Horton Hears A Who

We've been reading Horton Hears a Who. When Lily found Willow playing with the rocks from my water bubbler, Lily started bringing them near the stairs to make little nests of "eggs". Willow follows and imitates whatever Lily does:Sit very carefully because it's not comfortable:

Then they started bringing the rocks back where they started from as quickly as possible:Whoever grabs the most, the fastest WINS:All done with mine!

And then it would start over from the beginning. This went on for about an hour while I cleaned up the kitchen after dinner. This is why, in many ways, it's easier have two kids than one. When Lily was Willow's age, she'd be under my feet while I cleaned up the kitchen (usually crying for me to hold her). And for as difficult as Willow's personality can be, the advantage to her strength is that she's always entertaining herself with games and toys. As I type she's cramming as much stuff as possible into the little toy microwave Lily got from Beamer for Christmas. This could go on for a very long time!

Here are some major accomplishments of the week:

• Willow's foster family sent a toothbrush with her (a cute little Barbie one for toddlers). From day one she loved playing with the toothbrush while I brushed Lily's teeth, but she never wanted to let me brush them for her. I didn't push issue until last weekend when I felt like we were ready for another challenge. She screamed bloody murder, despite the fact that she'd seen me brush Lily's teeth before I handed the toothbrush over to Lily for over 2 weeks. I held her arms down for about 4 mornings/nights in a row brushing her teeth while she screamed and then handed her the toothbrush. The first time, she held it behind her back and shook her finger at me saying "NO! NO! NO!" Then she threw the toothbrush - she was too mad to enjoy it. The second time she brushed her own teeth after I was done. Last night, are you ready for this? She stood on her stool and opened her mouth for me! Quietly. When I was done, I handed the tooth brush and she was totally fine - like this is how it's always been or something. This morning I held my breath wondering if last night was just a one-time thing... she opened that yap quietly again and let me brush again!




• Willow's gone to bed happily every night for a week. She lays back and touches one cheek (for a kiss),then the other cheek, then her mouth. I kiss her as instructed (and more!) and then she sleeps through the night. For a week straight. I keep hoping this lasts, but I'm still not taking it for granted. I emailed Sandra about her pointing to her cheeks for kisses because I didn't teach her that, so I knew they had. Sandra said that is only how Veronica kissed her, but that was their ritual every night at bed time. It's interesting that Willow only started doing this two nights ago. Sweet.




• In the middle of this blog update I went up to give Willow her bath, which you may remember is not fun for any of us. Lily usually hides in my shower because she wants to be near us, but can't stand the sound of Willow screaming. Tonight - Willow finally didn't cry when I layed her down in the water. And when her hair and bod were clean, she actually reached for a toy! After a few mintues, Lily peeked out of the shower to see what was happening and ended up playing in the tub with her sister for about half an hour.

She stayed in long enough for her hands and feet to pucker:

• Willow went to the doctor yesterday and had three shots, the TB skin test thing, and a blood draw. She's in the 6th percentile for height and 24th for weight. The doctor encouraged me to start giving Willow the gummy vitamins Lily gets (I thought Willow had too few molars for this) and to stop giving her milk in her bottle before bed. I was going to procrastinate that switch considering everything else Willow has lost in such a short time, but tonight I filled it up with water and told her what I was doing. I was just going to try it and if she hated the switch I'd reconsider. She watched me fill it and warm it up (ewww) and she didn't complain at all. We lay in her bed reading stories while she drinks her bottle and tonight was no different - except that she was drinking water. When we read Good Night Moon she can point to the moon, the stars, the bunny, mouse, kittens, and lady saying "hush". She's learned so very much in SUCH a short time. She can also point to her eye, nose, heart and button when I ask. I'm amazed.

• This afternoon she went looking for Lily and when Lily came in the kitchen after hearing Willow call for her, Willow stuck that pointer finger in Lily's belly, grinning ear to ear at me, and then wrapped her arms around Lily in a big bear hug. Lily goes "Mom! That was our first hug!"

