19 months

Lily is changing by leaps and bounds lately--mostly in the language department. She's talking up a storm. We can understand a lot of what she says but some times we have no idea what she's trying to say. If she's pointing to something it makes it a lot easier. She's practicing talking a lot too. Most of the time she's blabbering about something. Sometimes she gets a little carried away and I have to tell her to quiet down a little because she's yelling. She really enjoys talking with us though and I love hearing what she's thinking about. Some of my favorite things she says are "Oh no!", "no way" and "back up, back up, back up".

We're attempting to teach her the alphabet, counting and colors. So far she really only likes to say "blue" and "two". If you ask her what color something she always says blue and if you ask her how many of something there are she'll always say two. She's beginning to learn the alphabet. When we sing the alphabet song, she sings every few letters or so.

She still loves Elmo. She knows she can watch Elmo videos on our iPhones and computers and she wants to do that all the time. She is pretty much attracted to all cartoons though, even ones not intended for little kids like the Simpsons.

Peekaboo

Lily as a Christmas

One of Lily's new best friends

Lily touching her first snow at exactly 19 months old.

Lily putting up Christmas decorations. Mr. Penguin did not survive.

Tunnel in the New Haven train station. On our way to New York City!

Taking a quick nap on our way.

Grand Central decked out for the holidays.

A slightly underwhelming Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

Prettier at night.

Back at Grand Central ready to head home.

Lily was beat after the busy day. She wasn't the only one.

Lily wanted to help Daddy tie the tree to the car.

First snow storm!

It's snowing in New Haven! We've been waiting all day and as soon as the sun started to set the rain turned to snow. So far the ground is too wet and it's not cold enough for anything to stick (except on cars). We'll see if there's anything on the ground in the morning. Lily is very excited about it. She keeps wanting to open the front door to see what's going on.

3,000 miles, a red eye, sleeping on an air mattress for a few nights

It was a long process and we're still not completely settled, but we're finally in Connecticut and things are starting to feel more familiar. We no longer need the GPS to find the grocery store or Target, so it feels almost like home.

We arrived on November 16th and the three of us, plus Charlie the rabbit moved in, without all of our stuff. We slept on a mattress until our truck full of belongings arrived on the 19th. Unfortunately for Grandpa Jim, if he wanted somewhere to sleep that night he had to help unload some furniture. So shortly after finishing his 3,000 mile drive, he got to carry heavy furniture. Luckily on this end of the trip the only stairs were the ones inside our townhouse, but there was still one flight up to the bedrooms and one flight down to the basement (where a large number of boxes still reside, unfortunately). By Saturday (the 21st), the truck was empty and our new house was full and ready to be organized.

We've begun to explore. We're found it's colder here! Surprise! Even after only a couple of weeks we've already begun to appreciate the nice and sunny days. Luckily there have been some. There's also rain. More rain than we saw in the last year in Los Angeles. And there may be snow soon, like Saturday. People have told us it's been a very mild fall. But it usually starts snowing in mid-December, which isn't far away.

Brr. But still trying to enjoy the park.

Unfortunately we've spent an unhealthy amount of time and money in the DMV. Who knew moving to CT would cost so much just to have the privilege of driving? Like $600!