lil lu's world 7/28/04

7/28/04 The funniest thing happened yesterday. She found a piece of foam on the ground from one of her dad's pieces of equipment. She looked at me with excitement in her eyes over her new discovery, and as her mom I just had to comment on it. "Foam...that's foam!" I said. She paused and looked at me then put it up to her ear. It took me a minute then I realized she thought I said "phone." I laughed and said, "Not a phone, silly, but FOAM, it's foam!" She smiled at me and put it up to her ear again and started babbling. She was so proud. She carried it around all day occasionally putting it up to her ear to "chat" for a minute.

7/24/04 Her words are getting so close to the correct pronounciation that I believe she will wake up one morning and declare "Ready for breakfast, mother!" She can say Momma, Dadda, PaPa, dirty, bubbles (sounds like PaPa so you have to watch what she is pointing to), dishes, banana, water, and a few other things.

She says dishes because she loves to watch me wash dishes (we dont have a dishwasher so it's ALL BY HAND BABY!!) She pulls in the chair from the dining room and I help her up onto it and she just stands there and watches! I give her a little cup with some soapy bubbles and a few little things to wash of her own. She loves it! Now if anyone is even remotely close to the sink it's "dishes! dishes!" until we either explain that we aren't doing dishes or decide to do a few dishes so she wont continue yelling "dishes! dishes!"

And everytime we open the fridge she is RIGHT THERE! It isn't even that she wants anything in there, she just wants to explore all the neat bottles and containers. We have resorted to either distraction or kind of a 1 on 1 game to get what we need out of the fridge without her "participation." One of us calls out "I gotta get in the fridge!" Then the other plays defense while the first guy goes in quick for the play. It's ridiculous but it works.

7/16/04 Oh great...she's just discovered MY nostrils....!

7/12/04 OK, the nostril thing is getting out of hand. She is really amused by the way her voice changes when she "plugs up" her nose on one side. Her favorite time to do this is when we are stuck in the car. We can hear her back there talking away, and then suddenly her voice changes to that nasilly(?) sound we all go to when our nose is plugged. She thinks she's being sneaky because we cant see her back there, but she doesn't realize we can hear her voice change. I hate to say it's cute, because I know it is a huge no-no, but it is funny to see your child discovering new things and innocently crossing those lines we aren't allowed to cross as adults. And it's funny because she can't quite take her finger straight there--it kinda slides around her cheek and nose until she locates the nostril. (ok, that was probably too much information...sorry....!:) So we always know when she's heading that way. We try to turn away until we can hide our smiles and giggles, then with a straight face we make her quit.


7/7/04 ...oh great....she's just discovered her nostrils.....


7/7/04 She's taken to tickling me now, and her sharp toddler nails are nothing to laugh about! She hasn't exactly learned what "gentle" means and so her tickling is more like being attacked by a small, angry cat than a loving tickle from a child. She gets me whenever I squat down to pick up toys or sweep close to the floor. She grabs the back of my shirt and sticks her hand under and begins clawing me, "tick tick tick!" Of course my husband just eggs her on, "Get her! Get mommy!" All the while I'm flinching and jumping from the pieces of flesh being torn from my back!


7/5/04 My husband and I are going thru a funny stage with our daughter. She isn't having trouble being without me, but she is exhibiting a strong need to have me do everything for her. Basically showing a preference for me over any other person, including daddy--although daddy is a strong second choice! If I leave the room the "mama's" start until I return. As I walk around the house she sometimes grabs ahold of my legs and holds tight giving me a big hug, so I end up walking with her attached to me. If my husband and I show each other any kind of affection she starts grumbling and tries to pull us apart, or tries to get in the middle of us and hug just me real tightly.

As much as I appreciate this show of affection from our girl, we are doing everything in our power to move her quickly thru this phase! In the meantime, however, we have come up with some fun jokes about the whole thing to get us thru. The other day an ad came on tv for a cd of love songs for weddings and my husband nudged me and said, "This cd is dedicated from our girl to mommy, with love." As each song clip played we laughed harder and harder as the lyrics fit with just how she was behaving towards me. Check out the Top 5's to see our Top 5 love songs dedicated to mommy with love.

7/2/04 Lil Lu spends so much time with me each day that she has begun mimicking my every move. For instance, when we can't find something I tend to say "Where is it? Hmm." She can't say the words but she mimicks the intonations of the sentence exactly. She starts walking thru the house looking around and using those exact intonations as she searches under furniture, behind doors and on top of shelves. She has also begun associating sitting in chairs with praying. We pray before meals and she has started praying everytime she sits in a chair! The other day she climbed up into the rocking chair in her room and clasped her hands together and started "talking" like she does during prayer. Can I say it again? Too cute.

6/24/04 We've started "scribbling" if you can even call it that. She prefers to carry the crayons around in one hand and the paper in the other. Occasionally she will make a tiny mark on the paper then gather all the crayons into her hand again and walk around for a few minutes. It's the same with chalk. If we draw a circle or star or something on the pavement she loves to sit right on top of it getting chalk all over her clothes. She also likes to hug the chalk and try to carry it under her chin. It's so cute! And I'm happy to see her showing an interest in new activities. Just a few days ago she started hanging from the bar at the park. We just held her up there and she grabbed on! Her little arms are so short right now it is a sight to behold! She starts twisting and turning and smiling real big as she hangs. What a cutie!

6/19/04 Ahhh, molars. What can I say? Teething has got to be one of the toughest things little ones have to go through. She is getting her two right molars (top and bottom) these days and has been quite cranky. Today she was angry at this picture of a little boy who is holding a ball ready to throw it. I don't think she realizes that he is just a picture and she wants that ball thrown to her. She walks around with the book and keeps making throwing motions with her arm and saying "throw" in her toddler language. Then she stares at the photo and points to the ball and fusses. We try to pick different books to read or even turn the page but it all comes back to that one picture of the little boy smiling real big ready to throw the ball. Maybe she's upset he's happy and she's at home cutting teeth. Maybe she can't figure out why he won't just throw the ball. Let's just hope those molars cut thru soon.

6/15/04 Ok, she's now tickling the plastic baggy full of wipes.....

6/10/04 The tickling phenomenon has continued to grow and she has been tickling everything in sight! Today at the park we picked a few wildflowers from the overgrown grass and she carried them around for awhile. Later I noticed her squating down on the pavement carefully laying out the flowers. Before I knew it I heard her "ticktickticking" and looked to see her tickling the flowers! She then proceeded to give the flowers a big hug.

6/5/04 Today lil lu is 15 mos. old! Amazing how time has passed so quickly. Lately she has taken to mimicking me. Every few days, it seems, I find a spider or a bug of some sort that I have to "take care of." Inevitably I let out a little yelp as I chase it around before destroying it. Well she finds this incredibly funny and has begun mimicking my sounds! Just yesterday she grabbed a shoe and began "smashing" a pretend bug while yelping! The funny thing is the pretend bug was a raisin!

lil lu has also taken a big interest in her stuffed animals the past couple of weeks. She likes for me to make them life-like by moving their heads, walking them around, or having them dance to music. It's so cute because lately she has been tickling them the way we tickle her. Usually I kind of tackle her and say "tickletickletickletickle" or something like that. I found her just a few days ago in her room with her teddybear and she was tickling his belly making a "tickticktick" sound. Every once-in-a-while I hear her in there tickling somebody. so cute!