Kazoo Virtuoso and Singer: a Video

Yesterday, Lillian entertained her Wenner and Denby aunts, uncles and cousins with stirring vocal and kazoo renditions of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” and of “Jingle Bells”. She also improvises on musical themes of her own composition, all the while dancing with grace and spirit.

 

Lillian and Katelyn in Huntington

While Lillian and Josh were up visiting the Denby grandparents in Huntington, she got to spend time with her cousin Katelyn, the daughter of Josh’s sister Elli and her husband Josh Williams. Katelyn has a new brother, Wesley, but, as he is not yet a year old, he’s a bit young for the fashionable girl cousins.

Peggy reports that the girls had a blast: they had a special dining and play table that they both loved and they played outside and giggled and danced the day away.

Christmas with the Denbys

Lillian’s Na-Na, Peggy Denby, sends this report from Huntington, in deepest East Texas:

Lillian has kept the Denby family busy this week.  Her horse and bunny have been in on many of her wild adventures.  The fairy princess has requested dance partners on many occasions.  Fortunately, her Daddy Prince was the only partner caught in the act!

Nana told her that Santa would be wanting cookies when he dropped by so we had fun making sugar cookies and adding icing and sprinkles!  When eating the “pretty” cookies, she tried as hard as she could to keep all of the icing off of her fingers – so dainty!  The last picture shows the results of eating too many sweets – green “zits” – or is that green sprinkles?

 Santa brought her a red scooter (which she has used inside and outside) and from other family members a guitar and harmonica!  As she provided entertainment on one instrument, she insisted someone else play the other (and often told someone else to dance).  By 8:30 every evening, all adults were worn out – but Lillian persisted in entertaining her stuffed animals in her bed!

We have loved having Josh and Lillian here, playing, and hearing Lillian say “Come on, everybody … let’s play hide n seek!”  Such a sweet child … she even told NaNa (after having her hair pulled into lopsided pigtails and  saying “ouchie” several times): “It’s beautiful”.  She’s a real charmer!

Ready for Christmas

Lillian loves all things Christmas. She and her dad erected and decorated their Christmas tree and she spends a lot of time adjusting the precise placement of ornaments and lights. She’s not yet singing Christmas carols, unless “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” counts somehow.

She and Josh are off to spend Christmas in Huntington, Texas, with Josh’s mom and dad and sisters and her first cousins Katelyn and Wesley, and various others in the extended Denby and Wenner families.

Lillian and Her Two Best Buds

Snuffy, Lillian and Minyo

Lillian has two small canine companions who accompany her just about everywhere she goes: Snuffy and Minyo. Snuffy is a hard plastic dog, white with black spots (now mostly worn away), whose purpose in life before earning the devotion of a small girl was to hold plastic bags for scooping up dog poop. To a dog breed expert like Lillian, Snuffy is clearly a dalmatian; people with less expertise (the rest of us) might not see this immediately. Minyo is a small brown stuffed dog, who in Lillian’s hands is prone to making arfing sounds and to kissing people on the nose.

When Lillian is awake, it’s difficult to get a good picture as the three friends are in motion most of the time, so I had to wait until the ring-leader conked out to get this shot.

That’s Not a Cramera! (A Video)

In Memory of Ashley: 8/17/1979 — 12/13/2012

Just one year ago, a little after midnight on December 13th, Lillian’s mom, Ashley Elizabeth Graves Denby, died after a long and difficult illness. We all miss her terribly.

Ashley would have told you that she hadn’t figured out what she wanted to be when she grew up, until one day she found herself married to the love of her life, Josh Denby, and the mother of a tiny 1 pound 8 ounce girl whom she named Lillian Grace. And then she knew.

Tiny babies like Lillian, born at only 23 weeks, face long odds just to survive. But Ashley never doubted, and devoted herself to Lillian’s survival. She virtually lived in the NICU. She spent hours in the lactation room pumping breast milk (often difficult for moms of micro-preemies) for Lillian; that milk was one of the keys to Lillian’s not only surviving, but flourishing. And, though she was with Lillian far too short a time, and Lillian will have few conscious memories of her mom, I think that somewhere in Lillian there will always be a spark, a laugh, a spirit that comes straight from Ashley.

