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I am really bad at dates but I took LiLi with me this morning to my haircut and my hairdresser, George, very kindly trimmed her hair(or more importantly cut her mullet off). He then put her hair clippings into an envelope for me and dated it. I would never have thought to do that. LiLi then went off with her Nana as happy as could be barely even saying goodbye.
It was then I realized that it was a year ago when we first got our referral. What a difference one year makes. I cannot remember what our lives were like before she came into it.
When I went to pick her up from Nana and Poppie, I kept thinking how she seemed to change last night into an older toddler. She looked older(it could be the haircut and her outfit but I don’t think so) and she is acting older. Yesterday, she also started trying to have a real conversation with me where she would babble and I would answer and she would babble off again. Before that she has babbled at us but this was different. She is trying out a couple of new words a day now. She learned wall yesterday and we had to stop and run our hand along the to of every stone wall in the neighborhood and it turns out that there are quite a few. Of course, she also stopped at every crack in the sidewalk and put her finger in it and looked up at me. It was a long walk home. But the other amazing thing was how many blocks she walked by herself and most of them without trying to get me to pick her up. Then tonight as I drove into the driveway and we were listening to “Yellow Submarine,” she said submarine(ok, not exactly like it sounds but you can definately differentiate the sub part) and repeated it multiple times.
Here are some pictures to show the difference between then and now:

One of our referral pictures. Who would have guessed that she would tend towards curls in her hair

Here she is with me looking at bird videos at the National Geographic site. LiLi is a bit obsessed with birds

Here she is with food on her face and parts of her new cousin’s quilt to be around her neck.