Toddler Verbiage

When you have a verbally exploding toddler running your life around, it's hard not to find yourself commenting on the things she says all the time and saying words like she does even when she's asleep.

Currently, the top two repeated {by her parents} words are "So....." and "news".  
Lily walks around chatter chatter chatter all day long just saying words she knows.  Sometimes she's talking about things going on around her, sometimes she's just saying words out loud, sometimes sharing with us things she sees and can verbally identify, and sometimes she's engaging in coversation with someone or the tv or the dog. Rarely is she quiet. 

She uses, "Soooooo...." just like that. Elongated space filler.  It's hilarious. We watch one particular news channel and promos are on a lot where they say the word "news" a billion times.  Her version is lispy at the end, "newth".  It's adorable.

George and Andrew say "newth" all the time randomly.  It always makes me laugh.

I keep a list of new words, phrases, and funny things Lily does with her age so we don't forget. Because as much as I think I'd be able to remember, I know I won't. There's too much and time goes too quickly.

The other day, she and I were in the car and had a conversation like this:
L: "Mama. Mommy. Mommy. Mama. Mum. Mama. Mama. Mum. Mommy."
Me: "Lily." 
L: "Hi."
{Family Guy anyone? yeah. it was just that.}

Daddy says, "Gimme five, buddy!" and hold out his hand and she does it back, loudly exclaiming, "BUDDY!"  However, if I do the exact same thing, she just gives me five. No "buddy".

I love watching her social interactions develop. She's very loving and snuggly and also very independent. She likes to do things on her own, her own way sometimes.

We have noticed she's become VERY attached to her blanket and her paci in the last month or so.  The paci is going away at age 2, once those damn 2 year molars finish coming through ruining sleep. 

She cries, "Pthaaa--seeee" when she can't find it. It's one of those words she says funny where her tongue comes out on the letter "p" and it's elongated as she whines for it.  She loveloveloves her "blankie".  Her favorite is a purple afghan her great-grandmother crocheted for her before she was born. My grandmother.  The thing about it is, it's big. And she drags it all over with her. She's been sleeping with it her whole life and I'm so glad she loves it so much, but sheesh it's twice as long as she is and she wants it with her all the time.   She elongates her longing for "baaaaankeeeeee" too. And sometimes she just says short and quick, "bank.et." like a staccato note. 

Last night was one of those miserable teeth nights where she had her paci IN her mouth, her baaaannnkeeeee wrapped around her, yet she was crying for both.  She woke up 3 different times and the final time was about 5:45am.  It's going to be rough when it's time for paci to go to paci heaven I can already tell. Yikes!  I'm just not willing to have a pacifier wielding giant walking around, so despite the difficulty, it will happen.  But, until then, "pthaaaa-seeeee" is ok with me for the next 3 and 1/2 months.

Easter 2012

To finish up Easter {mostly}, aside from the dyeing Easter eggs, I have yet another post to add about our holiday.

On Saturday, we headed over to Granny & Pappy's for Easter dinner and hanging out with our Pittsburgh family. We feasted on yummy food, hung out talking, the kids got special Easter goodies, and we just spent the evening with those we love.  It was really nice. We adore them and are so grateful for their love in our lives!

This is what 12 looks like sometimes.

My babes checking out Easter goodies from Granny & Pappy.

Andrew reading & Lily sneaking candy...

Sunday morning, George and Andrew headed to pick up Reagan for her to spend the holiday at home with us this year.  We had frenchtoast and sausage for breakfast together which may not seem like any big deal, but the last time the 5 of us had breakfast together was probaby last November.

I made cupcakes to take back over to Granny & Pappy's for our leftover Easter grub lunch while the kids colored eggs. The "carrots" were orange starbursts with fruit rollups for the stems. They must have been convincing because George asked me, "Who wants to eat carrots with their cupcakes?" when he saw them. I added cinammon sugar to the top for the "dirt".  They turned out pretty cute, I think.

