Things Lily Says

I am the mother of an almost-2-year-old with a lot of character.  (I know, I know... what mother wouldn't say that about her child?!?)  I've observed via play groups and group activities that Lily is very different from most 2 year olds, and I want to document some of the unique things she does and says and how she acts.  I write such things in her baby book, but I think you may enjoy the stories I include here too.

Before I dive into the stories, I need to explain that my child is very calm and very verbal.  I'd even go so far as to say she's the most reserved toddler I've ever been around.  It's not that she's clingy, although she can be.  It's not that she doesn't explore or experience, because she does.  But she has expectations that need to be met, and if she's not sure how to respond in a situation, she'll sit back and be the wall flower.  She will not be the first or even the fifth child to try a new thing.  She'll need to see others do it a number of times before she'll dare to attempt it. 

She doesn't like things that make her stomach go up into her throat (like swings, being thrown in the air, or even elevators), she doesn't like to be frightened - it brings on crying fits - and she doesn't like it when I have to do dishes (and neither do I).  She doesn't like her feet to be dirty, she won't walk in the sand, and she cries if a bug flies in her face and asks me to get the bug.  But she loves to laugh, loves to be silly, and is an extremely good-natured child.  She often has a great time with the most random things like a straight curtain rod, a blanket, or just by making silly faces. 

One final thing about Lily is that she has a very extensive vocabulary and she knows how to use it.  She is what I call, "a very verbal kid."  We have a video of her at 9 months old able to correctly respond with animal sounds when I would say lion, cat, dog, owl, cow, and pig and that was just the beginning...  I can't remember her babbling incoherently.  She talks and expects me to understand and most times I do.  Complete sentences have been part of her life for a long time now.  She knows probably 15 different children's songs by heart and sings them when we ride in the car or as I'm cooking supper - I am not allowed to sing along.  I know I sound braggy (and I can because it's my blog), but I don't mean to be - I just mean to remember how I perceived my firstborn when she was almost 2.  With that introduction out of the way, let the stories begin...

About 6 weeks ago, right after I found out I was pregnant with #2, I ate lunch at the school where I work.  I took a brownie, because I love chocolate and I always eat dessert.  I took the brownie back to my office intending to enjoy it, but instead ended up spitting it out into the trash.  It wasn't that the brownie was bad - it was that I was pregnant and pregnancy does weird things to a person.  That evening I was relaying the story to Chase and Lily was playing nearby in the living room.  As I told Chase the punchline, "I spit the brownie into the trash!" Lily ran up to me with the most serious look on her face, and said, "I NEED a brownie!"  She is a girl after her mother's non-pregnant heart!

Below, Lily is sitting at her stool waiting for her nails to be painted.  She's the kind of 23 month old who sits still long enough for the paint to dry.

We had some friends over the other night, and Lily was playing in the den where we were sitting.  I was watching her, but not super closely.  I noticed she'd ran between the coffee table and the trash can a few times, so I watched her closely on her next circuit.  She grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table, wiped her nose once, wadded up the tissue, ran to the trashcan, threw it away and ran back for another.  I realized 1/2 the box was probably already gone.  As she approached the coffee table, I called, "STOP!"  She screeched to a stop with her hands on the edge of the coffee table to catch her balance.  I said, "No more kleenexes.  It's time to be all done."  She looked at me, held up one little finger and asked, "Only just one more?"  (At this point my friends all hid behind pillows, blankets, hands, or whatever was closest to disguise their laughter.)  "Ok," I said.  "Only just one more, then you need to be all done."  "Ok," she said.  

This story has to do with the two pictures below...  My grandpa, my mom's dad, had a wood working shop connected to his garage all while I was growing up.  He and my grandma have since downsized to a more manageable property, and the wood shop is no more, but we still enjoy the fruits of his labors.  One thing in our home is a plant stand that Grandpa made.  It's small, and I use it as a side table for our chair, because nothing else will fit in the space.  Lily went and grabbed the little table and did this:

"This is my podium," she says.  Chase and I look at each other and laugh.  So she leans forward on her "podium" and says (as she looks over toward our media towers), "I have movies...  I have movies..."  And what was incredible was she said it in a tone like she was really giving a speech!  But then the real motive for the whole act came out (with the topic of movies introduced...):  "Watch a movie?" she tried.  "No," we responded.  "No movie."  And this is what she did:

Each morning when either Chase or I goes to her crib to get her, Lily asks for, "Only just one plug?"  (We call her pacifiers "plugs.")  If we don't let her bring a plug, she then asks for, "Only just one blankie?"  "Yes, Lily, you can bring one blankie."

My mom has an indoor/outdoor cat named Kuzco.  One night after she'd been at Grandma's house, we put Lily to bed.  At 2 in the morning Chase and I were awakened by Lily yelling from her room.  We rushed in wondering what was wrong!  (She doesn't usually wake up in the night.)  She said, "Kuz is on the roof," put her plug back in her mouth, and laid down on her pillow to go back to sleep.  That day Kuz had gotten on Mom's roof and followed Mom and Lily around as they did different things around the outside of the house.  I guess Lily just really needed us to know that Kuz was on the roof.

This September has been unseasonably hot for the area where we live.  We've had weather that felt more like July than September and it's made some of our normal fall activities difficult.  The weather finally broke a little the 2nd to last day of the State Fair, and we made the trip over to experience it.  We arrived at about 5pm, and walked through air conditioned exhibit buildings with TONS of other people while we waited for it to cool down a little more outside.  We visited the birthing pavilion, where Lily couldn't get enough of the 1 hour old lambs.  We saw the camels.  We watched the sea lion show.  But by far, Lily's favorite was the dog show.  Below is a picture of us just before the show started.  She loves animals and seeing the dogs chase Frisbees, run through their obstacle course routine, jump and play all made her squeal and clap in delight.  It was really fun to be her parent just watching her enjoy the experience.

The other day when I went to get her up from her nap, Lily sat up in her crib and said to me, "I just woke up."  I said, "Oh, you just woke up?"  She said, "Yep.  Fourteen hours."  I said, "You slept for 14 hours?"  "Yep," she responded, "Fourteen hours."  Man, I thought, I wish I'd know it was going to be a 14 hour nap, I would have planned my day a little differently...

Lily has figured out doorknobs, much to my chagrin.  On the plus side, our bedroom doors are tight in their frames, so even though she can turn the knobs, the doors stick enough that she can't open them.  The bathroom door, however, is a different story.  Every morning when I'm getting ready for the day, Lily grabs the doorknob, and as she pulls the door shut, says, "Bye Momma.  See you later!"  The door closes.  Two seconds later, the door opens and she says, "Hi Momma!"  Then, "Bye Momma.  See you tomorrow!"  And the pattern continues.

I was going to the bathroom the other day, and Lily was (of course) in the bathroom with me.  She was trying to sit on the edge of the bathtub, which made me nervous because she's not really tall enough to do so without the potential of toppling backward.  I noticed her little ride-on car sitting in the hallway just outside the bathroom door.  I said, "Why don't you go get your car and sit on it?"  She looked at the car, looked at me and said, "Oh!  Good idea!"

How do you capture what it's like to live with a toddler?  I don't think you do.  I think you just cherish every second.