Kitties and Rabbits

We are home and slowly getting back to normal. Cora has been waking up at 5 the last three days, so beyond the jet lag fatigue it's tiring being up so early each day. I think today, Wednesday, I will try to get a nap in.
Our flight home went fairly well. Cora wasn't as good as she was on the way over, but she was better than she was for our flights at Christmas.
Cora is very happy to see her best friend Somer again, and Somer seems to like having Cora back home, too. This morning I found Cora invading Somer's space again. This was the first time I've seen Cora in Somer's bed, though in England she did get in the dog's bed at Uncle Pete and Aunt Doreen's house.
Somer resigned herself to bed-sharing, though she refused to show interest in the Virgin Atlantic wet wipes that Cora found so fascinating.
A couple of shots from Saturday, when we had a barbecue at Dean and Jenny's house (Dean is Stace's brother). The weather was great, maybe even breaking the 60s, and sunny.
Cora enjoyed petting the rabbit, though she then grabbed its ear and yanked. No wonder the rabbit kept hopping away from Cora (see video).

Cast free!

Cora is back to toddling around (with help) and pulling herself up to standing. She had her cast removed Friday morning, and a specialist felt around her ankle and gave her a clean bill of health. She began bearing weight on it in the doctor's office, and he said she looks good to go. We have a copy of the doctor's notes and her x-rays to show her pediatrician in Santa Clarita on her next visit.
On Friday afternoon, we went to the Willow and Wetlands museum, which gives a great overview of the environment and ecology of the Somerset Levels and the willow trade. The levels are low-lying areas subject to flooding, which have only become suitable for farming and commercial/residential building since channels and pumping stations were built in the last couple of hundred years. The photo of Sue and Gord with Cora is from a walk we took out on the levels a couple of nights ago. Decades ago, 9,000 acres of the levels were used for growing willows, or withies, which were harvested and processed for making baskets and furniture. Gord spent a number of years working in this cottage industry when he was younger. The museum was really interesting, and we enjoyed hearing Gord tell us about the work.
On Friday night, Cora stayed with Sue and Gord and Stace and I went out to a very nice Italian meal in Yeovil with Dean and Jenny. This afternoon, we'll go to their home for a barbecue for Gord's birthday today. We're also getting ready for our trip to Heathrow on Sunday, when we fly back to Santa Clarita.
The last photo is from our visit the other evening with Jane and Matthew Gould. Cora had fun crawling around their home, and impressed us by saying "Thank you" when Jane handed her a remote control. On the speaking front, Gord has taught Cora to say "Ta" when he hands her something; that's English shorthand for "thank you."She's also started saying "What's that?" when pointing to things. Lastly, Sue has taught her to raise her glass when we all say "Cheers!"

What we've been up to...

Here are a few shots from recent days...
We met Charlie, the beautiful new daughter of our friends Dunc and Lindsey. Not surprisingly, Cora was more interested in playing with Chelsea, their older daughter, who is nearly exactly one year older than Cora.
On Sunday, we had a nice family meal at the Crown and Victoria pub, where Cora gave a "Cheers!" to Nanny by lifting her cup.
Later on Sunday, we went for a long walk up Ham Hill with Nan, Pop, Dean and Jenny.
The last photo shows Gord reading to Cora and Ben, the son of Stace's cousin Karen and her husband Martin. Next to Gord is Auntie Doreen, Gord's sister. We visited with them on Saturday night.

On Tuesday, we had our best-weather day of our trip, and so we went to the park so Cora could play. Nan, Nanny and JT went along and we all had a great time. I didn't have our camera with us, as Stace had taken it to capture his golf game with Andy.

London

On Thursday we took a train ride into London to spend the day. Stace and I hadn't spent any time in the city in four years, and Sue is always up for a trip to London. We took an 8:20 train and got in just before 11. After having a picnic lunch in Hyde Park, we did a bit of shopping in Harrods, where the old actor Tony Curtis was having a press event to publicize his new art exhibit in the giant department store. We then took the Tube to Covent Garden, before heading to the revitalized Docklands area in the East End of the city. There, we saw an awesome new museum about the Docklands and London in general. We'd like to go back and see it again, as we got in just an hour before closing and had to rush. The upside was, they didn't charge us for entering since we came in so late. We then took the Tube back, stopping for a quick walk around the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, before going back to Waterloo to catch the 7:20 train back to Yeovil. A great day out, all went well and it didn't rain (though the wind was freezing).

