Lily, Version 1.5

Well, folks, we are thrilled to report that as of September 10th, Lily has officially made it to the ripe old age of 18 months. 

 

Happy 1/2 Birthday, baby girl!

You rock.

And also have a lot of teeth.

We celebrated with some homemade ice cream and wearing our  birthday hat.

Ummm…the ice cream was more popular than the hat.

As sort of a half-year in review, I want to document what she’s up to these days.  Please note that this may be the longest post EVER written in the history of the internet. 

I mean, seriously. 

I’m not apologizing for it – just warning you.  I wanted to write down every little insignificant nugget of sweet Lily-ness (well, the sweet and the not-so-sweet – it’s all precious to me) so that I don’t forget.  If you would like to read this, then feel free to – I would love to share my daughter with you.  Just know that my real purpose is to record this for Lily, her father, and me – this blog is her baby book.  Her really long, irreverent, lovingly-authored, and sporadically-completed baby book. 

If I bore the snot out of you, well, you were warned.

Physical Description:

• approximately 8 feet tall  (I’ll get more specific stats at her well child check later this month…may be 9 feet tall by then…her summer dresses are getting a bit indecent at this point, so Fall needs to hurry the heck up so we can move on to a new wardrobe)
• blue eyes
• 25 pounds or so
• hair is FINALLY starting to make an appearance, but seems to be a bit shy about really letting loose – blondish/light brown/hint of red – seems to be covering all the bases

Favorite Toys/Games:

• BABIES (especially Gracie, her Bitty Baby)
• MORE BABIES
• Baby accessories, baby doll houses, and furniture and cars for babies
• Baby strollers
• Diapers for babies
• Blankets for babies
• Items that can be made into blankets or other accessories for babies
• Little People people and animals.   She also really likes these Playmobil characters that used to be mine when I was little.   Are you shocked that she’s a fan?  There several types of strollers, a crib, a playhouse, and a slide.  Maybe her obsession is genetic after all, but my tendencies were tempered by having an older brother who also made me play hostage/nurse (i.e. the only two roles I was allowed to play during “war games” with the neighborhood boys.  Coincidentally, the POW camp and the hospital were both on the back porch, and I was not allowed to venture out into the yard where the war was actually being fought either because I was either a) a prisoner or b) had to tend to the field hospital…although no one ever got injured, of course.  Hmmm…I think my brother was craftier than I gave him credit for.).
• Accessories – especially bracelets. 
• Laminated cards I made for her with family members’ pictures, favorite items (balloons, balls, etc.), and favorite characters (Elmo, Cocky, Yo Gabba Gabba characters).
• Her ball pit.  Yep, we still have a giant ball pit set up in our front room left over from her birthday party.  Yep.  We are those parents.  If anyone feels like attending a dinner party in the midst of a Toys-R-Us, come on over!  Maybe I can build a centerpiece out of megablocks.
• Balls – she has been able to throw for a long time, and has recently learned how to kick, bounce, and roll the ball.  Catching is still a LONG way off, I’d guess.
• Anything she can ride or have her babies ride.  She appears to have grand hopes that she or her babies will one day be able to ride our 2 cats, but so far they seem to be quicker than she is when she’s running after them, yelling, “ri ri” and waving a baby at them.  Sophie did tolerate having Lily help brush her the other morning for a good 10 minutes, so Lily isn’t always harassing the cats – she just desperately wants to ride them.  Our hair-brushing session ended abruptly when Lily said, “ri ri!” and threw one leg over Sophie to straddle her.  So close, baby…so close. 
• She LOVES to play hide-and-seek.  She has a few favorite places to hide, but will add new places to her repertoire as she finds them.  She will say “hi hi” (or sometimes “hide”) when she wants to hide, and runs off to go hide (or covers her head with a sheet).  You are then to find her.   I will say that she is amazingly patient while waiting for you to find her, and can now sit still for several minutes without making a noise.  When you do find her, though, you have to be prepared to immediately un-find her, as she gets quite irritated if you keep looking at her and pointing out that you can see her after you have found her.  Get it?  If you see feet sticking out from under a curtain, you are to walk around saying, “Lily?  Where are you?” for a minute, finally “find” her and pull out the curtain, watch her grin and then shout “hi hi hi!” and then immediately close the curtain and repeat the process.  She gets TICKED if you don’t let her re-hide, and will shove you and tell you to “moo moo” (move) if you don’t get out of her line of sight.  Here she is saying, “moo moo” because I am disturbing her hiding spot with my presence. She takes her hiding a WEE bit seriously.  She will come look for us if we hide, and actually enjoys it when you “care” (scare) her, jumping around the corner when you hear her coming.
• She is starting to engage in more pretend play, and has favorite “schemes” that she acts out with her dolls, animals, etc.  Babies obviously need to be fed, given milk, and be changed, but sometimes she’ll add in other things like taking their laundry to the hamper and other cute additions that are all her own.  Her Little People type characters often end up going to the store to buy milk or crackers or cheese.  They might also go to the zoo.  When they get there, they just walk/hop around and then shout, “homo!” (oops! explanation of this in the “language” section below) before getting back in the car/train/horse-drawn carriage/bus.

