LiLi has spent the last couple of weeks visiting with her cousins. First her cousins from Brooklyn Lila and Clare came to stay with Nana and Poppie and LiLi enjoyed going over there to play with Lila. Her only real reference to Clare is saying baby.

LiLi, Clare and Lila

Last weekend we went down to visit Thom’s sister Becky, Uncle Mike, cousin Emily and Gram. LiLi had a lot of fun playing with cousin Emily. We went to the park and fed the ducks which are so tame that a lot of them will eat out of your hands. LiLi touched one duck but would not let them eat out of her hand. She then enjoyed swinging with Emily.
The next day we went to the zoo. It was a great zoo and the animals were very active. LiLi got to see the lion roar and the alpha male monkey try to attack the window of the observatory. That gave her a delayed scare. She was fine when it happened and then about 5 minutes later started to cry and wanted to move away but then about 5 minutes later she wanted to go back and see the monkeys again with Daddy. The whole trip was a lot of fun and LiLi enjoyed herself a lot.
LiLi also remains a great traveler. She was fabulous on the plane both ways even though both times she was tired. On the way there, we flew during bedtime and on the way back during her nap. Stickers worked very well at keeping her occupied. By the time we landed at Logan, LiLi had covered her whole face with snowmen stickers and she was a very happy child who thought she looked quite spectacular and kept feeling to make sure that the sticker was still on her nose.

LiLi, Emily and Uncle Mike

LiLi and Emily at the zoo

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas day the most wonderful part being having LiLi to celebrate it with us. Also our friend Sara Lee visited for Christmas which was a lot of fun and very special. Sara Lee was with us last New Year’s Eve painting the mural in LiLi’s room. That mural is such a wonderful part of our daughter’s life. I think it inspires her in so many ways. I will come in the morning and LiLi will be obviously talking to one of her animals and then she will point out different animals while she is on her changing table. The birds are, of course, her favorite as is Sammy, the naked mole rat.
As a family, we ended up with a very birdy Christmas. Thom and I got each other bird feeders. Ten months ago, neither of us had any interest in birds and now we have a bird feeder in the backyard and one in the window. Thom and LiLi enjoy looking through the bird identifcation book together and Thom enjoys looking at it by himself, too. LiLi also got 4 new Audobon birds including an owl.
LiLi loved unwrapping gifts. Her Gram had sent her a lot of presents and some for Maggie and they were perfectly wrapped for little hands and she opened all of hers and all of Maggie’s and then started to try to unwrap everything under the tree.
Later in the day, we went to Nana and Poppie’s. LiLi enjoyed hanging out with everyone and continues to be quite the charmer. One of her favorite people still is her cousin Lila. They seem to get along very well and love to make each other laugh. Nana has one of those Santa Claus’ that sings “Jingle Bell Rock” and swings his hips. LiLi and Lila spent a good hour swinging along to Santa and then breaking up into hysterical laughter. None of us wanted to break up their fun so they ended up going to bed later than usual.

Hmm, what is in here

Look a mitten

Now I am going to try on the mitten and hat

LiLi looking ready to go out into the cold except for the fact that she is in her pajamas

LiLi and one of her birds

LiLi enjoying her presents

LiLi and Lila eating Christmas dinner

LiLi and Lila playing with LiLi’s new kitchen

We have a tradition of going to my Aunt Mary and Uncle Don’s house for Christmas Eve. We sit around and talk and eat and eat and eat. This year was very special in that 2 of my cousins have had babies this year as has my sister and of course, LiLi came into our lives. The last time we were all together, LiLa was the only child in the family and now there are 5 children. We all dressed in our outfits that we had bought in China. I was suprised that LiLi’s outfit still fit but it did. LiLi has one cousin(2nd cousin once removed to be exact) whose mother is Chinese so he, too, was wearing a special Chinese outfit.

Christine with baby Clare in the sling, Lila, LiLi, Luke and Atticus

LiLi fell asleep at Aunt Mary and Uncle Don’s and we put her in her carseat for the ride home and rather than falling back to sleep, she just stared off into space and then every once in a while she would say Santa and then go off into her trance. She did this the whole 1 hour car ride home. Once she was put in her crib she just rolled onto her side and fell asleep.

A few weeks ago we had our first snow storm. It came down quickly. We decided to take LiLi out into it. LiLi does not particularly like to be dressed in her snowsuit. I then realized that she did not have any snow boots so she is wearing a pair of cowboy boots we bought this summer in Montana. She and I lasted only about 5 minutes outside before I was cold and she had decided enough was enough.

Maggie and LiLi in the snow

Maggie and LiLi in the snow

Inside after being in the snow. Notice the cowboy boots.

I went to buy her a pair of snow boots a day or 2 later but the selection was horrible so she still doesn’t have any but I decided that she does have a pair of shoes that work until I find a better selection(which will likely be next year).