A Weekend with Na-Na and Paw-Paw

Josh’s mom and dad, Peggy and Keith Denby (Na-Na and Paw-Paw), came down to visit Lillian and Josh this past weekend. Here is Peggy’s report of their trip:

Here are some pictures of our weekend in Houston.  Lillian was her usual loving self…..So sweet!

We got out the easel she received on her birthday and she had fun drawing circles, dolphins, elephants and rainbows (her descriptions) and telling NaNa “Erase it!”

Then she taught PawPaw the fine card game of “What do you want??”  I think it was a Lillian version of Go Fish using alphabet and shape cards … PawPaw had a little trouble winning that one!

Of course, she and daddy shared a nice hug!

The smile says it all!  She is one happy little girl!

It was hard to leave!

Cookie Eating Al Fresco

Saturday in the Park with Lillian, Miranda and Nathan

Lillian has spent the last week recovering from pneumonia — reading, drawing, watching tv, sleeping and coughing. She’s a lot better and a little bit stir crazy. So Saturday afternoon, when her dad needed a few hours to rest, do laundry and clean the apartment, Lillian’s grandfather decided to take her to Hermann Park to ride the train. On the way, he picked up two of Lillian’s cousins, Miranda and Nathan, who’d just arrived home from tennis practice.

Saturday was one of those gorgeous days you get in Houston every now and then: sunny and just warm enough to think about ditching your sweater. What Lillian’s ePa did not take into account was that a very large number of other Houstonians would also decide that the park on a gorgeous day was the place to be. But, after 20 minutes of trying to find a parking spot, ePa ruthlessly cut in front of three other cars and stole a space. Fortunately, none of the other drivers was angry enough to start shooting, so Lillian and her cousins and grandfather hiked into the park.

The first stop was the train station. ePa bought tickets and we grabbed seats on the train and rode through the park, waving at all the joggers and picnickers. ePa kept an arm around Lillian, who was a bit too keen on hanging out of the moving train for ePa’s taste. The train operators have you exit through the gift shop: we managed to get out without buying any of the overpriced but interesting items on offer. Lillian did hug every single plush tiger, rabbit, hippopotamus and snake in the store.

After the train ride, we decided to take a walk around the duck pond. Any walk with Lillian near any body of water involves Lillian’s companions trying to keep her on the shore side and out of the water. Miranda and Nathan proved very helpful in this endeavor. Many sticks and leaves and small stones found themselves being flung into the water, and the ducks did not seem to desire a closer acquaintance with Lillian, much to her disappointment. As we walked, we saw a creature swimming along the shore. “Look!” some nearby kids cried, “a beaver!” A little later, it climbed out of the water onto the grass to get some of the bread people were feeding the ducks. Lillian said, “A kitty cat!” and ran to pet him. ePa managed to grab a corner of her shirt: “It’s not a kitty, Lilz, it’s a nutria.” Before Lillian could embrace him, the nutria slunk back into the water and swam away.

After a while, the day grew cooler and Lillian got tired and just a wee bit cranky, so we headed back to the car, giving her ample opportunity to use her current favorite words (“No! I don’t like that!”) Once again, the presence of cousins was a great help (Lillian has a fabulous assortment of cousins on the Graves and Denby and Wenner and Nuber sides — and probably some other sides I am forgetting — ranging in age from new-born to old fart) and, with charm and grace, they got her going in the right direction and restored to good cheer.

Once in the car, Lillian conked out. ePa and the cousins stopped at Sonic and had various delicious and decadent beverages, and Nathan and Miranda shared a number of truly awful jokes and puns, delivered with impeccable comic timing. Then, we dropped the cousins back at their place and delivered a refreshed, but very hungry, Lillian back to her dad and supper.