Favorite Places/Activities:

• Gatti-Town.  This place deserves it’s own blog post, but it’s pretty much a Chuck E. Cheese type place, but way less cool so it’s never crowded.  Michael loves the pizza buffet, so everyone’s happy.  Lily will tolerate sitting through dinner, but really is there for the rides.  You know those little coin-operated cars/fire trucks/etc. they have outside of stores sometimes?  They have some of those and she LOVES this little trolley one, and starts yelling “traw traw!” (trolley!) whenever we talk about it at home, rapidly followed by “go!” and “SHOOOOOOOOOOOOES!”  She also loves a fire truck ride and the “hors” (horses on the carousel) and always runs around frantically when she first gets there, trying to decide what to do first.
• Our bed.  This isn’t what you might think.  At this point, Lily would NEVER sleep in our bed with us unless she has been clobbered over the head or darted with a tranquilizer gun, or perhaps if Michael and I had both been clobbered over the head AND darted with a tranquilizer gun.  We TRIED co-sleeping out of desperation ONE time while on a trip, and NEVER again – SHE thought that playing at 3 in the morning would be awesome – WE thought that chucking her out of a window would be more awesome.  What I mean when I say that one of her favorite places is our bed, I mean that she loves to sit on our bed when we are all AWAKE during the day, and build forts (“for for”) and tents (“teh teh”) with sheets and pillows, and roll around and bonk heads and be silly.  She LOVES tents of any kind – pre-fab or homemade. 
• She still goes to her programs at the library – Mother Goose on the Loose, and Bouncing Babies.  We’ll be switching to the Musical Jamboree from BB now that she’s 18 months, so hopefully she’ll like that, too!
• She also likes sliding and swinging (“wee!!!”) at playgrounds.  She loves the zoo, and swimming with her playgroup friends.  Running at top speed playing “chay chay” (chase) down long hallways (like in hotels) = two thumbs up.
• She LOVES watching Michael mow the lawn.  I think I should probably warn everyone that Michael may have fibbed to his daughter.  He has told her that he mows lawns for a living, and that when he goes to work, he is mowing lawns.  Thus, whenever she hears a lawnmower, she thinks it’s Daddy, hard at work.  Oh, dear.  How long will he keep this up?  Today, she was supposed to take a nap, but spent 20 minutes admiring Daddy’s lawn mowing skills out of our second-story window.  “Mow mow!  Law law!”  Michael makes a point sometimes to tell her how many lawns he has mowed, and how he works so hard to have to mow our own lawn on the weekends. Will his house of lies come tumbling down on “take-your-daughter-to-work-day?”  Will she start to fear for our finances when she notices that the lawnmower noises die off as the grass turns brown this winter?  Will she ever figure out that it’s not a defect that Daddy’s lawnmower does not make bubbles like hers does? 
• At home, Lily really just loves being wherever Michael and I are (whoever is in the house), but I realized I haven’t taken any pictures of her room in a long time – I just don’t think about it and the lighting isn’t great for pictures.  But, here are some pictures of her room, with no cleaning up – just her room on a typical day.  Sure there are projects I would like to finish, cords that should be hidden, toys that should be put away, a humidifier that doesn’t really need to be out at this time of year, etc., but I’m just wanting to record what it REALLY looks like for posterity’s sake.