After the egg dyeing, we needed to get Lily in the bath before we headed to our Pittsburgh Parents' house for the afternoon.  She's one who LOVES her bath and cannot wait to get in! Daddy had to stop her today from launching her excited self into it.

The Easter Bunny left goodies for the kids in their baskets, of course. Last year, Lily had just started crawling, had no clue about her Easter basket~ pretty much a prop for me to take pictures. :) This year she oooh'd and ahhh'd!

The first thing Lily pulled out of her basket was new "pretties". That Easter Bunny knows her well.

She got a "quackie" {duck} dressed up like a bunny that she loved.

 The aftermath.

It was an enjoyable day for everyone to hang out, eat leftovers {my favorite potato salad in the world} and just relax. 

I See Your True Colors

I wasn't quite sure how coloring eggs was going to go with Lily this year. With her, you just never know if she's going to dive right in, sit back and watch, or get fussy about any part of it.

Last year, she turned 9 months on Easter Day and this year she's 20 months, so there's definitely a mix of laid back and toddler drama.

Turns out she did all 3. ;)  Of course.

As I said, we waited until Easter morning when Reagan came back home before coloring, so after breakfast and baskets and once our dessert was baking, it was time!

Lily is one funny little person and this year was definitely fun to watch!

Hmmmmmm....what to do first, Bubby.

{she literally says "hmmmm?" when she puts her hand on her face like this}

Most definitely there was some tasting involved this year too.

We tried using the wire whisk method this year to keep it easy for Lily and although she did use it, she also used her hand and the spoons as well. At one point, she picked up an egg and literally threw it in the dye. You know, since 20 month old toddlers are always gentle.  That created a lot of laughter in the older two.

She was wayyyyy too fascinated with the egg dyeing to stop for pictures. :)

Easter egg coloring success and I think Lily is a big fan too ! Can't wait 'til next year!

"Sissy Went Bye Bye"

Last Friday afternoon, Lily was looking out the livingroom windows and calling, "Sisssss-eeeee!"
I aimply answered, "Sissy's at school, Punky."   She accepted the answer and went about her afternoon playing, singing, reading, dancing, coloring.

When she woke up Sunday morning, she looked over to Reagan's bed on the other side of her room and said, "Sissy."  I thought for a minute about how to respond and simply said, "Sissy's not here."

I thought back to Friday afternoon when Lily was calling for her at the window.  Reagan wasn't coming home that night, but instead going to visit BM for her weekends. 

After Sunday's inquiry, I said to George that I wondered what Lily thinks about where or why Reagan isn't here over the weekend.   Lily and I talk about Daddy being at work and she's said "scooooo" when Andrew and Reagan are gone during the day for a long time now, so she is aware that people come and go at different times.

But, this one's a new one.

Sure, it sound simple to just say, "She's at her mom's." 
But to a 20 month old?
It's not that simple.  For now, we just say, "Sissy went bye bye."

And that's far better than the explanation she doesn't need. 

BM refers to Reagan being "away at school" for the week. I laugh because she's not away at boarding school or in college and then goes home for the weekend. She lives with her dad. I guess that's a hard pill for BM so she says Reagan's "away at school." 

I'm far more of a realistic person than one to paint a false picture.
"Sissy went bye bye," is truthful and age appropriate for now.  Not something I ever considered I'd have to think about how to respond to my toddler.

Like George said, "Unfortunately, Lily will understand it soon enough."

We're Goin' On an Egg Hunt!

This year was Lily's 1st egg hunt.  Our township does this annually and although she was 9 months last year on Easter, it rained, so we didn't go just for the photo op.  This year, we woke up to a chilly, cloudy day and were hoping the rain would hold off.  It did, thankfully!

We slightly bundled up and headed off to the community center. Andrew went with us happily begrudgingly, but was glad he was there to watch Lily too. ;)

Lily loveloveloves to run! If there's open space, she is so happy to just go.  Trying to corral her while we waited for the hunt to begin was challenging.  We passed her back and forth between the Daddy, Andrew and myself. Mostly Daddy and Andrew since I had the camera.

