23 months!-

The wet shirt is practicing drinking from a regular cup, which usually goes better than this.

Wow, another month has gone by. Only one more month until she turns 2. I can hardly believe it.

She growing in leaps and bounds every day. She's talking up a storm, she's basically talking non-stop all the time. She has an opinion about everything and she likes to tell everyone about it. Some popular phrases:
Want it now!
Holded it!
Mine.
More candies.
No.
No way!
Lily run away.
Avery, Skylar. (Her buddies that she wants to play with all the time.)
Oh No! (With both hands on her head.)

She can count to 10, although sometimes gets caught up and repeats numbers. She's starting to go above 10 now. She can sing her ABCs but sometimes refuses and just wants to sing along for certain parts. She also just likes to sing and when she's driving alone with mommy she's often singing her favorite songs in the back seat on her own. She can recognize a lot of letters, probably close to 10. She knows all of her basic shapes like circle, triangle, and square and a few more complex ones like heart and star and she's learning more. There's an iPhone game that she loves that is teaching her all of these. She's working on her colors but goes back and forth between getting them right consistently and then getting them wrong again. She can identify hundreds of animals. Animals are definitely her thing right now. She's always on the lookout for animals and usually spots them before anyone else. She's especially fond of dogs and isn't afraid of them at all, despite how large they are. When we live in a more appropriate place we're definitely going to have to get a dog.

She wants everything when we're shopping now. If she wants something she'll either say she wants it, or that she wants to hold it. Or she'll just grab it and put it in the cart. Our grocery store has scanning guns so you can scan your purchases as you're going through the store. Lily HAS to be in charge of the gun. She knows what button to hold down. She likes to hold it as we're going through the store but we have to watch her or she'll hold down the button and look at the laser or try to scan other people/things in the store. Overall it keeps her occupied so we can make it through the store though.

She talks to both sets of her grandparents every Sunday on Skype (videoconferencing over the internet). It seems so high-tech now but I'm sure Lily will think it's silly when she's an adult. She looks forward to it all week. And asks for "skype" and "puter" (computer). I'm glad that even though her grandparents are 3,000 miles away she knows them well and really loves them a lot.

She loves TV and movies. She can't really sit through a whole TV show or movie unless it's first thing in the morning and she's cuddling in mommy and daddy's bed still sleepy. Her favorite shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street and she loves Finding Nemo. She likes a lot of other of the classic Disney movies too like Bambi and Toy Store, she loves animals and pretty much anything animated. She doesn't watch too much TV though. Usually even if she's "watching" a TV show she's getting up and playing during it and since the weather has recently turned warm so it's much easier to do things and we can be outside now.

Lily has started a gymnastics class that meets every Thursday morning. She really likes it. It's still a mommy & me class but it's much more involved then her previous class which she basically controlled. She's learning things like following instructions and waiting for her turn all of which I'm sure will help her in preschool when the time comes. We still haven't decided if she's going to go to preschool in the fall (very young at only 2 years and 4 months) on a very limited schedule (like 4-6 hours/week) or if we'll wait a whole year until she's 3 years and 4 months. She's definitely interested in being around other kids more frequently. She asks to play with her friends every day so it would just be a matter of finding one that takes kids her age and that we like. We'll see.

She's also started doing "chores" around the house. She has a chart with her chores listed and a drawing of each task next to it. She has to do each job twice a day and she gets a sticker on her chart. At this point the sticker and encouragement is enough of a reward--she absolutely thrilled to get the stickers and is very proud of her chart. Her chores are mainly things that she does already, like brush her teeth, get dressed, etc. so they aren't real chores. But she was asking to earn more stickers so we recently added "pick up toys", where we're trying to get her to pick up 5 toys, this is harder though because she likes her toys too much to put them away and gets distracted. We're trying though.

She has recently started to become more brave around strangers and likes to say hello to people (and will keep saying hello until they hear her and say it back). Some people still make her nervous, especially if they are overbearing or a little strange; it's funny how at almost 2 she can already pick up on social cues and knows when people are acting a little differently.

She's a very good girl most of the time. The parents of other kids close to her in age are always remarking on how well-behaved she is. She's very good at sharing toys and unless something is particularly precious to her she'll share it with another kid (or not scream if it get's taken). Of course I don't want her to be a pushover either so we don't make her just give all her toys away. She also doesn't often throw tantrums or fits about things and we think she's aware that whining/throwing fits means we're leaving and the fun is over. Our only problems happen when she hasn't gotten enough sleep, so the issue is usually pretty quickly resolved. She also likes to be chased so she often runs away from us, usually laughing and then saying "Lily run away!" She'll come back if she's not chased but she often does this places where she just can't be left to run until she decides to come back (like through grocery store aisles where I lose sight of her).

She is so excited about her little sister. She talks about her a lot. She likes to rub mommy's tummy and say hello and give her kisses. She talks about coming soon and how she's going to share her toys and read to her. And she's very concerned about her kicking mommy and giving owies. She's very protective of mommy and doesn't like when something is hurting her at all. She fond of pushing her (and daddy) in the rocking chair and giving back rubs (which is very sweet). She is very fixated on baby sister being "born soon" and talks about it all the time.