Food:

• CHEESE in all forms except Swiss (hahaha, Michael – I told you Swiss was gross!)
• Yogurt (although she STILL calls it “baby,” despite the fact that WE always call it, “yogurt”)
• Mandarin oranges, which she believes should be inhaled and not chewed
• Lima beans, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage…wait…I meant cookies
• Fruits – especially grapes, bananas, strawberries, and other berries.  She has a keen sense of what you need her to eat a lot of, though, and will reject a favorite food if she can tell you have perhaps purchased too much of it and have pushed strawberries for 3 meals in a row.  She thinks watermelon is icky.  She will eat kiwi and peaches/nectarines if she is standing.  She will not eat them if she is sitting.  Ummm…I’m not really joking on this one.  Basically, she will eat some fruits if I am eating them as MY snack, or if I let her have a nibble prior to a meal while she’s walking around the kitchen.  If they are on her plate at mealtime, though, she won’t touch them.  Did I mention she’s a stinker?
• Raisins and raisin toast.
• She has lots of other foods she will eat, but these along with crackers, noodles (especially with pesto), hummus, and peanut butter will usually make her happy.

Books:

• Pretty much any book is good with her.  We usually read 5 or so books before each nap and bedtime, one more while brushing teeth at night, and at other times of the day.  She LOVES to be read to, but also likes to “ree ree” by herself.
• Her all-time favorites are “Noisy Peekabo” books.  “Pat the Bunny” and “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” always get smiles.

TV:

• Yo Gabba Gabba (although she only really gets to watch it in the car or when I really need a minute on the phone).  Elmo is a grudging second, but she still asks about “Yo yo” when watching Sesame Street.
• Chanel 930 – Toddler Tunes.  Sadly, I am listening to TT while writing this, even though she is napping right now.  Yikes.

Songs:

• She LOVES for you to sing “Rockabye Baby” while she rocks her babies.  If you start singing it, she will madly scramble to find the nearest baby, stuffed animal, or cat to rock.
• Anything from Yo Gabba Gabba.
  • That is, of course, unless you sing the song she doesn’t want at that particular moment.
  • Then she gives you the “wiggle no.”  Which is, um, when she wiggles back and forth while saying, “no.”  Here’s a “wiggle no” at the beginning of this video.
    
  • She is really into a name song from Yo Gabba Gabba right now that lends itself to inserting anyone’s name into it.  She loves to shout out names for me to sing about ALL DAY LONG.  “Jack” is her favorite.  As in Jack Black (dare I admit this?) who stars in her favorite episode.  She will shout out characters from the show, family members, the cats’ names, and (after 20 rounds of people’s names) even body parts to get me to sing about them.  She thought she was hilarious today when she asked me to sing about “eye” and then, pointing to her other eye, asked me to sing about “nother” (another).  You could tell she was cracking herself up, as she then had me sing about “ear” and then “nother” and then “knee” and then “nother.”  Silly girl.
• “Gac goon went the little green frog” (not sure where I got this one from)
• “Wheels on the bus”
• “Patty cake”

Language:

• A bazillion (well over 200), and more and more of them are starting to make sense without an advanced degree in “Lily-speak!”  “uh! uh! uh!” has become “up!”; “see see” has become “sleeeeep”
• She’s not speaking in sentences yet, but she does combine words sometimes like “helicopter (her garbled version of that word) fly,” “throw (or “fro” if you’re being picky) high,” “mama sit,”  etc. 
• She even combines two words with descriptive gestures, such as shoving Michael while saying “dada moo (move)” if he’s not where he’s “supposed” to be.
• I did see her scoot by a playmate at a playgroup the other day saying, “cuu cuu” which is her version of “excuse me.”  Too cute!  She used to tell people to move if they were in her way, but it seems that correcting her has finally started to help.  Sweet girl.
• Admittedly, she does still say “hit! hit!” sometimes while rearing her hand back over your face and grinning like a maniac, which doesn’t seem so sweet.  But fortunately, she usually remembers that “we pat gently” instead of hitting, and will pat your shoulder saying “pat, pat” when the urge to wallop you strikes (which is more often than I think is really necessary, but at least she’s trying).  I should note that she isn’t really hitting because she’s mad, but almost as a conversation starter.  Nice. 
• She still rolls her eyes to make us laugh – love this, and the LONG blink that precedes her trying to roll her eyes is awesome.  Another conversation starter she uses these days (i.e. when she’s not sure what else to talk to you about or wants to get your attention in a positive way) is to do her version of an elephant trumpeting, and then say “how” for “house.”  That’s because we always make a big deal out of it and express alarm that there must be an elephant in the house and we must call the zookeeper right away and get some help in getting the elephant back to the zoo.  We are a tad silly around here, but I DID warn you this blog post was for my records, right?
• One of my current favorite phrases is when she scratches the back of her head (her sign for “outside”…from my abandoned attempt at teaching signs), says “sigh sigh” (which is how she SAYS outside), and then says, “SHOOOOOOOOOOES!!!”  She knows that whenever we are going somewhere we need shoes, so she views them as the gatekeeper of fun. 
  • Me: Want to go to the library, Lily?
  • Lily: Lie lie, go go, SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES!!!
  • -or-
  • Me: Did you hear the neighbor’s puppy dog barking, Lily?
  • Lily: Pup pup!  Sigh sigh (while scratching head)!  SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOES!!!
• This was a coincidence, but after she woke up from her nap (during which I had typed out the typical “puppy” conversation above), I had this exact conversation with Lily WHILE I WAS HOLDING MY CAMERA!
  • Me: Lily, did you hear the puppy dog barking?

  • Lily:  Pup-pup!

    Sigh sigh! (while scratching head) SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES!!!

• Most embarrassing phrase: Lily says, “homo!” for home, which can get a bit awkward in public if you mention going home and she starts shouting, “homo! homo!”  Nice, Lily.  I owe you extra embarrassment when you’re old enough to get embarrassed.  She now says “home” (properly) about 50% of the time, but it’s still a mix.  My favorite juvenile game is to ask her if she thinks daddy is at home.  Hee hee.
• Another instance when “homo” comes up is when she wants to leave somewhere.  If she’s tired, overwhelmed, bored, or in some other way “done” with the situation, she often will say, “bye bye” and wave to indicate that she would like to fast-forward to the part of the situation where we say, “bye bye” and then skedaddle.  If that doesn’t work, she will get more frantic with her “bye bye’s” and waving, and might add in “lee lee” (leave), “go,” or “homo” until she gets a response.  Amazingly, “homo” always gets someone’s attention…
• I love it that she now tries different words to try to get her point across if she can tell if her first attempt isn’t working.  For example, if she wants something and needs an adult to help her get it (i.e. a toy on a store shelf), and will cycle through “hol” (hold), “huh” (hug – combined with clasping hands under the chin – TOO cute), and “tay” (take) to see if any of those will get her what she wants.
• The actions she cycles through if she DOESN’T get what she wants are less sweet, but she’s not doing too badly these days.  She’s pretty distractible, and when she starts doing the “wiggle no,” you know you’re on a track to a tantrum, so you often have time to decide whether this is an issue you want to push or if you are going to need a really good distraction.  She will still stomp her feet and yell, “no! no! no!” if she’s mad, and will sometimes go limp and sink to the floor if you try to pick her up when she’s mad.  Sunday night, she didn’t want to leave her trolley when Gatti-Town was closing, so she melted down to lie on the floor so I couldn’t pick her up without really fighting her.  We just let her stay there on the carpet and ignored her for a second so we could regroup (ummm…and not laugh right in her face – I rarely feel like laughing when faced with her tantrums alone, but when Michael and I are together they seem much funnier and we were having a hard time keeping a straight face).  The nice part was that she stopped her tantrum after only a few seconds, and calmed down and started pretending she was going, “night, night” as she was lying down on the revoltingly dirty carpet.  So even though she may have a short fuse, at times, her charge burns out pretty quickly.

