I have to say, this age is my favorite so far! I was really looking forward to having a child to play with and I feel like I have that now! I would also say that this is the busiest and most stressful (at times), but still my favorite. Here are a few things about Lilah right now.
She is potty trained!! We go shopping, to friends houses, out to eat, to church, etc all with underwear on and she has done fantastic! I still put a diaper on for her nap and at bedtime. But I’ll take day time potty trained for now! I think it might be a little while before she can hold it through the night. She has been wearing underwear exclusively since 17 1/2 months. She started telling me she had to go “poo poo” back in September (13 months), but wasn’t very consistent at first. I still did diapers, but would take her to the potty every time she told me. She loved getting to read a book for going. She definitely learned how to control #2 first. #1 was more of a challenge, especially at first when I felt like she needed to go every 15 minutes. When December came around things changed & she only needed to go every 2 hours or so. She has definitely been the driving force behind this, and it has been fun to watch her learn to communicate what she wants.
Lilah loves music. She begs us to sing her songs, especially at bedtime. The first thing she asks for in the car is her “meme” (music). She tries to sing along at church, and sometimes when no one else is singing. When she wakes up in the morning or from her nap I will often hear her singing over the monitor. She has such a sweet little voice. In this photo she had awesome nap hair! Daddy decided to share his new headphones with her (don’t worry the volume was very low & this was a one time thing for a picture). She was listening to Feist sing 1,2,3,4.
She knows how to work my iphone! She’ll unlock it, scroll back to the page with her games & pictures, & selects what she wants. I have to keep it hidden so that she doesn’t become a gamer… ;-). But in all seriousness I don’t like her to play with it very often because I want her to build up her own imagination. But it is really nice for some car trips, my doctor visits, etc.
Lilah still loves to read books and looks forward to our trips to the library. She will listen while we read books for a long, long time. I still haven’t found her limit.
Lilah is my little helper. She will pick up a “dowl” (towel) and then wipe down the floor, the chairs, the cupboards, and anything else she thinks needs cleaning. She loves to throw “dash” (trash) in the garbage can & will go hunting for something that I will let her throw away. She also likes to help me vacuum.
Lately she has been asking for my permission to do everything. She’ll point to what she wants to do (eat something, drink, put a hat on, color on the wall, etc) then say “huh…? huh…?” and “yes?” with a questioning tone. She will keep doing this until I answer her very convincingly. Most of the time I have to say “yes” about 5 times before she will actually trust me. Then she’ll will repeat what I said (“yes” or “no”) and proceed accordingly. It’s super cute & I’m kind of glad to get a warning before she tries to do something I don’t want her to do. I doubt this will last long.
She has a new surprised reaction where she lets out a little gasp and opens her eyes and mouth wide. She will do this for the funniest things like, when I tell her what we are having for dinner, or that daddy is coming home soon, or that it’s time to put her shoes on, etc. The best part is that her eyes don’t show the intensity that the sound does.
Her favorite foods right now are raisins, “bobolie” broccoli, “mumu” mushrooms, “nunu” noodles, “deese” cheese, beans, “bebes” berries, frozen bananas, “wawa” waffles, “teats” treats/fruit leather, olives, avacado, smoothies, “bep” or “doast” bread or toast, & kefir grains (I don’t know why she likes these…she discovered them while I had my back turned, but she will beg for them every time I get the kefir out). She still loves to eat, and will out-eat me sometimes.
Loves taking socks off and putting them back on over and over again.
Today while I was putting the groceries away I could hear her saying a prayer. I walked over to see what she was doing & found her with a few empty food bowls set out. She was kneeling down, folding her arms, and saying a prayer over her fake food! I thought it was so adorable! I was even able to get a picture.
She loves baths, the snow, outside, rocks, being chased & tickled, pretending to be a doggie, pointing to her “owie” scar, saying prayers, welcoming daddy home, exercising with me & my clients, nursery, and mommy.
She s talking more and more all the time. She usually surprises me every day by saying something that I didn’t know she knew.
She is very affectionate and gives lots of hugs and kisses. She still isn’t cuddly, but I enjoy what I can get.
She is still nursing, and I am realizing that this will be a lot more difficult to give up than I anticipated. I am in the process of weaning her, but I’m not sure how long this will take. She will ask and cry for it, and I don’t want this to be a traumatic experience for her. So I will just take my time and make the change easier for her.
We love this little girl so much and are very grateful for the addition that she is to our family!
We had our first significant injury scare with Lilah. She tripped, fell into the TV stand and split her forehead open. I felt so bad for her—she didn’t understand why we had to press a cloth on her wound to stop the initial bleeding. Since it looked pretty scary, we were about to head into the ER—but then we thought to snap a couple quick pictures and text them to Lilah’s uncle Jeff (who is a doctor/surgeon). Given the size and apparent depth, he suggested we skip the ER since they’d likely use sutures that are less ideal for visible facial cuts. Instead he recommended super glue and steri strips. I’d heard of this before, but it was still nerve-wracking to take matters into our own hands. All-in-all it went just fine, although it was a pretty rough night for Lilah. I was happy once she was all bandaged up and I could just hold her and read her some books. I’m guessing there will be more of these to come, but I really hope we can keep them to a minimum—no fun for anyone involved.
