For the last three weeks since we got back to the UK I’ve been meaning to write up something about this last trip to the US and especially about what an amazing traveler Elisabeth was.

I was a lot more anxious going into this trip than I was about our trip in March-April 2009 when Elisabeth was just three months old. Back then she was much more portable and not mobile. I was worried that this time around the long flight would be very difficult with Elisabeth not being happy sitting on our laps and wanting to get down and walk around a lot and getting upset when she couldn’t. It turns out I worried needlessly. She was an absolutely fantastic traveler – slept about half of the London -> Chicago flight and happily played on our laps for most of the rest of it. I took her walking up and down the aisles a couple of times and she happily toddled around wanting to check out everything and stopping to say hi to everyone she passed, especially the kids. She was a big hit, and the flight attendants were very impressed with her.

The only bad thing about that flight was our seats. We weren’t able to get bulkhead seats, and regular economy seating on United transatlantic flights is so squashed and uncomfortable. At one point the woman sitting in front of me completely reclined her seat and hit Elisabeth on the head with her seat! And then she couldn’t understand what we were upset about and was completely unapologetic. A flight attendant tried to intervene but couldn’t do much more than suggest I recline my seat as well which didn’t actually create that much more space for Elisabeth. Traveling in economy if you aren’t in a bulkhead or exit row seat is uncomfortable enough, doing it with a kid is ridiculous.

The first week of our trip we were in Grand Rapids and while it was lovely to be there staying with Christina & David and visiting lots of friends and former colleagues, it was made rather difficult by Elisabeth’s process of adjusting to the time change. She woke around 4:00-4:30 every morning, bright eyed and ready for the day. Ugh! Somehow we made it through that and kept our sanity in tact – just barely at times, though.

The next week and a half (Dec 19th-30th) – after an overnight at my sister Dana’s house in Morton Grove, Illinois (just on the north side of Chicago) – was spent at my parents’ house in DeMotte, Indiana. It was so lovely spending time with my family especially since this time Elisabeth was old enough to interact much more with my niece Leah who is seven months older than Elisabeth. At first Leah was a little suspicious of this new kid who was getting so much attention from her Oma (my mother) and Tante (my sister Erin) but she warmed up pretty quickly. Elisabeth, as usual, just glowed with all the extra attention she got with lots of relatives around. And James and I got a night away on our own. We left Elisabeth in DeMotte one night while we went and spent the night at a hotel in Chicago. What a treat!

We stayed in DeMotte a day longer than we had been planning because we were reluctant to take Elisabeth away from her Oma & Opa. But we had friends to see and parties to attend in Nashville, so on the 30th we piled into my parents’ minivan and, along with my sister Erin, drove the 7 hours to Nashville. Elisabeth was a trooper on the car journey. She wasn’t that thrilled about spending so long in a car seat (something she hardly ever does in the UK since we don’t own a car) but she managed and at least didn’t make us feel like we were torturing her the whole time.

Our week and a half in Nashville was a great conclusion to our US trip. We spent the first night at the Weavers’ – who we had never met – as none of our other friends had room for us that night. They were amazingly hospitable, and their seven-year-old daughter Julia was fantastic with Elisabeth. The rest of our time in Nashville was split between staying with the Dave & Sarah Dark and their three kids and with Trevor & Jenna Henderson (Elisabeth’s American godparents) and their two boys. Elisabeth loved being around other kids so much and was fantastic with all the adults. Having a kid who is very social and is happy being with just about anyone who will pay attention to her certainly makes trips like this a lot easier!

Our trip home was delayed by a day, but the bright side is that we were upgraded to business class for our Chicago -> London flight and got to spend our 7 hour layover in Chicago in the Red Carpet Club. While James and I didn’t get much sleep on the overnight flight, having wide seats that fully reclined made it a lot easier to keep Elisabeth asleep on us. As we were debarking in London, one of the flight attendants said to me that he would be happy to have Elisabeth on any of his flights any time! The man seated next to James also commented on what a great traveler Elisabeth was. I think flight attendants to some extent and other travelers especially assume that if a baby is on the flight there’s going to be lots of crying and they will be very bothered by it. So when Elisabeth is a perfect angel and hardly cries or complains at all, they are impressed and grateful. Well, we are too!

