Giving Thanks in California ... with Goldilocks

*I just found this incomplete post draft that I never published from November of 2010 - oops! 

We just got home from our trip to California. We celebrated Thanksgiving a day late with the Jovet side of the family at Grandpa and Grandma Jovet's house. It was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had yet. While in CA, I got to go with David and Liliana for their first trip to Disneyland. Emmett stayed home with Grandpa Jovet and the great-grandparents so he could have his naps and regular bed time. Liliana loved seeing all the Disney characters - especially the princesses - and had a good time on the rides (though she found some to be a little scary). She especially loved Toon Town and visiting with Tinker Bell. David had a really good time trying out the rides and seeing all the fun things to do. Sleeping Beauty's Castle was all lit up for Christmas and we all thought it looked amazing.

While in California, Liliana was sleeping on a cot in the same room as Grandpa Jovet. One evening my dad went to head for bed and came back out chuckling. He said he couldn't go to bed because someone else was already sleeping in it. She had climbed out of her cot and onto his bed and passed out like she owned the place. 🤣

What they've been up to

Emmett: Last Wednesday Emmett took his first two steps in the kitchen. He stepped on the hem of his pants, slipped, and has refused to try to walk since. The week before he was sitting in my lap and I was playing with him, pretending to wave goodbye. I stopped waving and then Emmett picked up my hand, waved it for me, and then waved his hand in front of mine. It was quite cute, considering that he's not much of a waver.
Emmett's Great-Grandma Neta came over a few weeks back and Emmett warmed up to her quite nicely during her visit. When it came time for her to go, he leaned out of my arms toward her, grabbed the fabric of her sweatshirt over her shoulders, and pulled her toward himself. He didn't want to let her go!
Mike, a close family friend, came by to visit a few days later and Emmett warmed to him quickly as well. Emmett crawled over and pulled himself up on Mike's legs, making it clear he wanted to be picked up. He thought Mike's chin whiskers were very interesting and kept "pinching" his chin. When Mike was leaving, Emmett also grabbed his shoulders and pulled Mike toward him, almost into a hug.
This week I've noticed that Emmett has been making more sound effects when he plays with toys. He makes a "rrrrr" sound when he's playing with toy cars. I held up two dinosaurs for him and made them "roar" at each other, and now he tries to imitate the roaring when he plays with them!

Liliana: A couple of weeks ago, during a preschool lesson, I mentioned that when we're sick we can go see a doctor to help us get better. I randomly said, "That cold metal circle thing they use to listen to your chest and back is called a stethoscope." A few days later while reading a children's magazine, Liliana pointed at a picture of a nurse and said, "That's her stethoscope." I was so surprised that after having heard the word once, with no picture to support the new word, Liliana was able to accurately use her new vocabulary word.
Last week Liliana was trying to zip up her blocks in a storage bag. As she struggled with the zipper, she huffed, "Come on!" I started laughing, knowing that she has heard me say that in frustration before. She really is my little parrot!
Last Thursday, Liliana's friend was supposed to come for a play date. His mom called to reschedule and I told Liliana about it as soon as I got off the phone. The next morning she asked to call her Grandma Cindy. When Grandma picked up, Liliana told her, "Jimmy was supposed to come play yesterday, but his mom called and said, 'Can we come later?' and now they will come today." I was amazed, yet again, by her. I was impressed that she could accurately deliver the message as though from Jimmy's mother's perspective.

I can't believe how time is flying. Emmett will be a year old in just a few more days. Liliana is just a couple months short of her third birthday. So much fun so far, and so many memories yet to come!

