Vocabulary

I just think she is so pretty.  I know I'm her mom, but she is right?

So finally a post about my sweet, sweet Lillian.  I love this girl so much I want to squeeze her face all the time.  I don't know how most two year olds are, but this girl is seriously the sweetest, most generous thing I could have imagined.  Sure she gives me trouble from time to time, but over all, she is just a really great kid.

She's been chatting us up lately.  It is amazing how much she absorbs and one day she starts spouting off full sentences of words you have no idea where she's even heard this stuff before.  I should be writing it all down because I know I'm only going to remember a few of the best moments here.

Discovering markers and how fun they are outside of their normal use.

The other day her new friends, our new neighbor girls, were outside the house lurking on their bikes waving at her through the front window.  I am trapped on the couch with my twin breastfeeding pillow strapped on and both boys filling their bellies.  I cannot move, nor do I particularly want to get up and flash the 5 and 8 year old girls outside the house.  She says "Mommy, Margo! Eva!" and points outside.  Over and over again.  And John is in the twins' nursery putting together the second crib (Yes we separated them and they are doing great!), so he's up to his elbows in balancing 4 crib sides trying to attach them together.  "Mommy, Margo! Eva!  Outside!! Go!"  So I say "Lilli, sweetheart, Mommy cannot get up right now, please wait a few minutes."  This is the best part, "Mommy, I hep you.  I hep you get up.  Get up Mommy.  Hand.  Hand.  (She takes my hand and pulls it.)  Get up, Mommy."  This breaks my heart, but amazes me at the same time.  Where did she learn this?  That taking my hand would help me get up?  And all the sudden she's able to express this with her own words?  I'm amazed.  The story does not end sadly. John finishes the crib and is able to take her outside with the girls.  We are not quite comfortable letting our two year old across the street on her own, though we know the neighbors, parents of 3, 5 and 8 year old girls, are perfectly capable of watching her for a few minutes.  We just aren't there yet.

Hiding in the bushes.

So then yesterday I am in the living room diapering the babies in a pamper before their second nap of the day.  Their cloth diapers need to be changed about every hour and a half and I'm getting the feeling their heavy diapers are waking them from naps.  Its probably just the fact that they are not yet 4 months old and just don't sleep all that long yet, but my hope was to get them to sleep for more than 45 minutes for this nap.  Anyway, I get one boy done and Lilli is diapering her duck with the other diaper.  "Lilli, Mommy needs that diaper for Sam."  "No, Mommy, no."  "Yes, Lilli, give me the diaper for Sam."  She runs off down the hall.  So I get up after her and realize I am halfway back to their room, I'll just get another diaper.  She thinks I am after her to steal duck's diaper, so she screams and throws herself on the floor (If only it were appropriate for me to have screamed and thrown myself on the floor when she first stole the diaper from me...).  I pass her and just get another diaper.  At which point I tell her she is spoiled and that when Mommy says she needs something from her, she needs to follow my directions.  Sitting back on the living room floor, she walks over to me, bends over and places the sweetest little kiss on my arm.  This is her, "I'm sorry Mommy."   I cannot resist but giggle and give her a big squeeze.  She can make me so mad in one moment and completely make up for it ten times over in the exact next moment.

This morning she runs into the living room, as I am again trapped on the couch feeding the boys, and tells me "Daddy hit head.  Light.  On light.  Daddy hurt."  I said, "Uh oh, Daddy hit his head on the light?"  She nods.  I know this probably doesn't sound like much, but she is getting out full sentences all of the sudden (this is my idea of a full sentence).  We seem to be able to converse now.  Its crazy.  You go so long trying to figure out what these little babies need or are trying to tell you, and then all of the sudden, they are just little people and able to tell you pretty much exactly what they want.

Picking her nose.  Ladylike.

Running to me after the hide.

Yesterday we were outside in the morning during the boys' first nap and she wants to play hide and seek.  She goes out to the same large tree in the yard she always goes to and points to the bushes and says "Mommy, hide."  Puts her hands over her eyes and says "One, two, five, six." (She's still learning to count, we have no idea where three and four go...)  I'm standing in the bushes saying "Lilli, you already know where I'm hiding!"  She'll get there.  Right now she's just a tad bit bossy, so I kind of go with the flow, mostly just asking her to say "Please" when she tells me to do something.

Lilli's new favorite show on TV, which I am not ashamed to admit I let her watch whenever she asks,  is called Word World.  It is on PBS at 10:30 CST.  It is a show about words and phonics and I think it is brilliantly done.  The characters are all made up of the letters in their names, and it is so creative.  As a lover of art and graphics, I am fascinated by it and become just as engrossed in how they do it as my toddler is in the story they are telling.  If you have a toddler, I highly suggest it.  I think she is actually learning a lot about letters and words, in ways that are much more interesting than anything I could accomplish on my own. 

She doesn't watch TV all day long, though that would be really easy for me right now.  We do spend a lot of time reading, coloring, talking about letters, numbers, shapes and colors.  Oh and picking up random pieces of Play-Doh all over the house (NEVER buy Play-Doh if you can help it.)  She is learning something everyday and it is the most fun to watch her light up with discovery.  And to feel myself light up when she expresses what she's learned.  Being a parent is cool.