Baby Lily Comes to Town

Uncle Jeff, Aunt Sara, and cousin Lily visited us during their spring break this year. It wasn't Will and Hallie's spring break, so they still spent a few of their mornings at school, but we were able to fit in lots of fun outings, plenty of relaxing time at home, two trips to the gym, and a grown up date night never-the-less.

The most interesting thing about this visit was the way Hallie reacted to Lily's presence.  A big fan of babies, and a big fan of Lily's the last time we were all together, Hallie should have been ecstatic for a baby (well, I guess Lily is officially a toddler now, but she's on the baby side of toddlerhood) to spend a whole week in her house.  And she was, initially.

But once I started paying attention to Lily - carrying her, helping prepare her meals, changing her diaper, getting her dressed - Hallie made it clear that she didn't like the attention she usually received being divided between her and another child.  (My attention is always divided between Will and Hallie, but while Will is at school Hallie has the market cornered.  She didn't like sharing her Hallie attention.)  She wasn't mean to Lily, but she started acting like a baby - wanting to be carried, crying when dropped off at the gym and school, and peeing her pants - in hopes that baby-like behavior would score her a bit more of my focus.  Hallie's tactics didn't work, which led to lots of tears.

Will, on the other hand, did a wonderful job with Lily when he wasn't off playing sports with Uncle Jeff or at school.  He brought her toys, talked to and entertained her, read stories to her, helped pick out her clothes, and even warned an adult when Lily was about to get into something dangerous or messy.  I think he enjoyed "playing" big brother to a child who didn't yell at him, tease him, and hit him the way Hallie does.  He's particularly excited for Lily to return in June.

Reconnecting.

Hallie taught Lily what NOT to do on the couch.

Team Nike.
(They wore lots of matching outfits.)

The "trunk" on our tricycle was just Lily's size.

This is the only picture I was able to get of the three of them
in the bathtub.  It was VERY crowded, so we moved Will to
the shower the following night.

Cutie.

Hallie liked to help Lily rinse.

Will read books to Lily, and then Aunt Sara read books to Will.

The girls did lots of coloring - Lily loved having crayons
and paper down at her level, but since she couldn't be trusted
 not to color on furniture, walls, other people, and herself, the
crayons eventually had to be relocated to a higher shelf.
(Again, matching outfits.)

Lily had a knack for picking a crayon
or marker that matched her piece of
paper, and then she'd get upset when
her coloring didn't show up.

Hard at work.

Red Cross Fashion Show #1.

Red Cross Fashion Show #2

Red Cross Fashion Show #3.

I was supposed to be watching Lily, lost track of her, and
then found her sitting in my wet shower and going through
my shampoos and conditioners.  Aunt of the Year.

It's a tradition of ours to take a picture of Lily with these deer.
At first she wasn't all that excited about hanging with them.

But then she remembered them from her last visit.
Lily (15 months) with her friends at Dixie Chicken.

We visited Kyle Field, and while Lily toddled,
Will and Hallie ran laps on the track.

Well, Will ran around the track.  Hallie
made it about a fourth of the way
before she laid down and cried.

Will, rounding the bend and heading
toward "home" on lap one.

Will lapped Hallie on her first and his second lap.
(You can see Aunt Sara in the background - she kindly
made the trek around the track to help Hallie make
it to the finish line.)

She made it!

And here are two of my three favorite pictures of my sweet niece.  (I'm saving the third for a different post, and I'll also have pictures our outings to an Aggie baseball game, Will's baseball league's Opening Ceremonies, and both Will and Hallie's Easter egg hunts at school in future posts).

Jeff, Sara, and Lily will be back for another week-long visit in June (they'll be watching the kids for the first couple of days while Tom and I travel to Illinois for a wedding, and then we'll all be hanging out for the rest of the week).  We have lots of fun activities planned - swimming lessons, a day trip to Schlitterbahn, the Children's Museum, Chick-Fil-A (Jeff was raised on Chick-Fil-A - I kid, Jeff, I kid), and a perhaps another date night.  We can't wait!