Lily Grace: 18-21 months

 Our sweet girl is 21 months. I can’t believe she is pushing two.

However.

She does like to act like a two year old, so I’m forcibly reminded she’s not a total baby. 

She’s more than happy to colour on walls, furniture, and herself, push stools up to any counter she can and find things to pull off, and do all kinds of bum drops and theatrics on mum and dad’s bed or the couch (heavily encouraged by her older sisters). She loves to push your buttons and play with things or do things she’s not supposed to. She's pretty adventurous and loves to climb. We went sledding and she spent the whole time on Isaac's GT sledding down the hill with whoever would go with her, then enjoyed the free ride back up. She also likes to throw those things in a fit of moodiness when she hears the word “no”, accompanied with a full on pout and downcast eyes for effect.

One day when I was at work, Gordon sent me a message saying Lily was crying “pee pee” to him, so he took her upstairs and put her on the toilet (FYI we are not potty training her, we just put her on when she asks). He told me a tooth paste lid (which I had been looking for incidentally) popped out of her cheeks and into the toilet. Then she told him she was all done, and he had to fish the lid out. I don’t know if I have ever laughed so hard at work. She is always getting into things and probably had half her siblings Christmas candy open before they did. She can pretty much open any package or box she finds. If she's discovered doing something she isn't supposed to, she gets this big look of surprise on her face and starts jabbering away like "Oh my gosh mum, look! How did this chocolate magically open itself and get into my hands?" When I caught her colouring on her feet she looked up at me, stuck her foot in my face, and says "Oh Gosh! Feet!"

Lily really likes to dress herself. She has pretty much mastered putting on pants and socks independently. Sometimes plucking a piece of clothing from the laundry I’m folding and trying to put it on over and over again until she’s successful. She also loves to add hair accessories like bows and headbands. 99% of the time the headbands are required to be worn backwards.

She is finally cutting her one year (ONE YEAR) molars, and 3 are in some sort of emergent stage. She is our slowest teether. Between the teeth and battling some sort of virus every month (but seriously every month), her sleep and eating has been unpredictable. Some nights she sleeps a solid 10-11 hours. Some nights it feels like she barely sleeps at all.

Her hair is finally coming in, and she had her first hair cut after I couldn't stand her mullet anymore. It often sticks up like a rooster and Brooklyn calls it her "rock and roll hair".

I think she might end up being one of my pickier eaters unfortunately. She used to eat pretty much everything. Now I rarely know if the food offering she is presented with will be acceptable. I’m sure teething has a part to play in this, but sometimes she will just point to something and say “yuck” and there’s no redeeming it. Ace (or Acey as Lily refers to him) is more than happy to eat her rejects.

Lily says a ton of words and puts two or three word sentences together. Her favourite is usually “I want [insert whatever she sees someone else has here]”. She’s at that stage where every 30 something year old woman or man is a “mom” or “dad” and every woman or man with gray hair and glasses is a “Ganny” or “Gampa”. I love when she says things I don’t expect like “Bye! See ya!” or “Thankyou! Welcome!” She knows lots of her shapes (circle, oval, triangle, star, heart) and colours (orange, yellow, green, purple, pink) and can do simple puzzles and shape sorters by herself.

She loves her siblings, most especially Mia. She will sometimes turn her nose up at me and only let Mia do certain things for her like help her wash her hands or get her dressed. Mia is often the only acceptable alternative for things like a snuggle or story if I’m in the middle of making dinner. Whenever we finish dropping the kids off at school this is her conversation with me “Isaac? Coo (school)? Mia? Coo? Caaweh (Scarlett)? Coo? Cookie (Brooklyn)? Coo?” She loves video chatting with extended family (especially Granny and her cousin Georgia). If one of the other kids is talking to Granny, and Lily can hear her voice, she’ll start running around the house looking for her and saying “I want Ganny! I want Ganny!” She's loved having Granny here to visit for a few days over the Christmas break.

Along her with shark obsession, she has been in love with “Ho ho” (Santa) and “noma” (snowman) for the last month. Any male with white hair and a beard is Santa. We watched Harry Potter recently and every time Dumbledore was on screen Lily would ask “Santa? Ho ho?” Olaf, Elsa and "princess" have become particular favourites of hers.

Lily still loves to snuggle with her blanket and is full of hugs and kisses. As busy as she is, we are so happy she’s often content to cuddle with us. She's such a go getter, I'm a little nervous about what the next few months will bring, but she's so darn lovable, you can't stay mad at her for long.

x