Groves Family Happenings: A Good Old Fashioned Lily Update

I haven't done a Lily update in a while. Okay, I haven't done much of any updating. Time to rectify that. Lily is awesome. She is in preschool four days a week and loves it! Everyday she asks if it is a school day when she wakes up. We had her first school conference at the end of October and her teachers had nothing but good things to say about her. She is the youngest in her class - they decided to put her in the older 3s younger 4s class instead of the three year old class - and she holds her own. She comes home with tons of projects and the best part of my day with her is the huge smile on her face and her yelling "Mommy mommy mommy!" when I pick her up after school. Don't get me wrong, she jumps out of the car without hardly looking back at drop off, but her reaction at pick up lets me know my little girl is still happy to see me despite her independent attitude. She knows all her letters, both upper and lower case. The other day Matt was wearing a shirt that said Polygamy Porter (that he got a million years ago at a Blues and Brews Fest in Salt Lake City!) and Lily asked what it said. He told her it said porter. She said what is that word, pointing to polygamy. Matt told her it said porter also. She said no it doesn't it has some different letters. And last night at dinner she told us the salt was sea salt (which it was). We asked her how she knew, and she said it said so on the bottle. She never ceases to amaze me! She is also starting to write her name. For the longest time she had no interest in writing at all, but I am happy she is starting to show some!
She is doing ballet, which she has been doing since summer. She really loves to dance and sing. She is constantly running around the house, dancing and making up songs. She always asks if I like her songs when she is done, and just to be sure I am paying attention, she asks which part I liked best.
Even though she runs around and is super loud at home, she is a bit reserved and can be quiet in a group of kids until she feels comfortable. It is always amazing to me to see her sitting quietly, playing by herself at playdates. She warms up, but she can start out shy.
Lily dresses herself every morning, which is awesome. I let her wear whatever she wants as long as it is weather appropriate. She is really good about making sure she has long sleeves, pants, socks, and clean undies. She usually picks out one of her summer dresses to put on top. Almost nothing matches except the two socks. I think it is fantanstic! I love her sense of style. In fact, this morning she told me she doesn't like matching, as she walked out of her room in blue animal print pants and a Halloween dress. With pink socks.
My chickie and I really seem to have hit our stride lately. I am really enjoying her and feel like she is listening and behaving better. It is the little things, like her letting me do her hair without complaint as well as the bigger things, like staying with me when we are out. She is still a little firecracker though! She says the funniest things and keeps me laughing constantly. Lily is such an awesome big sister. She is so loving towards Margie and lately she keeps telling me the best day of her life is when Margie "got borned." She says she will never stop loving Margie and she hopes they are sisters forever. Seriously, I don't know where she gets this. Her heart is just that big!
Lily has a busy winter coming up with ballet, soccer and swimming. And preschool four days a week. We will be busy, but hopefully we survive. We have been doing a lot of projects lately. Lily loves projects and asks to do one every day. Her attention span is a lot longer than it used to be, so I no longer mind doing projects as much. I used to get frustrated with how quickly she would be done with a project.
I can't believe my first baby is such a kid now. She is so independent in so many areas. I am so glad she can go potty on her own and dress herself and get her milk or juice out of the fridge, but sometimes I look at her and have to really squint to see the baby she was, and it makes me a little sad. She is growing up so darn fast!