Fine, I'LL do it...Aspen, part 1

Hey, Lily here. Since it's becoming increasingly obvious that Dada is not going to get his act together to ever blog about our Aspen trip, I'm taking matters into my own hands. After all, I'm doing all this interesting and cute stuff practically every day, and none of it gets blogged 'cause Dada's all writers-blocked. Move over, Dada, make room for a Lily!


So it all goes back several months, when Aunty Cathy was trying to figure out where we could all meet up for a vacation. Aunty Cathy's family wanted to go somewhere that wasn't too hot, and Mama and Dada wanted to go somewhere that was a direct flight from San Diego or LA because apparently I can be "challenging" on long trips. Dada, challenging is good, right? Anyways, turns out Aspen, Colorado is a direct flight from LAX, so we all decided to go there. I was soooo excited, because I got to see all my east coast peeps...Aunty Cathy, Uncle Paul, Tyler, Joshy, Po Po and Gung Gung. I practiced saying ALL their names for weeks so I could do them just right.


Anyways, on Friday, August 15th, after an uneventful flight (ahem...Dada, take note), we arrived in Aspen! We even got to see Aunty Cathy and family in the airport. It was pretty late by the time we got there, and kinda cold! Dada said it felt like winter, but I think that's wrong because winter just means the temperature stays below 80, right? But nevermind, we pretty much went back to the condos and went to bed (after saying goodnight to Po Po and Gung Gung, who had arrived earlier). But the NEXT day, play play play!


About the condos we stayed in, they were super nice! Aunty Cathy found this great resort in Snowmass. You can see our building in the background of this picture here. I really liked where we stayed because there was lots and lots of nature right outside for us to play in. See those little people in the background? That's Po Po and Gung Gung on the porch, and Aunty Cathy walking towards me, Dada, Tyler and Joshy. See how far away they are? Good thing I have a Dada to carry me if I get tired.





Here's the view from the upstairs condo. Cool, huh? Now I'M the one who's far away! That's me, mama, dada, Tyler, Joshy, and these nice people from Texas we met. Actually, people in general were super friendly here, lots of folks would come up and talk to us, and little girls would even want to pick me up. More on that later.









Anyways, I spent a lot of time over the course of the trip playing outside with my cousins Tyler and Josh. For me, that was the best part! There's nothing better than having cool cousins to play with!










Dada found me this beach ball in a thicket of prickly plants, which he bravely retrieved for me. This became my most loved toy for the remainder of the trip (after lovey, of course, but lovey is not nearly so satisfying to kick around on the grass).










That night, to celebrate Po Po's birthday, we went to this restaurant called Krabloonik. Seriously. Krabloonik. You can Google it. It's actually pretty famous, not just for the food but for DOGSLEDDING, of all things. I guess you can come dogsled in the winter! Unfortunately, since it was summertime there was no snow, and hence no dogsledding, but I still got to see doggies so it's all good. Here you see dada looking on while I commune with one of my doggie brothers. Woof! Dinner was very yummy, and don't worry, they don't serve dog food in the restaurant.

Here we all are chillin' in the condo after dinner.







Here's mama and me at breakfast the next day. Check out my threads! And the view ain't bad either!





After breakfast, we went into the town of Aspen, and then took a gondola up the mountain! Cool! I've never been up a mountain before!









Here we are on top of the mountain. Wow. That's a long way down. Geez.







On the way back down with mama and my cousins. See the other gondola behind us? That PROVES we're in Aspen!





Safely back on solid ground, we all went to lunch. Hey, are you guys asleep?

After lunch, we wandered around town, eventually finding this great park area with this faux rock playset. Cousin Tyler helped me go for a slide. Wheee! We had to use these cardboard boxes because apparently, when they designed this playset, they neglected to notice that faux rock is not that slippery. But leave it to kids to find a way! Everybody just used these cardboard scraps, and it worked just fine!





That night, we ate in...Uncle Paul cooked us steaks in their condo. Yummy! While the grownups cooked, they boys and I hung out and practiced our heat vision.

Wow, that's just the first two days. No wonder dada was procrastinating. More to come!


-Lily

Murphy's Law stinks

Inasmuch as I'm way behind on the blog, please be informed that I owe you all a report on our super-cool visit to Aspen, and Lily's very first trip to Disneyland. Unfortunately,as you may remember from past tardy entries, the more momentous and enjoyable the event, the longer it takes to write it up properly, and even then, the blog often doesn't do it justice. Murphy's law, right?

