Major Milestone

Dear readers, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for.

It’s Lily’s…

 

 

first…

 

 

confirmed case…

 

 

of BED HEAD!

 

 

Some of us are more excited than others.

Kitty-palooza

Lily LOVES cats.

She loves real cats.

She loves stuffed animal cats.

She loves cats that are really just stuffed animal heads with a blankie attached that are getting kind of a grayish pink and always smell vaguely of saliva.

She loves books about cats.

She loves meowing like a cat.

Cats, cats, cats.

It’s no surprise, then, that her new tricycle was a hit.  Grandmom (my mom) and GrandBob gave her a snazzy new pink (score!) Hello Kitty (double score!) trike for Christmas.

She loves it, and I just loved how she squeaked her little horn whenever a car drove by.  Just precious.

Color me impressed

A few weeks ago, colors suddenly seemed to “click” with Lily.  Before, she could sometimes name colors when asked, but would just as often call everything “blue” or “red.”  It was almost overnight that she started naming colors appropriately (pink, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, brown, black and white).  Yay, Lily! 

Around the same time, it has become clear that Lily has some favorite colors.  Like singing, this isn’t something I had given much thought to until it happened, but it quickly became clear that Lily LOVES pink.  This is extremely fortunate because practically everything she owns is pink.  I’ll admit she wears more pink than the average girl, but we get a lot more “how old is he?” type comments whenever we stray from a VERY girl color palate in her dress.

Bless her bald self.

Like I was saying, she loves pink, and it was definitely the first color she identified properly with consistency.  She loves to point out items that are pink, and will pick the pink items out of a set of multi-colored items to hold. 

At the doctor’s office, she insists on a “pink lollipop,” and will repeatedly remind the nurses and doctor throughout the visit that she wants a PINK lollipop in exchange for her cooperation.  If they do not comply and give her an orange lollipop, she will give it back and again ask for a pink one.  I have actually seen this happen. 

Every time we color, she reminds me that we do not have a pink marker, and she is clearly dissatisfied with our pink crayon that is not vibrant enough to really be worth using.

Her other favorite color is turquoise, it seems.  She calls it blue just like any other blue, but when presented with different colors to chose from, she will pick a turquoise shade of blue (provided no pink is available, of course!).

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised she has an opinion on colors since she certainly has opinions about other things.

Like broccoli and huggy strangers, for example.

Two thumbs down for both of those.

“Mommy have baby, please?”

Let me start by saying:

THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK IT’S ABOUT.

STEP AWAY FROM THE BABIES ‘R US AND YOUR KNITTING/CROCHET/EPIDURAL NEEDLES.

I AM NOT PREGNANT, NOR AM I TRYING TO GET PREGNANT.

And that, dear readers, is what makes it so awkwardly funny. 

Yes, Lily now goes around all the time saying this:

Yes, that was “Mommy have baby, please?”

(and it’s usually more fluid than that – it’s just the only one I have on video since I don’t usually encourage it)

Oh, dear.

I believe it stems from how I try to have her ask for things in complete sentences and without whining.  For example, instead of losing her dang mind and shouting “baby! baby!” when she wants to hold a baby doll (as she is wont to do), I have her calm the heck down and repeat “Mommy, may I have the baby/cheese/car/etc., please?” after I model it for her.  She usually gets most of the sentence correct, but the goal is really for her to say “please” and to stay calm when asking for something she wants.  So now, if she is whining for something, I sometimes start her out on “asking more appropriately” by saying “Mommy, may…”  My only guess is that her new phrase is related to this politeness training, but who knows?  She just says, “Mommy have baby, please?” out of the blue and grins at me.

Awkward.

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Also awkward.

All I want for Christmas…

Dear Lily,

I understand that you are young.

This was only your second Christmas.

We did a LOT of cramming between Thanksgiving and Christmas, learning about everything from elves to reindeer to snowmen to Christmas tress to Santa to baby Jesus (more on that one in another post).

You did an awesome job, because you are a brainiac with a scary-good memory.

Apparently, however, we forgot to emphasize that Mr. Kringle needs a LIST of items that you want for Christmas BEFORE Christmas.

Jolly old St. Nick cannot always read minds.

Christmas morning, Lily, is not the time to let everyone know that you desperately hope that one of the packages contains a [Toy Story] big Jessie toy with a removable hat.

