May 2007
Lily's been easier to deal with now that she knows a lot of words and phrases.
We usually know what she wants, and if she can't have it, we can frequently
reason with her about it, so we can avoid some crying and tantrums.
When we're in stores, Lily often runs off and I have to go after her. This gets
us very worried in case we can't find her or if someone kidnaps her. I attempted to
straighten her out by telling her a Bad Man might take her if she runs off, and then
she would never see us again. She seemed to understand this a little, responding
"Bad Man take me?" and "Don't take me, Bad Man!" But this was not the end of it.
Later, I watched an episode of the TV show "Heroes" with Lily. There's a killer on it named Silar, and I told Lily he was a Bad Man.
She got very angry watching Silar, and started saying
things like "Stop it, Silar! Don't take me! Don't take my Daddy! Don't take my
Mommy! Don't take my Play-Doh! Don't take my bike!" I asked her about the
Bad Man later, and rather than be scared, Lily was ready to fight. "Let's get him,
Daddy! Let's get the Bad Man! COME ON!!" (I'm kind of proud of her
for wanting to take on the Bad Man herself -- even though the point was to
make her afraid of running off.)
A few days later, Lily had softened up about the Bad Man. As some background,
when she does something wrong, we tell her to say "Sorry", and I've heard her say
to her Cabbage Patch doll when she drops him, "I'm sorry,
Darrien. I didn't mean it." So when Michelle and I were talking about Silar,
she piped up, "Silar's sorry! He didn't mean it!" We said no, Silar was bad
and didn't say he was sorry, but she loudly defended him. "HE SAID SORRY!
HE DIDN'T MEAN IT!!" And still later, the whole point of the Bad Man idea
was completely defeated when I heard Lily inviting the invisible Bad Man
to come to the park with us and play. Sigh...
Michelle braided Lily's hair several times this month. People at
day care must have commented on it favorably, because Lily wanted them
put in again and again. When she sees her braids in the mirror,
she says, "I'm so pretty!" Oh dear.
Lily has gotten into Dora The Explorer in a big way this month.
We have watched episodes on DVD every night for weeks. She is
so engaged when it's on that for the first time in many months,
I can leave the room without her following me or demanding to know
where Daddy is. So I support the Dora addiction.
Michelle bought Lily the backpack Dora wears. This was a big hit.
She wears it around a lot and talks about it all the time. She told
her friend Madeline that Michelle would buy her one, too. She also
told me, "I buy you big backpack", assuming I also wanted one.
We tried to take it off of her when we were going to a store, and
said that the Bad Man might try to take it if she wore it there.
She told the invisible Bad Man that she would buy him a big backpack
too. Ughh. This Bad Man thing is just not working!
Lily also saw Shrek on DVD last month and liked it. We watched it
several times, and we saw the new Shrek movie in a theater. We got
her this stuffed Shrek. She likes Shrek and Donkey and Fiona, and
we would probably hear about them more, but all of that was in the
era historians will later refer to as Before Dora (B.D.).
We've taken Lily to the park a lot. On Mother's Day morning I took her
there by myself and gave Michelle a break! We've also gone a couple
of times after work while it's still light out. (This wasn't an option in
the non-summer months.) In the fourth picture, she's pointing disapprovingly
at some goose poop on the ground. I asked her where the geese are supposed
to go potty, and she said in their pond.
The highlight of any trip to the park is the swing. This month
was the first time she went on the big kid's swing rather than
the baby one. Michelle tried twisting the swing so it would
untwist and rotate Lily, and that was a big hit ("Again! Again!").
Lily went back in the baby-sized swing and tried standing up in it,
which I thought was great. Michelle wasn't with me, and voiced
her disapproval when I told her about it!
Here's a Quicktime movie of Lily swinging. Michelle kept catching
her in mid-swing, which Lily liked. Click the picture to watch,
or download the movie here.
We went to the Willises on Memorial Day weekend and the kids played on
their big waterslide. Lily stood outside of it and was reluctant to
get in, so I put a bathing suit and got in first. (Ah, look at that
pasty white chest!) It worked -- Lily got in after that and had a lot
of fun.
There were squirtguns in the pool, and here's "Bond, Madeline Bond"
with her firearm.
Cameron was the most active in the water, climbing up and sliding down
over and over. (I did too a couple of times! It was fun.)
Lily surprised me by climbing up the slide herself and riding down it.
Michelle caught it in this Quicktime movie. After the first time,
though, she wouldn't climb all the way to the top anymore, and would
just go up a few ladder steps and come back down. Click the picture
to see the movie, or download it here.
Lily was excited that Madeline has her own swing in her backyard!
So she took it out for a spin.
After playing in the pool (and after chowing down on burgers and
hot dogs off of Bill's backyard grill), the kids played with bubbles
and rode bikes and cars on the driveway.
We went on the merry-go-round at the mall. Lily wanted to ride the zebra,
but didn't like it once the ride started and it moved up and down,
so she got off the zebra and we just sat in a chair for most of the ride.
Michelle took these pictures of Lily playing with money. She looks
WAY too interested in it! My wallet hurts just thinking about it.
Lily had fun walking around in Michelle shoes.
Here are a couple of outfits from this month.
Michelle and Lily wore matching overalls. (I think that's what
you call them.) Lily calls them "snaps", because her OshKosh B'Gosh
ones she used to be obsessed with had lots of button snaps (to make
it easier to remove diapers).
We told Lily we were going to the Children's Museum to play, and she
tried saying "Children's Museum" a few times. She didn't know what
the words meant until we arrived. She recognized the building from
previous trips and said, "I like Children's Museum! I love it!"
I broke a glass in the sink and got a wide cut on my thumb. It didn't
hurt from the cut, but the real dread was knowing I was about to sit in an
emergency room for hours to get it stitched. Sure enough, all three of
us waited five hours at the hospital to get the stitches. I couldn't
believe how much it hurt having needles stabbed into your thumb --
I thought it would be like getting normal shots in your arm, but
apparently thumbs are way more sensitive. Lily told me the metal
thumb guard "looked cool".
We attempted to institute the Naughty Chair this month, but it was a dismal
failure. She LIKES the Naughty Chair! Maybe we made it too comfortable?
After we told her how it works, she kept wanting to go on the Naughty Chair,
so I put her on it a couple of times. Then when I took her off, she slapped
Michelle, and eagerly confessed, "I hit Mommy! I go on Naughty Chair!!"
Stunned, I put her on the Naughty Chair, but also spanked her to make it
seem less fun. She just laughed when I spanked her. Then Michelle tried
spanking the backs of her leg, since they're not protected by a diaper,
but she still just giggled and thought the whole thing was great.
This is not how it's supposed to work!! We'll have to try again later.
Here are some pictures of Lily smiling and happy. She's mostly
been in a good mood this month.
