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Sunday, October 18, 2009

It's hard to believe that we have had Lilli as long as we have. October 17th marks our 5 month anniversary since "Gotcha Day". At dinner we went to raise our glasses to say a toast to Lilli, and she beat us to it by saying "Dooooo"...her attempt at "Cheers"! It's as if she knew it was about her.

Lilli's independence continues to blossom, which has been fun to watch (most of the time!) :) The challenges are always changing and lately, her impatience has really come out. We think that this is in part of just being two, but also a frustration to communicate.

But speaking of communication, wow, has her vocabulary grown! She has many learning books that she can identify most of the things in them when asked. In fact, the last few days she is now pointing to things in the books and saying them on her own without help from us. She mimics everything we say, and has been repeating the alphabet, colors, shapes, and numbers, with prompting, of course. She is beginning to put 2 and 3 words together, and we know that when she starts making more language connections, she is not going to stop talking! Her pronounciation has also improved and she is noticing that words have endings and syllables. Some of her new words that she can say clearly are "puppy", "people", and "apple". Among our favorite phrases are when "Mama (or Baba) Wa are you?" for "where are you?" and "I ya you" for "I love you" which totally grabs our hearts!

Lilli loves to make animal noises and some of them are pretty funny. Her cutest ones are her rooster, "cock-a-do-a-doo" and her turkey impersonation is hysterical where she sticks her tongue out, moves it from side to side as she hums, trying to gobble. Aaron is thrilled that she will sit with him on the couch and watch deer hunting shows. About a week ago, I heard her saying "Mee", which apparently is the sound that deer make. Also, she learned how important it is to be quiet around deer. This was illustrated when we were at Grandma Po-Po's house and watching a deer in the field. This was Lilli's first spotting of a deer in the wild, and when Grandma rang the windchimes, Lilli said "No! No! No!" and put her finger up to her lips to be quiet. Yes, Baba is training her well and hopes someday to take her hunting--I was laughing about that and said that maybe she'll make a lot of noise and tell them to quick run! I see that I am losing that battle! :)

We have done lots of things since our last post. We took her to her first fair and she experienced her first petting zoo. We met up with a regional adoption group at an apple orchard where Lilli got to help us pick apples and taste them, too. She abolutely loved eating the apples right off the tree! We also went to the pumpkin patch, and practically froze. Lilli didn't seem to be bothered, but it was so cold that we couldn't wait to leave. We hope that Halloween will not be quite as cold. We also joined a gym for children where one day a week she is in a class and the other day is free play. This has given her wonderful socialization time with other children her age. The instructors there came up to me a couple weeks ago to ask how long we have had Lilli. When we told them since the end of May, they were shocked. The said that her perceptual skills are excellent and really, they are. She is one of the youngest and newest to the 2-3 year old group and can independently follow the prompts of the instructor on cue. Sometimes she pauses to process but overall is very quick to respond. In fact, the last week she didn't want Mama to help, and honestly, she didn't need my help like many of the other kids did. The only problem with this is when I see Lilli needing the help, she sometimes shouts "No!" or goes into meltdown mode--yes, I know all of you parents out there who have had a 2 year old are just smiling right now.

One of the things that Lilli has started to love is to be held and rocked when she gets up from nap. This is the one time, especially if she is still a little groggy, when she has such an angelic face, so precious and peaceful. I love to just touch her face and hold her close to snuggle. This all started one day when I tried everything to get her to stop crying and whining after a nap. Finally, I said to her, "Do you want Mama to rock you?" She quickly said yes and turned off the tears. I covered her with her blanket and whispered, "I love you", and at that, she squinted up her eyes and the corners of her mouth turned upward. It was if she was saying, "Mama, you finally got it." And with that she whispered, "I ya you".

It's these moments that I will miss the most when I go back to work. Aaron will have to carry this torch, and who wouldn't love this? But with these beautiful moments, will also come challenges and we expect that Lilli will go through a period of transition. As much as we parent the same, we are different and Lilli will probably notice the difference. It will be good for her to have this time alone with her Baba to bond. Lilli has definitely bonded with me more because of our time together. She has had to adjust to so many change thus far and will have more transitions in the coming months. I'm so grateful that we had this length of time together to share together.

Well, until next time, enjoy the updated pictures and a sneak peek at Halloween!

"Baba,where are all the apples?"

"Look! I found a good one!"

"This is funny looking sand!"

Chillin' with Mama

"Happy Halloween"

"What happened to fall?"

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