It was good to get back home to London, and Elisabeth’s adjustment this way was a lot easier on us as she pretty much slept 13 hours straight the first two nights back and by the third night was more or less back into her regular sleeping pattern. She was also back in nursery three days of the week (two half days and one whole day) right away, and I think that was probably a very good thing since she had gotten used to being around other kids so much during our trip. To just be with me five days of the week would have gotten awfully boring – for both of us!

We’re not yet sure when our next trip to the US will be. Elisabeth will be a lot more verbal and able to express her desires. It’s hard to know whether that will make a long flight easier or harder. It’s also very possible that even if she’s not yet two years old, we may well pay for her to have her own seat. I can’t imagine that it’s going to be comfortable to have her traveling on our laps for much longer.

We’re very much looking forward to visits from Oma & Opa and Tante in the summer. And in the meantime, we get on Skype as much as we can!

Elisabeth in the Red Carpet Club at O'Hare

So kid. You are a year old. Amazing. The last year has been quite an adventure! It’s certainly had it’s ups and downs, but I can say unequivocally that getting you as a daughter is definitely one of the best things that has ever happened in my life.

First of all, I apologise for missing the 11 month update. Between illness and teething, you’ve been a lot of work for the last month and a half and I’ve not been up to doing much besides the basics of parenting. I’ll try to cover the last month and a half in this one…

Your vocabulary is growing. After “dada” your next words were “Hi!” and “crocodile”. Yes, crocodile. You have quite a few books with crocodiles in them including your beloved bath book about Conrad the Crocodile. You also say “Gada” for Grandad and “cat” or “caga” after having spent a couple of days at your Nana & Grandad’s house where you joyfully chased the cats around. You frequently try to imitate words that we say. You’ve said “Buppa” a few times when we look at the photo of Oma & Opa on the fridge and you have pronounced perfectly clearly words like “cow” and “Leah”  but they aren’t yet part of your regular vocabulary. You also make a little throat growly sound which seems to be your attempt at making animal sounds.

You still don’t crawl, stand unsupported for more than a few seconds or pull yourself up very much, but you are getting awfully good at walking. Three weeks ago you still needed us to hold both of your hands when you walked. Now you cruise along with only one hand holding on to someone. You still prefer to have something in both hands when you walk around, and while clothes pegs remain your top preference just about anything will do including the remote controls.

Sleep has been much more of a problem for the last month. You had about 3 1/2 months straight of reliably taking a 2-3 hour nap every morning but then illness and teething came along and now you are as likely to only sleep for 1/2 hour in the morning as you are to sleep for 2-3 hours. When you don’t get a long morning nap you are tired and cranky all through the rest of the day and it can be awfully trying. During the last month you’ve been waking up more in the middle of the night too. The combination of sleep-deprived baby, sleep-deprived mummy and sleep-deprived daddy is not really desirable, to say the least.

Eating isn’t any better than it was a month and a half ago. You’ll still eat banana fairly reliably. Anything is up for grabs. You eat a lot less than you used to too, although I guess that’s fairly normal at this age. You’ve been known to skip meals entirely – just absolutely refuse to eat. A couple of times we’ve given you your supper in the bath because you would eat it there but not in your high chair. The lengths we go to… At least clean up is easy when you eat in the bath!

You LOVE having songs sung to you and it’s so fun to see how fast you’re learning motions to go with songs. You wave your arms around appropriately for “The Wheels on the Bus” and you stick your tongue in and out along with “Little Green Frog”. One night when getting you ready for bed I started singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and your daddy noticed you moving your fingers. For a minute we weren’t sure what you were doing since it was a very similar motion to your attempt to do a crocodile “Snap!”.  Then we realised that you were doing the motion for “Twinkle, Twinkle” – something you had apparently learned in nursery! You also use the motions to request particular songs – including bobbing up and down on our laps to ask for “Pony Girl” and “This is the way the gentlemen ride” and “Horsey, Horsey”.

I taught you how to point to other people’s noses, and you take great delight in pointing out the nose on dolls, stuffed animals, pictures in books and especially mummy & daddy. One night when you were in the bath I made a comment about cleaning your dirty nose and you pointed right to your nose. When we said, “Yes! That’s your nose. Very good!” you pointed to your mouth and looked at us expectantly. When we named that your pointed to your ear. Apparently you had learned all of this just that day in nursery. What an impressive little girl!

I am so looking forward to this next year and witnessing you discover more and more of your world and learning how to respond to it and express yourself. You are our precious, beloved baby girl. I can hardly imagine my life without you in it. I love you so much, Elisabeth Soraya Clare!

Well, my beautiful girl. You have learned so many new things in the past month. You started doing the sign for “all done” at the end of a meal. Then you added “So big!” and waving “bye-bye” to your repertoir. Then you learned to do the sign for “more” (although your “more” looks a lot like your clapping – you do both by moving one curled hand into one open hand). You initiate peek-a-boo anytime you have something appropriate in your hands – including the bottom of your bib after I take your high chair tray away. You also know to clap when we sing, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” – and doing so elicits a huge grin from you.

You still don’t crawl or pull yourself up but you are getting awfully good at walking (with assistance). And whereas a month ago you would happily take a few tentative steps around when prompted by us, now you are actively asking to be pulled up onto your feet and are off and walking, often for relatively long distances. You just need improved balance and a little more confidence and you’ll be walking on your own.

You have gotten much more verbal in the last month – both in the variation of sounds you make and the frequency of them. So far the word you use correctly the most consistently is “Hi”. You say, “Dada” and “Daddy” a lot and sometimes they are definitely directed at your father, but you also use “Dada” for me and for other people or things that you like. You often say “Dada” when you look at the photos on the refrigerator and when you see pictures of yourself or look at yourself in the mirror.

Your favourite “toys” to play with are books. You LOVE books! You will sit and let us read 10+ books to you at a go and if there are books nearby when you are playing by yourself, you grab them and open them and try to page through them. It sometimes sounds like you are “reading” them out loud to yourself. If we are walking around with you and wander over to your basket of books you usually want to stop and try to pull books out of the basket. Your favourite books are still mostly those with flaps (which you are getting better and better at opening yourself) or different textures. We get a lot of books from the library because you seem to get bored of reading the same books over and over everyday.

Your other favourite thing to play with are refrigerator magnets. You love pulling them off and sticking them back on again. I put about half a dozen near the bottom of the refrigerator at your level. Sometimes I’ll sit you down by them while I’m doing things in the kitchen and you’ll happily entertain yourself with them for quite a while.

Eating has its ups and downs right now. There have been plenty of mealtimes when you throw more food on the floor than goes in your stomach. You will still reliably eat bananas and bread with peanut butter but anything else is a crapshoot. Some days you love cheese, other days it all goes on the floor. Same with melon and grapes. Some meals I wonder how you fit all that food in your tummy and other meals I’m fretting about how little you’ve actually consumed. I’m trying to be a little more relaxed about it all.

You now have three teeth – two on bottom and one on top! (It’s possible you have four at this point – it’s hard to get a good look/feel of your top gum.) The two bottom ones came through with almost no difficulty. You would hardly even know that you were popping out some teeth. And then came that top tooth along with three weeks of trauma. You would wail any time we tried to put you down, you were cranky a lot, you didn’t sleep well and turned into an early riser – sometimes waking up as early as 5:00 am. You had two weekends in a row with intermittent fever, listlessness and lots of sleeping. The two days before the tooth came through, we were really worried about you because you seemed so ill and miserable. We had an NCT class reunion and all you did most of the time was lie on your Daddy. And then the next morning you woke up much happier than you had been in weeks and – lo and behold – there was a new tooth. Since then you’ve once again been your old happy self, you can play contentedly on your own again (for a limited period of time – you’d much rather have Mummy or Daddy play with you), you are sleeping better and you’re not waking up so early anymore either. Your parents especially appreciate being able to sleep until 7:00-8:00 in the morning once again. We’re really hoping that all your subsequent teeth don’t cause that much drama. It’s exhausting and it’s really hard to see you so miserable!

Another big change in your life is that this week you’ve started going to nursery two afternoons a week. We’re easing in to daycare, primarily because I’m still looking for freelance work. But I think it’s a good thing for you to have more time around other kids as well as other adults. The nursery is very nearby (we can walk there in five minutes) and the staff seem really good and nurturing. I shed a few tears the first time I left you there on your own, but when I came to pick you up at the end of the afternoon you had obviously been having a good time.

You are getting more and more independent and you certainly have a will of your own. I already see the beginnings of a lot of typical “first born” traits in you. You are a remarkable kid, Elisabeth. I am so proud of you and I love you so much! (Now, you just need to learn to say “Mama”…)

[Yes, I missed out doing an eight month update. The run up to Greenbelt was just a little too mad. Sorry.]

Dear Elisabeth,

If I had to describe “Elisabeth in a nutshell at 9 months old” it would be something like this: Happy, sweet, curious, very social, cuddly & affectionate, busy when playing, loves food, loves to be the centre of attention.

I feel like we’ve conquered sleep – at least for now. You do really well sleeping through the night. I often hear you yelping in the middle of the night, but I leave you alone and you put yourself back to sleep quickly. You usually wake up around 5:30-6:00 am wanting to breastfeed but most of the time you go back to sleep, at least for a little while. It helps now that it’s not already bright daylight by 5:30 am. You take a long nap – two to three hours – almost every morning. The length of your afternoon nap really depends on where you are sleeping. If you are at home in your cot, you’ll sleep as long as two hours. If you fall asleep in your pushchair, though, your afternoon nap only lasts 25-30 minutes.

You love eating! You’ll eat a lot of different foods including just about any form of bread, all fruits, cheese, eggs, chicken, potatoes and pasta. You will not, however, eat vegetables. I keep trying, but you just make a disgusted face and spit them out. I’m trying to be a little more adventurous with what I give you, and recently you’ve eaten courgette & tomato risotto and carrot pancakes.

In the last few days you’ve just started to make some first movements towards crawling. If you want something that’s out of reach when you’re sitting, you’ll sometimes push yourself over one leg onto your hands and knees, but then you get stuck and need help getting back into a sitting position. It’s progress, though! Does that mean it’s time to start childproofing the house? You would still much rather be standing than in any other position, and you’ve gotten quite good at holding yourself up on furniture. You’ll play happily by yourself for a while but if I come sit near you, you immediately reach out for my hands which means, “Pull me, mummy!” It gets very tiring because you keep reaching down to pick things up and then want me to pull you back up.

Your absolute favourite toy is a basket of 100 brightly coloured plastic clothes pegs which cost me all of £5 at the supermarket. You love emptying the basket, clapping the pegs together, sucking/chewing on them, and pulling them off the clothes line. Sometimes it almost seems like you use pegs as a comfort toy – you just want to have one in each hand. You really like your stacking/nesting cups as well and you often sing and bang them together. In fact, clapping or banging things together is one of your favourite things to do. You’ll clap any two things together that you can hold on to: your feet, two different fingers from one of my hands, one of my hands and one of daddy’s hands, etc. We’re not sure where you picked up singing along with banging on something, but you do it fairly frequently, especially in the bathtub.

You love attention and respond – usually very enthusiastically – when people oblige and pay attention to you. You love seeing other kids and often get very excited, squealing and flapping, when you see them and want them to look at you. I still get loads of comments all the time from strangers about what a cute baby you are. You look up at them with those big blue eyes open wide, and they can’t resist you! You still stare and stare at strangers, but you’ve gotten more quick to smile at them too.

You are a very sweet little girl, Elisabeth! I love all your smiles and happy squeals and kisses and cuddles. You get more and more fun by the week!

Dear Elisabeth,

Well, once again I am dreadfully late with this update. We’ve been rather busy! Your Oma and Opa (my parents) were here visiting when you turned seven months old. We had a wonderful two weeks with them and took them around to see lots of things in London. We got awfully spoiled having them around and since they left, I’ve just been trying to cope with being mostly on my own again!

You have changed so much in the last month and a half! You are getting more and more independent and it’s so fun to watch. At six and half months you mastered sitting without support. It’s great to be able to sit you in front of you toys and let you go at it. If I put a pillow behind your back just in case you fall backwards, though, you repeatedly fall backwards on purpose. I think it’s just to get attention – someone has to come and right you. Starting around six months old you started to engage a lot more with your toys too. I can now put you in the exersaucer and often you’ll be happy for quite a long time just playing with your toys. It really depends on your mood and how tired you are, though. Your favourite toys are the nesting cups that Oma got you, the Conrad the Crocodile bath book that your Uncle Matthew and Anna got you, and your Sophie the Giraffe squeaky toy. You also love toys that make a lot of noise when you shake them.

