First month of the year? Check!

Ah....January. That lovely time of year when Seattle is ceaselessly gray and cloudy and there are no major holidays to look forward to. Fortunately, we have our own live-in comedienne to keep us amused and help make even the shortest, darkest days brighter (yeah, I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true!!) Here are a few gems from this month:

• While playing with her dollhouse Lily pointed to where the mommy hangs out. I asked her where the daddy goes, to which she responded "by the toilet!"


• Gone are the days when I can rely on distraction and short memory to help me. In early December when we were at Friday ice cream I saw an article about Santa train rides in Western Washington. In the hub-bub of the holidays I completely forgot about following up, but the first week of January Lily made sure to remind me that "you forgot to take me on the Polar Express!" Dang. She was totally right...and good lesson for me that she's now progressed to steel-trap memory phase - especially when it involves fun and mommy promises.


• The above was made sadder when she asked me if she could "invite Santa to my birthday. I miss him and the Polar Express."


• Lily remains a picky eater, but she can be swayed. One night we were having gnocchi for dinner, a meal she had previously described as "pillows" and totally loved. When I set her plate in front her, she proclaimed she no longer liked them...to which I responded that there would be pudding after....to which she replied "I think I do like that...a little bit."


• While I love seeing her learn and grow, some things are hard to say goodbye to. Case in point: for the past few years her method of putting on a jacket involved laying it on the floor, putting her hands in the arm holes, then flipping the whole thing over her head while slipping her arms in. No more. This month she put on a jacket the grown-up way, holding it up, one arm at a time, and even zipped it with no assistance. Proud yet sad another milestones has gone by - but at least I got to teach her about holding her sleeves in place so they wouldn't bunch up.


• After going to Hawaii last February I am now determined that the Lowe family take a Winter Escape every year. With a baby on the way this year's trip didn't work out, so Chris and I are trying to figure out a fun trip that can be all about Lily this Summer. I went over several options with her...Leggoland, Great Wolf Lodge, etc...which may have been a mistake as she was ready to leave immediately. I explained that we would do this AFTER the baby came, which resulted in several requests for updates on if the baby was ready to come out NOW...how about NOW....NOW?! Every time I answered "no, not yet" I received a frustrated "ARGHHHHHHHHH!" Clearly I need to remember that the concept of time has not yet been fully absorbed.


• You know what has been absorbed? How to totally dominate in Wii. After wanting to quit on several occasions, she kept at it and is now quite the sports aficionado. So much so she beat her dad in bowling with an impressive 156 and consistently schools me in tennis. And no, we don't "let her win" because she's cute and small. She unfortunately got a little too full of herself and started saying "hahahaha I WIN!" which I informed her was neither gracious nor kind. So now she very patiently gives me pointers and encouragement like "see! you did it!" if I actually get a point. Not sure which is better for my fragile ego.


• Strangely, despite the weather being icky and cold, Lily has had a resurging interest in nakedness. She loooooooves to hang out with as little on as possible, a little exhibitionist who thinks nothing of coming into our room, stripping down, and jumping into bed with the iPad to watch Phinneas and Ferb. If she was a pre-teen I would be worried - for now it's a charming preschool quirk.


• And finally, two quotes from our always amusing sprout:

1. "Hey Mommy! I'm going to blow my hair 'cause it looks a little funky"


2. "This one is clean!" showing me a finger other than the one that was JUST up her nose when I told her I didn't want pickings on my iPad. She's a clever charmer.