Children. It blows my mind how fast they grow, how quickly they absorb information and gain new skills. It is so cool for me to see my little niece Audrey and realize that almost exactly a year ago Lily was that age going through similar stages. It's crazy to think that in so short a time, just 3 or 4 months, Audrey will be a year old and walking! And Lily will be 2!!! It's also crazy that at times Lily's communication is limited to single words and gestures, and other times she busts out with:
"Momma, would you please put my tiger balloon in the bag?"
We took Lily to the beach Saturday and then went to Ruby's on the pier afterward - one of our favorite places to eat out in San Diego. Mike spontaneously got her a balloon animal while we waited for our food. She looked at it kind of askance at first, and Mike thought he had wasted his money getting this Tigger balloon for himself, but as we walked back up the pier it grew on her (Even if it doesn't look that way in the picture.). It was so cute to see it waving out of her stroller clutched in her tiny hand with the setting sun making it glow brighter orange as the sky in front of us darkened.
Lily's been sort of sick for a few weeks now and Mike's been extra busy with work so we hadn't gotten out of the house much. It had been so long since we've been to the beach I would think Lily had forgotten what the beach was, but she asks to go there regularly. She loves it!!! Since it's still kind of cold we just planned to play in the sand, but Oh no! - Lily had to go in the water! There wasn't a lot we could do to keep her out of it, so our trip to the beach was cut kind of short. We let her play a little and then got her cleaned up and in dry clothes in the sun warmed car and headed out to Ruby's. It was a really nice day, and I don't think her little jaunt in the waves made her sicker. We were up most of Saturday night with her cough, but she napped really well Sunday, checked out ok with her doctor Monday, and she seems to be improving each day.
Lily's long nap on Sunday gave me some time to write down some of the things she's been saying lately to remember. Lily is 20 months old for the record. She talks really well. I guess my ear is in tune to her - so maybe people who aren't around her all the time don't always understand, but I understand almost everything she says and she's getting into clearer and more complex sentences now. Sometimes she doesn't fully say a complete sentence, but she leaves a little pause in there for the conjunction so it sounds like it was there. She understands so much, she is teaching me not to underestimate what I can teach her even though she's so small. Lately her big questions are:
"What's that noise?" (wuz dat noise) Usually the answer is a subtle sound around the house like an airplane overhead, water rushing through the pipes, or someone walking on a creaky floor board overhead. And -
"What's wrong?" Sometimes nothing is wrong, sometimes we are tired or stressed out parents. Earlier last week I was talking to Mike about Lily being sick and what to do about something related to that. Lily pipes up in the dark from the pillow beside me where I thought she was sleeping..."What's wrong?" I told her nothing was wrong, but she knew something was troubling me. She said, "Don't worry, Momma!" She is seriously the sweetest kid. I love her "big hugs." She'll say "Momma, Big hug?" and wrap her little arms around my neck. She has the cutest voice for saying I love you.
And I never thought OK could sound so cute or have so many syllables. She can be so sweetly obedient and agreeable, but she is definitely testing her boundaries, and asserting her independence these days, too! A week or so ago she threw a tantrum for me about wanting to take her clothes off. I tried to turn it into a lesson about how she should talk if she wants me to pay attention. We made some progress. She told me very clearly that she wanted to take off her skirt! She rarely wears a skirt, but she knew what it was! She did it again for Mike later on. I'm sure it will take some time for the lesson to sink in and for us to know exactly how to handle it. It's extra hard when she sick because crying makes her nose and throat worse, and she's more disagreeable because she feels so lousy, but you don't want to just give in to get her to stop crying because that just teaches her to cry more for what she wants. I try to not give in, but give extra love. It's hard.
Lily has come up with a new way to say No! "Octopus, Octopus!" Not really sure where she made that connection, but that's something she yells when she wants us to stop doing something. I wonder if the bulb syringe makes her think of an octopus with one leg because she hates getting her boogers sucked - and maybe she's passed it on to any time she doesn't want us to do something to her... Just a guess...She used to call 'rainbow' when she wanted us to open the arched zipper on her crib tent. So funny to wonder how she comes up with this stuff.
She's been singing 'Rock-A-Bye-Baby' to herself - skipping when the wind blows and jumping straight to the bough breaking, cradle falling verse. She sounded like she was trying to sing herself back to sleep during her nap the other day. I still sing her to sleep most nights - it helps relax her and keep her from chatting when it's time to sleep. Sometimes I have to remind her it's time to sleep and it's so funny to see her turn away and close her eyes tight really fast like she's thinking: Oops, I forgot - I'm sleeping, mom! I swear! When she wants me to sing 'My Favorite Things' she asks for "Dog Bites" I got tired of that one for awhile because I sang it so much when she was first born, but it's back by request. She also loves Popcorn Popping, and can do a decent Hoky Poky. I love to see her dancing - it seems like she's taken forever to get a real interest in it - probably because I looked forward to seeing her do it so much :) She gets in the mood to copy what you do or say at times and it's so fun to run with it. It's a lot of work raising kids, but it can sure be a lot of fun!