You love to read, and will sit on my lap and pay attention through five or six books at a time. You love turning the pages and especially love opening and closing the flaps in your Playtime Peekaboo book. Your other favourite books are Talk With Me (which your Nana got you), The Very Hungry Caterpillar (you love it when I count the fruit), and The Animals of Farmer Jones which your Oma & Opa brought you from the U.S.

You are getting to be a champion eater, and boy do you relish your food! You are so intense about eating. I put you in your high chair with a tray full of food and you just chow down! You’ve gotten quite good at picking up smaller bits of food and getting them in your mouth. Your favourite foods are banana, toast, nectarines, cheese, melon and pasta. You are a fairly picky eater. You often turn up your nose at new foods, although if you accidentally stuff them in your mouth and discover you like them, then it’s okay and you’ll try some more.

You are a very social baby. You like being around people and you crave attention. You can be quite a show-off it means people will pay more attention to you. During the two weeks that your Oma & Opa were here when you were getting almost constant attention, you were the happiest I’ve ever seen you – and you are a pretty happy kid generally! When we’re on public transportation or in shops, you stare and stare at people, and if you catch their eye, they are often so taken with you they will do all sorts of (reasonably subtle) things to get you to smile. You rarely oblige, though. You just stare with an intense gaze. I still get lots of comments from strangers on what an gorgeous baby you are.

Standing up is still your favourite position to be in, but you’ll often be happy sitting as well. You still don’t like being on your tummy, though, and last week you finally learned how to roll over. Now when we put you on your tummy, you almost immediately roll over onto your back. The cranial osteopath says you need to spend more time on your tummy to correct your slight plagiocephaly, though, so now we have to find tricks to get you to stay on your tummy longer.

You are fairly consistently taking long morning naps now – usually at least an hour and often as long as 2+ hours – but your night sleeping is still a problem. You usually wake up two or three times during the night and always want a yummy milky snack to help get you back to sleep. At least since we got black-out blinds you are sleeping until 7:00-8:00 (and occasionally 9:00!) rather than waking up at 5:30. I appreciate that. We’re planning to finally move you into your own room this weekend and I’m very anxious to see how that goes.

You are quite a cuddly, affectionate baby. I think I’m pretty lucky in that regard! You give me kisses when I ask for them. And sometimes when I’m holding you, you’ll grab my face, pull it so I’m facing you, then mash your mouth into my mouth as if to say, “I need a kiss now, mummy.” I’m very happy to oblige.

Most days I just wonder at what a happy, curious, gorgeous, fun baby you are. I love you so much!

So baby girl, a week ago you turned six months old. A whole half year! Unbelievable.

You are getting more and more fun everyday. You are as curious and engaging as ever. You are more smiley and you laugh much more now. You exhibit great delight in your favourite things, songs and people. “Old MacDonald” is still your absolute favourite song and you often giggle when I start singing it. Your other favourite song is “Skip To My Lou”. You really like the “Talk to Me” book (with bright colours and lots of flaps to open) that your Nana got you. You love your godparents, Matt & Clare, and they adore you. (We’re glad you get to see them as often as you do, and wish you could see your American godparents, Trevor & Jenna, just as often.) And you really like the jingle bells that I bought you last week!

Your favourite thing to do is standing. You are very good at it: you can stand up supporting yourself (with only a finger or two – or sometimes the coffee table – to hold on to for balance) for quite a long time and you can push yourself up from squatting. You look incredibly proud of yourself when you stand and you look around to see who is appreciating your incredible talent. You are also getting better and better at sitting unsupported. You do very well when your feet are lower than your bum, and you can balance for a few seconds when sitting on a hard flat surface. (Even longer on a soft flat surface.) You still show very little sign of having any interest in rolling over, though, and while you can push yourself up when you’re on your tummy, you really don’t like being there.

You are quite chatty when we are at home but a little more reserved when we are away from home. Even with our group of NCT mothers and babies – who we get together with almost every Thursday – you are a lot less chatty than you are at home. In the past month you have had periods of taking great delight in using your tongue when you talk. For a few days you were saying “gluck, gluck, gluck” a lot. I find it particularly cute when you use your tongue to pronounce consonants that don’t really require it, like “k”.

You are eating more and more foods. You have a little porridge once or twice a day, usually with some mashed fruit mixed in. And you really love chewing on rice cakes, bread sticks and pieces of fruit or soft vegetable – like cucumber or courgette – that you can hold onto. You don’t quite eat enough yet to attribute to it your astonishing weight gain in the past month. You went from 14 lbs 2 oz at five months old to 15 lbs 13 oz at 6 months old. That pushed you into the 35th percentile for weight whereas up until now you’ve always been right on the 25th percentile line.

Your sleeping isn’t any more regular or predictable than it was a month ago. You are currently in a pattern of sleeping around 6 to 7 seven hours, waking for a feed around 2:3o-3:00ish, then sleeping until sometime between 6:00 and 6:30. I really preferred it when you slept until 7:30 or 8:00! We suspect the brightness of the room in the morning may be contributing to your early rising and are looking into getting effective blackout shades. Napping is completely unpredictable right now too. Yesterday your morning nap lasted barely 20 minutes and that was interrupted twice by coughing. This morning you slept for almost three hours. I have no explanation, other than that teething is clearly affecting you in all sorts of ways right now and your sleep is almost certainly one victim.

You charm people everywhere we go, little miss. Strangers frequently comment on what a gorgeous baby you are, what a beautiful smile you have, and how you take everything in. I just smile like the incredibly proud mummy that I am.

Dear Elisabeth,

Before I go any farther, let me just acknowledge that I missed writing you a four-month letter. You turned four months old while we were in the US and it was in the midst of a lot of busyness, and things didn’t really calm down much after we got home. Besides I wrote your last letter at 3 1/2 months old, so at least it’s a consistent time period between updates. In any case…

Earlier last week you turned five months old. You weighed in at 14 lb 2 oz – still right on the 25th percentile line. It’s a little hard to believe that you are that small for your age because you are such a little chub. You certainly don’t look small, even compared to the other babies in our NCT group who are the same age as you. As far as I am concerned, you are a perfectly proportioned baby.

Besides “gorgeous”, the words that people use most often to describe you are “alert”, “switched-on” and “intelligent”. You are incredibly curious, and you are constantly looking around you, taking everything in. You can study people with startling intensity. (You could easily win a staring contest!) Your curiosity means that you get bored very quickly, however, making you a rather high maintenance baby. I can’t just put you down and expect that you’ll be happy for 1/2 hour on your own. Often after just two minutes you are howling for a change of scene. You’re happier in your bouncy seat than lying on your back since it lets you look around more. But even there you get bored after ten minutes or so.

Your curiosity extends to other babies now. Most of the time you delightedly smile and chat to the “baby in the mirror”. (Sometimes you just can’t be bothered – there are too many other interesting things around to look at.) You also smile and reach towards the other babies in our NCT group.

You do really enjoy being outside and still love going for rides in your buggy. Unlike the first few months of your life, though, you spend most of the time in the buggy awake  now, studying what’s going on around you. You like books, although you have limited patience for sitting and reading. And you’re getting more into playing with toys although you often get frustrated when you can’t get them in your mouth or when they fall out of reach. Then you throw mini “tantrums” — you throw yourself backwards and start howling because you can’t get what you want. I’m looking forward to you being able to sit up by yourself and being just a little bit mobile so you can get to your toys yourself.

You still don’t really like being on your tummy, but you love standing up and your leg strength is quite impressive. You can push yourself up to standing from a crouching position without any help and will sometimes stand for a few seconds with help for balance but no real support. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if you skipped crawling and went right to walking.

Your sleeping is still all over the place. While we were in the US in March and the beginning of April you were consistently sleeping 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 hours in a row, waking up for a feed, then sleeping another 2-3. Since we gotten back you’ve had more nights of waking up two or three times during the night which may be because of teething or just settling back in. The last couple of nights you’ve gone back to sleeping 8-9 hours before having a feed, then down for another 2-3, though, so I’m hoping that will continue for a while. Your daytime naps are pretty erratic too. Most of your naps are 30-45 minutes long, but every now and then you’ll take a long nap — up to three hours in a row — during the day. You’ve had a bad cold for the last couple of days and have been sleeping lots (not so much in your bed, though — mostly on your daddy or me or on the sofa). Which is fine with me!

Now that you have had a couple of bad colds and some spells of teething pain, I’m finding out how hard it is for parents to see their kids in pain or struggling. I just want to you be healthy and happy and okay!

