Month 20, September 2006

Lily's still talking a lot, but I haven't kept track of her new words this month. One noteworthy new word is "Grandma", which she can't distinguish from "Grandpa", but she knows they both refer to a picture of my parents, and points to it when we say their names. (Michelle's parents aren't called Grandma and Grandpa, but Lola and Papa, so it's easy for Lily to tell the difference.)


Lily has become much more interested in books now that she recognizes a lot of words. The first book she was patient enough to listen to all the way through was The Eye Book, which I read to her a lot (and know by heart!). Lately she likes Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb (which has very rhythmic words and reads like a song), and Ten Little Ladybugs, in which ten ladybugs are picked off one by one by a frog, grasshopper, caterpillar, and other predators -- except that, since this is a children's book, they're somehow all alive at the end!


Lily likes carrying Elmo around with her, or Tux the penguin, or Homer Simpson, or any of her other stuffed friends pictured here. Usually, as soon as she wants me to retrieve one of them for her, she goes through the entire list until I get them all. She often wants me to carry her and all of them up and down the stairs, which is quite a chore! There are multiple Elmo's (Lily's Elmo, Daddy's Elmo, Mommy's Elmo) and Tux's (one for each of us again). She claims all the Simpsons figures for herself except for Homer, which I get. Poor Mommy doesn't get a Simpsons figure! The yellow blanket is Lily's and the blue one is for me (she tells me to bring "Daddy's blankie" -- "blankie" is pronounced "bin"). As for Spongebob, although Lily likes him, she doesn't carry him around everywhere like she does the other ones. (The day care staff asked us not to let her bring Elmo in anymore, because all the kids wanted it and there was a riot!)


When Lily would want me to come play with her in the playroom, she used to say "Go!" This month she started saying "Come!", but had this commanding tone and clutched her fist whenever she said it. We were lucky to catch it briefly on this short movie. Afterward we started teaching her to say "please". However, now she seems to think "please" means "come", because she doesn't say "Come please," but just "please", or "Daddy, please!" (Click the picture to view the movie, or download the file here.)


We'd been trying to find a chair and table for months that would fit Lily well, and finally found this great Pooh chair with a table attached. It's sturdy and easy for Lily to get in and out of, so she instantly liked it. She colors on it, eats on it, and sometimes just sits on it to watch TV.


We went to the zoo again, and this time visited the aquarium section. Lily liked the large white fish in the third picture, and also liked being able to walk around by herself (she has to stay in her stroller for most of the outside part of the zoo so she doesn't run off).


Every morning before school, and every evening when we come home, Lily has to look for "doggies" out the front window. She gets excited when she sees them, but is petrified to get close enough to any dogs to touch them.


I found this great toy well-suited for my vain daughter, who loves seeing herself in the mirror: it puts her on TV! She has a TV in her bedroom, and when we go there to play, she often says "TV", but if I put on a cartoon, she corrects me and says "Lily" -- she wants to watch the Lily channel!


We took Lily to Chuck E. Cheese's twice this month. She likes the chaotic environment and seeing the other little kids, but mostly just played on the slide in the toddler area. She also ate some pizza, or rather picked off the toppings and ignored the rest of the pizza.


One area at Chuck E. Cheese's lets the kids be on TV, which I knew she would love. Click the picture to view the movie, or download it here.


Here are a few outfits from this month. In the second picture she was posing voluntarily! She hasn't done that very often before.


Lily's been giving both of us this stern Death Look a lot, which we keep wanting to get a good picture of. You can see it from the side here, where Lily is fighting with Mommy over a book.


Lily knows the word "peepee" and says it sometimes when she's walking around, so we're thinking of starting potty training soon. We bought her a potty and let her play with it a little. To our surprise, she also peed in it when we sat her down! (I decided not to put that photo on the web page!)


Here we're eating some chicken nuggets for dinner. It's usually pointless for us to prepare a different food for Lily, because she always wants whatever we're eating instead.


Lily also likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner. More surprisingly, she loves Slim Jims! Although she'll eat the normal "mild" flavored ones, she prefers the spicier "pepperoni" flavored ones (pictured here). She also loves green olives! Weird, I know.


Probably like every other kid, Lily's a big fan of chocolate ice cream! Lots of her clothes are now ruined with chocolate stains!