"Huge Baby Orange"

I've been tutoring and teaching SAT classes like crazy the past couple of weeks. Between tutoring every night and teaching SAT classes on the weekends, I sometimes feel like I don't have a moment to stop. I have Lilly's nap time every day, and I have the time after I get back from the gym in the morning, before Lilly wakes up, but it's not the same as having evenings. I miss our relaxing family dinners and appreciate them even more on nights like tonight when we can sit and eat and chat and I don't have to sprint out the door to be somewhere at a certain time. I'm looking forward to being down in Florida with my family for 10 days, where there is nothing to do but relax, hang out, read and enjoy being together. We head down on Christmas Day and I can't wait!

I hope Lilly gets the memo that Florida is going to be relaxing. A 20-month old's chatter is anything but relaxing. But it is always entertaining, and boy, does she come out with some great expressions. The title of this blog, for one. Yes, that's right. A "huge, baby orange." Lilly calls anything small "baby..." so she started referring to clementines as baby oranges. Now, when we have regular oranges, she calls them "huge baby oranges." Pretty cute if you ask me. It's amazing to me that Lilly, this tiny human being, arrives at conclusions on her own. She doesn't just repeat everything we say anymore. She put two and two together and referred to an orange as a "huge baby."

Our little chatterbox is talking more and more every day. She likes calling everyone by name...over and over again, until that person responds to her. In fact, in the morning when Lilly wakes up, she plays for awhile and then starts calling, "mummy, daddy...." and if we don't respond we now get this tiny voice yelling, "Jim...me-ah (for Amelia), Jim, me-ah..." until one of us goes in! She does this with a huge smile, knowing that she's not supposed to call us Jim and Amelia but that it always gets a response.

Today, Lilly and I had an amazing day of nothing! We didn't have errands to run or grocery shopping to do. We couldn't go for a walk because it was seriously cold outside. The picture at the top of this blog is her playing outside the other day. I went to take her for a walk and checked the weather on my phone. It said, "21, feels like 13" so instead, we bundled up (which took a good 20 minutes) and then went out the back for maybe 10 minutes. But Lilly loves being outside so I try to let her go out and play at least for a little while during the day.

Anyway, today we stayed at home and had a day of cleaning, organizing and rearranging. While I was doing things that I'd been wanting to do for months and crossing things off my "to do" list, Lilly would wander by with her little tote bag full of her toy vegetables, and hand them to her teddy bear, one by one. I'd hear a little, "one, two, tree (for three!)" as she put them back in her bag. She'd totter by with her dolly who was strapped into her stroller with a blanket wrapped around her. She'd come out of our bedroom wearing my shoes and saying, "kick, kick (for click, click) as my shoes clicked along the hallway tiles. She'd take ornaments off the Christmas tree and say, "oh no, hep peese" (help please, for those of you that don't speak toddler), and then I'd help her hang the ornament back up. She'd go to her dresser, get socks out of the bottom drawer and try and put them on her doll. I'd hear a "doyy, shocks" as she was putting the socks on. She found my goggles, put them on herself and then on Lilly Lamb. She stood at the back door waving and saying hi and bye to birds, squirrels and airplanes. Our tiny little place provides Lilly with hours of entertainment. I think she was as happy as I was to spend the day at home. She would go up to the computer and ask for Glee music...by name! It used to be "gwee" but we get an "l" in there sometimes now so it's an unmistakable request.

I never want Lilly to get bigger but unfortunately, that's unavoidable. From her earliest days, Jim and I have tried to savor every moment and appreciate all her milestones. We thought that 6 months was the best. Then she started crawling so 7 months was even more amazing. And then walking so 1 was unbelievable. At 18 months, she was a real little person, trying to talk and loving to play, so we loved that stage. Every time a new stage arrives and we love that one even more. That's the way it is at the moment. 20 months is nothing but energy and excitement. Lilly is full of smiles and laughter and is such a fun little person to be around. Don't get me wrong--she has her share of "no's" and she is one tiny stubborn person but we don't want her to keep growing! I'm sure that the next stage will be just as much fun but I wish I could slow time down.