Because maybe, just maybe, Santa did not realize that you had your heart set on a cowgirl of your very own.

I’m just saying.

Love,

Mommy

(honorary ambassador for Santa)

Hey, good-lookin’

Lily got a new kitchen/bake shop for Christmas, and she has really been enjoying it.  Her newfound love of cooking can be useful sometimes when I need to cook real food, too, because she can cook next to me and enjoys feeling like we’re still playing together. 

Here, she is carefully doling out her tortellini to Minnie, Mickey, and an imaginary Goofy and Donald Duck. 

Next thing you know, we’ll be filming “Cooking with Lily” episodes.

Lately, her favorite activities in her own little kitchen are making birthday cake and making “dazzle-berry lemonade” as seen in an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba.

I know adults are supposed to have longer attention spans than toddlers do, but this girl could make birthday cake and lemonade all day long, so I usually feel like I’m admitting defeat when I tell her I just can’t possibly eat any more cake or lemonade. 

When I need a change of pace from cake and lemonade, then it’s time to very thoughtfully suggest we make Daddy breakfast in bed!

Wakey wakey, Daddy!

Oh, her mischievous grin reminds me of her favorite game to play while cooking.  She loves to make you food or a drink, and then wait for you to eat or drink it.  Then she grins like mad and shouts “Hot! Hot!” so that you can act like you didn’t know it was too hot, and have to frantically try to cool your mouth and the food/drink down. 

Bottom line – she likes to pretend to trick people into eating food that’s too hot.

Let’s not examine that one too closely either, okay?

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Bon appetit!

Lily Quotes

I have the world’s worst memory, but Lily cracks me up on a daily basis with the things she says these days.  To hear her wandering around saying things like, “Where is he? Oh! Here he is!” when she just started putting words together a few months ago is just amazing to me.

I’m trying to remember the kinds of things she says at this age since it all changes so quickly.  We all know this won’t be as regular a feature as either you or I would like, but I did jot down a few things this weekend, so yay for me!

Some of these quotes are just funny to me, some reflect my amazement at her memory and the associations she makes, and some are notable because they are more complex in structure or vocabulary than she usually uses.

Or, um, I just want to remember them, okay?  My baby is growing up at lightning speed, and I am trying to hold on to some of it before her sweet “Mommy, hold you, please” becomes “MOM – you’re embarrassing me!”

___________________________

Mommy: What do you want for lunch, Lily?

Lily: Cookies!

Mommy: Lily, we can’t have cookies for lunch.  (looking in fridge) How about…

Lily: How about cookies!

___________________________

Mommy: (Gives Lily a kiss on the head.)

Lily: No more kisses!

Mommy: Oh no!  What would I do without kisses?!

Lily: Be sad.

___________________________

Two frequent phrases these days : “Whas zat?” [What’s that?] and “Whatcha doin’ Mommy/Daddy?” 

___________________________

Lily (while on the floor and wailing): Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!

(On second thought, I think this needs its own post.)

___________________________

Hmmm…it seems that that’s all I wrote down, but I will try to jot down some notes and see if I can get some of the funnier ones.

Saved

Lily was quite enamored with the two nativity sets we put out this year, and loved to hold baby Jesus (with supervision, as our sets are fragile).  She quickly picked up on the major players, often spotting “Jesus, Mary, and Joesus” (close enough!) in stores and books this holiday season.

But, when you see my toddler sprawled on the floor of my den screaming for “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!,” please don’t assume she’s having a religious epiphany.

She’s just having a tantrum because she’s not allowed to let baby Jesus drive a school bus.

Impromptu House Rule #457:

Baby Jesus may not operate heavy machinery.

Singing!

Singing is a milestone I never gave much thought to before I had Lily.

And before this week, quite honestly.

I knew Lily wasn’t “singing” before, even though she would repeat song lyrics and mouth along to songs. 

This past week she has finally started to put more variation in her tone so that it finally has started to sound more melodious and more like actual singing.  She woke us up this morning with a medley of Yo Gabba Gabba songs: “Oh so sorry…oh so sorry…What was zat sound?…in tree!…Mommy come in now!”

Okay, so the last wasn’t part of a song, but it’s so much nicer to wake up to when it’s preceded by a serenade. 

She’s not quite ready for Broadway, but it’s sweet to hear her try to sing along with us (and even sweeter when she’s singing to herself in her bed or while she’s playing).

