Air Travel

Before our vacation we were terrified about the prospect of our 9 hour flight with Lilli. However, we needn't have worried. Lilli was the best baby on board. She slept a little and played the rest of the time. She loved the attention from the crew and passengers. In our cramped cattle class section of the plane she was the most comfortable economy traveller in her bassinet. Granted it was a little short and she had to lie with froggy legs to fit, but at least she could be flat on her back or curled on one side if she wanted!

We told ourselves we had no reason to fear our return flight. And then BA's crew members threatened to strike over Christmas and New Years. What would happen to our flight and our bulk head seats for which we had to pay an extra booking fee in order to obtain? Thankfully the strike action was thwarted by a court ruling. Then snow and ice hit the UK and bad weather threatened to ground our flight. However a brief window of warming opened the airports for our departure.

We arrived at Heathrow with hours to kill. Check in and security was a breeze, however thanks to Christmas Day terrorism all US-bound passengers were body searched and bag checked before boarding, delaying flights by an hour. An extra hour delay was added to our flight due to a faulty wheel. We finally became airborne two hours late and Lilli had been awake two hours too long. Of course drinks and dinner take some time. Once everyone was settling into their movies or trying to snooze behind eye masks Lilli was a lost cause. With legs frantically kicking and arms flapping we could only keep her happy by bouncing in the corner. Here she had a full view of the plane and she would scan the rows of passengers looking for a friendly face. When one was located she would smile back intensely and her little legs and arms would kick and flap even faster. Cuddles would evoke much protest. Other parents were experiencing a similar bumpy ride with their wee ones and we would huddle in the corner seeking solace in numbers. Lilli was the only baby who expressed her fatigue through a cardio workout. We wondered what others were thinking. Has anyone seen a baby with Lilli's manic energy?

Our little jumping bean did debut her crawling skills on the BA blue carpet (both knees and hands moved once before ending in a nose dive to the floor). We did eventually coax her to sleep, only after requesting the lights be dimmed and frequent feeds under the dark airline blanket. Unfortunately the naps were short lived and immigration, customs and baggage check all too fascinating. From our sad parting with Mum and Dad at Heathrow it was lovely to see Greg's friendly face at Seattle. Home was waiting for us, rather cold and with that stale empty smell. Now let the jet lag and home sickness begin.

Happy English Christmas!

It was Lilli's first Christmas and it was an English Christmas none the less! I was hoping to jump into the full Christmas spirit at the carol service or at a wonderful nativity play performed at a local farm. I even considered attending the service at St Johns on Christmas morning which is unusual since I have stubbornly boycotted Church since a young teenager. I'm not sure if my desire to engage in the religious side of Christmas this year is due to nostalgia, or my desire to show off my beautiful baby, or to watch Lilli watch people! However Lilli's erratic sleep pattern somehow prevented any religious outings.

Instead Christmas revolved around the usual trappings of food, drink and presents and it was glorious! After breakfast and Lilli's morning nap Dad donned the post-man hat, now a red felt cone with long braided white plaits. Handing out the gifts used to be much more serious when Dad wore his officer's cap. Lilli loved the rustling of the paper and tried hard to stuff handfuls of the colourful wrap into her mouth.

The icy roads didn't prevent us from attending our friends annual Christmas cocktail party. Tony was very liberal with the champagne as usual and Jon was introduced to yet more of the local society. Lilli played with Sally's beautiful nearly-4 year old daughter and I sadly, but steadfastly, refused the many champagne top-ups. Not so Jon, who I spotted knocking back the champagne and discussing The Who concerts with friends of my parents!

Christmas dinner wrapped up our indulgent day. Goose was on the menu with Dad's crunchy roast potatoes, red cabbage and carrots. It was delicious. The Christmas pudding delighted us with it's blue burning brandy and it's rich fruity flavour, balanced of course with generous dollops of clotted cream and brandy butter. I'm sure Lilli enjoyed all these flavours later in the night when she wasn't dreaming of her new Christmas toys: a yellow butterfly with crinkly wings and an elasticated knot of brightly painted wooden pegs.

