The Latest on the Lowes

We started this blog to share the transformation of our 1926 fixer...but with time and the addition of kids it has become my way of documenting two childhoods...the triumphs, moments of hilarity, lessons learned and everything in between.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

April showers bring May flowers...

...and a torrent of funny Lily-isms. Kiddo has been in rare form as the countdown to Baby Boy continues. She's let us know that she's not keen on stinky diapers and crying and that she has concerns over how much time we will have for her. That last one was heartbreaking both because she is too small for worries and also because it is inevitable that her special Lily time will be diminished no matter how hard we try. So in the time we have left, we're working on celebrating Lily as much as possible and letting her know how very loved she is. A few of the things she says/does that are worthy of said celebration...

- "Yeah!" said in a breathy, jazzy voice at the end of a song she likes. No, there are no jazz hands accompanying it, but there really ought to be

- Lately at bedtime Lily likes to be carried up to her room. I can't do it anymore, so Chris gives her the option of riding the Daddysuarus (piggy-back) or to be carried like the vegetable of her choice (usually a kiwi and always upside-down). The other night when asked which she would prefer, she responded "Uh.....GIDDY-UP!"
- Swimming. Lily is in FULL ON fish mode. Since she hasn't been in a pool for a while, Chris took her to open swim to get her re-acclimated before swim classes started up. Wow - by the end of the hour she was swimming across the pool with the noodle and nothing else. No help from daddy, so donut shirt, no aid other than her little kicking legs. The look of joy and pride on her beaming, goggled face was absolutely amazing. Seeing that put me on cloud 9 the rest of the day - pride in one's children is pretty damn powerful

- "What's he/she/it saying?" is the latest game that we play A LOT. Basically, it works like this: Lily picks an animal/insect/plant/toy and asks me what it is saying. I make something up, she giggles and then (if I am lucky) asks me to turn it into a song, which I am then obliged to belt out in my terribly off-key voice while struggling to find words that rhyme. In desperate times, I just throw in something about poo and she is delighted

- Dreams. Lily is now remembering them and telling me about them in the morning. What a 4-year-old dreams and how it is translated is interesting to say the least. The latest one was something about 5 balance beams, Santa, the Polar Express, orange bikes and that she got the awesome one. Awesome indeed

- A sign of the times is Lily's incredible iPad efficiency, including navigating NetFlix to find movies that actually are appropriate for her. Recently she chose to watch Babies..."because we're having a baby" was her rationale. Yes, I melted

- Speaking of babies, I did give Lily a vote with the name as there was no way she could propose anything worse than Wilfred and Beaumont (two of Chris' thoughtful suggestions). Well, I was wrong...Hello Kitty (which she acknowledged is not typically a boy's name) or Go Diego Go (as in the show, not my cousin). Hmmm...if Chris has his way he'll have the name of a 19th century farmer, or if I go with Lily, a cartoon.


- Her naming prowess is not limited to her future brother, though. Halle recently returned from Singapore and in typical Halle fashion brought back a present for Lily. This time it was a strange animal thing that was oddly cute. Lily was going to name it Walter the Farting Dog, but instead decided on calling it Furble

- When in the car Lily loves to listen to music. Usually we stick to Caspar Babypants, but the other morning the radio was on. I don't remember the song, but Lily declared SHE knew who the singer was. I asked who and she said "Rock Star. He's a really good singer, that's why he's called Rock Star." See what a good namer she is?!