When it was finally time for the "hunt", she was thrilled to be able to run in an open field!
Daddy helped show her to put her eggs in her basket and once she knew what to do, there was no stopping her.  Each child was to gather 12 eggs and then turn them in for their goodie bag.  We just let her put the eggs in her basket and then tossed back out any more than 12.

She was very proud of herself!

We had a good time watching her gather eggs in her basket. She occasionally stopped to dance too.

You'll see how difficult it is to contain this one as I tried to get a picture with her for literally one minute.

 Be free, little one!

When we finished up with the hunt and on our way out, we ran into somebody very special... I was shocked at her reaction! She literally gasped saying, "Ohhhhhh" as she couldn't get out of her daddy's arms fast enough to get to the Easter Bunny.

She was enamored with the bunny.



She tried to kiss the bunny a billion times, and kept touching his face and climbed up for him to hold her.

Thanks, Easter Bunny! {bock bock}

See ya next year!



Sleep and Water...Necessities

Yesterday was long.

As in, I just could not wait until bedtime. 

See, Monday night, my normally sleep-all-night-long-and-have-been-for-all-but-about-2 1/2 months-of-my- life baby, kept waking up. 

Screaming.

Hysterically.

The first time, {right after I'd gotten into bed, of course} I went up and thought she just needed her paci. No biggie.  Popped it back in and gave her her blankie and out I went.

Crying crying crying and more crying.  I went back in and she was sitting up, arms outstretched, wailing, "MaaaaMaaaa".

I picked her up, hugged her, grabbed her blankie and brought her down to lay with me for a little bit. She laid on my chest, just like she did when she was a teeny newborn while I watched the news in bed.  I put her back in bed shortly and back to bed I went. 

About a half hour later, I was just about to fall asleep when the hysterical crying began again.  Daddy went up this time and same thing. Couldn't get her to calm down. All things checked--diaper, too hot/too cold, paci etc. He finally got her back to sleep and came back to bed. Only for an hour later for the cycle to repeat. 

I went and got her and brought her back to bed with me right away.  Only she didn't want to lay on my chest this time. She was tired and just wanted to sprawl in the middle of the bed between Daddy and me. She laid her head near me and her legs diagonally towards him.  He didn't move at all. In fact, he didn't even know she was there. I kept telling him to move his elbow because he was almost elbowing her, then me in the head. I dozed off guarding our heads until I knew she was completely back to sleep. Then I stumbled back upstairs and laid her in her crib, made sure she settled in and finally crawled myself back in bed around 4:30am for the hour and a half until the alarm went off.  We think we've begun 2 year molar hell, but something else was going on with her too. :(  She was sad and pathetic. Poor baby.

Up all night led to me sleeping through my second alarm to get Andrew and Reagan up for school. So at 7:49am, when I woke up suddenly, it was a scramble to get them ready and out the door to get to the bus in 20 minutes.

By 8:45am, Lily was heading for the steps with her blankie and saying, "night night" after only being up just about an hour.  She ate breakfast first then finally went to bed around 10 and she fell right asleep and took a 3 and a half hour nap.

When I went to get her lunch ready, I turned on the water to wash strawberries and nothing came out of the faucet. Nada. I called the water company and found out it was off due to an issue in our town, pretty close to us.  Ok.  A little while. later I went outside and found the issue was very close to us. Like just down the street.  There was a break in a line and water was shooting in the air.  

Funny how you realize how much you need water when you can't use it.  Then 5 hours later when it came back, the lines needed to be flushed and cleaned out, so it was a long time without water yesterday afternoon and evening.

We spent the afternoon watching "Go Go-eeeeeee" otherwise known as "Yo Gabba Gabba" and coloring.
She's seriously is so content with some paper and anything to write with.

Yesterday was just l-o-n-g. 

Thankfully, I can say that last night, Lily slept soundly for 12 1/2 hours.