Lily Update!

It's been a while since I've updated about all of the things that Lily is doing. This is her last week of school. They take the summer off from school work and mostly play at the daycare, I think. She knows and can write all of her letters. She can also count to 20 and can write all of her numbers. After 20 it starts getting sketchy.

Her favorite new game is for me to write the names of everyone we've ever met. Really, everyone. We saw a girl I went to Judson with, Jennifer, at P-ville's City Fest. We stopped and talked to her for maybe 2 minutes. 3 weeks later Lily said, "Write the other Ginnifer. Your friend." I told her I didn't know who she meant. "That Ginnifer we saw at the park. That went to Gudson wif you." Then I knew who she was talking about. Her memory for things like that surprises me all of the time. She's a smart one, my Lily.



We're still gardening, and Lily is the best helper. She goes out with me everyday, and we check on our plants. If we could get the squirrels to stop digging in it, we'll have a bountiful harvest. Lily loves to see what new things are on our plants. We have tomatoes and peas. Our peppers are still just flowers, and she checks everyday to see if they are peppers yet. She remembers what I tell her about the plants and what we are doing. She's also very interested in bugs and lizards we find. She is only scared of bees. I keep trying to tell her that they won't bother us if we don't bother them, but she's not buying it.
When we're outside she loves to play with Annie. She begs Annie to come sit with her so she can pet her. When Annie finally gets over the excitement of our visiting her, she'll sit next to Lily and Lily pets and pets her. It's so cute. Sometime she tries to get Annie to catch her bone and others she kicks her huge ball all over the yard. She also loves to run and gets Annie to chase her. It's fun to watch them play together.

Inside she likes to play with her babies still. She's a funny little mommy. Last week she was cooking for them and Josh asked her what she was making. She wanted to say spaghetti, but couldn't remember the word. She started and then change the menu, telling Josh she was cooking "spachicken." It's the most request imaginary food dish at our house these days.
She also loves to do the little workbooks that you write in. Write the letters, circle the shapes, color the pictures. "Momma, read the directions. What do you do on this page?" She'll sit and finish the whole book if you let her.
If she's not mothering the babies or playing school, she likes to be doing whatever I'm doing. If she sees me working on a project, she wants to help. I've been working on a baby blanket, so she wants to pull the thread through. She pulls it and then I put the needle in again. I let her pull the needle off of the end about 3 times before we quit playing that. I made her a kitchen apron a few weeks ago and she helped with that. She likes to push the pedal on the sewing machine while I guide it. She's a big helper.

Almost everyday when I get home now, she wants to go to Grandma's house and swing. My mom has a swingset there for her with 2 swings and 2 slides. It has a little house thing on it that has a steering wheel. She likes to push her babies down the slide and pretends the house is her car. She buckles her babies into their carseats, and then drives like a mad woman. Her favorite is swinging, though. She only likes Grandma to push her, and she can only push the ropes. If you push the seat, her little tiny hiney slips off. She likes to tell Grandma funny stories while she swings. Last week she told Grandma that little girls sit down to tee-tee, but little boys have to stand up. They stand up because "little boy have to wiggle to get their tee-tee out."

You'll notice in her recent pictures she's almost always wearing a dress. She won't wear pants/shorts anymore. She tells me everyday that she wants to wear a dress. There has to be a specific reason if you're going to try to get her to wear pants. The farther out the dress goes when she spins, the more she wants to wear it. This purple one is the best spinning one she has. She loves it. She still loves shoes. She tries to get you to get a new pair everytime we go to a place with shoes. She has about 20 pairs, and has to spend 10 minutes in the mornings deciding which pair to wear with her dress. We've started trying to do this the night before to save time in the morning, but you never know when she's going to change her mind.

Lily has been particularly excited this week because Uncle Sean is home from Iraq for a few weeks. Lily will tell you that he's been in space. I don't really know where she got this idea, but she'll tell you that. She also says he's on a trip. Lily drew him a picture and wrote his name on it for his birthday on Wednesday. We're all happy he's home for a little while.

That's the update on Lily Pie. She's getting bigger and bigger everyday. Well, taller and taller. She says that when she turns 4 in August, she'll be big enough to get her ears pierced. Then she'll be big. Sometimes I want to keep her little forever, but it's so exciting to see the little girl she's becoming. I love her.