Weekend in Lovells (12/26/09 – 12/27/09)

It was so hard to get up on Saturday morning after staying up late the past few nights with all of our busy Christmas activities. We wanted to get a fairly early start as we were heading up to Lovells for the weekend and had a three hour drive ahead of us so I was finally able to drag myself out of bed with the knowledge that I could sleep in the car. I didn’t end up sleeping on the drive up and actually took over halfway through so that Paul could sleep. Lily, on the other hand, napped almost the entire time. We were hoping to spend the weekend with Paul’s parents, Debbie and her family, and Beth and John. Unfortunately, Debbie’s kids were both getting over viruses and Lily just got over croup so we decided that mixing the kids’ illnesses together in their immune-compromised states would not be a good idea. Therefore, Debbie, Mike, Jack, and Sophia took off a few hours before we arrived so we didn’t get to see them. Beth and John were working on redecorating Jack’s room in Traverse City all weekend so we didn’t get to see them either. They haven’t met Lily yet. We did, however, have a nice, relaxing weekend with Paul’s parents. Lily always likes playing with all of their toys.
Here is Lily playing with the wheels on a walker. We later showed her how to actually walk with it which she found absolutely delightful. We caught it on video which I will post separately. Beth got her a walker of her own for Christmas but we have been too busy to put it together. We will definitely have to do so as it was a huge hit:

Concentrating:

Lily was very surprised that the mouse popped up when she pushed the cheese button:

Lily got sleepy so she pulled her blanket down from the couch and rolled around on it, burying her face in it. It was so cute:

Snuggling up to mommy:

Lily refused to settle down and nap so I put her back on the floor to play again. Pretty soon, she was back to sleepily rolling on her blanket:

Hey, a toy:

She won the battle against sleep again and went back to playing:

Sassy girl smiling with her binkie in her mouth:

Lily loves to play:

Lily finally settled down for a short nap with me. Then we gave her a bath and let her play for a while in her diaper. She is a nudist at heart and is happiest without clothes:

Posing under the Christmas tree:

Sitting in a chair like a big girl:

Lily suddenly became fascinated with my teeth:

Then she wanted to bite them:

Settling down for the night on Grandma Maureen:

Unfortunately, Lily slept horribly on Saturday night. Paul and I spent the night taking turns pacing with her around the house. She wouldn't lay down and kept writhing around. We thought it was her tummy at first but then she kept wanting to get down on the living room floor to play so I think she just really wanted to play instead of sleep. It didn't help that she was overstimulated from all of the holiday bustle and in an unfamiliar environment. We all got very little sleep yet Lily still got up happily the next morning to return to playing.
Here she is opening her Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Rysso:

It was a musical teapot and cups:

It's slinky, it's slinky:

For fun it's a wonderful toy:

It's fun for a girl or a boy:

We headed home after lunch but detoured by Clare to get some maple syrup from the Schmiedicke's on our way. Lily slept almost the entire 3.5 hour drive. I did some snoozing, too.

Lily snuggling with her stuffed kitty back home:

We had a nice holiday and a nice weekend. It all flew by so fast. It's back to work and back to the old grind tomorrow.