the first female across the finish line. Well done! That night, we went to Auntie Diane and Uncle Simon's house. Auntie Diane made delicious food and we had a chance to see lots of family. Elizabeth had fun playing with Sophie and trying to catch the cat and we all celebrated Christmas together. The next few days were spent around Woodhouse Eaves, seeing family and friends and doing more runs on the hills. I had to somehow burn off all the delicious homemade mince pies, shortbread, bread, christmas cake... Elizabeth had another chance to visit her great-grandparents before heading down to London for the rest of the holiday.

More about England

The day after the party, all of the old friends came around for breakfast, lunch and an afternoon drink at the pub. Elizabeth and I took a nap. So instead of spending his birthday driving to pick us up at Heathrow, Derek had a nice day catching up with old friends.

The next day we headed off to Oxford to meet up with Abingdon school friends at the Turf Tavern. When we arrived in Oxford, we checked into the Malmaison hotel. It is a new hotel made out of the old prison. Our room was actually three cells put together and it was really cool, so we booked for another night. We met up with Sam and Kate there and they gave Elizabeth her Girelephant. Then we headed to the Turf. Kate and I went shopping because Elizabeth didn't really have any clothes considering we still didn't have our bags. Elizabeth met all of Daddy's old friends and spent about 8 hours at the pub. Mostly, she slept and ate and was happy to be passed around friends.

The next day, we headed out to Abingdon to visit Mary and family. We got a little lost, but the SatNav helped us find our way. Satelite Navigation is all the rage in England. Otherwise known as GPS. We also had a chance to visit Melissa, an old friend, and her family. Back to Oxford for a glass of wine and cheese and crackers in the prison.

First few days of our holiday in England

We left on the 18th of December for the holidays in England. I thought I had about 7 hours to get ready on the day of the flight, but then Jim called to say that the weather was supposed to get bad and we also didn't have enough time for our flight change in Washington. So we rushed to get ready and left for a flight 5 hours earlier than expected. Elizabeth slept on the way to Washington, D.C. When we got there, we found out there were two flights to Heathrow before our expected flight. It was about 4:30 pm so we decided to see if we could get on an earlier flight. Turns out, our original flight was delayed until 2 am and we got our on the 10 pm flight. Elizabeth slept the whole way on me and had no problems. I watched two movies, got a special Indian vegetarian meal and generally enjoyed World Business Class on British Airways.

We arrived at Heathrow in the morning, while our bags enjoyed some overnight time in D.C. or whereever else our bags go on vacation without us. In fact, we didn't actually get our bags until about 8 pm on Christmas Eve. Rosie picked us up at the airport and she braved London traffic to take us to her flat. We were exhausted, so Lizzy and I slept at the flat while Daddy and Auntie Rosie got supplies for dinner. We took it easy because we knew we had a big day on Saturday.

Saturday morning, Rosie and I went to the gym early. I can only get up at 6 am to go the the gym when I have travelled across many timezones! We had a couple hours and we found the Broad Street Market. I think markets are one of the things I love best about Europe. We ate a big piece of tiffin and tasted loads of yummy samples, bought some pesto for Susan and mistletoe for the party. Then we headed up to Woodhouse Eaves for Derek's 60th Surprise Birthday Party.

When we arrived at the hotel, lots of old friends of Derek and Susan had already started to arrive. We sorted out logistics and Daddy went with Auntie Rosie to the house to get Derek and Susan. They were actually expecting us to arrive at Heathrow the next day, so Daddy played off that that was the surprise and Lizzy and I were waiting at a restaurant to take Derek out for his 60th Birthday. When they came into the town hall, they were so surprised to see all their friends gathered to wish Derek a Happy Birthday. The party went on until midnight with dancing, drinking, reminiscing and fabulous music from the band.

Derek and Susan with old friends, John and Mary.

Lizzy's First tooth

Elizabeth got her first tooth at about 7.5 months old. I guess it was around the 10th of December. It came in slowly and it is still just a small nubby tooth. Another one is starting to poke through now. Sometimes Mommy feels the tooth. It is sharp!