- "You bring something for me?" For better or worse, this is how Lily greets me most nights when I get home from work. There is a wonderful teacher's supply store down the street from Expedia and I've gotten in the habit of swinging by there to pick up craft supplies so Lily and I can do different art projects together in the evening. Lily LOVES all things arts and craftsy so I always looking for new and different projects for us to do together....but the flip side is that she now hopes (expects?) me to have some new goody when I get home at night. Thankfully when I respond "I have hugs and kisses for you!" on non-craft nights she seems equally pleased to be scooped up and smothered with love.
- On the nights I DO have something she says "You buy this for me? Oh, THANK YOU Mommy!" and it just kills me. She is also now obsessed with holding up her belongings, both new and old, and demanding to know who gave it to her. I'm not sure why, but it's very cute.
- "Hang on!" Yeah, not as thrilled with this one, but we only have ourselves to blame. It's a direct parroting of Chris and me asking her to wait a sec...and she uses it enthusiastically when it's time for bed, putting on shoes, cleaning up toys, etc.
- S's. Somehow, everything has become plural. Looking in my wallet..."you have monies!"...claiming something "It's mines...it's not yours"...peoples, Play-Dohs, bubble-gums...s's reign supreme
- IMAGINATION. Yowzers hers has kicked into high gear. One of her favorites is monsters and alligators. She loves to tell me an alligator bit her foot so I will elaborately pantomime tossing it aside or pointing out a monster so I'll ask "what do you tell it?" to which she responds, hands on hips, "GO AWAY MONSTER, LEAVE ME ALONE" followed by an "Hmph!" sound and lifting her chin defiantly. She loves showing her bravery.
- Her amazing athleticism continues...in Lil' Kickers soccer she can not only dribble the ball across the field, she can also steal the ball from other running tots and continue with it on her own. On the playground she now braves the fire pole unassisted (I hover a few inches away to her dismay) and she consistently keeps up with the 4-year-old boys on our block, both at the park and on her
Scuut. Thank goodness her dad is athletic - I doubt I'll be able to keep up with her much longer.
- Despite her tomboy ways on the field and playground, her girlyness only grows. She wears tutus to soccer (over her uniform, natch) and insists on wearing costumes so she can dance to Angelina Ballerina, and will happily spend entire days dressed as a Princess. She clumps around in plastic heels, thinks crowns are the best and races to the bathroom if she thinks I'll be applying anything resembling makeup.
- Speaking of the bathroom...and this may be TMI...but her new quirk is the need for privacy. Getting her to poop in there was a bit of a challenge, but the promise of bubble gum got us over the hump, so to speak. She takes HUGE pride in her potty accomplishments and will tell ANYONE about them, but when it comes time for the actual act, she'll say "I need privacy - you go away" and insist that we stand outside the door where we can't see her. After, though, it's expected that we come in to cheer. It's really quite the routine.
- Not sure if this falls under tomboy or girly, but Lily simply adores
cutting vegetables. She got a set of wooden cutting vegetables for her birthday and it's one of the few toys she's played with consistently day after day for weeks now. It's a wee bit disturbing...not sure if it's because she wants to be a domestic diva, or because her daddy cooks so much and she wants to as well, or if she just likes to pulverize things.
- Increasingly clever. The other night she was getting a little nutty with the toys at bedtime. I told her she could choose ONE to take to bed. Did she want My Little Pony (yes, they're still around), the dolphin or the wooden pepper? She very carefully looked at each one, weighed their merits and declared "all of them!" Didn't help matters that we both cracked up...her powers of persuasion and debate are going to get us in trouble.
- Lily has 2 new quirks that just kill me. The first is the "UGH" look. When she doesn't want to do something, she's roll her shoulders forward, lean towards you, hang her arms down and sighs heavily. I have NO IDEA where this came from, but it is very dramatic and makes it terribly difficult to keep a straight face. The other is the shudder hug. Remember
the shudder? Yeah, she still does this, but only with hugs and only when the mood strikes.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, we don't normally dress her as a cowgirl. The pony pic was taken at school and the expression she has captures her mischievous spirit better than any blog entry I could ever write.
