home again...

I have been procrastinating this entry. I'll keep it short.

Our trip went better than expected, although, the stress from it was much more than we could have imagined. Following Lilli around from death-trap to death-trap, swiping my finger from one side of her cheeks to the other, grabbing random object after object from her unexpectedly, strong grip. It was a whirlwind of child safety lessons.

Lilli met a very large percentage of her "active" family. We had the pleasure of seeing her interact with her newborn cousin and once again meeting a friend just 10 months older. She was wonderful with both of them, to our surprise. After the 4th of July experience (when a 3 yr old tried to hug her and was met with a forceful push), we were a bit wary.

She was passed from one aunt, uncle, grandparent, great grandparent, etc. to another over and over. Squirming her best to get down to show off her walking abilities. She met two great-grand parents, some uncles and aunts, and plenty of new dog friends.

With the exception of a few schedule-disruption-induced meltdowns, she did fairly well with all of the strangers. I think she felt my tension, it seemed to correlate with her moods.

There was one particular point when we were standing next to a photo we also have in our house, she noticed the person in the photo was sitting in the room. We named the person, then pointed at him, back and forth. She looked from one to the other and then erupted into hysterics. Taking names and making connections.

Big ole' shout out to my brother, Dan, his wife, Becki, and their new daughter Basil Isabella. Congratulations guys!