1Y41W: Timber! (12/6/10 - 12/12/10)

Lily had a lot of fun playing with the Christmas decorations this week. I tried to keep her away from the ornaments for multiple reasons but while I was out shopping and Paul was in charge of Lily, she tried to walk away while holding an ornament and pulled the entire Christmas tree down on top of herself. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt but many ornaments got broken. Paul righted the tree and cleaned up the mess the best he could. I think he was afraid to tell me what happened but as soon as I got home, I instantly knew that something happened with the tree because many of the ornaments were stuck on higher branches, seemingly defying gravity. Lily has been scared of everything lately (loud noises, the dark, strangers, etc.) so I was very glad that the incident didn’t make her afraid of the tree. I keep trying to talk to her about Christmas and what it means and what will happen and she seems very intrigued. Every day when we get home from work, she is in charge of turning on the pretty lights outside and the tree inside. She smiles and oooohs with amazement every time.

On Tuesday, we went to the Dixboro General Store to attempt to get a good Christmas picture of Lily as the store was decorated beautifully for the holiday. It was a rousing failure. Lily didn’t want Paul to put her down and when he did, she cried and clung to his leg. Not the best Kodak moment! When I did finally get her to stand in front of a display for me, she either looked away, came too close to the camera, or made funny faces. Ugh!

On Wednesday, I had the ultrasound on my knee. It showed that all of my external tendons and ligaments are intact but could not visualize the actual knee joint. In other words, it gave me zero answers as to why I am in so much pain. When we got home that evening, Lily kept attempting to give the cats high fives. It was very cute and completely unsuccessful.

My cousin, Rosa, died unexpectedly before Thanksgiving but her family did not have her memorial until this weekend. We drove up to Flint to attend on Saturday. We’ve had hardly any contact with most of my dad’s side of the family since my Grandma Hernandez’s death when I was in middle school. It was interesting to see many of my cousins again as adults, albeit under sad circumstances. Lily charmed many people as a welcome comic relief at the service then demonstrated her refined palate by insisting on eating potato chips dipped in chocolate pudding at the funeral dinner. Ick! Afterward, we went back to my parents’ house to try yet again to get a good Christmas card picture of Lily. She was happy and smiley this time but was constantly in motion and wouldn’t look at the camera and smile at the same time. So frustrating!

We got a lot of snowfall on Saturday night which I found very exciting. I love snow around Christmas-time. Immediately after Christmas I would be more than happy to see it all go away and the temperatures return to 75F but sadly, that never happens. Seeing as how all of my indoor Christmas card picture attempts had failed, the only other great idea I had was to get a picture of Lily playing out in the snow, perhaps in her sled. What kid doesn’t smile and laugh on sled rides? The answer- Lily. She did not like the cold or the snow and was completely terrified of the sled. Having completely run out of time and ideas, I need to now pick a picture for the Christmas cards, get them made, and call it good enough. Oh well, perhaps I will get the perfect picture next year.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily playing under the Christmas tree with the cats on Wednesday:

Attempting to balance a coaster on Amber’s head on Saturday morning:

Success:

Cutie hanging out at grandma and papi’s house after the memorial:

I have no idea what this look is all about:

Ooh, new and different ornaments to play with:

Poor baby all wore out from our photo attempts:

I don’t see the bobsled team in Lily’s future:

Silly girl trying to fit into the compartment under her seat. She’s just a little bit too big:

This is the first page from Lily’s new favorite bedtime book, Cownting. The book is actually one of Rachel’s old favorites. Lily loves it and always talks about the “snugglebug and book” on the front cover. As you may remember, Lily hates messes as was evident by her reaction to seeing snow this winter. Whenever I read this page to her, Lily points to the spilled frosting and says, “Cow make mess.” Silly girl: