1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks, & 4 days old

Tonight (at this point, “tonight” is actually 2 days ago) we sat down for dinner, ahem, which I made, and Lily said, "apple!" (a-po!)

She was excited for her applesauce. I had no idea she knew that word. In part, it's because we're too busy giving her cookies and chips. No, not really (mostly), but I know she gets a lot of applesauce at daycare, so I don't give it to her much at home.

Then Khan and I got to talkin' about how much she changes, how fast she grows, blah blah blah. Anyway, sadly, sometimes I rely on the blog to remind me of when she did what, and so to that end, I'm posting a "what's Lily doing now" update.

BTW, I have no interest in Lily being ahead of the curve or a genius or whatever; I'm actually quite certain she's right on target. Not ahead, not behind. I just want to record who she is and what she's doing, right now. So, with that:

-She has several favorite things. Khan and I have designated, based on our observations, something of a ranking system. It goes like this: Blanket, binky, bottle 'o milk, Elmo, Big Comfy Couch, junk food, fruit, Big Bird, Mom, Dad. We're just happy to be back in the top 10. Kiki and Yo Gabba Gabba had edged us out for a while, but for now, I think we're back.

Don’t.mess.with.tha.binky. -And then there are things she doesn’t love, like oatmeal, sharing, Target, getting her face or nose wiped, hearing “no,” the tornado on Elmo’s World, when anyone encroaches on her pillow, and when Mommy tries to put things in her hair.

-If there is any developmental area where she might fall ahead of the curve, it's in her fine motor skills. She's extremely good at eating with a spoon or fork, and she's great with puzzles, buttons, and other stuff to take apart or put together.

-Oh, and she can drink from a cup. Sadly, neither Khan nor I knew she could. He saw her do it at daycare. (insert mommy guilt here.)

[Here’s where I’ll put the video of her drinking (water) from a cup if I can ever find it.]

-She sleeps in a big-girl bed. Why? Because she doesn’t like being put in her bed. She wants to do it HERSELF. So, toddler bed it was. I was skeptical, but it’s been going really well. She goes to bed easily (most nights) and sleeps until about 7.

[Here’s where I’ll post a picture of her new bed if I ever clean her room.]

-We have two new favorite games: "squeeee!" and "baa-by." She loves it when I squeeze her as tight as I can and say (insert annoying high voice) "Ska-wEEEZE baby Lily!" or when I hold her like an infant and rock her back and forth singing rock-a-bye- baby while she giggles.

-Khan saw her playing those games with her Big Bird, too. How cute.

-She likes to play with my make-up.

-She's surprisingly disinterested in Kitty, unless she gets to admonish her for doing something she deems naughty. "no no, Kitty!"

-She says lots of English words and even a few Lao words. Tonight Khan showed her pictures on the camera, and she said "Noke!" And Khan seemed to agree with her. I was like, "huh?" Bird. She said Bird. And I learned another new word in Laotian.

-She’s finally starting to put couple words together. My favorite is when she comes upon a mess, puts her hands up, and says “Oh no! Happen!”

-She’s a drama queen. In fact, I’d nominate her for queen of all the other drama queens.

-She loves routine and order. It ‘s best not to do things out of order, or switch places. I have my spot, she has hers, and Daddy has his. Don’t mess with her system, or you’ll regret it.

-Her expressions are priceless. Here’s a few favorites.

-And lastly, for anyone who thinks she doesn’t look like me at all, I bring you her attitude face.

My very happy birthday

I had a very happy birthday this year. It wasn't like my golden birthday when all my presents were wrapped in gold paper, but it was pretty dagum close.

It was just a regular Thursday, and we didn't make super big plans. I went to work.

My morning started with a bunch of happy birthday emails from my coworkers. Better than one of those "you screwed up again" type emails.

Then Grandma called my desk to say happy birthday.

Later, I went to a meeting. Came back to my desk and beautiful purple tulips were waiting for me. Everyone, say "ahhhh."

Checked in with the WCF girls on my message board, and there was a post wishing me a happy birthday; now that was an unexpected surprise. And a couple more emails, including one from a certain family member who apologized for a belated birthday present to come. How silly to apologize for a birthday present, right?

When I got home, I got some cards in the mail. You might not know it yet, but Dad, you got me Photoshop Elements, and Grandma, you got me some awesome pillows for my birthday. Thanks very much to you both.

Then I found Lily some entertainment while I loaded the dishwasher.

Is this that terrible?
We had an awesome dinner and no sinkload of dishes to follow, so we went outside to enjoy April in Florida. (LOL, like we'd do our dishes right after dinner on any other night.)

Then I saw a box on the floor wrapped in leftover paper from Lily's birthday presents. I smiled big at Khan, and he said, "Do you want to open it?"

I'm assuming that was rhetorical.

The biggest surprise was that it wasn't from him, it was from my mom. I thought she already gave me my present, so I was a little confused. And then I opened it, and this is what I found.

This is Belle. Isn't she beautiful? She's a camera bag. A CAMERA BAG! And so very pretty.

