"No."

Lily's learned a couple of new words since I last updated on her language development. Soon to be a new favorite of hers, I'm sure, is "no."

She's been shaking her head for "no" for quite some time, but yesterday we started hearing it, too. I thought, oh, that's cute. And then I thought, I wonder how long it'll take before that's not cute anymore. A couple of hours later, when I was about to change her diaper, she grabbed the diaper, I asked her to give it to me, and she said, "no." Hmmmm...that didn't take long at all.

And this is just for my official Tuesday records with a couple of new words, but here's my current list of her productive vocab:

"shhh" (for shoe)
Out
"booh" (for book)
No
Hi
Uh-oh
Mama (for mama)
mama (for mum mum crackers)
Dada
Nana (for Nana)
nana (for banana)
Bubba (for all four-legged furry creatures)
Buh-bye
Eddie
Up up
"Ah dah" (for all done)

And she signs:
Milk
More
Eat
All done
Her made-up sign for "I'm hurt"

Other:
She waves hi and bye
She wags her finger to say "uh unh uh" for "no"
She shakes her head "no"
She puts her finger to her mouth and says "shush"

And that's what Lily's talkin' 'bout this week.

It's fun to brush your teeth

Ok, these pictures are a couple weeks old, and yes, we actually went a whole weekend without taking any new ones. I guess that's what happens when you spend your weekend tossing your cookies rather than having fun. But that's a whole 'nother story.

These are from the first time we showed Lily how to brush her teeth. Ever since then, it's been one of her favorite things to do. (Try to ignore the mess. The mess has taken on a life of its own that we just can't keep up with, and these pictures are in our master bathroom, and frankly, no guests ever go there, and therefore, this room is at the bottom of a very long list of cleaning needs.)

Well, step one is getting the toothpaste on the toothbrush, but I'm pretty sure that's sunblock in her hand.





There we go. Toothpaste on the brush.


Brush ba-brush brush brush.


Brush ba-brush brush brush.


Chew on the brush.


More chewing.


And, brush ba brush brush brush.


Rinse off the toothbrush, and spit out the water.


C'mon, Lily. Put the brush away.


The first two nights, she had to take the toothbrush to bed with her.
Yup, it's fun to brush your teeth.

video

Houseguests

Bubba and Gizmo are the babies of my good friend, Jeanette. Jeanette had to go away this weekend so her babies stayed with us.

Meet Bubba. This little guy is the reason Lily calls all furry creatures "bubba."


Bubba is a sweet little dog who likes to play and cuddle.


Meet Gizmo.


Gizmo is a bit older than Bubba. He likes to eat and sleep. Gizmo is a mama's boy; he tends to get a little depressed when she's not around.


Both dogs like to lay in your lap. Lily fell in love with both of them right away.


She shared her carrots with them.


She loved to try to give them things. Treats, their bones, her binky, whatever she thought they might like.


Bubba liked to play with Lily.


Lily wanted Giz to play, too. She tried to play peekaboo with him.


Lily loved to play in their food. Sigh.


But what Lily really loved was to go for walks with them.


Of course, like any toddler, she wanted to do it herself.


Gizmo is a good match for her because he's slow. Very slow. There's no risk that he's going to take off running. There could be a truck full of pig's ears, pupperoni, and real steak, and he'd just sit there and stare at it.


They're both very distractable. He likes to stop to chew on some wood chips, she likes to stop to touch the grass.


And she waved at the cars that went by.


Oh, she was a happy baby taking the doggies for a walk.




Who thinks it's time for us to get our very own little doggie?

No? Not yet? Fine. I'll wait -- for now.

Fancy meeting you here

It was Labor Day weekend and on Sunday we were all feeling better after having yet another cold, and so we decided to go to the Aquarium.

Tampa's not huge or anything, but what's the likelihood of running into these guys at the entrance? That's right, we ran into Khan's sister, Joy, plus family.



Navigating a crowd with a crowd of toddlers is impossible, so we split up, and Lily enjoyed seeing the fishies with her daddy. I was crabby and generally unpleasant to be around, so I tried to stay out of the way and take some pictures.

Here are those cousins again!

Later on, we all went outside to go to the splash garden/play area. We tried to show Lily the water fountains.

Pearl was loving them.

Connor loved the slide.

Lily was nearing her end. She really wasn't that into the water that day. One last try.

She was ready to go.

Then, later during the same week, Khan's other sister, Phay, texts and wants to know if we're around. She was in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by.

She had a surprise guest of her own! Bo was visiting from Thailand. So they all came by.

And I got a little taste of what having three toddlers must be like. Kudos to my parents and my in-laws, you have my admiration. The three of them emptied Lily's various toy boxes in record time.

Silly Lia was happy to play with the trash can that I use to store some of Lily's playhouse toys. She carried it all over the house, just like Lily does. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but there must be something there. And how gorgeous is Lia?