Our Wintry Road Trip

Jon, Lilli and I hit the road after a couple of days relaxing with my parents in Tisbury. We collected our very nice Peugeot 308 in Salisbury and managed to immediately loose my parents who were attempting to lead us to the Birmingham-bound road. After a tense telephone conversation between Dad and Jon we reunited. We reassured Mum and Dad that we could read a map and we set off alone. Consequently I relinquished the wheel to Jon for the remainder of the trip and became map reader, Lilli entertainer and singer of the "we're driving on the left" song. But I loved driving the Peugeot for that first half hour. I miss European cars.

A short while later we pulled into a rutted layby on Salisbury plane, just yards from our correct road. Lilli was due for a feed and a diaper change and did she have a surprise waiting for us. It was a tricky business changing that diaper on the front seat of the car, but eventually the mess was cleared and Lilli was momentarily happy with a full tummy and dry diaper. A misjudged movement and a slight impairment of balance while exploring the front seat sent her tumbling head first into the door. Many tears and kisses later she was smiling again and sporting a big bump on her forehead. Not so Jon who was beginning to think this was the worst vacation ever. Thankfully Jon can usually be coaxed out of his black moods by food and Mum and Dad had packed us a super lunch. Soon we were back on the road to Birmingham and all were happy! From now on we stayed on course, thanks to Dad's very detailed route directions. He even added good view spots and reviews on all the service stations we would pass during the week.

Birmingham:

It was wonderful hugging Meriel and her bump! Lilli warmed instantly to Meriel. She even gave Meriel the highly coveted head-bump. Actually, it was here where this behaviour was initiated. Lucky Mez! And fortunate us since Alex fed us delicious steak that night and the following night, after enjoying a walk around Birmingham city center, we indulged in take-out curry!

Olney:

Aunty Fairy, or rather Graunty Fairy, was ready with toys and books and her piano! Lilli loved playing on the piano. My cousin, James, joined us for dinner and the following day we visited his cute and quirky cottage. We obliged Lilli with her late night wakings to avoid waking our various hosts. We indulged in midnight play times rather than battle her back to sleep.

After all it is day time for her body clock.

London:

We drove through the snow on the way to London and arrived amidst a flurry of snow flakes at Peter and Leslie's Belize Park flat. Lilli's first snowflakes prompted big smiles and giggles as they landed on her nose. We vainly tried to visit their local pub but were consistently turned away. No babies allowed. Instead we caught up with their British odyssey in the much more baby friendly confines of their Ikea-clad flat. We shared a day in London with Mum, Lizzie and William. We started our Christmas tour in Trafalgar Square amidst the environmental demonstrators camped around the tall but spindly Norwegian Christmas tree. Could the sad looking tree be due to global warming or the Norwegian's reluctance to part with a more vigorous specimen? After visiting the Impressionist section in the National Gallery we marched onwards to Piccadilly Circus and The Rain Forest Cafe for tropical lunch in a plastic jungle with Lizzie, William and Siobhain. It was so fun to see Lizzie and Siobhain. I only wish that we could have spent more time with them. I loved cuddling with William who is a very content and solid baby (boys are though ... solid that is). He loved the rain forest music and danced in perfect time. Amazingly when tired he snuggled up to Lizzie and fell fast asleep, despite the thunder and lightening effects! After lunch we continued down Regent's Street and dropped into Liberty's where I drooled over the exquisite silk scarves and fabrics. On to Carnaby Street and it's disappointing decorations and a quick last minute Christmas shopping trip to John Lewis. Before leaving the following day, Jon, Peter, Lilli and I walked over to a snowy Primrose Hill where we watched the sledders attempting to slide down the hill and gazed at the view of London laid out below us. Primrose Hill was my favourite grassy spot when I lived in London with Lizzie and Meriel. We enjoyed many picnics together on the hill.

