30 months

Dear Lily,

2 and a half years old! Already! I can't believe it! Each month that passes seems to go by faster and faster! I wish I had some magic dust to slow down time! This month you really asserted your independence and tested our patience! We still love you though, and are happy to see you becoming so independent!

A big part of this month has been how your vocabulary is changing. You've always been a talker, and have a very large vocabulary. This month you really took that to a whole new level! We've been having little conversations with you for a few months now, but this month things really took off! Suddenly you were having full conversations with us, demonstrating not only your language skills, but also your memory skills and an amazing imagination! (We've even caught you telling a few lies...uh oh!) You love to just sit and talk about things with us. A favorite thing to do if we've done something exciting that day is to talk about everything we did that day during dinner, or in the car. For an example, we went to the aquarium on Valentine's day, and we had a blast talking on the way home about seeing the sharks, whales, fish and football (the sea lions had a football in their tank...for some reason you fixated on that as the most exciting part of not only that exhibit, but that trip! ). Days later you were still telling me about seeing the whales and the football!

Your memory has really amazed us this month! Every time we talk about Christmas, or see Christmas trees, you talk about Nannie and Papa getting our tree with us this year back in November! I was amazed the first time you recalled that memory to us! And every time you see a helicopter or plane you talk about Grampa B, and the short visit you had at his office last month! In addition to remembering thing related to people and things you love, you also have been memorizing your favorite books lately. You can recite "Brown Bear Brown Bear" all the way through. Just last night Daddy was reading "If You Give A Pig A Party" (for the same author of "If You give A Mouse A Cookie"), and you surprised him by reciting several of the pages, word for word! Now we've only had this book from the library for a little over a week, and have only read it a handful of times! Another fun test of you memory that we've been seeing for several months now is you recognize landmarks when we go places, and know where we are going. You know the routes to Little Gym, the library, and Jon and Becky's, among others!

Along the lines of your growing memory, you've been learning a lot of your favorite songs lately. You've known your ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, and other nursery rhymes or finger play songs for a while now, so that's not new to this month. What is new is you learning more complicated songs like your favorite, Charlie Hope! You LOVE singing along to her CD now! You've been learning every song of hers this month. You've also been learning to sing along to "Tessie" and the other Redsox Drop Kick Murphy songs! You just really love singing right now! Every night before bed now, you and I like to sing a few songs together. Some you know and sing along with me, others are new to you...but you still try to sing along! :) I think this month I will work on teaching you some Broadway and Disney songs!

As I mentioned earlier, this month you have become really independent, and that sometimes has been trying our patience. You love to pick out your own clothes now, and insist on dressing and undressing yourself. Your rain boots have become your regular shoe for this reason. You insist on them, because they are the only shoes you have that you can put on yourself! Most of the time we just let you take the lead, but their are times when we just can't let you go out in some of the silly outfits you pick out. The tantrums that follow when we tell you no are trying, to say the least! These tantrums have been occurring anytime you don't get your way. We're trying hard to not give in and give you what you want. I know you don't understand now that we've got your best interest at heart...but hopefully someday you will!

A favorite new toy in the house has been your wood blocks. We finally opened them from Christmas, and you've been having so much fun building towers and castles. We like to play right along with you, and one of the thing we like to build most together is a zoo to put your animals in, which leads to (hopefully) a bit of pretend play. At least that's the direction I'm always aiming for. Some days you follow along and pretend with your animals...other days you just want to knock down the zoo or castle we've just built together! I don't mind! Both are equally as important to you learning!

The most exciting development from this month has without a doubt been your budding imagination! You've been playing at changing your baby dolls diapers for a while now...but recently this has become way more involved. You talk to your baby and practice all the steps, telling your baby what a big poopy it has, and putting diaper cream on their legs! You are constantly playing pretend with your babies, cooking for them, helping them do forward rolls and rocking them to sleep! Another way we've been seeing you use your imagination is you have started making up your own stories when reading a book to yourself. You look at the picture and make up the story based on what you see. Sometimes if it's a book you are familiar with, you will follow along closely to the real story...but with books you don't know well, you will completely make up what you think is going on! It's very fun to watch!

You continue to love being a big sister. We have to watch you really closely though, because you tend to show your love by being a little rough with your sisters. You just want to pick them up and hold them all the time! You continue to love helping us with them too. You like to help me make their bottles by pouring the water, and shaking it up. And you are always quick to run for a binky whenever they cry!

You totally surprised us this month with learning a phase in French. Out of nowhere you started saying "No tush pop". You're intending to say "Ne touche pas"-"Do not touch". Daddy says this a LOT to you :) and somewhere this month you picked it up and have started saying it all the time. You think it's funny to say that while grabbing for something you know you shouldn't be touching...like the oven door!

As always, we're so proud of how much you've learned this month! It's so exciting watching you grow and learn! We love you so much Lily!

Love,
Mommy

The silly faces of Lily at 2 1/2: