Lily Lately

Dear Lily,

Oh my goodness what fun you are at this age!!! I absolutely love spending the day with you! You are such an easy toddler. You play really well and rarely get into things you aren’t supposed to get into. The only time you are unhappy is when you haven’t gotten enough sleep. I make sure that doesn’t happen too often. You are staying up late since it’s summer and the days are longer. You are in bed anywhere between 8 and 9, which means you normally sleep until 7:30 or 8 🙂 Your days are filled with running errands with me, meeting Daddy for lunch, playing outside, playing inside, etc. You love your wagon and baby pool in the backyard, but your favorite thing to do outside is simply walk around. You look up at me, reach out your hand, and say “wal” and we walk around the yard…for very long periods of time! Haha! Taking rides in your stroller is also a favorite. You don’t say a word–just quietly enjoy the scenery. You are doing such a good job at communicating with us. You can use words for almost everything you need/want. And if Daddy or I get it wrong, you very clearly tell us no! You repeat nearly everything we say or do, which has definitely encouraged us to quit saying things like crap and stupid! You are one smart little girl. You are great at figuring things out, taking on a challenge, solving problems, and working with your hands. I can tell already that you are going to be an advanced learner. Daddy and I joke that we are going to think your siblings are just plain dumb, when really they will be pretty average, haha! By the way…no siblings yet! Enjoy being an only child for a little while longer, Lord willing!

So that Daddy and I don’t forget, here are some recent highlights:

The biggest milestone lately is that you are finally walking! You began walking on April 25. You were standing up while holding onto a big ball. The ball fell out of your hands and there you were standing without holding on to anything! I thought for sure you would just sit down, but you didn’t. You took your first step! On April 27th  (the day of the horrible and very scary tornadoes that ripped through our community and state) walking became your main form of mobility. I guess since you spent so much time in the hallway that day you realized there was nothing better to do than practice your walking. 

Talk on the phone to Ella. You ask for Mommy’s “hey”, then proceed to have a conversation that begins with “Hey Ella”. Seriously. You talk for real, with the phone up to your ear, sometimes you even hold the phone between your cheek and shoulder, and have a nonstop conversation with Ella. By the way, Ella is your BFF from daycare. I’ll have to take you back to visit her.

You love to play with paper. You also love to clean with “wice” which would be wipes. You ask for one every time your diaper is changed. 

If we ask you to dance, you either bounce up and down or twirl. You think twirling is hilarious. Usually by the third time around you are dizzy and can’t walk straight.

You use your walker like it’s a stroller and put your stuffed animals in it and walk them around the house. And of course, you tell them to “sit” just like Mommy and Daddy tell you!

You have a thing for shoes. Every time our closet is open, you go through all of Mommy and Daddy’s shoes. You are great at picking out matching pairs, handing them to us, and insisting that we put the “shoosh” on! You also like to try to put your own shoes on, but you haven’t mastered that yet.

You are such a little helper, especially in the morning when Daddy is getting ready for work. You like to walk around the house and hand him things like shoes, pants, his phone, paper, etc.

You recently discovered how to walk backward and you think it’s fantastic!

You have two food groups: milk and goldfish. You drink milk like all the cows in the world are dying tomorrow. We go through a gallon and a half each week. That would be the “Wright” in you! You ask for goldfish nearly every time we sit down to eat, but your mean Mommy says they are only for snack. You say the word fish with extra emphasis on the “sh”.

You love bags…any kind. You are really into carrying bags around the house and packing things in them. I see many purses in your future!

I think my favorite new thing you are doing is nodding your head yes. You won’t say the word, but my goodness do you have the whole nodding thing down! You move your head all the way up, all the way down, your eyes stay focused, and your eyebrows go up and down. It’s a very deliberate nod. And what’s so funny is we can ask you question after question and you either say no or nod yes, but never vice versa.

As long as you can keep your mind of goldfish and you aren’t sick, you are a great eater! You love Salsa Chicken, baked squash, lima beans, black eyed peas, cookies, applesauce, jambalaya, peanut butter, rice krispie treats, sweet tea, broccoli with cheese,  and so much more. 

Elmo is still one of your favorites, along with Mimmi (Minnie or Mickey) and Dordo (Dora). You have finally started saying Elmo instead of Melmo…but sometimes you say Elmof. Where did the f come from?

You love reading your Bibuh 🙂 So much that we need to buy you a new Bible soon because many of the pages are ripped or torn out.

I’m hoping you will be musically inclined. You love the guitar and can point one out anytime you see one. You are just mesmerized by guitars! You also love to sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” with motions and “Wheels on the Bus” with all the beep beeps, wah wahs, and swish swish swishes. You also love Bingo and you try so hard to spell the word. 

Speaking of beep beep, you say it when someone or something is in your way.

You are getting some more teeth on the bottom…two on either side of your front two teeth and one, maybe two, in the back! Yea! You can start really chewing once those come in!

You are saying “all gone” with your hands wide open when something is gone.

You are great at intentionally making messes and saying “messshh” while looking at Mommy and Daddy to see what we are going to do about it. Unless you are making a mess that will be impossible to clean up, we just let you make the mess because we know when it’s all said and done you will ask for a wipe to help us clean it up. 

You love love love to play on the “choch” (couch). You can climb on it and get down all by yourself.

You are a great walker and are getting closer to running every day! I absolutely love to watch you walk around. You get that right arm just a swingin’ and your little legs going as fast as they can…too cute! One of your favorite games to play is hide and seek. You close the door to the hallway, say “bye bye”, and quickly walk to your room and sit on your chair while we come to find you.

Another game we play is “night night”. Mommy or Daddy pretends to be asleep, snoring and such, and you not so gently pat us on the back to wake us up.

You are in size 4 diapers and in 12-18 month clothing.

You’ve kinda sorta began using a spoon/fork on your own. You haven’t figured out how to hold it correctly and you sure do make a mess, but at least you are trying!

You ask to get the mail every day when Daddy gets home. It’s routine now…Daddy gets home and the two of you walk to the mailbox.

You say “shoowee” when we change your diaper.

You say “hot” and blow on your food before you eat it.