I tried to video her singing today, but she wasn’t as into it by the time I got the camera out.  Just wanted to document that she’s singing now – will keep trying to get a video.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

As I just mentioned (Alert!  Looks like it’s another Bogle Blogging Frenzy! Prepare the coffee, STAT!), we got quite the snow today in Greenville.  After Michael finished some of his work, we gook Lily outside to experience the snow.  Here are her first impressions:

Overall, I would say that she wasn’t that into the snow.  She liked looking at it, but doesn’t seem to like walking in it very much. 

She didn’t want to sled, so Michael and I tried sledding on our driveway to entice her.  We cleared her off a space on the driveway and let her sit on a basket to watch. 

She really didn’t seem to like us falling at all, although I particularly enjoyed it when Michael tried to sled on the extremely powdery snow on the grass:

We eventually persuaded her to ride with me in the world’s slowest sled ride, but as you can tell, she still wasn’t into it.

Although she didn’t want to ride on the sled, she was more than willing to let us drag her wagon through the snowy street, and seemed to enjoy the snow more if she didn’t have to touch it.

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Snowed in and loving it!

Cheater, Cheater, Snow Eater

As you may or may not have heard, South Carolina was seriously dumped on today by a serious winter storm.  We got 6 to 7 inches of very powdery snow this morning, topped off with a glaze of freezing rain/sleet this afternoon.  As a stay-at-home mom, my pint-sized boss wasn’t accepting my “I can’t make it to the office” excuses this morning, but at least we had a few new activities to keep us busy today.

Michael didn’t have to go into the office, but still had to work from home for part of the day.  Since I didn’t want him to miss the fun of seeing Lily in the snow, I cheated and brought some of the snow inside for Lily to explore while he was working this morning.

I think her favorite activity was eating it.

And sharing, of course.  She has been very sweet lately about offering to share with Michael and me. 

She’ll even share her prized possession with us…Annabelle. (a.k.a. her lovey; a.k.a. stinky kitty).

After a quick “nuggle,” though, you are expected to give it back.

Sounds reasonable.

Of course, then she takes it back and asks you to “Mommy, be sad.” 

She also still asks you to be sad as a bargaining chip when you’re asking her to eat something she doesn’t really want to eat.  You ask her to eat green beans.  She counters with, “Mommy, be sad.”  If you accept her bargain, she will eat the green bean, and then wait for you to pretend to cry in a very dramatic fashion (she doesn’t actually like for you to be genuinely upset, so that’s a positive at least).  I can’t remember if I have blogged about this before, but it started with just carrots because of a Yo Gabba Gabba episode. 

Bottom line – she really gets a kick out of watching people pretend to be sad.

Let’s not examine that too closely, okay?

_________________________________________

Lily’s other highlight from our indoor snow play, which preceded our outdoor snow play once Michael was able to take a break, related to our indoor snowman.

I pretty much did all the work because Lily doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of putting her hands in the snow other than to eat some.  When I was finished, she told me I needed to go find a carrot for the nose.  I came back with our supplies, and decorated the snowman. 

Honestly, Lily wasn’t really all that into the snowman.

Until I had her pose with him for a picture.

 

That’s when she discovered the bowl of our leftover “supplies,” and asked if she could eat what she found.

 

OMG, Mommy.  His eyes are chocolate. 

 

Poor snowman.

 

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Home of the original giant, snowman-eyeball-eating baby.

Still Talkin’

As I have mentioned before, Lily has been really into pretend play involving having toys “talk” to each other. 

Yeah, we’re still into that.

Big time.

Just thought you might want an update.

She loves her dollhouse and other dolls/figures that she has.  The dolls do a lot of sleeping, eating, and falling down, which sounds about right. 

She still tries to turn almost any activity into a game of “talk,” often insisting that the adult take one toy and facilitate this game.  She even tries to play “talk” with some of the pictures in her books.

Today, we first enjoyed traditional “talk” with some baby dolls my mom gave her for Christmas. 

Then we played some Play-Doh “talk.”

Then, nesting bucket “talk.”

Yeah, you’d think that would be a tricky one to pull off, but she ended up making a staircase for the blocks to walk on while they talked to their friends (the other blocks).  A lack of moving parts and faces will not deter her from her goal.

Love,

The Bogle Family Blog

Talk amongst yourselves.