Lillyisms

It’s been a busy week here.  On Friday morning, we headed down to Villanova for Easter with Jim’s family.  We had a wonderful weekend filled with gorgeous weather and got to spend some time seeing all the Clarks.  It was a nice, unexpected, get-together.  It was one of those weekends that wouldn’t have worked out if everyone had tried to plan it.  But a couple of weeks before, it just came together!  Funnily enough, the same thing is happening for me next week with my family.  Again, we didn’t know this was going to be a time that we’d all be together, but I’m bringing Lilly down before Jim and I head to Italy, the boys are coming up from Austin and Ellie is taking her first vacation from her office job in Guatemala.  I’m sure Mum would have chosen a different time if she had the choice, given that Mum and Dad moved into their new house on April 1^st, but no one minds if there aren’t enough beds, or if all the furniture isn’t perfectly arranged and everything else unpacked.  In fact, Lilly is very helpful when it comes to unpacking, so Mum should probably wait to put anything else away until we arrive on Tuesday.  As far as sleeping arrangements go, I think that Edward and Joseph should sleep in the same room as Lilly.  It’s time for them to live up to their roles as uncles.  I will warn them ahead of time that Lilly has started waking up at about 2am and enjoys playing in her crib for close to an hour, laughing and seeing how loud she can say “da da da…”  It’s really cute, and I’m sure her uncles will think so as well.

The countdown to Lilly’s birthday is on!  Here’s a look at this time last year:

I could never have imagined that this was the little person inside me!  Over the course of this past year, Lilly has developed some pretty distinct traits, that I like to call Lillyisms.  These are a few of my favorite ones!

The Growl

From the first days when Lilly began communicating with us, it seemed her primary means for doing so was a growl.  That has continued to this day, although her growls are diminishing as she is becoming more verbal.  I assumed that this was normal and that all babies growl, but I have since learned that most babies do not growl at sweet old ladies walking by them in church after their baptisms or at runners going by at the end of a half ironman and that this is indeed a Lillyism.

The Tarzan Stomach Pummel

As is the case for many babies, Lilly prefers life with no clothes on.  To prevent little accidents from taking place all over the carpet, Jim and I often let her play in just her diaper after she gets out of the bath.  Recently, Lilly has taken to walking around and banging on her stomach when her little belly is free.  She looks like a baby Tarzan when she does it, and she cracks herself up.

The Dance

We usually have music playing in our house and as a result, Lilly has developed some impressive dancing skills.  Her skills have evolved over time.  Around Christmas, she would bob her head up and down when one of her toys played music (similar to the way Jim dances).  She continues to do that but if she is standing up when she hears music, she usually starts swinging her little hips.  She also lets go of whatever she’s holding onto and puts one hand down by her side as she dances.  We have this on video!  It’s the cutest little dancing I’ve ever seen.  It is extremely appropriate that Lilly likes to dance given that is how Jim and first met—dancing at a crew party at the end of freshman year.

The Sneeze

I think my favorite Lillyism at the moment is her sneezing.  Jim has taught Lilly that sneezes are hysterical!  As a result, every time Lilly sneezes, she follows it up by laughing.  It’s close to impossible to capture on camera as we don’t really have any warning that a sneeze is going to take place but hopefully one of these days we’ll be able to.  She also thinks that other people’s sneezes are funny—even Jim’s fake ones.  Jim is extremely proud of this trick of Lilly’s; so much so that he told me the other day that he was concerned I wasn’t laughing enough after her sneezes.  Apparently I have to make a bigger deal of her sneezes so she continues to think they’re funny.  This is one thing I did not foresee as one of my motherly duties but I will take it on nonetheless.