Here are a few fun stories and bits of news from the last few weeks that are too short to make individual posts. Counting down...
12. Lobsters
Lily's favorite part of our new default grocery store is the fact that it has a large lobster tank right in the middle of the meat section. I'm not sure why this thrills her so much; perhaps it's good timing since she was first introduced to lobsters by The Grouchy Ladybug in August. I can always get her excited to come along to the grocery store with me by saying, "Want to go see the lobsters?" and whenever we leave that part of the store, she says, "Bye Bye, lobsters. See you next time."
11. Redolent Dog Treats
Our dog treats have a distinct smell. It's not quite unpleasant (they are, after all, the all-natural, all-meat kind), but it has reminded me of some indistinct memory ever since we first got them earlier this year. Last week, I realized what the memory is: public school cafeteria Salisbury Steak. No offense to the cafeteria ladies of the world, but I'm glad mom usually packed me a lunch.
10. Hello, Mama...
One of Lily's latest games is to pretend, very briefly, that she is an animal of some sort. It is not yet so developed that she acts much like the animal. Instead, it is usually a short verbal exchange between us which she initiates by saying, "Hello, Mama ____." Then she expects me to respond, "Hello, Baby ____," and she usually moves right on to the next animal. So it goes something like this:
"Hello, Mama Butterfly!" - "Hello, Baby Butterfly."
"Hello, Mama Doggie." - "Hello, Baby Doggie."
And so on. Sometimes, this can go on through quite a few animals. As I said, she does not usually act much like the animal she picks, but she is particular about my saying "Baby" or "Little" instead of "Lily" before the animal name. If I say "Lily," she'll tell me. "I'm not Lily! I'm a ___." And sometimes, when she's done, she'll say, "I'm a little girl again," or "I'm Lily again." Her favorite right now is the butterfly, with a hyena in second place. Occasionally, she goes for something more abstract, like when she told me, "Hello, Mama Heart of Texas."
9. Daddy Time
Our new and rather traditional family arrangement seems to have brought home to Lily as never before the fact that Matt is gone a lot at work. She will often wake up in the morning and ask, "Where's Daddy?" or just tell me "Daddy's at work." And now more than ever, she gets really excited when he comes home. She hears the garage door open, and wherever she is in the house, she yells, "It's Daddy!"(This is rather sad when she mistakes the air conditioner coming on for the garage door hours before Matt is actually due to arrive.) Last night, she told him, "I missed you" as he gave her a hug. She also tends to like for him to read her bedtime books now.
But I don't feel too unloved. We're also trying to let Matt take over more of the task of staying with her while she falls asleep, and no matter how much she has wanted him all night and told me to "go go" up to that point, shutting off the lights usually makes her tell him bluntly: "I don't want you."
8. The Belly
I don't remember pregnancy hurting so much last time. When I felt Lily move, I remember it feeling pretty neat. I also remember it more strongly in the last month or two of carrying her. But I'm six months in with Corin, and he can kick so hard it hurts. He also likes to pick a spot in my womb, usually my upper right quadrant, and push either his head or his bum into it so hard that it stretches and aches very noticeably. Without touching, I can see him moving around in my belly as though there were a little invisible shark fin breaking the surface.
7. Dump Trucks and Butterfly Wings
Last week, we visited the large public park inside our subdivision for the first time. It has a larger playground than the one in our immediate neighborhood, and this one has pebbles instead of mulch at its base. It has had at least a few other kids on it every time we've gone so far, and we quickly noticed that the thing to bring is a dump truck to move the pebbles around. So we went out in search of a dump truck for Lily, and lo, we found a pink and purple one. We also found a cheap pair of strap-on butterfly wings (see the Hello, Mama story above), and so we ended up leaving the store with a pink dump truck and a pair of sparkly butterfly wings. I love my daughter.
6. Spa Day
There is a spa ten minutes from our house that is devoted exclusively to pregnancy and postpartum services. It was their one year anniversary a few weeks ago, and they have been doing some free treatments to celebrate. Last week, they had one day of free eyebrow waxing. I haven't waxed or shaped my eyebrows since college, and since staying at home is often unglamorous, I thought it would be fun to try the free treat. But I did not have anyone to watch Lily, so she came along. She asked, "What are you doing, Mama?" I told her that the lady was going to fix my eyebrow. She replied, "Is it broken?"
5. What's in a Name?
My parents took us to Sea World this weekend. It was brutally hot, but Lily enjoyed herself immensely. She has been reading and singing Raffi's "Baby Beluga" for a few months, and seeing real belugas was the highlight of the day. So as we were leaving, Matt surprised her with a plush beluga toy. That was just two days ago, but the beluga has already slept with her, accompanied her to the grocery store, and come along to the play ground where it went down the slide several times. I wanted her to name it on her own or, if she couldn't think of anything, to name it Gandalf the White (think about it: starts out grey, ends up white- the perfect name for a beluga whale). But, at my dad's suggestion, she named it Guido. Guido the Beluga. Thanks, Dad.
4. Buttons
My mom was singing a song to Lily while we waited for lunch at Sea World. Lily sang along for a little while, but then she touched a little mole near my mom's nose and told her, "I pushed your stop button." Ouch. Similarly, a few weeks ago, Lily touched my protruding navel and said, "Mama, I push your button." Someday, she'll understand the irony.
3. Great Quotes
Lily picks up lines from her favorite movies but even more so from her favorite books. She gets three books before nap and another three before bed along with various requests during the day, and she tends to pick a set of three that lasts for several days or even a week or more. Her favorites by far are her two Fancy Nancy books, but she has also been stuck on several others. These books have already yielded some great lines, my favorites of which have been:
"I'm ecstatic!" - said in reference to seeing belugas and taken from Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy
"Ooo la la la! My family is posh!"- said randomly and taken from Fancy Nancy, though Lily added the extra "la."
"Ha ha ha. I'm laughing eerily." - said while pretending to be a hyena and taken from The Grouchy Ladybug
2. Introductions
When we see other children at the pool or the playground, I can tell that Lily wants to play when she stands still and stares at them. I feel like she wants to go over and interact, but she doesn't know how. So I've been trying to teach her that if she wants to make a friend, she needs to go up and say "Hi, I'm Lily. What's your name?" This has been largely ineffective so far, but last Friday, she saw a little boy right around her age playing with his toy cars on the slide. She stared at him for a while, and so I asked her if she wanted to be his friend. She said yes, but instead of saying the line I'd been going for, she marched over to him, held out her hand and said, in a hilariously adult tone of voice, "Lily Austen Rerecich." He just looked at her, but they did, in the end, play together.
1. Two Going on Thirteen
Yesterday at the grocery store, Lily dropped Guido the Beluga out of the cart several times. My belly was really aching, and I got tired of picking him up. While we were at the register, I had had enough and told her that the beluga needed a timeout. She immediately did a fake scream-and-cry, and I got her attention and told her, "If you calm down and count to ten, you can have the beluga back." She looked back at me and said quite clearly, "No. I'm still crying. You can count for yourself."
12. Lobsters
Lily's favorite part of our new default grocery store is the fact that it has a large lobster tank right in the middle of the meat section. I'm not sure why this thrills her so much; perhaps it's good timing since she was first introduced to lobsters by The Grouchy Ladybug in August. I can always get her excited to come along to the grocery store with me by saying, "Want to go see the lobsters?" and whenever we leave that part of the store, she says, "Bye Bye, lobsters. See you next time."
11. Redolent Dog Treats
Our dog treats have a distinct smell. It's not quite unpleasant (they are, after all, the all-natural, all-meat kind), but it has reminded me of some indistinct memory ever since we first got them earlier this year. Last week, I realized what the memory is: public school cafeteria Salisbury Steak. No offense to the cafeteria ladies of the world, but I'm glad mom usually packed me a lunch.
10. Hello, Mama...
One of Lily's latest games is to pretend, very briefly, that she is an animal of some sort. It is not yet so developed that she acts much like the animal. Instead, it is usually a short verbal exchange between us which she initiates by saying, "Hello, Mama ____." Then she expects me to respond, "Hello, Baby ____," and she usually moves right on to the next animal. So it goes something like this:
"Hello, Mama Butterfly!" - "Hello, Baby Butterfly."
"Hello, Mama Doggie." - "Hello, Baby Doggie."
And so on. Sometimes, this can go on through quite a few animals. As I said, she does not usually act much like the animal she picks, but she is particular about my saying "Baby" or "Little" instead of "Lily" before the animal name. If I say "Lily," she'll tell me. "I'm not Lily! I'm a ___." And sometimes, when she's done, she'll say, "I'm a little girl again," or "I'm Lily again." Her favorite right now is the butterfly, with a hyena in second place. Occasionally, she goes for something more abstract, like when she told me, "Hello, Mama Heart of Texas."
9. Daddy Time
Our new and rather traditional family arrangement seems to have brought home to Lily as never before the fact that Matt is gone a lot at work. She will often wake up in the morning and ask, "Where's Daddy?" or just tell me "Daddy's at work." And now more than ever, she gets really excited when he comes home. She hears the garage door open, and wherever she is in the house, she yells, "It's Daddy!"(This is rather sad when she mistakes the air conditioner coming on for the garage door hours before Matt is actually due to arrive.) Last night, she told him, "I missed you" as he gave her a hug. She also tends to like for him to read her bedtime books now.
8. The Belly
I don't remember pregnancy hurting so much last time. When I felt Lily move, I remember it feeling pretty neat. I also remember it more strongly in the last month or two of carrying her. But I'm six months in with Corin, and he can kick so hard it hurts. He also likes to pick a spot in my womb, usually my upper right quadrant, and push either his head or his bum into it so hard that it stretches and aches very noticeably. Without touching, I can see him moving around in my belly as though there were a little invisible shark fin breaking the surface.
7. Dump Trucks and Butterfly Wings
Last week, we visited the large public park inside our subdivision for the first time. It has a larger playground than the one in our immediate neighborhood, and this one has pebbles instead of mulch at its base. It has had at least a few other kids on it every time we've gone so far, and we quickly noticed that the thing to bring is a dump truck to move the pebbles around. So we went out in search of a dump truck for Lily, and lo, we found a pink and purple one. We also found a cheap pair of strap-on butterfly wings (see the Hello, Mama story above), and so we ended up leaving the store with a pink dump truck and a pair of sparkly butterfly wings. I love my daughter.
6. Spa Day
There is a spa ten minutes from our house that is devoted exclusively to pregnancy and postpartum services. It was their one year anniversary a few weeks ago, and they have been doing some free treatments to celebrate. Last week, they had one day of free eyebrow waxing. I haven't waxed or shaped my eyebrows since college, and since staying at home is often unglamorous, I thought it would be fun to try the free treat. But I did not have anyone to watch Lily, so she came along. She asked, "What are you doing, Mama?" I told her that the lady was going to fix my eyebrow. She replied, "Is it broken?"
5. What's in a Name?
My parents took us to Sea World this weekend. It was brutally hot, but Lily enjoyed herself immensely. She has been reading and singing Raffi's "Baby Beluga" for a few months, and seeing real belugas was the highlight of the day. So as we were leaving, Matt surprised her with a plush beluga toy. That was just two days ago, but the beluga has already slept with her, accompanied her to the grocery store, and come along to the play ground where it went down the slide several times. I wanted her to name it on her own or, if she couldn't think of anything, to name it Gandalf the White (think about it: starts out grey, ends up white- the perfect name for a beluga whale). But, at my dad's suggestion, she named it Guido. Guido the Beluga. Thanks, Dad.
4. Buttons
My mom was singing a song to Lily while we waited for lunch at Sea World. Lily sang along for a little while, but then she touched a little mole near my mom's nose and told her, "I pushed your stop button." Ouch. Similarly, a few weeks ago, Lily touched my protruding navel and said, "Mama, I push your button." Someday, she'll understand the irony.
3. Great Quotes
Lily picks up lines from her favorite movies but even more so from her favorite books. She gets three books before nap and another three before bed along with various requests during the day, and she tends to pick a set of three that lasts for several days or even a week or more. Her favorites by far are her two Fancy Nancy books, but she has also been stuck on several others. These books have already yielded some great lines, my favorites of which have been:
"I'm ecstatic!" - said in reference to seeing belugas and taken from Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy
"Ooo la la la! My family is posh!"- said randomly and taken from Fancy Nancy, though Lily added the extra "la."
"Ha ha ha. I'm laughing eerily." - said while pretending to be a hyena and taken from The Grouchy Ladybug
2. Introductions
When we see other children at the pool or the playground, I can tell that Lily wants to play when she stands still and stares at them. I feel like she wants to go over and interact, but she doesn't know how. So I've been trying to teach her that if she wants to make a friend, she needs to go up and say "Hi, I'm Lily. What's your name?" This has been largely ineffective so far, but last Friday, she saw a little boy right around her age playing with his toy cars on the slide. She stared at him for a while, and so I asked her if she wanted to be his friend. She said yes, but instead of saying the line I'd been going for, she marched over to him, held out her hand and said, in a hilariously adult tone of voice, "Lily Austen Rerecich." He just looked at her, but they did, in the end, play together.
1. Two Going on Thirteen
Yesterday at the grocery store, Lily dropped Guido the Beluga out of the cart several times. My belly was really aching, and I got tired of picking him up. While we were at the register, I had had enough and told her that the beluga needed a timeout. She immediately did a fake scream-and-cry, and I got her attention and told her, "If you calm down and count to ten, you can have the beluga back." She looked back at me and said quite clearly, "No. I'm still crying. You can count for yourself."
#10 sounds like a great idea for a children's book!
ReplyDeleteMiss you all!
Aww I miss Lilly. I miss you Lindsay and Matt too, but I became very attached to Lilly. I hope you are all doing great in TX! Tell Lilly I say hi.
ReplyDeleteBriana
Hmm . . . the Guido thing is a little strange. Something Jason knew that I didn't (not having grown up Italian) is that apparently Guido is a derogatory term -- "Guido (English pronunciation: /ˈɡwiːdoʊ/) is a slang term for a lower-class or working-class urban Italian-American, originally used as a demeaning term for Italian-Americans in general."
ReplyDeleteSo if you need a reason to semi-forcibly change the beluga's name, that might be a good excuse, considering that it's kind of a racial slur!
And, on a lighter note, I can picture Lily saying "Lily Austen Rerecich" in a sort of imperious tone on the playground, then waving her hand like the 'lil girls' in The King's Speech . . . :-P And then perhaps finishing by saying "You can count for yourself" with a dismissive wave of her hand :-) Oh, Lily Pants, you are going to be such a trial to your mom when you're 13!