Lillian's World

I filled this post in with a bunch of 'firsts' then was going to fill in the details later and never did, now I will fill in what I can remmeber.

abc's: We started singing the abc song while we brushed our teeth, then we noticed Lillian trying to sing along with the rhythm. Then when she decided that she loved to brush her teeth she would tell us she wanted to do so by reaching for the bathroom counter and saying a, b, b, b, b, e, b and smiling, she sang right in the correct rhythm too. Later on we would sing the ABC's all the time for her and she would say l, lalala(moving her tongue all around) P it was regrettably not caught on video.

first time sliding: we took her to get ice cream and they have a litttle kiddie center at ritters with a slide so Jared got on and held her and slid down, he said her little belly tightened up and while going down the look on her face was not the best but once down she smiled and ran around to the stairs again and again.



frustration yelling: there was about a little less than a month where she was not talking really well enough to describe what she wanted so she would 'scream' at us, I am VERY glad that was a short stage.



first butt spanking: we have a neighbor boy who is 4 and darts for the road every chance he gets and he is never reprimanded, I have seen the child almost get hit more times than I can count--it scares me to death. So, I decided that was one thing that a smack on the butt was worth. Lillian was about 14 months old when I was trying to teach her 'the line' which at our house is the sidewalk. She continued to run across towards the road so after telling her 'no' and talking to her I smacked her butt (I doubt she could even feel it with the diaper and how easy I did it) well instead of it hurting her feelings and having the desired effect she continued to stare me down and do it again, we did this 4 times and each time she looked more resolute in her decision. Finally, mommy won and since then she doesnt dart for the road, I figured great, I look like I am out here beating my toddler but oh well she wont get hit by a car. Of course I felt horrible spanking her since I am not a huge fan of it, ironically I did it before Jared did and he is very pro-spanking---he was miffed and let me know that 'spanking' was supposed to be his milestone!


keys bye bye: early on Lillian loved going bye-bye and she learned that if she heard the keys that meant someone was going somewhere--whether or not she was invited she would yell BYE BYE the minute she heard them move, often it was jsut Jared putting his keys away but she would still yell it and then be disapointed when we didnt go outside.

Easter

Good friday we put her in a cute little dress for daycare and they got little easter treat bags and cupcakes at daycare. Sharon also had a little easter egg hunt for them but we picked up Lillian a bit early on account of the blizzard bearing down on us.

Saturday night we had aunt Anita and grandma Tanya over for some easter egg decorating. Lillian thought it was great fun to paint the eggs AND her mouth. Luckily all the dye is of course safe and came right off.

We had a low key easter; we were all tired out so we had dinner for just the three of us. I bought candy and made an easter basket with the thought of a nice picture opportunity and Jared and I being able to enjoy some of our favorite candy (notice nowhere in there was I planning on her getting candy).

Since the weather was so horrid (6-8inches new snow) I put jelly beans in some of the plastic eggs and put them all around the living room for her to find. She had fun doing that, she didnt want to let go of the eggs once she found them but once we showed her there were more she was willing to relinquish the eggs in hand and dash off to the newly spotted ones. Once she was all done finding the eggs there was a big pile of them in the living room, Jared started opening them and emptying the jelly beans into a pile. This is where it gets interesting. Lillian was interested in the beans, believing they were toys I think so she grabbed two big fistfulls, she was continually trying to get more into her little hands so she would reach out to grab two more and drop three, reach out to get a pile more picking up 4 and dropping two...you get the idea. It was all very cute. Then she looked at us and shoved them into her mouth, as many as she could---which was ALOT. We are pretty amused at this point and Jared convinces me she should be fine so we let her eat them. She starts trying to chew but her mouth is so full she cant really do more than move them around a bit, then all the candy colored sugary saliva starts running out her mouth, down her chin, onto her pajama's, all the while she is clearly delighted and trying to shove more beans into her mouth! We let her have her two fistfulls then we called it good and quickly hid all the other candy.

By the time the egg hunt was over it was getting fairly late and there was no time for a nap before church, not that the sugar sassy child was going to think of taking a nap anyway. So we got ready and dressed Lillian in her adorable dress from grandma Becky and grandpa Jared. She was a big hit at the church daycare and one ladies was telling us how she was her favorite (we always love hearing that). There were so many kids I dont know how they corralled them all, they called in some of the older kids who's parents were working to help. There was a nice service, standing room only. Finally, on the way home she gave up the fight and rested after her exciting day.