Happy Days are Here Again

Sandra calls us the Three King Chicas in her emails. They miss Pili terribly. They haven't unpacked her trunk of toys. Sandra saved one of the photos I sent on her cell phone and kisses it every night and says a prayer that Pili is the daughter I hoped for all those 2 years of waiting. She is! This picture took my mom about 30 minutes to get - she was prowling all through the house trying to sneak up on Willow and getting the picture before Willow covered her face. Willow had a few sad days - and Monday was the worst. She cried from the time she woke up from her nap 'til bed time. I'm wondering if she dreamed of Sandra and Veronica. Lily and I played 3 rounds of Candy Land, offering Willow game pieces and cards and she just cried on my lap the entire time. Lily had swimming lessons that day, and Willow sat listlessly on my lap with her head on my shoulder. Then I blew up balloons before bed because that is Willow's very favorite thing, but she just sat on my lap while Lily ran around the room volleying balloons back and forth to me. She bit Lily on the hand on Sunday, which put me at an all-time LOW. Lily was sitting on my lap and Willow didn't like it so she tried to get her face cheek to cheek with me, which Lily didn't like. Lily put her hand in between Willow's cheek and mine and Willow bit her hard. I told her "NO!" and held Lily, kissing her owie and ignoring Willow for about 3 minutes. I have taught Lily how to push Willow away and yell "SHE'S BITING ME!" if it happens again. This time it was right in my face, but next to my face, and I didn't know it was happening.

Lily hides behind the curtains and Willow loves to try to find her. They both squeel and shriek every time. These are the sounds I'd been waiting to hear! (Notice Lila's doll feet on Lily's lap).

Tuesday Willow woke up happy, after sleeping all night and going to bed without crying a single tear. We went to visit my aunt and uncle Jo and Rick and Willow was happy the entire visit. She had a nap that afternoon (on me per the terms of the agreement we have mutually struck), and was happy that evening too.

Wednesday my parents came to babysit Willow so Lily and I could go to a movie - just the "big girls". We had popcorn and M&Ms for dinner and Lily was in heaven watching Hotel for Dogs at the cheap theater. Willow was not in heaven. She screamed for one hour, slept on my mom for one hour, and then we were home. I thought we might experience a 1-2 day set-back after leaving her, but not at all! She was off my lap in about 15 minutes running through the house chasing Lily and being tickeled by grammy and papa. I'm hoping what she learned is that I will always come back. She'll have to be babysat again this Sunday while I direct choir at church, and I'm hoping it goes a little better.

I haven't gotten this lucky for a while. Now, almost every time I try to sneak out from under Ms. Willow she busts me. Some days it's like heaven being forced to lie around for 2 hours. Other days it's like torture. Don't they look sweet?!

The honeymoon is over

Willow let grammy comfort her the other day. I think she was just sad in general - nothing major had triggered it (well, if you call all that's happening to her minor - WHAT am I saying?!). Grammy was so happy to be able to comfort her.

Poor baby.

We went in to meet my class on Thursday this week. Lily and Willow each received a great big bunny from the class and Mrs. Vanderwarn (thank you Mrs. Vanderwarn!) and Lily got to sit up front and answer questions about her new sister. It was fun to spend time with my class, after they've been part of our waiting for Willow all year.

Willow started this annoying trick of covering her face everytime someone wants to take her/our picture. Seriously - this is SO annoying. She doesn't do it for me, but anytime I'm in the picture means someone else is holding the camera, which means she covers her face. Will there EVER be a picture of the three of us without Willow covering her face?

Lily answering questions:

Questions included: "Does she hit?" "Does she really throw her food?" "Do you like having a sister?" "What's your favorite color?" "What's your 2nd favorite color?" and "What's your 3rd favorite color?"

I wonder if Willow was so easy initially because she wasn't safe enough yet to really let the grieving rip. For the last several days she will not leave my side, except to follow Lily around on a very limited basis. She's eating great, largely because I put her bottle in her bed and told her she could have it any time she wanted, but only in bed. I give it to her before nap and bedtime, but other than that she doesn't have it. She ate normal sized meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner tonight. She's sleeping more at night - not waking up and hollering for me to return to her bed - because I started putting her to bed on her own. It takes about an hour of her complaining, but once she's asleep she stays asleep (knock on wood - WHY am I jinxing this at 9pm?!). She will not nap without me, so we're still negotiating that. She cried tonight from about 5:30 'til bedtime. I held her in the rocking chair reading books for about a half hour, which put her in a little trance - that was her only break from sobbing. She was full from dinner, her diaper was dry, and no one was bothering her. This must be grieving. She's sleeping better and eating more, but the methods are very different from her former routines. I feel like I must do what I can to regulate her eating and sleeping, but it comes at a cost - adding more change to her life at once. I know there are some who would argue that I should make those changes later, but I just believe it's going to be worth it when we get this time behind us once and for all instead of stretching out the trauma.

