All at once

For any of you crazy followers of my blog, remember when I said something just clicked in Lilah's head and she suddenly loved books? Well, we're going through a similar phase currently. About a week ago when I got my wisdom teeth out, she started something different. Now, Lilah Rose has always been a very articulate child. More than once I've wondered if she understands more than she lets on. Maybe she's storing up all this information to be activated at a later date. Maybe she's a Cylon! Sorry, I digress...

Now, this change she underwent a week ago was the metamorphosis from thought to speech. She said her first word at around 6 months and hasn't paused since then. She picks up many new words every day, which is pretty par for the course for an almost 2 year old (is she almost 2? Dear God...). The abnormal aspect in her growth and development is her newfound ability to put words together in a stream of thought. It actually makes sense now. She always prattles away when she plays and I thought it was just babble. However, in listening to her now, she's talking and I can understand better what's going on in her brain. I'll share some of what I've overheard.

"Lilah, it's bath time."
"No bath. Shower, Mama."
"Um. Okay. Shower time."
"Squeaky clean. Clothes off. Take them off!"
(Me staring)
"Please."

~

"Hiiii Daddy. Hugs. Kissies too. I love you (growled). 

(Dano staring)

"Demon!"

"Yes, honey. You're a demon."

~

"Lilah, you can't come up on my lap right now."

"Hot coffee, Mama?"

"Yep. Hot coffee."

(Lilah blowing air in the direction of the cup)

~

"You stay away from the stove! It's hot and it will burn little girls. It's dangerous (a word she knows well)!"

(Lilah blowing air in the direction of the stove)

~

(Lilah in an attempts to crawl onto the bed with both arms full of stuff)

"Do you need help, little one? Want Mama to help you up?"

"Up your nose!" (hysterical laughter from Lilah)

~

Upon showing Lilah how to use an Advent Calendar.

(Eyes wide after learning what was housed behind each little window) "Caaandies, Mama! Chocolate! More? More, please? Candiiiies! Chocolate candies. I need it! Please? Please, more candies?" I think this was some kind of attempt to find a magic combination of words to open more Advent windows. An "open sesame" of sorts. 

~

And most recently this morning...

"Mama! All done! Finished eating! Finished it all! Now more candies!"

(Blank stare from me)

"Cleeeean up!" (Waving her dirty hands in the air)

In conclusion, I'm pretty sure she's either destined to be some sort of author, elocutionist, or poet, or she's most definitely a Cylon.

Buckets and Babies

Two subjects for today's blog. Both have to deal with obsessions of my small daughter. Once upon a time a few months back, I noticed my overenthusiastic little girl attempting to carry too many things at once, dropping them, and sitting down to cry in frustration. We went to Target and purchased 5 little green buckets with brown ribbon handles and pretty birds and mushrooms on them. She used them for everything from there on out. Morning snacks - in the bucket. Toys - in the bucket. Crayons - in the bucket. We started to worry when she wouldn't accept her meals in her high chair anymore. She would cry and say, "All done," until we let her down, then ask for her dinner to be placed in the bucket. We chose to put our collective parental foot down at that point. Most of the buckets got ruined by frequent snacks, pinecones, and full meals being placed in them. When we got rid of the last bucket, she was back to carrying a juice cup, 8 animal crackers, a fistful of craisins, and approximately 13 letters of the alphabet in her two tiny hands. And was also very frustrated. She considered herself handicapped and resorted to using tupperware and the bin that holds her blocks, neither of which were sufficient.  When she was regularly eating her meals in her high chair again, I went to Target for 4 more buckets. They only had small tin pails in holiday themes, but they were buckets. I came home and she pounced on me "Mamaaa!" After a hug as big as her arms could manage, she started rummaging through my bags. I heard a delighted shriek. "Buckets, Mama! Buckets! Buckets!" In seconds, she had not 1, not 2, but all 4 buckets in her clutches and was running around the house putting various objects in them.

Lilah has also become enraptured with something else. We prefer her not to watch excessive television, but we have exposed her to various programs from time to time. The only thing she's showed a slight interest in so far has been the Secret of Kells. We love it too. She watches out of the corner of her eye while playing and stops to pay attention to her favorite parts. Here's one of them.

One day, I watched the documentary Babies.

Lilah was enthralled from start to finish. She didn't move. She barely blinked. She has watched it approximately 700 times since then. Sometimes she asks questions. "Baby sad, Mama?" Sometimes she just watches how babies interact with the wide world around them. If she's ever having a rough day, she wants to go find her doll (she wanders through the house calling her. "Baby giiiirl! Baby giiiirl!"), finds her, picks her up, kisses her up and coos, and crawls up to the couch to get settled. It's 79 blessed minutes of silence. I don't feel guilty because it's educational. I'm very tired of it, but it's not annoying like a lot of children's programs. She's learning and enjoying watching the joy of babies around the world. I like that she's being exposed to different cultures, foods, languages, and ways of life. She likes that 4 adorable, roly-poly babies are playing on the screen in her living room. Everybody wins.