Her bauby and papa came to visit just as she was turning 23 months and she absolutely loved it. They arrived very late (after she should have been sleeping for a couple hours but was still laying in bed silent). So she got up and was a little overwhelmed and confused for a few minutes. She warmed up very fast and was so excited to see them. She already knows that when mommy or daddy says she has to do something she doesn't like she just needs to say "Bauby help me!" to try and get her way. Now as soon as she wakes up every morning she has to make sure they are still here and is SO excited to see them. I know it will be hard for her when they leave, but they'll be back soon when #2 arrives. And she's already talking about her cousin Bella coming to visit in a month and a half and sharing her toys. So she has something to look forward to very soon.

Potty training has sort of started. She's had a potty for several months and she has sat on it many times but nothing has ever come of it. She recently got some big girl panties with the Disney princesses on them. One morning she said she wanted to wear them so we gave it a try. She wore them all morning without accidents and she sat on the potty several times without any success. Then right before nap time she peed on the potty! We were very excited for her but so far that's been the end of it. We tried again after nap time and had an accident so we haven't really pushed it since. We'll go at her pace, we're not too worried about it yet since she isn't even 2.

Lily LOVES the park. Especially if her buddies are there.

She'll tolerate the teeter totter with mommy though.

She loves jumping in puddles & loves her froggy boots (they are green with frog faces). This is at the St. Patrick's Day parade in New Haven.

A favorite activity--poking things with sticks.

20 months

Lily's language is expanding by leaps about bounds. Every once in a while she spouts out a word that I didn't know she even knew and I don't remember even saying it to her more than a couple times. Just the other day she said "broccoli" to me. She's only tried broccoli once and didn't eat it but she picked it up somewhere. A lot of words are still only understandable in context but most of the time we understand what she's saying. She really enjoys communicating with us too, she's pretty much talking all the time. I think she says "mommy" the most. She likes to say it so I say "what?" then says it again, and again, and again. I'm sure people get annoyed with our "mommy?", "what?", "mommy?", "what?" back and forth. She thinks it's funny though. She also says "book" a lot, which sounds more like "boooot" because she wants books read to her all the time. Literally, all the time. I think we must read at least 30 or so books a day. She also likes to re-read the same books again and again. Usually I make her get a different book because my brain cannot handle Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you hear? 15 times in a row. But the bonus is that she's starting to "read" along with us, which is pretty cute. She really likes books with a rhyme or a rhythm. She likes to dance along with them as I read. Some of my favorite words that she says are "dorable" because we're always telling her she's adorable. And also, "'mon", which is how she's shortened "come on".

She loves her new kitchen that she got from Santa for Christmas. She likes to make me food to eat. She especially loves to fill up a tea cup with "water" from the sink and bring it to me. She loves it when I say I'm "all done" and always wants to get me more. She also tells me to say "please" and I have to be very specific and say "more water please". Every time she wants me to say the same thing. And we'll do this over and over again at least 4 or 5 or more times.

She loves the snow. She's always been warm, even as a little baby we had to be careful not to over-dress her so I don't think the cold really bothers her. She'd go outside without a jacket if we let her. And she loves to play in the snow. Whenever we're walking somewhere she has to walk in the snow, which usually means walking across people's yards. It's a lot easier when there's only a few inches of snow because she can still walk in it without falling down. When it's really deep she can't walk and she falls over and can't get back up. She also likes to destroy snowmen while her daddy's making them and thinks it's hilarious if anyone get's hit by a snowball.

She also moved up to her big girl bed. It has a trundle under it so it really it a tall bed too. She has a railing up on one side and the other is up against the wall and we have the trundle pulled out about halfway so she can climb in and out of bed. We decided we wanted to move her to the real bed sometime at least a couple of months before the new baby comes so the new baby can sleep in the crib and Lily won't feel like it's stealing her bed. We made the switch now because her bed has been in her room for a while and we've been talking about how it's her big girl bed and she started asking about it and said she wanted to sleep in it. So we let her. Bedtime was easy for her. She went right to sleep; no issues whatsoever. Naptime wasn't so easy. She kept getting out of bed, trying to turn the doorknob to get out of her room or just playing. We made several attempts and I kept having to resort to putting her in her crib to sleep after an hour of not sleeping. Then one day we got home late after an active day and she slept in her bed without issue. The next day she laid down at her normal naptime of 10 AM or so and more problems, so sleeping, playing, got out of bed to get a book to read and ripped the cover off it (a library book no less), etc. I finally just got her up, we ate lunch, took a walk, then took a nap, and no issue again. The same thing played out the next day and I finally figured out what the problem was. It wasn't the bed that was the problem, it was just the time of her nap. And ever since she's been sleeping great in her bed. We are so lucky with her sleeping abilities. She goes to sleep so easily and has so a long time. I worry this means our next child won't sleep. Hopefully we'll be equally lucky again.

