2 years!

 

I'll be honest, the first year seemed long.
Maybe it was chronically getting not-quite-enough-sleep, or maybe it was the breastfeeding or just being a new mom, I just don't remember it "flying by" like so many people claim. But then I blinked and my baby turned TWO! Sure looking back it HAS been a very full year, and she HAS grown and changed just as much, but two is soooooo much older than one. It's double, in fact, and I'm pretty sure that makes it a lot. Yes, I can already hear Drew correcting my logic, "1 year is always 1 year," just like he claims that I am always 1 year and 1 week older, even though I know I am 2 years older than him for 1 week of the year. But I'm getting off track. The point is, we have a two year old! I feel like 2 successful years of parenting give us the right to drop the "new" and just be "parents." I also know we still have a lot to learn. 
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let me share how grateful I am that we were given Lilly as our first child. Drew and I are both first children, so I feel like we are empathetic to the plight of the oldest. I try not to expect too much, I try to let things go, and I pray she'll be alright despite my failures. But at the end of a long day, I feel like the one that's acting fussy and short-tempered, and she is the one that isn't expecting too much of me and is trying to let some things go. I really feel like I won the lottery with Lilly. She is so innately resilient and even-tempered and kind. Yes, she sometimes whines and cries and makes mistakes, but usually she listens and obeys and tries to be better. Which makes me grateful that, despite every curse my mother threw at me growing up, I wasn't given a child just like myself. I was given one that was much much better. 
We love you, Lilly! Bring on year number three!

Some other things we love about Lilly:

• How well she expresses herself! She mostly speaks in sentences, but often leaves out prepositions and articles, for example "I go park, play with friends?" She's always surprising me with new words or phrases.
• Her shortened, mixed-up renditions of all her favorite songs (Twinkle Star, ABCs, Itsy bitsy spider, 5 little monkeys, Tiny Tim Turtle song, Teddy Bear, Skidamarink, etc.) Sometimes she sings herself to sleep.
• At night, when she request songs, she'll ask Drew for songs that don't exist like "Lilly song" (which is now sung to the tune of edelweiss) or "Pumpkin song" or "Princess song." She knows that I don't know these random songs, so I usually only get asked to sing a couple songs, and then I get to leave.
• Her sweet prayers.  "Heavenly Father. Help sleep well. Thank you hugs, food, Hailey, Mads, Tammy, Mommy, Daddy, Jop, etc. etc. Jesus Christ. Amen!" or the speed version, "Heavenly Father. Thank you. Jesus Christ. Amen!"
• Her new found willingness to try new foods, and that one of the few foods she still won't eat is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (I've never been a big fan, myself.)
• Her desire to dress herself, and the varied results.
• Her new method of jump-running to the park that looks a little like she's galloping.
• Her strange facial expressions. (Which I'm pretty sure are just imitations of my facial expressions.)
• Her growing memory. I pushed her ONE time in the process of teaching her not to push, and she will not let me forget it!
• Her sense of humor. She likes to do weird things to make us laugh, and then say, "I be funny!" Also, tonight she was standing on the counter to choose a cup, and she started looking at her feet and bending her knees and acting strange, I thought maybe she needed to use the bathroom, but then I realized she was trying to sneak her hand into a pan of brownies on top of the microwave! As soon as she knew she was caught, she let out the best guilty giggle ever and yelled, "I want brownies!"
• The way she emphatically says, "I do it all by MYself. Ok, mom?" And then gives me one of her (my) "looks," until I say, "ok."
• That she still takes 3 hour naps.
• That we never have to change her diapers. (Although I do have to get up at 5 or 6 a.m. to help her pee most days)
• That she is quick to listen. "Oh! okay!"
• That she is so social and loves to interact with other kids. Sometimes she gets frustrated when the other kids aren't as good at interacting with her. One Sunday we were told that she knocked down all the little kids in nursery (our ward changed and she went from being the youngest to one of the oldest), I talked to her about it a lot that week, and the next week we were told that she hugged everyone instead. Now she likes to tell me, "I hug evey-body!" She also loves saying, "I push swings! I push shopping carts! I push buttons!" because I thought it would be a good idea to clarify that pushing isn't always bad, just when it's people.
• That she calls time out, "time-y out." (Lilly puts herself in timeout. I pretty much gave up using it.) 
• That she loves books and asks to go to the library. Favorites right now are Fancy Nancy and Knuffle Bunny books.
• That she can recognize all the letters and is learning some of the sounds, but her counting still goes something like, "1,2,3, 6, 9!"
• That she insists her new Minnie Mouse toy is MICKEY mouse or Mickey mouse girl.
• That she tells me what she wants to do, and then tries to convince me by saying, "It will be FUN!" Nice try, Lilly, you can't use my own tricks on me! :)