When Grandmas Aren't Nice

This weekend Grandma Cindy was in town and stayed with us. David and I took advantage and went out to celebrate our 5th anniversary at a delicious Brazilian Grill in Seattle and then went to the 5th Avenue Theater and watched a great performance of "In The Heights". My sister and her husband also went out for their anniversary and brought their little ones to my place for my mom to watch as well. The next morning I was talking with Liliana about her evening with Grandma. Liliana said, "Grandma let me watch a movie with Mason. When the movie was finished, she put me straight to bed. That wasn't very nice of her."
I laughed out loud. Apparently the fact that Grandma had let Liliana stay up a little late to watch a movie was not good enough.
I asked Liliana what movie she watched. She told me, "It had one Cinderella and a mean guy with black clothes. It had two Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauty and swimming alligators and birds and a frog." I couldn't for the life of me figure out what movie we had that matched this description - especially since Liliana hasn't seen Sleeping Beauty and had only seen Cinderella once several months ago with Bapa (Grandpa Hernandez). I told my mom about Liliana's movie description and she said it was actually fairly accurate because they had watched Swan Princess, which has several princesses in it for part of it and does have alligators, birds, and a frog that all swim. They had watched it on Netflix, which was why it hadn't come to mind when I was trying to match Liliana's description to the movies we own. I'm impressed by how well she was able to recall and describe the movie to me. She's getting bigger and better at communicating all the time!
Emmett's 4th tooth on the bottom is starting to come through now. Once the two molars and this current tooth come in completely, he'll be up to 10 teeth. He is also getting better at standing for longer periods without holding on to anything, but he's still afraid to step unless he's holding onto furniture or someone's hand. It's just a matter of time before he decides to try and walk unassisted, but for now, I get to keep my "little" crawling baby.

More teeth = More drool

Emmett has been drooling non-stop all over and it is pretty gross. This morning I figured out what all the drool is about...he's got two molars coming through on top! I was surprised to seem them coming in already, but I guess he is approaching his 1st birthday. Liliana started getting her molars right about the time she turned one. Emmett's still about 6 weeks out, and I still haven't fully grasped that almost an entire year has passed since his birth, so I really wasn't expecting that yet. Oh, my little baby is getting so big, so fast!

Pre- preschool?

Today was my first attempt at a little co-op preschool with Liliana and some friends. Kids under 3 have an attention span of exactly 4 and a half seconds. I guess since 3 of the 4 have regularly attended nursery at church, I assumed they'd like sitting in a circle to sing songs and play some games. Wrong! Even though I kept each activity very short and had play breaks in between and offered a wide variety of things to do, it was more like I was singing songs and playing games with the other mothers than anything else. We were talking about our bodies and what they can do. I made up a little song/chant about great things our bodies can do (clapping, jumping, flapping our arms, etc.) and thought they'd enjoy acting those things out, but got very little response. We talked about how our bodies can show when we're happy and sang "If you're happy and you know it" with various movements to show our happiness - again, minimal reaction. All 4 kids were into coloring pumpkin pictures with happy and sad faces, so that seemed to go well. I bet they'll get used to it and more engaged as we continue our attempts at our co-op preschool.

I noticed Emmett's third tooth on the bottom popped through last week. He's up to 7 now. My baby just keeps getting bigger and bigger every day. He looks more like a little toddler boy than a baby now. How the time flies.

Conversation with a 2 year old

Liliana to me: "Wiggle your ears, Mommy."

Me: "I don't know how. Only Daddy does."

Liliana: "I want Daddy to stay home with me with no Mommy. I want her go to work."

Thanks, kid. Now that's loyalty for you!

Lili-isms

Last night as Liliana sat on the potty, she looked at me and said, "Pretty soon I will be a boy."
"Just a minute, I want you to tell Daddy," I responded. I called David in and had her repeat herself. He looked at me with a confused grin. "Why do you think you'll be a boy soon, Liliana?" I asked.
"Because I am."
My only explanation is that she is surrounded by boy cousins, a brother, and mainly boys in her nursery class at church, playgroup, and her preschool co-op that we're starting. Also, her cousin, Mason, had been here earlier that day and since they are both potty training, they would follow each other into the bathroom with real interest in what one or the other was doing in there. I asked Liliana, "Don't you want to be a girl like Mommy?"
"No," was her simple and very quick response.
"I'm sorry to break it to you, Liliana, but you're a girl and that doesn't change, honey."
No response. I guess I'll never know what she thought about that!