Windsor:

The snow was getting deeper and the roads slicker the further we drove out of London! We slid into Susie's drive and thankfully pulled to a stop. We had a fun last night of our 'friends and family' tour. Mandie joined us for dinner and Susie's lovely boyfriend, Mark, dished up a hearty sausage stew. Perfect for a cold wintry night. Lilli, with a late evening awakening, was excited to join the party. Before heading home though we popped over to see Mandie, Howard, Jemima and Maisy for Saturday lunch. They are roughing it at their mother's wonderfully comfortable home just down the road from Windsor. We lounged around the roaring fire eating game pie and laughing at Lilli's curious, but slightly wary, fascination with the dogs. These little moving furry teddy bears just wouldn't stay still long enough for her to grab a good exploratory handful. They darted into view from behind her and vanished just as quickly as they arrived after quickly giving her a sniff with cold wet noses!!

Tisbury:

Back home relaxing with Mum and Dad sure feels good after our whistle stop trip. Lilli took all the new experiences and faces in her stride. This bodes well for future adventures! Now it's Mum's turn to show off her beautiful granddaughter to her friends!

Bye-Bye Ctrl

Lilli loves Daddy's laptop. She bangs on the keys and watches the effects of her industry on the screen. Even more fun is trying to pick off the keys. Little fingers make fast work and there goes the control button. Luckily Lilli choose one of the few keys which appear twice on a keyboard!

On the Brink

Will Lilli start crawling in the UK? She's trying so hard. She's up on hands and knees and rocks to gather momentum, but for now to go nowhere. Maybe one day the rocking will just naturally turn into a hand movement, followed by a knee and another hand and then a knee!

Food, a new delight for us, not so for Lilli, is evoking wonderful expressions. Grimaces, body shudders, scrunched up eyes. And constipation is another by-product (or no-product!) of solids. Granny will have to stock up on some prunes for our visit.

Lilli has been enjoying lots of fun playtime with her favourite buddy, Uncle Pete. She has a special grin just for him. I have been enjoying wintry afternoon walks with my little Pixie. It feels wonderful to get out in the bracing air.

Who's that Baby in the Mirror?

Lilli seemed to suddenly grow up a lot more when she turned 6 months. It was as though she had been waiting for her half year birthday to arrive before she revealed her new tricks. Her current repertoire is certainly fun and noisy.

Curtains up and the first act is titled SHOUTING! Lilli has discovered her LOUD voice and she loves using it to express her happiness, frustration or anger. Crying is now only reserved for those moments of pain (such as during her flu shot today) or extreme distress (when shouting fails). Yelling her irritation at us is usually just as an effective method to regain our attention during playtime when we might be attending to trivial adult matters or during her many night awakenings.

The starring character in Act 2 is the proto-crawler or the shimy-shamier-bottom-waggler. This entertaining personality is most spectacular when found naked on our bed between bath and bed times, where you will witness her wriggle, writhe and worm her way around the vast softness of her great grandmothers crocheted blanket. However during any belly time this determined character is sure to surface.

The lights dim and the scene becomes calm in Act 3. Jon and Lilli are sitting on the couch reading books. Lilli has graduated from her early frantic attempts to chew on the book corners. She now enjoys sitting serenely in her Daddy's lap listening to his voice and gazing at the colourful pictures.

Act 4 is set in bathroom where mother and daughter spend happy moments in front of the mirror. Lilli gazes at her reflection in the mirror and smiles with open mouthed excitement when mother rocks her closer to that very familiar baby friend. Shrieks of laughter erupt when mother sets about tickling Lilli. Lilli knows that the mother in the mirror and the mother holding her are the same person and amazingly is not perturbed that a person can be in two places simultaneously. She smiles at her mirror mother and then turns around to nuzzle into her physical mothers neck. Lilli's reality must be an interesting world to inhabit. A world where a person can be in two places at once and where shadows dancing across the table can be caught by sticky sweet potato fingers.

Perhaps that reality does not seem so far fetched when I consider my own. In my reality Lilli feels just as much part of me as she did when she was turning somersaults in my belly. My reality only exists in the present. I am practising what I believe Zen Buddhists call Mindfulness. The cycle of napping, feeding and playing leaves little time for planning the future or reminiscing about the past. I endeavour to give Lilli my exclusive attention when we're playing and if I fail she promptly pulls back my drifting focus. Oh but how I wish I had the patience of a Buddhist monk at 3am in the morning when holding an overly alert little baby in my arms.