Lily Tricks

It's been a while since I've written a post solely dedicated to telling you, dear reader, how my baby is awesome. So here goes. 

Lily is now starting to earn her keep. She has been participating in the National Children's Study for a while, and she makes $10 for each study she's part of. If I were a good parent I would put that money away for her for later or something. But I usually spend it on candy. For myself. She also loves to help around the house. She insists on carrying whatever item I have whenever we go anywhere. This comes in handy when I happen to be carrying a big stinky bag of her diapers. She loves it when I lift her up to the side of the dumpster and she can throw it in. Seriously, it's one of the highlights of her day. Also, she sweeps! This is handy because she makes a humongous mess when she eats. Now at least she helps clean it up. 

She is also a genius. She has figured out that if she wants to climb up onto something, she usually needs to climb up onto a smaller something first. This is both awesome and terrifying. I love watching her scramble up on things, and I try not to laugh when she falls down. But I always come running when there's a big crash that I didn't see. Usually things are ok, but sometimes she needs a hug. Here she is trying to climb on top of the radio. I wonder if she realizes she would have been more successful if she had left all of the hats and scarves in the basket before climbing in. (Side note: Our child does not usually run around the house shirtless. She made an absolute mess of herself at dinner that night so we took the shirt off before she was allowed to leave the table. Three minutes later this happened.)

She is clearly the cutest baby in the history of babies. In case you hadn't noticed that in the previous two pictures, here's one that proves it. Every once in a while she lets me put her hair up in a pony tail or in a clip or something. I keep trying hard to get a picture of it as proof, and this is the first time I was able to. Omigosh I want to squeeze those little cheeks!

I really can't believe how much she's growing and learning ALL the time. She doesn't say any real words yet beyond 'mama' and 'dada', oh and 'nene' for nose. But she does respond very purposefully to everything I say to her. I'll ask her a question and she babbles on for a couple of sentences and then looks at me as if to ask for a response. She clearly thinks she's talking. It's fascinating. Her imaginative play is becoming more sophisticated too. Aside from just mixing things together in her little kitchen, she now chops things and spreads things and pours things and washes her hands and uses the oven mitt. It is so ridiculously cute. She has such determination behind all of her actions these days. Most of the time I have no clue what she's trying to do, but she obviously has a plan and is trying desperately to carry it out. I can't wait until she has the vocabulary to explain some of these things to me. She doesn't sit still long enough to read a lot, but we still try to read as many books as possible each day, even if it's only a couple of pages at a time. She LOVES to dance. And I mean loves. If there is any snippet of music she's moving her feet and swinging her arms and twirling around. And she likes to play the piano as well. She's getting pretty good at pressing individual keys instead of just smashing the keyboard with her whole hand (or face). We might have to get one of those tiny toy pianos with the colored keys so she can play at home and not just at her grandparents' house. 

I guess that's enough gushing for now. Have a great week!