Learning:

• Lily doesn’t know any letters yet consistently.*  At least I don’t think she does.  Who knows with her.  I didn’t think she could count a few weeks ago, and then Michael and I both heard her, clear as a bell, say “sih, se-en, eight, nine, ten!” while looking at a ladybug counting book.  She can count to 10, on and off, depending if she’s really paying attention.  She often loses interest after 5, but does know what comes after each number usually.  If I help her by saying every OTHER number for her to keep her on track, she can usually get to 10 now.
  • *Okay, scratch that.  I learned later the day I wrote this part that she at least knows “o” consistently.  I really haven’t investigated other letters, but it seems that she’s probably picking some up.
• She knows some shapes: circle, square, triangle, heart, star, and oval.
• All colors used to be blue, but now they seem to be getting even more random so we’re not quite there yet. 

Sleeping:

• Gold stars all around on this one.
• She usually gets in bed around 9:30 these days (our schedule is still about 30 minutes off right now with all the travel), and happily reads books and plays with dolls or small toys for 30 minutes or so.  She sleeps straight through the night for about 11 hours until 9ish.  She takes 1 nap in the afternoon around 3 or so, and naps till 4:30 or sometimes 5. 
• She loves her light show that projects babies on the ceiling.  She falls asleep to that every night, and will also turn it on when she gets up. 
• When she does get up in the morning, she likes to talk to herself and “ree ree” (i.e. read) for a while before she wants to get out of bed.  As in, if you try to go get her right when she wakes up, she may tell you, “no, no, no, no” and cry while struggling to get back in bed, shouting, “beh beh!  beh beh! (bed)” as if you’re torturing her by trying to take her downstairs to feed her.  She usually likes 15 minutes or so to read and play with whatever is in her bed before she’s ready to get up.  Quirky little lady, isn’t she?
• Still sleeps with Annabelle her pink kitty lovey that she calls “*imagine the sound of someone’s lips popping*” even though we continue to call it Annabelle (or “stinky kitty” for self-evident reasons).  About a month ago, I bought a backup Annabelle on eBay to try to trick Lily into letting us rotate them to allow for more washing (and to have a backup in case something happened to her very best friend in the world).  Unfortunately, we waited until she was too old, and the new Annabelle did not pass the smell test.  She was thoroughly sniffed, inspected with a puzzled facial expression, and rejected with a, “no” and a toss on the floor.  We kept trying to convince her that Mommy had just really cleaned Annabelle, but Lily was too smart for that.  After we decided we weren’t going to get away with it, we revealed the trick to Lily, who glared at the second kitty and threw it down every time you gave it to her.  We have now convinced her that new kitty and Annabelle are actually friends who like to hug, dance, and kiss together, so now she will let them both hang out with her.   She calls new kitty, “Paw paw,” which is her version of “Imposter Kitty.”  Imposter Kitty is allowed in the bed, but has not been allowed to get in on the clutched-to-the-face-thumb-sucking action.

That’s all I can think of for now (hahaha…”that’s all”…I crack myself up).  I just wanted to record all of these little snippets of our days for posterity, to remember Lily as she is now – not as the 15 year old she will one day become, rolling her eyes because I’m embarrassing her as my revenge for her shouting “homo!” in public all the time when she was a toddler – not as the newborn we did circus tricks around in an attempt to elicit even one measly giggle as payment for bouncing her to sleep for hours – but as the amazing, brilliant, whirlwind of a toddler whose budding imagination and delightful personality amaze me and amuse every day in the right here and now.

No punch line.

I just love this kid.