Spreading her wings

Lilli gets more comfortable every day. She is blossoming right in front of us and it is absolutely amazing to watch. She still prefers me, but she is getting more and more comfortable with Todd.

Yesterday Lilli and I got up to read the paper and play around until Todd got up. She was kind of a cuddle-bug and sat in my lap while I read the paper. At some point she crawled out of my lap, grabbed her blanket and lay down on the floor. SHE FELL ASLEEP! Some of you may be asking why this is such a big deal--well, I'll tell you. Our biggest obstacles have been with sleeping. Lilli hates to be alone and HATES bedtime. It isn't as bad as it used to be, but we always have to fight with her to get her to lay down. The fact that she felt comfortable enough to lay down on the floor and then to fall asleep, I think this speaks volumes about her comfort level and I really feel like that was a giant step for us. Imagine my surprise when I looked down at her and she was gast asleep! I was ecstatic. It was all I could do to keep from running upstairs and waking up Todd.

We also had our first encounter with Santa Claus yesterday. This didn't go quite as well. She was a bit startled at a Christmas party when Santa burst throught the doors shouting, "Ho, ho, ho," and jingling bells. Her eyes searched the crowd for mine and she started screaming MOMMY!!!!! She ran to me and clung to me for dear life. When her name was called for her gift, I carried her up to Santa but she was having NO part in sitting on his lap. I got her gift and she enjoyed unwrapping it. Later we tried again to get a photo of her on Santa's lap, but no dice Chicago! I'm sure this was all very overwhelming for her.

My mom thinks I'm crazy but I think Lilli has an aversion to the color red. When the orphanage director handed her to me in July, Lilli was all decked out in red. We haven't really put her in anything red since then. Friday night I bought her a Christmas dress, and of course, it is red. I brought it home and pulled it out of the bag to show her. At first she held onto the dress and acted like she really liked it. When we tried it on her, she started screaming and fighting and pulling at the dress. We finally took it off of her and put it in her closet. When we got ready to go to the Christmas party I pulled the dress out of the closet and the hysterics started again. Todd had to distract her to enable me to finish dressing her. She wanted no part of that dress and tried several times to take it off. I can't imagine why she detests the dress so much. It was really cute. The only thing I can think of is the red connection. Again, my mom thinks I'm crazy but I think there is substance to my theory.