That's my girl!

Have you seen this commercial? It cracks me up every time. "That's my son!" I love it so much. It's pretty out of character because I hate talking animal/baby commercials as a rule, and this commercial has a talking baby animal. But still, it gets me every time.  


In the last couple of weeks it feels like Lily has learned some new huge skill every day. She is walking, nay running, everywhere. She still falls down sometimes, but it doesn't stop her at all. She's also really getting into pretend play. She 'talks' on her cell phone, points the remote at the TV (sometimes actually changing the channel), and LOVES to 'cook'. Her favorite thing to do is mix something up in a bowl with her hand or a spoon, taste it, and then offer some to whoever else is around. It's sooooooo cute. She is also a total ham. A manipulative little one, at that. She has mastered the fake cry, the pitiful sniffle and cough, and the super innocent puppy dog look. I spend a lot of time laughing at and with her. She is such a happy little girl. She loves to play footsie. She's also crazy smart (really, how could she not be???). She's doing really great at matching colors and thinks it's great fun to pat her head and point at her toes when you ask her to. When we read together she knows all the flaps to pull, soft things to touch, and makes a 'moo' sound whenever she sees a cow (or a pig, to be honest, but that's still pretty good).


And she finally colored with me! I've been working on it all week. On Tuesday we made great progress and she happily sat in her high chair coloring while I made lunch for the two of us. I had drawn a heart and written her name in it and she scribbled all over the rest of the page. Then she held it up with pride for me to take, but I was holding a hot pot so she had to wait for a second. That second was apparently too long, and she then proceeded to rip the paper up into little tiny pieces. It was like some sort of performance art where the artist creates a work only to destroy it in front of an audience. Clearly, she's a genius. Tonight we had more success. 

I started by writing her name on the paper. Then she wanted to take each crayon out of the bag one by one. She would look closely at it, get it all set in her right hand, make a few marks, and then hand it to me or toss it on the floor. Then she'd dig out another one from the bag. If I wasn't holding a crayon she would give me one, so I started coloring different size polka dots and she drew all the lines. When she had had enough she grabbed the paper and ran over to Joe to give it to him. My heart melted a bit. Okay a lot. 


When did she turn into this small, creative, energetic, fun-loving kid? She still has moments of definite babyhood where all she wants to do nurse or be snuggled or smear food in her hair. But everyday there's some new spark. It's fascinating. It's also got me extremely paranoid. What if I'm not doing this right? She's such a sponge now, if I screw up it'll stick with her forever. I sort of feel like playing and reading and being with her is all she needs and she lets me know when she's ready to try something new. But I really don't know, I'm just sort of making this up as I go along. It's working for now. And each day as Lily shows off some new talent, I'll be the first one to say "That's my girl!"