Cora update

Our appointment went well today. The specialist said that it's a very small break, and Cora will heal quickly because of her age. He asked us to come back in two weeks, so we mentioned our travel plans. He then said for us to come in next Friday (two weeks after the injury) to have the cast removed. They'll take an x-ray again, but it sounds like she should be OK then to leave the cast off. Thank the Lord! Maybe she'll be taking those first steps before her Aunt Melanie walked, after all. (Mel was 17 months before she walked unassisted.)

Uh Oh!!

In her first 14 months of life, we have been so blessed to have a very healthy little girl. She has had just one cold! That luck ran out this past weekend, however. In one hard step down, as she was practicing coming down the stairs, Cora suffered a hairline fracture to her ankle. We took her in to the hospital in Yeovil on Monday since she still wasn't bearing any weight on the leg. The doctor was able to manipulate her ankle just fine, with Cora apparently in no pain, but the x-ray showed the tiny break. We will go back in for a recheck on Wednesday morning, when we hope to find out how long Cora might be wearing her new leg-warmer; the nurse estimated three to four weeks on Monday.
As you can see, the cast goes up her leg quite a way, so that it didn't slip down and cover her toes. And, as you can see, it's not affecting her mobility too much. She's back to crawling full-time, but she is standing more again, now that the weight is falling onto the cast instead of her ankle.
Today, Stace and I spent the morning in Glastonbury, a beautiful ancient town. We walked up to the top of Glastonbury Tor (hill), which you can see behind Cora here.
Here Cora is helping Stace smell a flower. She was loving picking the flowers, and she also got to see cows, sheep and ponies very nearby in the fields.
En guard! I love this photo. Click it to make it (or any other photo) appear bigger.

We're back in England!

This time, Cora's behavior on the plane was a big answer to my prayers. She was an angel! We took the earlier flight, which left about 6 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., and there was enough room on the flight that she was able to have a spare seat in between us. She read her books and the in-flight magazines, she played with the blankets and pillows, she enjoyed her dinner, and she even slept for about 3 1/2 hours. Amazing! What an incredible difference from our flights at Christmas time.
Before boarding the plane, Cora had a lot of fun crawling all over the place and practicing her walking.
You might have noticed that we didn't mention this trip on the blog while we were getting ready to fly. That's because my dear friend JT didn't know we were coming. I kept it from her to surprise her for her 30th birthday Saturday. I think she enjoyed her surprise; I know I enjoyed the yummy Indian food she cooked up for her birthday meal. We've been friends for 10 years now, hard to believe.
Cora liked playing on the stairs, a new treat for her. But while I held her hands, she hurt her leg as she was stepping down on Friday afternoon. We've debated taking her to the doctors, but it seems like she is OK. She won't put weight on that leg, but she seems happy enough otherwise and is crawling all over the place. No swelling or redness; she just won't stand up on it. I've been giving her infant pain reliever to ease any pain she might be in. She's teething anyway, so the medicine will certainly help with that.
Here she is last night, about a half hour after I put her down for the night. She had been sitting up, playing, and then obviously just fell asleep leaning forward into the blanket. On Saturday night, our third night here, she slept from 11:30 to about 6:30 - thank the Lord! Hopefully we're on track now for a nice, normal two weeks of sleep.

More practicing

Cora is really enjoying practicing her walking these days...

Mom, why?

No captions needed, really.
A few tidbits: Cora is getting two new teeth, one on the top and one on the bottom, to the left of her current teeth as you face her. Her favorite word right now is "uh oh," which she says many times per day. She likes to practice walking, but still likes to have you hold both of her hands. When I try to let go of one hand, she uses her free hand to point to my hand and asks me to hold her hand.
She loves playing with her car seat straps, and tries to hook them together.
We had a successful meal at a full-service restaurant on Sunday, a reward for a busy weekend of cleaning. We brought yogurt and cheerios for Cora to eat while we waited for our food, which she also shared with us. Even though she was tired, she did very well, and only needed to be walked around at the very end, when we were waiting for the bill.

Flower fun

More Cora 'n Somer silliness.