That Murphy guy is on my bad side right now, though. Because instead of having a very nice weekend celebrating Tata Rina's birthday with all the Mojica's and Ye's, and then possibly meeting up with friends at Disneyland on the way home, the low-level cold Lily's been nursing for the last ten days or so blew up into a fever. Full-fledged, pushing 104 degrees, high enough that we were calling nurses and reconnoitering emergency rooms.



So, instead, we packed up and went home...Lily woke up at like 6 AM, and we figured:


a) she wasn't going to be in much of a good mood for a party


b) by driving home, she might get some more sleep (which she did, as you can see here. Poor sweety)

We also doubled her usual ration of loveys, since we felt so sorry for her.

Thankfully, by Monday, the scary fever had broke, but as of late Tuesday we still have a very grumpy, fretful, sleepy Lily, who of course resists anything that might end up helping her (like medicines or fluids), so that's not much fun. She does have relatively happy moments at times, but mostly, major grumpus. This is also probably due in no small part to the two new teeth we just noticed cutting thru her upper gums. Talk about adding insult to injury!!

One small plus of all this is that Lily has broken her months-long streak of refusing to sleep on people...Mama got a few nice snuggle naps yesterday. Dada, on the other hand, is only allowed to be a respectful distance away...no touchy!

We have also watched the same five episodes of Wonder Pets about a thousand times, as that's all Lily wants to watch, and gets positively hysterical if we don't comply. (Note: this often takes the form of bonus hysteria above and beyond whatever crying she was already doing, interspersed with insistent cries of "PETS!!")

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...the reason we were celebrating Tata Rina's birthday at the Mojica's is that Uncle Thom broke his leg pretty badly and can't really deal with restaurants. Or with taking his wife to Napa for her birthday, which is what was ORIGINALLY supposed to be happening that weekend.

If I ever catch that Murphy guy, he's getting SUCH a smack...

P.S. Lily is definitely getting better, though, so don't get too worried reading this blog. Mostly, Dada is venting his spleen at whoever is responsible for scheduling fevers and teeth.

The Lily Mac will make ya...

Jump, jump!

Lily is becoming such a Big...Boy?

All I'm saying is...well, see for yourself:

<-- This is Lily

This is Big Boy -->

You can draw your own conclusion. I'm just saying...

(just kidding, Lily! We think this outfit is super cute. Big props to Aunty Cathy for the cool threads!)

An old Cheyenne saying

There is an old Cheyenne Indian saying that goes "Do not judge your neighbor until you have walked two moons in his moccasins."

Lily apparently has taken this sentiment to heart, and in an attempt to better relate to her parents, is trying to walk in their shoes.

Here you see relating to mama. Heels are hard! Dada helps her keep from tipping over, much like he does with mama. (Just kidding, Pinky!!)

(apologies for the funky aspect ratio, we had the camera sideways so we had to rotate the video. I kinda like it, it makes Lily look extra petite!)

And now, dada shoes:

Pretty good with the flip flops, she didn't even need help! The crocs are gonna take some work though.

So there you have it...Lily is making a genuine attempt to create empathy with her parents. Although, I have a sinking suspicion that she may be working off the more modern version of the proverb:

"Never criticize another until you have walked a mile in his shoes. For then, you are a mile away from him - and you have his shoes." Hey, where are my crocs, anyway?

Can you say...

Lily has had a breakthrough in "can you say?", as shown below:

Not too bad! I had to pump up the audio on her responses so they'd be audible, the net effect being that the whole thing sounds a bit dubbed, but we promise, this is exactly as it transpired last night. Good fun!

We need to confirm if "Mally" is an acceptable two-syllable nickname for cousin Mallory, though. She's not getting "Mallory" I think because it's too long for her. In Lily's defense, "Mallory" is pretty hard...Mallory herself was saying her own name as "Mallonini" up until quite recently.

Swimmy swim

A couple posts back I mentioned that Lily now LOOOOOVES swimming. Well, look! Here's proof!

Super-nanny Norma took Lily swimming at this community pool near her mom's house (which, in the small world department, happens to be right next door to a house dada lived in for the first month he was in San Diego...weird!). It's a really nice setup for Lily because they have this whole wading pool just for little ones, where Lily can stand quite nicely.

Lily is quite fearless in the water...perhaps too much so! She would jump straight in if we let her. So swim lessons are going to be a requirement, we think.

Here's a little video. Please note how Lily "swims" on a noodle (0:23) deliberately sticks her face in the water (0:39), piggy squeals in protest (1:19) if you try to take her out before she's ready, then decides to climb out anyways (1:30):

And, of course, the apres swim bunny swaddle...

By the way, dada bought the two-piece suit featured here for Lily but I think mama is rejecting its further use. I think she's worried Lily is too cute in a bikini and the boys at the pool may whistle at her. (At least it's forever commemorated in blog history!)