And her annoying new thing again:

We went to the park today and Willow wouldn't leave my side - the same kid who boldly played in the pool in Guatemala. Doesn't that seem like a symptom of delayed grief? She is like a completely different kid from a week ago. Well, she still hollers and points at anyone who tries to talk to her. Today she yelled at a dog (a DOG) who sniffed Lily's bag of side walk chalk as it walked past with its owner. After her "nap" we played in the driveway, and she clung to the side of my chair while Lily biked and played, danced, and twirled.

Olivia Newton John, I mean, LILY is wearing her new Guatemala shirt today. She's my rock. As Willow is clinging to me, crying, throwing temper tantrums, refusing to nap without me, and being generally disagreeable, I just try to focus on Lily as a reminder that this grieving is a process and we will all recover. Lily just sang and danced and hopped around all day today. She said her new shirt made her happy. Lily was much more sad and even more clingy when I brought her home from China. She is proof that everything will be fine in the end. If it's not fine - it's not the end.

Lily and I just keep telling Willow "Esta Bien" (It's OK) and Te Quiero (I love you). Lily has still never once lost her patience with her. Not once. Lily's been a little weepy once or twice a day, in situations that normally wouldn't bring her to tears, but I expected major melt downs. Today she reminded me about 10 times to tell Willow "Bravo" like her foster family did when she did something well.

One Week with Willow

Today was such a fun day! We all stayed in our PJs 'til noon, Lily lost some of her patience with Willow (which is probably healthier than not), and Willow didn't have any of those sobbing episodes at all. She hardly fussed at all at nap and bed time. Her new routine is to fall asleep laying her head on me, which makes sneaking out difficult, but here's the thing about Willow - everything about her is all or nothing. She's either wide awake or sound asleep. The minute her eyes are shut, she's so sound asleep I can boldly get out from under her head and leave her bed/room without her noticing.

She played in this chair for a long, long time this morning. She'd hold her baby in it, play with those stacking cups in it, wave to me and then say "a ba" (which I think is her version of "peek a boo").Notice the American Girl doll from Grammy and the outfit Yaya let Lily pick out last week:Yaya brought us all this food last night. A week's worth of groceries and a menu planned to include all the food they brought. As you can see, we'll be having home made pizza, melted turkey and swiss sammies, parmesan chicken with rice (had that tonight and it was awesome), mac and cheese for lunches, lasagna left over from the dinner she brought us last night, pasta and sauce, grilled cheese sammies, soups, and lots of fruit and veggies. Willow only ate apples, grapes, and yogurt for dinner. Before bed she had two clementines and it was as big a disaster as ever - she needs a bath afterward, which is another story. Seriously - no pictures, but...
Willow hates the bath. You may remember reading that I didn't give her a bath in Guatemala because she started screaming every time I ran the bath water. She loved swimming and she loves playing in the bathroom sink and brushing her teeth. Sandra says she had a bath every morning in Guatemala. I was optimistic that when she saw Lily in the tub, that'd be all she needed. Well, the first night back Lily layed it on thick - having a party in the tub. It got Willow in, but she screamed the minute her feet hit the water and screamed the entire 90 seconds it took me to wash her hair. So last night I tried the same thing, thinking she'd been here 2 more days (??!!!) and it might go better. However, she would not even get to the point like the other night where she WANTED to get in the tub. So I got my swimming suit on and climbed in the tub with Lily. Can I just say that again? I got on my swimming suit and climbed in the tub with Lily. Willow finally reached for me to get in the tub with us, basically because I raised the stakes and quit handing her the toys she wanted to throw at us until she agreed to sit on my lap (explained with lots of gestures and patting my lap). She SCREAMED bloody murder once I was holding her. She sat on my lap in warm water, I washed her hair in, I'm sure, less than 90 seconds, and she had the nerve to scream. I quickly got her out, and said to her screaming face "Willow. This is not scary. This is fun. Your mom is in the bath tub with your sister and you are screaming. You are screaming about a bath." Lily, without looking up at me, said "Mom, you sound mean." I wasn't yelling. I wasn't even really sounding that sassy, I was more humiliated for trying this hard I think. I said "What Lily?" She goes "Your words sound mean." This time she looked me right in the eye. She's right. It wasn't the tone or the sarcasm. It was the words. To Willow it was scary and I was ignoring that. My Lily.

Back to today. We went to the library. Lily loves to play on the "pooter" (computer) and Willow loved the board books and the bead maze thing. I sent her Good Night Moon in Spanish when she was in Guatemala. I wonder if she'd read it a lot and gravitated toward it today because of that. They sent about 5 books home with us, so I know they read to her often. After the library we went to the park and both girls had a blast. Willow would holler for Lily whenever she got far away from us. She says her name by moving her tongue over the front of her teeth making an "L" sound full volume. Lily didn't have the courage to go down slides 'til she about 3 years old - that is not an exaggeration. Willow climbs up the stairs by herself and shoves my hand away if I try to help. Then she flies down the slide full speed, laughing all the way. She pats the bench to show me where to sit to watch. Lily spent most of the park time playing with the big kids, which I was happy about. She is so devoted to her sister I worry that I messed her up with all my prep-talk about being patient and not being mean to Willow no matter what she does, etc. So seeing Lily find her own friends today and letting me deal with Willow was a relief. She did find us at the end of our time there and went down the slide a couple times with her sister. At dinner Willow was hollering and pointing at Lily every time she talked. She does this often, but mostly she has fun playing with Lily. She doesn't like it when Lily and I are talking to each other too much or hugging each other. Well, I decided Willow's adjusted enough for me to turn on my stern voice and so I sternly said "Willow, be NICE to Lily." I didn't yell at all, but it was very serious. I wanted to shock her a little - and she is difficult to shock. Willow just gave me a mean look and went back to her apple. Lily said "Mom, remember? We have to say 'Be nice Willow. King girls talk nice to each other'" all sing songy. Again, my Lily. I was totally humbled and convicted. I forgot. That's how we teach Willow to be nice - by being nice. Not by shocking her. Thank you, Lily.

After dinner we went for a walk. Lily rode her bike, and Willow tried to keep up. We had to go back to the house at least 5 times. Willow will not wear a diaper after it had even a tablespoon of potty in it. Every single time she wets even the tiniest bit she's patting her butt hollering at me to change her! I'm switching to the cheapest diapers I can find and praying this means she'll be ready for potty training early. At one point I foolishly thought I could get her to forget about her bottom, and she pulled her pants and diaper down right in the middle of the side walk. That's when we made one trip home. Mommy surrendered when the neighbors had to suffer with my power struggle. Another time Willow refused to let me help her get off her little bike (the kind with no pedals) and she fell flat on her back in a big, sloppy MUD puddle. She screamed at the mess like she'd been beaten. I mean SCREAMED. Again, I wanted to lay on the sarcasm - you refuse my help and then are shocked when you wipe out? And now you're mad at me about it?!

Willow is brave and silly and fun. The upside of her strong spirit is that she is generally happy and confident and extremely affectionate. She hugs me with this squeeze around my neck that I can't even describe. She puckers up asking for kisses many times each day. She mimics every thing Lily does and loves to follow Lily around the house. Her belly laugh is as fierce as her temper. I am totally head over heels for this little thing!

Home!

Our flights were uneventful, fast, and pretty easy. I was so happy to see Grace and Tate at the airport, and finally seeing Lily was AWESOME. Pastor Bud and Elaine were there to welcome Willow just like when I brought Lily home from China. Jen and Shani got pictures - and I'm so glad because I was too overwhelmed to think about getting my camera out. Willow screamed the last 15 minutes of our flight because her ears hurt, so she was not happy at the airport at all. We had pizza at my parents' with my sister's family and she sprung back to her normal, spunky self. She played and laughed and ran around with Grace and Tate and Lily even when the kids were alone down stairs. She absolutely loves to play with other kids. At bedtime, I layed with Willow 'til she fell asleep. Then she slept 'til 4 am, and then woke up hollering - not terrified, just wanting me in there. I layed with her again and she was back to sleep right away. Her sister is the one who kept me up after that - telling me about life while I was gone, telling me how much she loves Willow, and other things unimportant at 4am. Willow slept 'til 8:30 this morning.

At breakfast I gave her oatmeal, which she wouldn't eat, and a clementine. As you can see, Lily had to cover her eyes while Willow ate the clementine - it was dripping down her arm, into her sleeve, and down the front of her PJs. I am frustrated with her eating because she's just not eating much. I keep offering her things, but she shakes her head no at just about everything. She ate a banana last night before bed and for lunch she ate deli ham and lots of grapes. And bread. I will be so relieved when that bread from Guat. is gone and we have to find new things! Or maybe it will get ugly around here when that bread is gone and I'll be finding some way to courrier a shipment to our door.

