Happy Birthday Lily!!!

Dear Lily,

Happy Birthday!!! It's so hard for me to believe that another year has flown by already! This day two years ago was very long and tough on Mommy, but I wouldn't trade a single minute of it, because it all lead to you entering our lives! At 11:38pm on August 22nd 2007, you change our lives forever!

You've gone from this tiny little 8 lb 1.9 oz Infant


To this adorable 1 year old


To this smart, funny and beautiful 2 year old toddler

It's been amazing watching you grow from that tiny thing who couldn't even hold your head up, to the wonderfully smart, fast, and strong toddler that you are now! All the previous months I've posted have highlighted how you've grown and changed in your past 23 months. now it's time to see where you've grown in this past month.



You've become a real goof ball lately. You love to make us laugh by doing silly things. If you do something that makes us laugh, you will keep doing it to keep us laughing! For example last night you were running round the bedroom in a circle, then would stop, throw your hands out and say "freeze!". When this made us laugh, you decided you would keep us laughing by repeating this for the next 15 minutes or so! The funniest part was you started laughing at yourself too, and you have this new thing when you think you are being so funny, where you put your head in your hands and do this really dramatic laugh! Of course that always gets Mommy and Daddy laughing harder!



Unfortunately we've seen one side of you this month that we are not thrilled with. You've learned the dreaded word "mine". All kids go through this stage where they assert their Independence by claiming everything is theirs, and taking things from other kids, but it's not easy to watch! We have the biggest trouble with this at little gym when the balls come out. Over the last month you have started taking balls from your friends saying "mine!". I knew it was a stage you'd go through, but it's still embarrassing! I really hope this is a stage you pass through quite quickly!


Like last month, singing has been a big part of our lives. Now you try to sing along with a lot of songs you hear. I found a new kids musician this month that we both love, Charlie Hope, and you love to sing along to her songs, especially the naps time song! "Shhh, shhh, sh, sh, shh, shh, shh, It's nap time!"


Also like last month, art has been a big part of our daily lives. You love coloring! We got you a couple big pads of paper for the floor, and you spend every morning laying on your tummy coloring! You are so funny about it too, because you always line your crayons up neatly next to you, and move from the front of the line to the back, trying out each different color. You started to expand on how you draw now. Now in addition to lines, you like to draw circles! I asked you to draw Micky Mouse once, and you pulled out he black and drew 2 circles and the colored some red on top of it! That was the first time I noticed you drawing circles. I as very impressed! You know almost all your colors now too. You can identify blue, green, purple, black, yellow, orange, and pink. The only color that gives you trouble is red, which you always call pink. Orange, green, and pink still seem to be you favorite colors right now. It'll be interesting to see what your first favorite color will be!

You've gotten really strong in Little Gym lately. You love to swing yourself on the bars now, and make your basket. You've also been working so hard at jumping and doing a forward roll on your own. In class you can roll by yourself if you are on an inclined mat. At home you try all the time to roll and do your donkey kicks! I'm really seeing progress! Next week is our last class of this session, so I'll be sure to get some new video of all the cools tricks you've learned over the summer!


We're all excited to see how you will handle your new roll as big sister. You love to give the babies hugs and kisses already! We're not sure how much you understand about it at this point though. You like to give my belly raspberry kisses while talking about the babies...but then you'll do the same to Daddy and point to his belly and say "Daddy babies" then point to my belly and say "Mommy babies" and then point to them both at the same time and say "two babies!". It'll be interesting to see how you react when you realize the two little babies we bring home are there to stay!


Some random facts about you:

You love thunder storms! When you hear thunder you say " WHOA! Thunder!".

The Elmo obsession has been replaced by "Charlie and Lola", and "Mickey Mouse".



You favorite book at the moment is a "Charlie and Lola" book, "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato". You request this book be read to you at least 3 times a day! Sometimes we get to the end of the book, and you want to read it all over again!

We are 99% positive you are a lefty. We've thought this from a very early time when we noticed something about the swirl of your hair (I don't remember the science behind it, but there is a theory out there about the direction of the swirl hinting at hand preference) Ever since then we've watched how you eat closely, and you almost always choose to hold the spoon in your left hand. Once you started coloring, we noticed you always color with your left hand too.



Favorite foods are still hot dogs, fruit and cheerios. You also now love hummus (tummas as you call it) and cucumbers. You've also always been fond of Asian food...you love pad thai, fried rice and almost anything Indian. We love how diverse and worldly your tastes are! Of course like any 2 year old you love sweets of all kinds...especially chocolate!



You still haven't picked a favorite stuffed animal or doll, but you do love to switch between a few of them. Your new thing is picking a pony to come to bed with you!

You are starting the whole stalling at bedtime routine. You'll do anything to distract us. You ask to brush your teeth again, for milk, for one more story, or for a pony, all in the hopes of staying up a little later!


Daddy and I are so proud of you each and every day! We are so grateful you came into our lives! You fill every day with laughter and cuddles. We are so looking forward to your new adventure as big sister. We know you'll be great at it! I can't wait to see all the new things you learn over the course of your 3rd year! Happy second birthday monkey! We love you so much!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy