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.