You are generally a happy, delightful little girl. When your daddy or I go to get you out of bed in the morning, you give us big smiles which just melt our hearts every time. You can be pretty talkative — especially when you are getting your nappy changed — and you love it when we echo your sounds. You love it when I sing to you, and some of your favourite songs are “Old MacDonald” and “Skip To My Lou” (to which I add a verse “Elisabeth Soraya Clare, won’t you be my darling”). I think that sometimes you even “sing” too. You have such a sweet voice, and we love hearing it!

You are the light of my life sweetheart. I can’t imagine life without you!

Elisabeth at five months

Now that Elisabeth is nearly five months old, we’re starting to think about when she’ll start eating solid foods and what those will be. Will we do things the most common way today: spoon feeding her pureed foods, eventually transitioning to lumpy foods and then finger foods? Or will we do it what is probably the more traditional way if you go back far enough is now known as baby-led weaning: let her start eating what she wants when she wants when she is ready? At this point we’re not eliminating any possibilities, and I think we still have at least another month before we really need to decide, especially given that guidelines today recommend breast milk only for the first six months.

In any case, this past week, Elisabeth had her first teaser of “grown-up” food. On Tuesday afternoon, we were at a baby play group and pieces of melon and banana were passed around for the mums and babies (most of whom were older than six months). I picked out a piece of melon and held it by Elisabeth’s mouth to see if she would lick it. She did and seemed to like it. I let her lick it one more time before I ate it.

Then on Thursday afternoon we were in Priory Park picnicking with the other mums & babies from our NCT antenatal group and I was eating a rather sour Braeburn apple. I had eaten about half of it when I held it to Elisabeth’s mouth. She clearly enjoyed licking that as well and sucked on it quite a bit before I finished it (after trying to wipe some of the baby drool off of it).

The next day I was eating a rather mushy pear and held that up for Elisabeth to lick. It was soft enough that she could actually suck bits off of it – which she continued to do with gusto until I took it away from her. She wasn’t very happy about that. She wanted to keep eating that pear!

It was really fun seeing her enjoy new foods, and while neither of us are quite ready for Elisabeth to launch more fully into the world of solids, I’m looking forward to introducing her to more new foods – and hopefully watching her delight in them – when the time seems right.

Dear Elisabeth,

It’s now been nearly two weeks since you actually turned three months old, but we’ve been a little busy what with cleaning and packing and traveling to the United States, getting a little settled in, your mummy getting 24-hour stomach flu, your daddy getting hit by a drunk driver while riding in Jude’s car (we’re so glad he wasn’t hurt!) and then going off to Texas for South by Southwest leaving mummy a single parent for five days… It’s been a little nuts to say the least. You’ve pretty much been the happy, easy going kid we’ve come to know through all of it, though. Thank you!

At three months old you are gradually developing your ability to communicate your needs and wants – which means you fuss and cry a little more often than you used to, but you are still a really, really great baby. You are happy to hang out in your bouncy chair or propped up on the sofa for long periods of time and just look around at everything around you. You are very curious, and you like to be where the action is.

In the last couple of weeks you’ve made some big steps developmentally. You’ve suddenly become much more smiley, which gives me no end of pleasure! Up until about two and half weeks ago, the only person you ever smiled at was your daddy – although you did regularly smile at inanimate objects that made you happy such as our living room curtains and a strip of brightly coloured cloth covering a futon that I was sitting on while feeding you. Then you finally started smiling at me too, and now you smile at just about anyone who stops and talks to you and pays attention to you. You’ve become much chattier too, and especially in the evening when you’re relaxed and content, your daddy and I sometimes have long “conversations” with you. You are incredibly cute when you are trying to talk to us.

You have become interested in other babies and kids, and you will spend a long time staring at Callum, the 7-month-old son of Trevor & Jenna Henderson (your American godparents) who we’re staying with in Nashville. You also get very excited looking at and talking to the baby in the mirror while playing on the baby gym at Hendersons’ house. Today for the first time while playing on the gym, you reached out and grabbed a dangling toy and held onto it for a while.

Perhaps the development that has been most helpful to me is the fact that you’ve been sleeping 8-9 hours in a row at night in the last week! I’m not expecting that to happen every night, but to know that you can and will do it even if inconsistently is wonderful.