She absolutely loved the holidays. She loved the decorations. She loved the lights. She loved the presents. She had at least 3 gifts to open every night of Chanukah since we had 8 gifts for her and she also had gifts from her Bauby and Grandpa, Great-Bauby and Great-Grandpa and Uncle Gary and Aunt Cat. And every night when she was done opening presents she said "more, more" (which she still says and signs simultaneously). Daddy was up into the wee hours of Christmas morning setting up her new kitchen. She had a great time opening up all her gifts. We Skyped (video conference) with her Grandma and Papa while Lily opened her gifts. We were sad not to be celebrating with them in Redding so it sort of made up for it. Lily also got to talk to her Uncle Grant all the way in the Dominican Republic. Next year we'll be celebrating Christmas with the whole Horrocks clan in California.

Opening gifts on Chanukah.

A big snow storm, up to Lily's knees!

Lily doesn't really like making snow angels.

Making Christmas sugar cookies. Lily likes to do everything.

Decorating cookies, some of us ate more than we decorated.

Lily dancing at Scott's department holiday party.

Lily cooking in her kitchen.

Getting ready to sleep in her big girl bed for the 1st time.

We took a trip to Newport, RI just before New Years. Lily was a fan of the indoor pool.

13 months

Notice the new set up for her monthly picture--a little more informal. And Lily's new chair, that she loves and loves to use it as stepping stool to get into things.

Another month for the history books. Parenting a toddler is so much different than a baby. It's a lot less watching and a lot more doing. Once she hits the hay between 7:30 and 8 I hit the couch to decompress for a little while. It makes keeping the house picked up during the week very challenging.

Lily often seems more like a typical little boy than the typical little girl. She's not very dainty, although sometimes she'll grab the ends of a dress she's wearing and turn side to side a mix between a curtsy and a twirl. Until she pulls her dress up over her face to play peekaboo. She's a climber. She's a sneak. She's a jumper and a tumbler. She's wild in the pool and bathtub. She throws her body as wildly as she can and splashes. But at least she doesn't mind getting her face wet. She's starting swimming lessons in about 2 weeks and I know she's going to love it.

We can also see glimpses of what Lily will be like as a teenager. Even now, she talks all.the.time. Never stops. Most of it isn't words yet but she's always talking, talking, talking. In fact, silence is a pretty good indicator that she's either sleeping or getting into something, usually getting into something. She's also beginning to try and repeat what we're saying to practice talking. A few days ago she was stepping up onto a box and then down, we'd say "up" and "down" as she stepped up and down. After a few times she started saying it with us. Another day I was talking to her about how she was happy that day and she was trying to say happy with me ("hap-e").

Milestones
-Wears 18 months, 24 months or 2T clothes. She wears smaller sizes in pants and larger sizes in t-shirts and onesies. She's very long-waisted.
-Wears a size 5.5 shoe. She got her first pair of real shoes this month a Stride Rite. They measured her little foot and she tested them on in the store. Hot pink of course!
-Wears a size 5 diaper. We're considering adding some cloth diapers in while we're at home. We're feeling the guilt of the cases and cases of diapers we have contributed to the landfill.
-An exclusive walker. If she's tired now, she just refuses to walk and makes us carry her.
-Obsessed with her tricycle and Cozy Coupe walking toy. If she sees them she MUST have them.
-Loves her bunny, Charlie. She can open his cage and let him out to play. She also knows where his treats are and gets them out. She can't get a treat out on her own so she gives him the whole bag--he doesn't mind! If you hand her a treat she likes to give them to him though. He's so gentle with her.
-Loves puppets.
-Loves interactive books ("Where's the bone?" where you hide the bone somewhere on each page and "Where's baby?" where you lift up a flap on each page to find the baby, she's particularly fond of the page where baby's feet are behind the cat).
-Knows signs for: milk, all done, baby, good job, hello, bye bye
-Learning new words but it's still unclear if she knows their meaning completely. She knows "mama" (or "mom-mom" sometimes) , "dada", and "hi" (or "hi-ya") for sure. Seems to understand "up" and "down".
-Makes a dog sound when she sees dogs "woof" but sometimes woofs for other animals too. Makes an elephant sound and puts up her arm like an elephant when she sees one.
-Loves to read. Loves to be read to and will "read" through books on her own too.

Look a bird! In the aviary at the zoo.

Swimming in the pool in Bauby & Grandpa's backyard.

Throwing herself back into the water in the pool.

Playing with Uncle Gary & Aunt Cat at Bauby & Grandpa's house.

Getting too big for her crib.

Watching a cow at the farm. She notices pictures of cows everywhere, on milk cartons, painted on the wall at Trader Joe's. She loves cows.

Signing "baby"

Read this book

Riding in her Cozy Coupe at Bauby and Grandpa's house in San Diego.

She always has to see what I'm looking at lately--especially the camera and my cell phone.