Life in the Clark Lane: "Hey, this is MY tutu"

This is one of those weeks when I feel like our little Lilly isn't so little any more. Over the weekend, we went and bought Lil a bed, which should be arriving any day now. She tested out all the beds and seemed to enjoy climbing up on them more than anything else. Lilly loves her crib, so we're not sure how this transition is going to go but we know it needs to happen sooner rather than later. Amazingly enough, she has never tried to climb out of her crib. If she had, there's no doubt that she'd be out by now. The girl can climb her way onto or out of anything. Remember when she climbed up on the changing table while I was out of the room? She can also climb up onto Jim and my bed without assistance. She's a little monkey. Our only theory as to why she's never tried to climb out of her crib is because simply, she loves it! When she wakes up in the morning, she lounges. Lilly used to jump up as soon as she woke up and whenever playing took place, it usually involved all her stuffed animals, books and blankets...and making a huge mess. Now, she lies in bed, rolling around in the blankets, chatting and singing, and finally, calling out to us when she has to go to the bathroom or when she decides that she wants some company. If she's awake, we usually go in around 8 so that Lil and Jim can see each other before Jim goes to work. So even if she's happily chatting, we've started knocking on the door, and this little voice yells, "come in!" at the top of her lungs. We walk in only to find her bundled up in blankets, rolling around with her one in her mouth, talking to a stuffed animal or two, but demonstrating no desire to actually get out of her crib. One day, when Lilly is 16 and needs convincing to get out of bed in the morning, and says something like, "I wish I remembered being little when I didn't have to get out of bed and go to school...I would totally have enjoyed that time more," we'll be able to tell her that she took full advantage of this time, and loved every second of it.

Yesterday morning, Jim and I were both in her room talking to her while she was still deciding if she wanted to get up. One of us asked her if she was excited that her new bed was going to be here soon, and her reply way, "No, this is my bed." Jim and I looked at each other and knew that Lilly has to be well and truly settled in her bed months before this new baby arrives, as she probably won't react too well to an impostor in her bed, unless she is happy in her new one.

"Hey, this is my ___________." You can fill in this blank with whatever word you choose, and Lilly does. If she's sitting on your lap and you give her knee a tickle, she'll say, "Hey, this is my leg." When I was sitting in her bedroom, going through her pajamas the other day, folding and reorganizing them and taking out the ones that didn't fit, she came over to me and said, "Hey, this is my clothes." Like I was trying to steal her pajamas! I'm well aware that they're her clothes, but Lilly is intent on reinforcing who everything belongs to. It is about possession at the moment. But only when it suits Lilly. If you ask for some of her pasta, you'll be told, "No, this is my pasta." But if she wants some of yours, she'll ask for "some pasta, peeeese". And then ask you to share. Convenient, isn't it? Jim likes reminding Lilly who bought these things of hers. He and I have a good chuckle. Lilly looks at us like we're crazy.

We learn daily how much Lilly absorbs. Lil and I were sitting outside at Starbucks the other day; she was eating her pink donut and I was having my iced coffee. We were watching the cars drive by, pointing out the different colors and saying hi to them, and out of nowhere, Lilly pointed to my iced coffee and said, "no foam, decaf Mummy?" I did a double take. I was sure I misheard her. So I asked her what she said, and she repeated it again. When I repeated it back to her, she said, "yes," with a huge grin on her face. I couldn't believe it. Lilly has heard me order my "no foam decaf latte" so many times that she associates it with my coffee. And I hadn't even ordered that this time! Just a plain iced coffee for me. She's a little sponge.

We got another reminder of this when we went to the Westchester Mall this past weekend. We hadn't been there since Christmas, when Lilly sat on Santa's lap. Jim and I made no mention of that, but as we were walking around the mall, Lil turned to Jim and said, "where Santa is, Daddy?" 5 months later! Lilly has a memory like a steel trap.

In addition to picking out her bed (and a comfy glider as well), we took Lilly to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. For Christmas, Joseph gave us gift cards to use there and we thought that Lilly is at an age where she'll love building her own bear. When we walked into the store, Jim and I both picked out a teddy bear that we thought was cute and we assumed that Lilly would think it was cute too. Lilly had no such intentions. She saw a bunny in the distance, and once she had her mind made up, there was no changing it. So a bunny she made. And she named the bunny, Judy. We're pretty sure it's her favorite girl name. She loves Judy in Pat the Bunny, and when we read her Paddington, she's only interested in the pages that have Judy on them at the moment. I didn't even know that Judy existed in Paddington books until Lilly discovered her.

Pushing the pedal to stuff Judy.

Rubbing Judy's heart and giving it a kiss before putting it inside

Fluffing Judy up under the "bath". This was her favorite thing to do, by far.

The finished product, complete with a pink tutu, chosen by Lilly of course.

Finally, to reinforce how quickly Lilly is growing up, she had her two-year doctor's appointment yesterday. She now weighs 26 pounds and is 35.5 inches tall. Half an inch more and she's 3 feet tall! Very cute. She grew 3 inches and gained 3 pounds in 6 months. Dr. Brown said she's growing perfectly and gave me what I think is an extremely accurate definition of a two-year-old. He said they are, "little people who don't know what they really want but are determined to argue until they get it. And it's always the opposite of what you suggest." Yes...he summed up the majority of conversations that take place in our house! If we offer Lilly one pair of shoes, she wants the other. If we offer her apple juice, she wants milk. If we suggest going to have a bath, she wants to play outside. If we suggest playing outside, she wants a bath. Dr. Brown told me the peak of all of this is two and half...so we've still got a good 5 months of this progressing. This is how Lilly is asserting her two-year-old independence. It could be worse; it could be temper tantrums and refusing to follow directions; it could be misbehaving. Luckily, we've just got an extremely opinionated two-year-old on our hands. Opinionated, but well behaved. She's definitely a keeper.