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This post is going to be a hodge podge of sorts, so I couldn't come up with a clever title. The more toddler-ish (is that a word?) Lily gets, the more my brain goes to goo. I always did the baby talk thing, but now I am actually having conversations in a language Lily has invented. For example, I now refer to the dogs as ba-bas, because that is what Lily calls them. I say "Ba-bas, want to go outside?" They respond, but then, I think they just hear outside and come running. At one point she was saying something that pretty closely resembled puppy and another word that was close to doggy, but apparently ba-ba has won out, so that is how we now refer to Eli and Lucy. However, when I picked her up from Moppets the other morning, one of the volunteers asked if we had a dog. I told her we did, wondering why she asked. I mean, I didn't think Lily was too covered with dog hair when I dropped her off. She told me that Lily pointed to every animal and called it a puppy. Which is another of her favorite things. Lily points to everything now. And if you ask her where her nose is, she will point to her nose, and then point to your nose. We haven't mastered any other body parts yet, and even the nose ranges from spot on the tip of her nose, to along the side, to - and I hope this doesn't become a habit - slightly up the nostril. I am having a hard time trying to teach her eyes, ears, etc while simultaneously trying to teach her not to grab faces. It is getting really hard to trim her little nails, and I can't take much more of the clawing.
Yesterday I lowered Lily's crib to its lowest setting. She discovered it is fun to hold on to the side and jump (well, more like bounce) so I figured better safe than sorry. It needed to be lowered anyway.

We have been very fortunate to get a lot of hand me down toys and whatnot from friends and some of Matt's co-workers. Last night we got out this little tunnel and play wall that we were given and Lily has just been loving it. Hours and hours of entertainment, I tell ya! We have been really lucky to have a toy room that would give the appearance of a very spoiled child, without having to shell out all the money. And yeah, she is probably a little spoiled. She also loves books now, and I probably read her about 10 books a day. We have a lot of books, but not that many. So therefore, I probably read her two books five times. She just crawls over with a book in her hand and sits patiently until I start reading. She likes to flip the pages. The books aren't very long...some just have a couple words a page, and I have most of them memorized. I am sure this is from sheer repetition, but I like to think it shows that my brain can still function at more than the basic survival level.

We also have a new gate for the play room. The ironing board wasn't cutting it anymore. Lily learned she could just push it and then get around it. She also dove over it a time or two.

Take a look at how long her hair is getting!

She is growing up so fast and getting so big. She loves to let go and just stand on her own, though I am yet to catch a picture of it. As soon as I pull out the camera, she just tries to grab it. She cruises all over and pushes her walker and music table (not its intended purpose, but what the heck) all over the room. I think one day she will just start walking. She has no interest in walking holding on to my fingers though. She just buckles her knees if I try to get her to. That is, if I can even get her to stand. She is more than happy to stand for long periods of time, just on her terms. But I did lean over the gate and put her in the play room and she stood there for a couple seconds.

Today Lily and I had to go to Sam's and the grocery store. Lily proceed to yell through both stores. She was happy, not crying or upset or anything. She just yelled. This is kinda new. It started on Friday when we went out to lunch with a friend and her daughter who is a month older than Lily. Lily yelled the whole lunch, except when she was making friends with the ladies at the table behind us. Luckily it was lunch time and pretty crowded, so it was loud in the resturaunt. Before I had Lily, when I would see a child behaving the same way and think the mom must be going nuts listening to that. Today I realized that the mom probably wasn't going nuts because she probably didn't even hear it. I stopped hearing the yelling about halfway through the store, although I know she was still yelling because of the looks - and smirks from knowing moms - we were getting. Lily is actually a little hoarse sounding after all the yelling...well, that and the roaring. She has a stuffed tiger and stuffed lion, and is more than happy to tell you what sound they make. Such a funny little girl!