It's been almost 2 months so, we thought it was time for an update. LiLi has changed quite a bit. She's talking a lot more now. Still not on track for a 3 year old, but she's made a lot of progress. She's putting a couple words together like 'Daddy work'. Or 'GeGe ball'. (GeGe is chinese for brother). Also, our calm easy going little girl is starting to have tantrums when she doesn't get her way. It's mostly when she can't watch another Dora movie. She's still crying and whining. Her cry isn't that quiet cry anymore it's a much louder, annoying cry. She does settle down pretty quickly though if we just ignore it for a few minutes. One time I walked to the kitchen and she was lying on the family room floor crying. After I few minutes she quieted down. I looked over and she was asleep on the floor. I guess that's one way to get her to nap.
We've still been keeping in contact with the families from KC that we went to China with. In may LiLi went to one of their birthday parties at Monkey Bizness. She loves climbing and sliding. She did pretty well on the rock wall. We also went to the Dragon Boat Festival on the Plaza and watched some of the girls dance and the boat races. We may put her in a dance class in the fall.
She loves to play outside (when she's not watching Dora). She especially loves the water. We have a little pool for her and a slip 'n slide, but she really loves going to the big pool and swimming. She would probably stay in there all day if we let her. She's pretty daring and will jump right off the side.
She had her check up at the opthamologist yesterday. The Dr. said her eyes have changed quite a bit. Now, it seems like she's mostly using her left eye so, she wants to try to patch her right eye for a while so, hopefully her left eye will get stronger. She's suppose to wear the patch 3-4 hours in the morning. I put one on today and she kept taking it off finally after a couple hours, it didn't stick anymore so, I decided 2 hours for the first day was pretty good. She didn't really whine or complain she just kept taking it off and giving it to me. We'll try again tomorrow and hopefully keep it on for a little longer.
The boys are still playing baseball. It's been a really fun season. The team is doing pretty well. Jakob continues to be a great pitcher and a good batter. Andrew is either hot or cold. He can hit the ball way out to the field a few times and then strike out a few times. Before one of the games, the coach said he would give any player $100 if they hit the ball to the fence. To our surprise and delight, Andrew was the one who did it. It was great. After he hit it, he was one 2nd base, jumping up and down and waving his hands. He's the only one that has done it. LiLi has to endure a lot of baseball games, but she's pretty good. A few times our neighbor Donya has come and played with her so I can watch the game a little better.
Kraig better watch out because she may take over his job as scorekeeper.
Andrew finally learned to ride a bike. Yes, he is 9 years old. Kraig and the boys have gone on a few bike rides and LiLi and I have gone on a couple. We borrowed the bike trailer from our neighbor. LiLi loved it.
Here are pictures showing LiLi when we first met her compared to recent pictures.
This summer started off slow, but then went really quickly. I know I haven't posted for a while, so there's a lot to post. I'm going to start backwards. The boys were supposed to start school last Wednesday, but all 3 kids were throwing up Tuesday night. Andrew was feeling better by Thursday and went to school and Jakob finally went on Friday. They are both very happy with their teachers. I think they're going to have a great year. They also missed their first fall baseball game Tuesday evening.
LiLi still continues to do well. She did great with her eye patch. We went to the opthamologist a couple weeks ago and the Dr. thinks her eyes look much better. We're not going to use the patch the next few months. We have an appointment in December and if her eyes are still doing well, she won't need the surgery!
She had a great summer. She met all her cousins and aunts/uncles from my side of the family. First her cousin Mitchell (Moose as she calls him) came to KC. He's 17 years old and is wanting to go to med school, so he shadowed a doctor here in OP. Then in July more of his family came to visit for a few weeks. LiLi met her cousins Grant and Brett for the first time. Her aunt Cindi and cousin Annaliese also came. She had met them back in October, but I doubt she remembered. She had a great time playing and baking cookies with Annaliese. Her uncle Todd comes periodically to KC for work, so she's seen him a few times.
Then towards the end of July we went to New Hampshire to visit my sister and family. She had a great time there also. Her favorite part was jumping on the trampoline. She would jump for hours. She just loved it. She also enjoyed playing with Trinity. The boys love it there also. The boys have so much fun playing with their cousin Joseph, but all the boys fight together like brothers. They live way out in the country and they have lots of woods to walk around and explore. They also have a golf cart now that Jakob liked to drive. Andrew drove a little, but had a hard time controlling it. He ran into a few trees. I'm pretty sure he won't get his driver's license until he's at least 30.
The boys are still playing baseball. It's been a really fun season. The team is doing pretty well. Jakob continues to be a great pitcher and a good batter. Andrew is either hot or cold. He can hit the ball way out to the field a few times and then strike out a few times. Before one of the games, the coach said he would give any player $100 if they hit the ball to the fence. To our surprise and delight, Andrew was the one who did it. It was great. After he hit it, he was one 2nd base, jumping up and down and waving his hands. He's the only one that has done it. LiLi has to endure a lot of baseball games, but she's pretty good. A few times our neighbor Donya has come and played with her so I can watch the game a little better. 
The boys have started their baseball season. Andrew is playing up a grade and playing on Jakob's team. It makes it nice for us since we only have to go to one practice a week and we don't have to worry about their games overlapping. Last year I (Trisha) was pretty worried about Andrew being on Jakob's team. He's the youngest player on the team, but this year he's really improved. In the first game he hit one way in the outfield and made it all around the bases to score a homerun. He's really been hitting well. Jakob is very good overall in baseball. He hits consistently to the outfield, he's fielding is really good and his pitching is great. He's only allowed one run while he's pitched in 5 games and has struck out a lot of batters.
LiLi had her first Easter this year. We went to the early (8:00) service at church. We also went because a friend of ours was going to be teaching LiLi's class and we wanted her to stay in her class so we could enjoy the service upstairs. She had been crying when I've tried to leave her at Sunday school. This time she did cry for a little bit, but Gretchen was able to calm her down and when we went to pick her up she was having fun playing on a slide. The last couple weeks at church she has cried a little when I left her, but then calmed right down, Yeah!. I stayed and helped at the 9:30 service and Kraig brought the kids home. When I got home, LiLi was doing her best Dirty Harry impression. She was outside playing with water guns in her Easter Dress. Our neighbor Donya was helping her reload her ammunition.
Later we went over to my parent's house for an Easter egg hunt and lunch. She had a really great time. She loved looking for the eggs. 
We've been to a few garage sales and she's gotten a chair, a sand and water table and a scooter. Jakob saved up his $ and did some chores around the house to buy a motorized Razor scooter off of craigslist. It was finally a nice day on Saturday and we got out the slip 'n slide. LiLi and the kids didn't even get on their swimsuits. They just started sliding. Andrew, LiLi and Donya played out there for a long time. LiLi loved the water. I think we're going to be going to the pool a lot this summer.
LiLi is doing great overall. She still isn't talking much, but she's saying more and more words everyday. She's getting more and more outgoing. She will now play a little bit by herself and she'll play with the neighbor kids. She smiles and says 'hi' to everyone. She's such a happy girl and such a joy to have.