They both love coloring - they did this for a long time this morningAt first Willow tried to eat the playdough, which is totally understandable considering we use plastic forks and knives to play with it. But when I told her "no no. icky" she looked right at me and put in her mouth again. I took it away from her for a minute and then gave it back - she didn't cry or complain at all. Then I gave it back to her and said the same thing "No No icky" and she never put it in her mouth again. They had a BLAST playing with playdough - they must have sat there for an hour with little baggies, bowls, and plastic silverware. I took this picture at the very beginning, but the end, there was playdough all over the table, all over the floor and all over Willow.
The walk seemed like a good idea until the way home. At first Willow was laughing and talking and pointing. She loved her stroller rides in Guatemala. After 45 minutes she was completely done, wanted me to hold her, and screamed the entire way back. Lily never complains when Willow screams. She just plugs her ears and offers explanations of why Willow could be mad: could be cold, could want me to hold her, could be scared of the snow, could be anything. When we got home she was instantly perfectly happy. My aunt and uncle (Jeff and Debbie) and Grandma King stopped over and Willow was happy the whole time there were here.
Finally she's in her own bed. She's not crazy about it, but I just lay with her 'til she's asleep and go back when she wakes up.

Lily adores her sister. This morning she was trying to get Willow to follow her - constantly. "Come here, Willow." "Look at this, Willow" "Want to play with this Willow?" on and on and on. Willow did pretty good with it, considering her personality. By afternoon, Lily was just running around doing her own thing, and Willow followed her everywhere. She copies everything Lily does - when Lily coughs, Willow pretends to cough. When Lily crawls across the livingroom, Willow does the same.

Today Lily whispered to me that Willow doesn't like it when I hug Lily. I whispered back that Willow doesn't know I am Lily's mom too. Lily said "Maybe we should just hug when Willow isn't looking." She was like that all day today - constantly trying to help Willow. At the airport she layed on the floor to show her how they're going to lay in their beds at night. When I told Lily we could do anything she wanted today (at home) she said "I think we should go to Cost Co and buy a rocking chair so you can rock Willow. That might make her happy." I didn't know Cost Co sold rocking chairs, but that's beside the point I guess. At bath time last night, Lily acted like that bath was the happiest place on earth to try to get Willow to not be scared - I hadn't giving Willow a bath yet because every time I ran the water she screamed in genuine terror and I just couldn't force it. Lily poured water from one bowl to another, laughing and acting like this is what she always does. It worked. Pretty soon Willow was handing her things and throwing toys in the water and then she wanted to step in. She hated it as soon as she was in there, but I quick washed her hair before I got her out.

When Willow was sad tonight at bedtime, she reached for me for the first time in her sadness. She's never pushed me away, but tonight she held out those little open arms for comfort. She also puckered up asking for a kiss. It was the sweetest thing in the world. Bedtime drug out for an hour because she cried so long. I don't know if she's used to falling asleep to the TV or what - but at the hotel she went to bed great and fell asleep fast. The two nights here have been long and miserable even with me laying next to her. And Lily : Lily just lays in her bed quietly waiting for it all to end so I can lay with her. Last night she fell asleep before I got to lay with her, so tonight we started earlier and had time for big girl stuff (a card game and chocolate).

It is all SO much easier than I'd feared! I imagined myself sitting in the middle of the living room having a nervous breakdown while the girls ripped the house apart and fought. Instead we all had a mellow day - they played, I got unpacked and laundry done, and we even got our teeth brushed! I was worried that Lily would be sad and jealous and she's not at all - at least she's not acting like it if she is. Instead it's Willow who doesn't like me giving Lily attention. Sandra emailed me about that this morning warning that Willow might bite Lily - that she'd done that when kids hugged Veronica. I don't see any sign of that kind of rage right now.

At one point tonight both girls had a snack and Willow started to walk out of the kitchen with it. I said "No No Willow. Stay in the kitchen." and led her back. When she was done eating, she stood at the edge of the carpet and looked at me, waiting for permission. She didn't understand the whole thing, but she obviously understood something and was willing to follow my directions without screaming or crying.

Thursday is a happier day

Willow woke up happy - smiling, laughing, and being silly. We went to the baby room and played for a while until it was warm enough to put our suits on and head to the pool.

