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My father, LiLi and I went to visit my paternal grandmother last weekend. We left on Thursday night and arrived in Detroit around 6:30 pm so decided to stop about halfway at a restaurant my father knew. We arrived to find a very crowded restaurant full of couples and no children. Of course, we had forgotten it was Valentine’s day. Thankfully, there were 3 chairs at the bar and our LiLi no longer wants to sit in a highchair. Instead she wants to sit in a big chair on her “neers(knees)” so this worked out perfectly. Even though it was a nice restaurant, it was very kid friendly and since LiLi was the only kid, she got a whole box of toys to play with in addition to the crayons and coloring book/menu. The meal was delicious but on the long side since it was very busy. LiLi and I took a couple of walks around the restaurant where not suprisingly she charmed many people even managing to get a balloon from a large group. She was quite happy with this and we attached to the back of her chair for the remainder of the meal and then brought it in the car where it bobbed happily all weekend finally escaping as we were leaving for the airport on Sunday. By the time dinner ended, LiLi was so tired she could barely function but she was content to peal the wrapping off the crayons while we ate our dinner. This is her new favorite activity and if I had realized that I would have just bought a box of crayons for her to peal on the airplane home although the stickers do work wonderfully especially since she now wants to take them off herself and that adds time to the whole procedure.
We stayed with my Aunt Gail and Uncle Jack who also have 4 dogs, a cat, many electric trains and a whole bin of plastic animals. LiLi, of course, especially enjoyed seeing the cat whom she wanted to hug but who was very adept at sneaking around LiLi. I think she has had practice. She would however make occaisonal stops relatively close to us and LiLi would get very excited and she did get to pat the cat a couple of times which is definately unusual for our experience with LiLi and cats.

The dogs relaxing

We visited with Grandma on Friday morning and it was very nice. LiLi had obviously been mentioned to the people taking care of Grandma because they all knew who she was which of course she loved. She also loved the fact that this nursing home had a large cage of birds, a rabbit and a fish tank. Plus many of the women she saw in the home where wearing sweaters and shirts with birds on them. Of course, she always wanted to go up to those people and touch their shirts. Everyone was very nice and once again, LiLi was her usual charming self “running” down the hall in that peculiar way she has where the top of her body and the bottom of her body seem to be functioning seperately and swinging in the opposite directions. We had a very nice time hanging out in Grandma’s room where LiLi played with the stuffed animals especially the cat which from a distance looked very realistic and even tried out Grandma’s bed where she did accidentlly push the call button without us knowing it. We also went to visit the birds, the fish and the rabbit and then had a very nice lunch in the cafe after which LiLi and I went back to the house and took a nice nap as I am pretty sure Grandma did, too.

Meeting Grandma

Trying out Grandma’s bed

Watching the birds with Grandma

The rabbit

That afternoon we went back up to visit Grandma again and Uncle Bill and Aunt Carol where there too. LiLi had a wonderful time getting Aunt Carol to do almost everything she wanted. We again went to visit the birds, fish and rabbit. By this time LiLi’s first words when you pulled into the parking lot was “bird.” We went to dinner in one of the dining rooms with a friend of Grandma’s and Aunt Carol and Uncle Bill. During a walk while waiting for dinner, LiLi and I found a cabinet full of glass birds. Not as good as the live birds but this one had a few birds of prey like the owl and the eagle which are some of LiLi’s favorites. LiLi, at Aunt Carol’s suggestion, had chocolate ice cream for dessert and she was quite content with her day and exhausted.

Chocolate ice cream

and more chocolate ice cream

More to come later.