Lil' Lu

Thought I ought to update the grandparents and anyone else who is interested on the life of our girl. She is 20m old now and running, clapping, and (almost) jumping, loves going to the park, and hates meat. One of her latest obsessions is "Spot" the cute little dog who is found in "flap" books and on videos with voice over done by a young Jonathan Taylor Thomas (who sounds perfect as the little dog.) We cant get thru a day without watching Spot three times. Thank heaven the tape is only 30 minutes long! I have to bribe her into other activities sometimes because a) I am tired of Spot, b)she should be tired of Spot, c) Im a little freaked out she will become one of those tv obsessed youngsters who never goes outside and has no attention span!

It's so funny how they pick up on things we do..I might say "We are going to eat dinner and then go to the park, OK?" and nod my head while doing it. So now she looks at me with wide eyes and says "Spot!" while nodding her head at me. It's almost as if she is saying "Right mommy? We are watching Spot now, right?" She does this with the park too. "Park!" nodding head..."Paaarrrrk" with the "Right mommy?" intonations.

The sweetest thing she has begun to do is control her tantrums. If she brakes out into a full blown tantrum I have at times had to put her in her crib to settle down. They can go on and on for 30 minutes or more, but I have found if I put her in her crib she calms down quicker because she cant follow us around in hysteria. In other words, there is no audience. I always warn her that it's coming so she has a choice to avoid it. So after the first few times in her crib she began to get the picture. As she would settle down I would come in and say "Are you all done crying now?" And if she screamed "No" I would say "OK" and leave her to continue crying. After a while she would say "Done done done" from her crib and be done! Now when she begins to enter the crazed tantrum stage I say "Would you like to go to your crib or are you all done crying?" and she usually says "Done done done" and pulls it together! Amazing if you ask me!

She has also become VERY particular about her clothes! I cant believe it! She isnt even two yet. In fact, that is what causes most of the tantrums. She is OBSESSED with flowers and will not wear anything that doesnt have a flower on it. Now I dont go crazy with clothing for my daughter, but there are some perfectly good clothes in there that dont have flowers and I am becoming really frustrated that she wont wear them! and the toughest part is bedtime when the pajamas have to take the place of the flower shirts. Some people would say, "Oh let her wear it," but for one, it usually isnt warm enough. And number two, I am not allowed to cover the flower shirt. So putting it under the sleeper isnt an option. I have actually put a longsleeve shirt over the sleeper (it fits VERY snuggly) just to end the ordeal! But then the whole thing begins again the next day when we cant wear the shirt because it is dirty and way too stretched out.

Shoes are also a problem. She always wants to wear the most opposite color shoes for the clothes she has on. Her big red boots with the purple shirt, or the black dress shoes with the pink and red outfit. Needless to say I will never again judge a parent for the clothes their child has on. She went to church last Sunday with a red and pink striped turtle neck, blue jeans, and bright white patten leather dress shoes. And her pink hearts coat.

Understand I dont want to stifle her creativity and I am so glad she seems very aware of shapes and colors and textures. I just wish I could tape a sign to her back that says "Dont blame mommy! I dressed myself today!"