She seriously eats this bread constantly. Fortunately she ate lots of other things today too, but this bread is such a hit I stocked up at the bakery around the corner to have at home the first couple weeks. It's super soft and chewy and tastes like sour dough bread.Sandra and Veronica told me that Willow is terrified of airplanes, which terrified me! Our hotel is VERY close to the airport, so the planes fly over us real low and loud. The first couple times we heard a plane fly overhead, she buried her face in my neck. After a couple times I started cheering when the planes flew over: "Bravo! Hola, airplane!" Now this is what Willow does when she hears a plane - she always hears them before I do. She was happy and cuddly at the pool. She didn't want grammy talking to her yet - every time she tried, Willow would holler/grunt with a mean look on her face. But this is what I get all the time now:A couple times today she even made a kissing noise, with her lips all puckered up and crossed the room to offer me a kiss! Sandra emailed me after I'd updated her about Willow being sad yesterday and only having her bottle, but no food. She suggested I get her an orange because she loves oranges. Voila - Willow eats:I loved this restaurant (Tacontento) so much, we ate here again tonight. And Willow ate this time! When we brought her here on Tuesday she only ate that bread and drank her water.Willow finally started warming up to grammy tonight. Grammy didn't order dinner and it drove Willow crazy - hollering, throwing chips her way, and handing her kernals of rice. It's just plain white rice and she loved it. They didn't have a spoon for her, so she used the fork. She did really well, but she lost her patience. This worked only this one time - she didn't really like this method either. And - mommy gets to feed her! Not only did I touch the food on her plate, I picked it up and fed it to her. She shook her head no a couple times, but finally wanted the rice so bad she let me do it. She also ate the rest of her orange from earlier, and some chips. To clarify the rumor about NEVER TOUCHING HER FOOD OR SHE'LL THROW IT ALL ON THE FLOOR: It's not true! What she hates is if you ask her something, she says "no" and then you do it anyway. That's when throwing gets involved. Here's another example of this - today I wanted her to lay down with me on the bed to take a nap. She refused and would only sit on the bed. I kept patting her pillow, she kept shaking her head "no". She finally fell asleep sitting up, head bobbing, body tipping, and she still refused to lay down. It's like she got it in her head she didn't want to and had argued it with me, so she was NOT backing down at any cost. I had to wait 'til she was really sound asleep and gently lay her on the pillow without waking her. If she woke even just partly, she'd holler and shake her head at me. Mom and I laughed later because she won that dang battle. She did lay down, but not 'til she was so sound asleep she didn't know. Did I mention she likes to clean? We stopped at a coffee shop on the way back and had cake and coffee for dessert. Willow had a couple bites of cake and then scrubbed the table, chairs, and stool with the wipe I'd used for her hands. She went through 2 wipes and brought them right over to the trash can. How can this happen that I have to two girls who love to clean? She also notices when things are out of place. When I was packing up our stuff for the pool, she went to her pile of toys in the hotel room and found a stacking cup in the wrong bag that I hadn't packed up with the pool stuff and handed it to me to add to the stacking cups I had packed. I think I might get to sit on the couch and let Lily and Willow rule our world.


We're on our way. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 6 am and we'll land in Minneapolis at 4:20 after a short stop in Houston to process the immigration stuff. I can not wait to get both my girls home!

Lily got to go to Build A Bear with Yaya today. They had lunch at Ruby Tuesday's, and picked out an outfit for Willow's American Girl baby too. Tonight they got to swim at the Y and Tate is so happy with this arrangment (having Lily there so much) he cried yesterday when he got home from school and she wasn't there. She might want to move in for a while when she meets this little sister of hers! Yaya and grandpa have made my being gone a PARTY for Lily and I am so thankful.
And I guess Liller got to shovel with papa the other day. Yaya says she was mortified at what she had to wear, but it was all they had that would fit her because they hadn't planned ahead and packed up stuff from our house (to bring to yaya's) for being outside. I miss Lily, but not as much I was afraid I would. I think it helps knowing that they are having such fun times and making this special for her too. I can't wait to hear what she has to say about having papa sleep in her room and how yaya runs things. Lily is always organized and planning and questioning if this is the best way to handle things. My family thinks this is because I lean toward the disorganized, messy side - but it seems she's been giving my dad and my sister the same treatment. She's accusing yaya of losing some Easter socks yaya bought her - dad's blaming yaya too, which doesn't help. Lily's giving papa tips about how I manage bed time. I am cracking up because I guess when Lily woke up this morning she asked if she could look in yaya's washing machine for her socks because Papa told her they might have gotten mixed up with Yaya's laundry. She will not rest until the socks are found. And I am not involved. I love this! This is the child who reminds me to turn off my cell phone whent the movie starts and asks if I have my camera when we go somewhere special. They think she does that because I do forget sometimes - now they know! I should leave home more often.