Hirscheiders: October 2009

I don't even know where to begin in catching up. Lily has grown so much that I can hardly believe the things I wrote in the last post were happening just two months ago. Bake and I love to just sit back and watch her in amazement - as well as in high amusement - as she darts around our living room playing and talking to us, herself and/or her toys.

Her New Favorite Things...

TO EAT: She LOVES french fries (but come on, who doesn't) - it doesn't matter if they are the real deal or the chip-like "veggie sticks" she is all about the greasy treat. I am constantly obsessed with sneaking more vegetables into that pot belly and have tried to trick her by baking sweet potato and zucchini fries, but she was wise to my game. After having some success with a souped up version of zucchini bread, I tried to bake my own version of a veggie cracker. It worked for about a day and then tanked as well. My next idea is the new-to-me veggie spaghetti squash. She loves pasta and this stuff - when baked - looks and tastes pretty much like spaghetti noodles, so we'll see... She also has a new love of suckers and fruit snacks, but I've decided to just leave well enough alone on those.

TO PLAY: One of her favorite games is what I call "more please." She will bring me a toy, piece of play food, book, or anything really, and then look up at me hopefully and say "moh peeze" with her head slightly nodding in approval. I will then of course say yes and she will cheerfully trot off to bring me more of the item of the day. She, like most kids, loves to pull things out of cabinets and rearrange them to her liking - which many times means just scattered around the floor - and she loves to "read" and be read to. Whether stomping around our muddy backyard or playing at the park down the street, Lily LOVES to be outside. Even when - or maybe especially when - it is raining. Some mornings we end up on the back driveway in our pjs and tennis shoes because she just cannot wait to go "ouwside."

TO DO: Like her mother and her mother's mother, Lily loves to be on the go. We can hardly make it to lunch time each day without getting out of the house for some type of activity or errand. Her schedule is much more conducive for that than it used to be and I who once thought I could not live without that morning nap time to get things done, am loving this stage just as much. One of our weekly must-dos is story time at the central library downtown. We have gone off and on since she was old enough to sit up but now she is really learning the songs and gets excited when I tell her that is where we are headed. Her favorite parts of story time right now are the scarves they pass out and the big bear puppet that they get to hug at the end. With the scarves, while the other children are calmly pulling their one scarf out of the basket, Lily always grabs as many as she can carry. I try to of course correct her, but sometimes am guilty of being "that mom" who thinks her child is just being cuter than the rest. The bear is even worse... she cannot wait to run up and give him one hug then another and another. She is pretty good about backing off enough for the other kids to get their hugs in to, but she is the only one who gets in line over and over. Today I think she hugged him 5 times.

As much as I hate it, Lily loves to watch Elmo and now Mickey Mouse. She begs for them so pitifully that it is hard for me to resist. Some days we are even woken up to a quiet little voice saying "Mee Mouse" or "Ehmo" from her crib. Don't get me wrong, we do not watch TV all day and I certainly don't use it as a "babysitter" - well, okay sometimes while I get ready or catch up on some work - but we do keep a close eye on how much the TV (or iPhone) has been on in a given day and try to keep a handle on it. This is one of those things I thought I would never let my 18-month-old do on a daily basis, but have sadly been proven wrong.

She is learning and saying more things every day and Blake and I are constantly excited to tell each other about her latest accomplishment. To wrap it up, I'll just summarize that she is learning letters (primarily knows A, O, S and B), shapes (circle, square, triangle, star), colors (red, green) and sporadically counting to 10 - hitting or missing a few in between. She is also starting to finish words in books and songs when being ready or sung to. Her best "read" at the moment is Go Dog Go.