Dancing, talking, and experimenting

The ultrasound showed us that baby number two is going to be a boy. Now we're working on choosing a name for the little guy. When we got back from the ultrasound and told Liliana she was going to have a brother, she didn't seem to care. We asked her if she was excited that she was going to have a baby brother and for the first time we can remember, she answered with a "no." She had always answered any questions with a "yeah" before and we were taken off-guard by that response. We started laughing and she thought that was pretty funny. When we asked her if she was going to love her brother anyway, she also said no. Over the next few days I tried tricking her into saying yes by asking her other questions in rapid succession before asking her if she loved her brother. I'd say, "Liliana, do you want to go outside? Do you want a drink? Would you like a cookie?" etc. and she'd answer in the affirmative. Then I'd ask, "Are you happy you're going to have a brother? Do you love baby brother?" and she'd say no to both of those questions. It was too funny!

For the Fourth of July we went to David's aunt and uncle's home on Angle Lake in SeaTac. We went out on their paddle boats and played in the lake, ate yummy food, watched the babies play together, took Liliana swimming in her new floaty toy, and then watched the fireworks that were set off from a barge in the middle of the lake. It was the first year that we didn't go to Seaside, Oregon for the Fourth with my family, but it was still a ton of fun.

The second half of July was spent in California with my grandparents. Liliana had a blast dancing with her great-grandpa Jovet (I'll link some of the videos here - they're a hoot). I think great-grandma was surprised by what an active little girl Liliana has become. She's developing quite the vocabulary now, though she often needs parental translation when speaking to others. Great-grandma was taken by surprise when Liliana ran into the room where she and grandpa were watching TV, pointed at a word on the screen, and said "B" - which happened to be the first letter of the word. I've been reading alphabet books and drawing letters with her at home, but I wasn't sure that she'd be able to point them out in text like that. I was pleasantly surprised, myself. We enjoyed seeing Liliana play with and entertain her great-grandparents. We also got to take her to the beach, take her to see some of the sights, and play with her in my grandparents' hammock and the sprinklers in the back yard. We also got to visit with my MTC companion (and one of my favorite people), Becca, while we were down there.

After returning from CA, we got to go see my newest nephew, Elliott, be blessed. Liliana liked checking him out and pointing out his hands, eyes, feet, hair, etc. We figure it's good practice for her to be around a little baby like that since she'll be sharing her home with one in the near future. Plus, if she practices on Elliot, her baby brother is more likely to survive the ordeal unscathed! Sorry to make you the guinea pig, Elliot!

Liliana is still working on potty training, though we took a break when we went to California, so we're starting back at it slowly. Some days she is very excited to sit on the potty and other days she wants nothing to do with it. Since she's still so young and I don't want this to become a battle, I just offer her the potty option several times throughout the day and when she willingly heads toward the bathroom, I take advantage of it.

Last week Liliana started putting three word sentences together. At breakfast she pointed to David's bowl and said, "more Daddy cereal" - meaning she wanted some more of David's cereal (which is the sugary stuff that I usually don't feed Liliana, but that David likes to eat). When David had to leave for work Liliana said, "Daddy car bye-bye." She also regularly says, "help me please," though her 'help' sounds more like 'up'. There have been a few other sentences like that, but I can't think of them at the moment. She's such a talker now! She'll repeat just about any two or three syllable words we say now. Today she repeated "bicycle" after I pointed to one in a book and told her what it was. I was surprised at how clearly she was able to pronounce it!

Today Liliana took a long narrow box and propped one end on the couch. She tried to slide down it herself, but was too heavy for it and kept bending it. Unhindered, she decided to experiment on her slide with her toys. She tried sliding a stuffed toy down the ramp, but it wouldn't stay on very well, so she switched to a smaller plastic toy that she could get to slowly slid down. I was pretty impressed that she came up with the ramp and the alternate use for it all on her own. I'm going to have to watch out because she seems to have one of those minds for figuring out how things work and if I'm not careful, she'll be taking apart my appliances and other things to figure out what they do and how.