We went to Florida over Easter and had quite a nice time. It was so nice to get away from the cold weather and be able to wear shorts. LiLi has recently started to wear leggings as the weather has gotten warmer because she has figured out that she can pull them up to her knees and she seems to really enjoy having nothing on her legs so she really loves the freedom of summer wear.
In the few weeks before we went on vacation, LiLi would say something about wearing a dress to a party in Florida. She seemed to believe she would be going from one party to another because I had mentioned wearing a dress for Easter and for visiting at Aunt Anne, Gom and Capt E’s condo. Well in the end, she did get to go to a couple of parties including a birthday party for her the night we arrived since Nana and Poppie had been in Florida on her birthday.

Two days later, we went to our second party at the condo as mentioned above. LiLi, Nana and I went early in quest of alligators which is one of LiLi’s goals since last year at the condo, we spent about an hour watching an alligator. Also, we had gone on a airboat ride the day before and we had seen any alligators much to LiLi’s disappointment. So, Gom had promised us a mommy alligator and some babies and she delivered. We saw a mother alligator and 5 babies hanging out in the water. LiLi, Anne and I left the scene before the attempt by the alligator on a bird lirking nearby. Since that episode, LiLi and I have been watching some alligator videos on the National Geographic site and I think the alligator may have attacked the bird to protect her babies or maybe she was hungry. Anyhow, after seeing the alligator, we went to dinner on the beach and had a wonderful time.

Dinner on the beach wearing a necklace borrowed from Aunt Anne

Playing with her glow sticks

Sunset

Sunset

As I mentioned before, LiLi’s imagination is flourishing and with that came some monsters. For the most part, although she has expressed fear of those monster, it has been without much fear in her voice or her actions but over the last couple of weeks, it has begun to play a more prominent and fearful role. A week or two ago, she became very upset about a half hour after going to bed and actually appeared to be frightened. While I was calming her down and talking about all the animals in her room and how they would protect her from all the monsters and ghosts she pointed towards the door and said “What ’bout that?” Looking up at the ceiling, I noticed that her nightlight was reflecting the lamp shade in such a way to make it appear like a ghostly version of Darth Vader. If the shade tilts slightly(which it does quite often), this shape is repeated and we have found that not turning on the night light helps prevent any ghostly nights. Two nights ago, she had a bad time with ghosts, monsters and then added a dragon(we had been to the children’s museum which has a dragon on top which she loves) and a band of “evil?” penguins who she had a good dream about 4 nights ago but now they appear to be on some sort of rampage. So last night, I tried the monster light. We have a big flashlight downstairs and LiLi used that to scare away the monsters. After being tucked into bed, the monsters, dragons, ghosts and penguins started staring in the window, so I went downstairs and found a little flashlight that I have had in my work bag for about 2 years for no reason and brought it upstairs. I showed LiLi how to use it and she flashed it around the room a couple of times and then she put it next to her in the bed and said “I keep it right here.” She fell asleep without any incidents and slept well. We’ll see if it works tonight.

Here are a couple of random photos

We cannot believe it but last weekend, LiLi turned 3. I cannot believe how old she is getting. She now pretty much talks to you all day long and walks with almost a constant twirl or arabesque. Skirts remain her favorite thing to wear and it is getting harder and harder to put her in pants even for her father. She also loves her nightgowns which I have to admit I do not understand because I don’t ever remember thinking they were comfortable to wear. LiLi, of course, like I believe most if not all 3 year olds likes to do things by herself and if you do it instead, we often end up with a small temper tantrum but thank goodness those are usually short lived. Her imagination is also blossoming which is wonderful to watch. She often takes her animals to the store or the zoo and right now is going off to school with a suitcase full of toy food a book you can write in and a net for catching bugs. Her imagination has also conjured up some monsters. These monsters seem to come around when it gets dark and like to hang out in the bathroom(that way someone can go with you to wash your hands) and when we have been caught out of bed at the top of the stairs. I believe three is going to be quite an exciting year.

We had a small birthday party for LiLi with our babysitter, her husband and their to children for dinner followed by cake with Margaret and Peter. LiLi appeared to have a wonderful time. Since animals remain one of her favorite things, we went with an artic cake after Mommy found some polar bears on sale at Pottery Barn.

Opening birthday presents

Birthday cake

Blowing out candles

One candle kept relighting although they all came out of the same box and no where did it say they were relighting candles but LiLi thoroughly enjoyed blowing it out over and over again

Ice cream and cake

When you live in the smallest state in the nation you usually don’t see or hear about Little Rhody unless it’s a comparison to a country, city, or even a ranch. As in “…(fill in the blank) is as big as the state of RI” or “(fill in the blank) is about 1/2 the size of RI but has XXX many times more people.” The comparison’s are endless and easily made. After all RI is a state where it’s still not unusual to find people in their 60’s who have never left the state – this in a state where 45 minutes in any direction puts you into CT or MA.

So it was with mixed emotions that I read today’s story from the NY Times.

It hits the nail on the head – we’re small and about 1 in 10 of us are unemployed and no one really seems to know why. My guess is that Boston’s gravity pulls and retains many companies which might otherwise settle in RI. Who knows but the story is worth a read and illustrates what is happening in many communities across the country. -t