Not to be outdone, Khan and Lily gave me a couple more camera accessories. Lily tried to take one back. She hasn't quite figured out the whole "sharing" thing yet. Actually, I'm not sharing it with her, either.

Then, Khan, Lily, and I just hung out for awhile.

Lily and Khan practiced expressing their emotions.

This is sad.

This is happy.

Hmmmmm...this is surprised?

Then they played peek-a-boo.

Then Lily wanted to hide under the covers.

When I tried to play, she said "no. moo." (translates to get out. moo is toddler for move.)

My role was to be surprised when she and Daddy popped out. When I tried to hide with them, I ruined the system, and that's why I had to moo.

Before the night was out, I got texts and phone calls from friends and family. I checked into Facebook and found even more happy birthday wishes. Good stuff.

I've had more than one birthday celebration since at least 1987, and that trend continued.

Saturday night a couple of our friends came by and Khan made the best kabobs ever on the grill. Mama, wine, Lily, and blanket. Does it get any better than this?

Lily and Jade sat together. Lily shared her green beans.

When we went inside, Lily and Jade took turns in the rocking horse while the rest of us watched a Big Bird movie. Truthfully, the movie was awful.

We finished off our night with chocolate covered strawberries, bananas, and pineapple.

Yum.

Thank you all for making this birthday so wonderful. You all know how to make a girl feel special.

Easter 2010

You know the difference between Easter today and when I was a kid?

Easter baskets. These things are more than just jellybeans, crappy chocolate, and peeps now. Kids get actual presents for Easter. Yeah, sure, there's no rule forcing me to buy into this unfair bull. But, I'm a sucker for any opportunity to spoil my Lily. I'm soft, but at least I admit it.

I mean it's just a couple small presents, right? Well, this year at least. The EB brought Lily a small (reasonably-sized) Big Bird, a puzzle toy, a couple of books, and a couple of Sesame Street videos.


And some peeps. Lily was like what ARE these things?
Then she started the egg hunt.

Daddy helped with the tough ones.

She piled all her loot onto the sofa.
Kitty wanted to play, too.
And then she indulged in a bit of her loot.
After the egg hunt, we were off to Fort Desoto for multi-family picnic. Khan's sisters and their families were there, too. But...it turns out we weren't the only ones who had that idea.
Lily went back to the water for the first time in months. She thought the beach was pretty cool.
But she was not interested in playing in the water. At all.
See, this is why I need photoshop. Isn't this picture of Lia just gorgeous? I love it. Except for the, um, background. Actually, I'm not even sure Photoshop could fix this.
I do love this picture of Joy and Pearl. I call it a lucky shot.
While I practiced trying to shoot pictures in bright sunlight, Lily practiced standing on her daddy. Funny baby.
After the picnic, we went back to Khan's parents' house for awhile, and we had one last egg hunt. We weren't prepared with baskets, so we had to improvise a bit.
Look behind you, Lils!
See...improvising. It worked out.

Dear parents everywhere,

Please accept my humble apology. I have judged you, your kid, or both of you in the not-so-distant past.

I saw your kid face down in the middle of the aisle at Target kicking and screaming. And I'm guilty of thinking "what is wrong with that child?" or "that's what happens when you spoil your kids," and, of course, the not-parents-yet motto, "when I have kids, I won't let that happen."

Turns out, a la Louis CK, I didn't know WTF I was talking about, and now, even though I didn't say them out loud, I am eating my words.

Here's how my loving family spent our Friday night. I had this great idea: let's go have pizza at that place next to Target, and then we can swing into Target and grab a few things we'll need for the Easter weekend. Easy enough, right?

As we're getting out of the car in the Target plaza, Lily informs me that she pooped. What do I do? I check, of course, and I got poop on my finger, and thanks to the miracle of antibiotics, Lily's poop has crept out of her diaper and into her pants. Now, if I were smart, I would've recognized the warning and gone home.

Nope. Khan took Lily into Target to change her diaper. I washed my hands. We met outside and Lily had no pants. So, we decided just to buy her a pair of shorts before we go get our pizza. I wanted to get her more shorts anyway.

I wanted to make sure they fit, so I had this great idea that I'd put the shorts on her, and then take the tag up to the cashier and pay for it. Easy enough, right?

Nope. Within minutes, I was sitting on the floor in a Target aisle with my head in my hands as my husband chased my daughter. Then she started screaming, and we started arguing. I don't even know what we said, but I stomped off to pay for the shorts while Khan carried the screaming child toward the door.

Once outside, we were now fighting about how to deal with her tantrum. So we were snapping at each other, and she was screaming and crying with no pants on. And as the people walked by, they gave us the look. You know the one.

Finally, we decided to force the pants on and let the tantrum ride. So there we were, sitting on the sidewalk outside Target, mad at each other, screaming baby on the sidewalk, ignoring the tantrum. Some people gave us the look, a few told us we were doing the right thing.

Eventually, the tantrum subsided and we had our pizza. We even made it back into Target. On the way home, I sighed a very tired sigh and said, "well that was fun, huh?" And Khan said, "It wasn't so bad."

You gotta love him.