So far this month preschool has been cancelled once a week, every week. Everyone says its one of the worst winters here. We've kept snow on the ground, not seeing the real ground now for over 4 weeks... so needless to say it's been crazy. Anyway, that said we've still managed to keep busy and have fun. We went to great grandma's house last weekend. John took to Great right away. She has been using a walker to get around, but soon after John showed up, he started holding her hand as we walked down the hall ways of Glen Eddy, leading the way. He really showed off his endearing nature. Lillian also enjoyed having Great read to her, and I think Great enjoyed it equally. I was class helper at Lillian's preschool on Monday. Each time I go back, it seems I enjoy it more each time. Lillian was very involved in her projects and made a dinosaur puppet. We've spent a lot of time at Michelle's house, with Lilly's best friend Lylah. Lylah's brother Eli and John are now playing with each other as well. Other events this month... We're throwing a superbowl party in a few days, which should be fun. My Birthday Came and went. Bernie and Lillian made a great carrot cake for my birthday while I rearranged the basement. This is fun for me, believe it or not. The carrot cake was much involved and had all sorts of crazy ingredients such as ginger and shredded carrots etc. Bernie never cuts corners when he bakes and lays out all of the ingredients ahead of time in small little bowls. Right now is mid - day and both Lillian and John are napping, a rare occurrence for Lillian. This has given me the rare opportunity to write a note. I hope to do it more often.
Today great grandma came to visit. Ken, Amy, Steve, Lilly Marie, Mona, Mom, Dad were all at the house. Mom made her chicken salad and we all had lunch and played around for a while. Everyone had lots of fun.
Afterward, we walked and found a neighborhood street party. Lillian joined in with her bicycle and rode for almost an hour straight. John Ryan is very cute, and communicates very well, even though he chooses to use few words. At 15 months, he understands very well what I am saying and normally nods to indicate yes and no. He points to say what he wants. It seems when he feels like it, he'll say a word. If I try to coax him into saying a word, no such luck. I think he said apple today when eating apple pie (repeating after me).
John is now 13 1/2 months old. He is starting to repeat some words. We never know which words he'll pick up. For example, Bernie just said the word 'lunch box' this morning, and he repeated lunch box (kind of cryptic, but we understood). He says dada, however, he doesn't really say mama so much. Oh well.
Wow, what a busy weekend! It started Saturday ... Lillian and Bernie went to the neighbor's house to decorate their bicycles or the July 4th parade. Zoli and Esther came by for dinner as well. July 4th, we participated in the bike parade. We went to a cook-out at the neighbors, and we also returned to town for a circus. Lillian liked the trapeze artist, but said she did not like the circus. I asked what she did not like. It was the clown. Yesterday (July 5th) we celebrated John's birthday. Prepared all day, but it was worth it. He had a great time, and enjoyed all of the attention from everyone.. amy, steve, mona, ken, boppa, me, Bernie and Lillian. We decorated a poster for him, set up balloons and streamers, had a cake, opened presents, then cooked out. Today is Tuesday and John is now looking at the world upside down while Lillian is listening to music and drumming. I took Lillian to her first music class this morning, and it is amazing to see how she has completely absorbed the things that she did in class. She is listening to the music and playing instruments to the rhythm of the music. While writing this, John has given up on being upside down. He is now clapping to the music and smiling a lot. So far, it is a nice and relaxing afternoon. That can change...
John is now 11 months old. He still gets up between 6:30 and 7:00 every morning, regardless of his bedtime. He has learned to communicate using his pointer finger. Every morning, Bernie only has to say the word BANANA, and John will stop whatever he is doing, his head will dart up, and he points to the stairwell. He leads the charge as Bernie carries him downstairs pointing the direction for Bernie to move every step of the way until he reaches the kitchen. This is our routine every morning. Lillian wakes up about 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours later. She likes to have me meet her "halfway" on the stairs to greet her. She stands at the top of the stairs, until I come. Then she takes a step, I take a step, she takes a step, etc., until we meet half way. Then I carry her down the rest of the way.
We traveled this weekend to visit great-grandma. She is now 93, I think. We arrived yesterday and Uncle Ken had come up for the day. I remember the many times I came up to visit Grandma and Granpa and it seemed that life just slowed down to a dead halt. I was always happy to come visit, but struggled to keep myself entertained. Now I welcome the fact that it is so slow. I enjoy watching Grandma and Lilian enteract and watching how happy she is watching John. The trip down to the basement pool is a big event for Lilly since the pool in Maplewood hasn't been open since last summer. Ken made a chicken, I made sweet potatoes and frozen peas, plus we had a great salad for dinner. I fell asleep on the couch soon after at about 8:00 pm, had a great night sleep and woke up at 7:00 pm. Lillian did a great job falling asleep as well. That's progress, since the last two times that we visited she would not sleep until about mid-night. Currently everyone
is down at the pool, but I was left behind to wait for John to wake up from his nap. I hear him stirring now.
