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Monday, April 12, 2010

We cannot believe that we are coming up to our one-year anniversary as a family. In fact, there is only thirty-six more days until we celebrate “Gotcha Day” on May 17th. So much has happened this last year, and we are very grateful to have this website to journal Lilli’s milestones. It’s been awhile since our last posting, so let me recap the highlights since the New Year.

We found a new favorite snack—popcorn. Lilli’s first popcorn experience was during the Super Bowl. She was fascinated at watching the popcorn popper transform tiny little seeds to a delectable treat. Aaron gave Lilli her own special bowl and told her to be very careful not to spill as she walked over to the couch. If you could have seen how carefully she took baby steps to the couch, you would have thought her life depended on this bowl of popcorn. She treated it like it was her most prized possession.

For Valentine’s Day, I let Lilli make her first cutout sugar cookies. Lilli thought she was pretty cool when I let her use the rolling pin. Then it was onto frosting the cookies. Lilli’s job was to pour pink sprinkles on them. So I talked to Lilli about what her task was, and she was all over it. The only problem was when the sprinkles came out too fast, Lilli was surprised, became engrossed at the sight, and forgot for a moment that she was supposed to be “sprinkling” not pouring them out! Yes, our first decorated cookie looked more like a volcano that had just erupted than a heart cookie, as the frosting and half the jar of sprinkles melted off the sides. The cutest part was the innocent look she gave me and said, “Uh-oh, too much sprinkles.”

Chinese New Year fell on Valentine’s Day this year, too. We welcomed in the Year of the Tiger as we joined other adoptive families at a Chinese New Year party. Lilli enjoyed watching the dancers and especially the Lion Dance. She looked so beautiful in her pink silk Chinese “Qui-pao” dress and matching pink silk shoes. It was at this moment we realized how much older she looked and how much she has changed.

Within the last few months, Lilli has begun to interact with her favorite television shows, Dora the Explorer and The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She is now speaking four to six word sentences. We sometimes have to remind ourselves that she has only been exposed to the English language for less than a year. There are days that she can be quite the chatterbox! It is so much fun listening to her. The word “yeah” has become a very pronounced “yes” as she almost overemphasizes the ‘s’ making it so much cuter!

Easter was so much fun. Lilli got to see her grandma, grandpa and great aunt from Wisconsin prior to the holiday. She loved the Easter basket—especially the Easter Grass. Yes, I think we now have found all the lose strands of the messy grass, but I didn’t care—she had so much fun with it! She looked so cute in her Easter dress and pigtails. We did an Easter-egg hunt practice run through at our house the day before in preparation for the egg hunt at Grandma Po-Po’s. I think she thought we were crazy—and her expressions said it all—you want me to find colored eggs and put them in my basket for what reason?? Needless to say it made the Easter egg hunt fun for her at Grandma’s. Our favorite Easter memory was when she opened the egg that had a pink “Peep” in it. When the Peep bunny popped out at her she was surprised, but when she took her first bite, her eyebrows went way up, her eyes got as big as saucers, and from the depths of her soul she softly said “Thaaaaank you, Grandma Po-Po”. She acted as if she hit gold. Needless to say, Grandma Po-Po was the recipient of a pink, sugary kiss.

Our last memory is this: today marks the first time Lilli has tried to sing along in church. She is also participating more in the service and enjoys holding hands during the “Lord’s Prayer”. Recently, she has been singing along to her favorite CD in the car. Her favorite song right now is “Black sheep, Black sheep” and “B-I-N-G-O”. She also makes up her own songs and the funniest thing is at the end of a song, she tries to get her voice to do vibrato. We’ve also decided that she has some music in her soul. We just went to a wedding reception, and Lilli has some major dance moves. She does what we like to call “interpretive dance” when slow songs come on and has quite the wiggle with fast songs. She also likes applause but if you focus too much attention on her then she gets embarrassed—yes, she’s 2 ½ going on 13.

We have been so blessed, and as I’ve said before, for all the people following our story, while most days are wonderful, there have been challenges around many corners. We have learned so many life lessons in this past year. Let me just leave you by sharing two of them. Life Lesson #1: What may seem like little moments to others are actually some of the best moments for us. It’s really about taking time out of our busy lives to take time to smell the flowers and watch for butterflies—if you don’t you miss so much of the beauty of each day. And Life Lesson #2: It doesn’t matter how perfect or pretty the cookies are—it’s the love behind them that matters. Yes, for all of you out there that know how much of a perfectionist I tend to be, I realized how much more fun life can be if you just enjoy the moment versus trying to make each moment perfect.

Well, if you are still reading and I haven’t lost you yet, this is it for now. Lilli is doing very well in daycare or “school”, as we call it—however, we are looking forward to our time off this summer! Happy Spring!

Baking Cookies with Mommy

Happy Chinese New Year

Aren't my pigtails cute!

Thank you for the sticky marshmallow

Happy Easter

What could be in that egg?

Our First Easter as a family

I love to swing

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