In the past month, there have been several occasions when I’ve been away from you for long periods of time. I had an all-day Greenbelt meeting which meant leaving you alone with your daddy for 12 hours. It was really hard to leave you in the morning, but we both did fine, and your daddy managed to survive the day too. Then a few days later, your daddy and I went out together (to see Fleet Foxes at the Camden Roundhouse) leaving you with your first babysitters – your Uncle Matthew and his girlfriend Anna. Matthew and Anna both think you are pretty wonderful, so we were quite comfortable leaving you with them. You were a very good baby for them, and I think they had a fun time too! And then to help me out when I was getting ready to go on our trip, your Nana and Grandad took you with them to the British Museum for the afternoon. I think Nana really enjoyed giving you a bottle in the middle of the Babylon exhibit.

The range of songs that I sing to you is gradually broadening, and your current favourites are “Do Re Mi” and “Old MacDonald Had A Farm”. I am certain that a couple of times you have tried to sing along. So far you are fairly ambivalent about books, but I’m sure you’re appreciation for them will grow.

You are a breathtakingly gorgeous kid, Elisabeth and I swear you just get more beautiful by the day. I am incredibly privileged to be your mummy!

On Thursday the 12th of February, James, Elisabeth and I trekked to Mayfair to the US Embassy in order to register Elisabeth’s US citizenship and apply for her US passport. Once we got to the embassy, the whole process was fairly straightforward and quick, but we found that the information that we got from the embassy and on their website was not very helpful. Some of the information was incomplete or misleading and some of it was just incorrect. So I wanted to post this in the hopes that it might help other people in the future.

One of the things that the embassy thoroughly communicates is that mobile phones or any electronic devices are not allowed inside the embassy. They suggest leaving such things at left luggage facilities at one of the major train stations (Victoria being the closest). And I suppose if you drive to the embassy, you could leave mobile phones in your car. (Where you would park, I have no idea.) Since we weren’t thrilled with the thought of leaving our phones and James’ laptop at a left luggage facility and we don’t have a car (we wouldn’t drive into town anyway) and we weren’t about to leave our phones at home, James ended up leaving early and bringing our phones to his office in Shoreditch. When we got to the embassy, we discovered that actually we could have left our phones at security. That was a frustrating discovery to say the least. James probably wouldn’t have been able to leave his laptop at security, but we wouldn’t have needed to traverse the city separately sans mobile phones.

One of the things we were told we needed to provide was proof of our plans to travel on March 8th. Since we hadn’t thought to print out our e-ticket confirmation before the day of the appointment and don’t have a functioning printer at home, another reason for James’ early morning sprint to his office was to use his office printer. When we got to the embassy we discovered that they provide both computers and printers. So both reasons for James making the trip to his office before the appointment were both not necessary after all. Grrr. In the end, they didn’t even ask to see the proof of travel. It’s probably still wise to bring proof of travel along, but it’s good to know that if necessary, it’s possible to print things at the embassy.

Another source of stress for us that morning was that we both forgot to bring our cheque book to pay the fee. James spent 15 minutes running around Mayfair looking for a cash machine while Elisabeth and I waited outside the embassy. NB: If you even find yourself in Mayfair needing cash, just go straight to Oxford Street. There apparently are no cash machines in Mayfair. Even the Post Office in Grosvenor Street doesn’t have one. It seems that the limosine drivers just hold the residents’ cash for them. In any case, when we got to the payment window we found out that they don’t take cheques anyway, but they do take cash (pounds or dollars) and they do take credit cards. Had we known credit cards were a acceptable form of payment, James wouldn’t have wasted all that time running around looking for cash and again, we would have been spared some stress.

Finally, the instructions tell you to bring along a Special Delivery envelope to have the passport mailed back to you. I stopped at the post office on the way to the appointment to get a Special Delivery envelope, so we did have that with us. Then the first person who processed our application told us to go down to the lobby to buy a courier envelope which we did. It turns out that since we had the Special Delivery envelope, the courier envelope was redundant. Thankfully we were able to get a refund for the courier envelope which was a good thing because it cost £14.50 compared to £5.05 for the Special Delivery envelope.

While the morning could have been much less stressful than it was, ultimately we were successful in getting Elisabeth registered as a US citizen and applying for her passport. And her passport arrived in the post two days ago so we now have that in hand. We’re very much looking forward to getting her first stamp in her passport on March 8th!