This holiday, we have a lot to celebrate!  Along with Liliana having a little brother now, she’s gaining weight rapidly.  She even has a tummy now!  She’s also brushing her teeth, and feeding herself small snacks.

Liliana’s first reaction to Damien was very precious to me.    Her first reaction was, “What’s that?”  It was a very new thing to her.  She likes to watch while he cries, very curiously.  She’s also very gentle with him, and only hit him in the head once.  She likes to point at his feet and, when he’s crying, will point over there and say “That” like we didn’t know where the sound was coming from.  I don’t think she’s fully capable of understanding yet how eventful having a baby brother is, but at least she noticed that something new has come along.  There was one time where mommy put a blanket on Damien and Liliana was standing up watching, and decided to start pulling the blanket off.  I told her no, and she stopped pulling on the blanket.

She’s got a biiig tummy now.  She has trouble sitting up, it’s cute.  She took a single long nap today, which was great.  Still, we’re wondering if these long naps are what are causing her to go to sleep so late.  Like even now, she hasn’t fallen asleep.  Haha, I’m kind of looking forward to more of her teeth coming in so she’s not so crazy.  Grandma is very excited about how much she’s gained.  Also, luckily, she hasn’t had an ear infection through these teething days (wood knock knock).

For those who spend time with Liliana, they tend to notice how quickly she picks up on things.  Tonight, she brushed her own teeth.  I brushed them for her first, then, she kind of looked at the toothbrush and held out her hand.  I didn’t know what to expect, but handed it to her.  She took the toothbrush and put it in her mouth and chewed on it lightly while watching me.  She smiled a little too.  I’m very careful about making sure that at least one of us is paying attention to her all the time because I don’t want her to feel resentment towards Damien.  So we smiled and talked about the toothbrush, and then I showed her my teeth and told her to move the toothbrush back and forth in her mouth.  Her motor skills aren’t well tuned yet, but she made a very good effort of imitating the motion.  Next, she just smiled at me and made small noises while moving the brush here and fro in her mouth.  It was a positive experience for her, which is important.  I expect she’ll want to brush her own teeth more often now.

And JOY, everyone’s asleep now!  I guess after making it through last night’s hell, things have already gotten better.  I hope I haven’t spoken too soon.

Oh, and Liliana really really likes Christmas trees.  She recognizes them everywhere she goes.  Grandma claims it’s because they’ve been watching a Barney X-Mas DVD and laughing.  Whatever the reason, it’s really cute!