Lila @ 20 months

Tomorrow Lila is 20 months old, which is awesome, but also scary because I know that my kids will be 21 months apart.  Which means we have one month to go until Lila's no longer an only child!  Our lives will change so much!!  People tell me that kids usually do a lot better than we think they will, adjusting to a new sibling, but I still really think that Lila is going to have a hard time with it.  I'm anticipating a lot of crying and tantrums.  But, hopefully it will go better than that.  She is SO used to and loves being the center of attention.  Especially my attention.  She's very much a mommy's girl, but this will get her spending more time with daddy.  I mean, she does great with Jake and loves him a lot, and sometimes does request "Holdy Daddy," but a lot of the time, for comfort and soothing, it's mommy.  Which is fine, and how I think it probably should be, but there's only one of me.  Oh well.  I'll just have to get used to letting her cry more... because right now she doesn't have to do a whole lot of crying because I can usually pretty easily make her happy.

Anyway.  She's growing so much.  She's looking a lot older to me these days.  She's getting taller and skinnier and her face is slimming down, and she's looking more like a little girl. 

Clothes are kind of a big deal to her.  She enjoys getting dressed and wearing clothes with butterflies, flowers, and hearts.  She likes putting socks and shoes on, and putting her jacket on and hat.  As soon as we walk into the house, she wants to take her jacket and shoes off and wants us to take ours off too.  She'll say, "Yoffie shoes off!" or "Yoffie jacket!"  She really doesn't like it when I wear a zip up sweatshirt.  She thinks they are jackets and wants me to take them off.  She sometimes gets upset about clothes though too... several of her tantrums have been about clothes or getting dressed.

I really love that she talks and understands so much.  I think a lot of frustration is avoided because she can usually communicate what she wants and I can usually explain things to her.  It's a constant flow of chatter from her, and I love it.  People tell me all the time how surprised they are at how well she can talk for her age.  I think she probably talks as well as a lot of kids who are a year older than her.

She's not a breakfast person.  She'll drink one or two Danimals and eat maybe half a poptart or piece of toast, and then I'll give her a few snacks throughout the morning.  She almost never turns string cheese down.  She loves fruit snacks and says "fwoot 'nocks" now.  She still loves noodles ("noo noos") and soups.  Not a sandwich person though, unless it's a grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup. 

Seems like her favorite color is pink.  Whenever you ask her what color something is, she says, "Pink!"  For example, there are three tissue paper pom-poms hanging above her bed.  Before bed, we'll often ask her what colors the flowers are (they are pink, purple, and yellow).  So it'll go something like this, "Lila, what color are those flowers?"  "Pink!"  "And?"  "Pink!"  "What else?"  "Pink!"  And then we'll ask how many there are, and she'll say, "Five, Sick, Seben!"

She's gotten a lot more into books this month.  There have been a few times where I don't know where she is, and I'll find her sitting on her little step stool (she even calls it a step stool, so cute) looking at a book.  She likes to sit in my lap and cuddle and "read" with me.  She'll say, "Bock! Wead it!" We'll get through a few pages of a book, and then she'll hop out of my lap and get a different one, and we'll go through a dozen books this way.  Her favorite is still Lila Pirate, and she even can repeat some lines and phrases.

One of her favorite things to point out is when it's dark outside, and she loves pointing out when it's "dark outside" in books too.  "It'sh dock out!" or "It'sh dock outshidey!" 

She also loves to point out the what is a rocking chair and what isn't.  In our living room we have two arm chairs and a little rocking chair for her.  She'll climb into a regular chair, and say, "Rocking chair" while shaking her head... and then I'll say, "That's not a rocking chair."  And then she'll point over to her rocking chair and nod and say, "Rocking chair!"  And I'll say, "That's a rocking chair!"  And OH it is so cute how she says the word chair.  It's more like "cheh."

She loves looking at pictures and videos of herself.  Most kids probably do.  My mom said I used to love it sit and look at our photo albums when I was little.  Well, Lila is of a different generation, so she looks at pictures on my iPhone and on my Facebook.  Whenever my Facebook page is open, she demands over and over, "Want pitchee Yiya! Want pitchee Yiya!"  She usually wants me to flip through them rapidly.

Oh, she repeats herself a lot, when she wants something.  I hear this allll the time: "I want Mommy, I want Mommy!  Holdy Mommy, Holdy Mommy!"  She doesn't call me "Mama" anymore (it's been a while since she's called me that), just Mommy.  And Jake is Daddy. 

Still asks, if Jake and I leave, "Where'd Mommy go?  Mommy coming?"  Another common phrase, because I'm pregnant and am always going potty, is "Mommy go potty."

She's really well-behaved with me on shopping trips.  She doesn't last very long in the cart anymore, and likes to walk around with me.  Is pretty good at following me and staying focused.

She has gotten a lot more "hyper" this past month, and her "hyper" isn't even very hyper at all.  She just hops around cutely (more like a little gallop), saying, "Hop, hop, hop!" and she likes to jump and land on her butt, and she'll say, "Woah! Fall down!"  She loves being chased, especially around the little loop from our living room to the hallway by our bedrooms.  She'll say, "Mommy getch you!" or whoever she wants to chase her.  She just laughs and laughs and runs.  She loves going upside down.

She loves singing with me, twinkle twinkle, row your boat, it's raining it's pouring, itsy bitsy spider, and a lot of Primary songs.  She'll actually try to sing some of the words that she knows.  It is extremely adorable. 

She's gearing up for Christmas.  Loves looking at Christmas decorations at stores and Christmas trees "Kissmas Tees."  Likes Santa Claus and knows that he says, "ho, ho, ho!"  She still talks about Halloween though.  Usually in the same sentence as Christmas.  "Hawwoween, Kissmas!"

She's not really into toys.  She likes toy pianos and things that are musical, but not really interested in toys I guess. 

Still loves the Birdie Show.  She now knows them by name, Tasha, Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, and Austin.  Very cute.  Not really into Blue's Clues anymore.  We flipped through a bunch of different cartoons on Netflix the other day and she said she didn't like most of them.  We did get through a bit of Angelina Ballerina, but a lot of times she says, "Don't yike ballerina."

Oh, a phrase we hear all the time is, "I don't yike it." lol.  It's awesome and classic Lila.  And so now whenever we say it to each other in regular conversation, we say, "I don't yike it."

So,  I've found that if I can keep her up past 10:00, she'll usually sleep a long stretch, 7-8 hours before waking up for a bit and then sleeping for another 2.  It's a whole lot better, but it makes for a long evening of entertaining her sometimes, but usually it's fun to play as a family and we're still able to get things done.  And it gives her more time with Jake.  And we can run errands in the evenings again.  She still takes naps that are usually 1 1/2 hours long, but the other day she slept for 3 hours, which was amazing.

She loves playing with other kids but still doesn't like nursery very much.

Sometimes she'll tell me that it's snack time.

When she's tired, she'll tell us that she wants a nap.  "Want gee (with a hard 'g') nap."  She loves her blankie (brown and fuzzy on one side, soft and pink with circles on the other).  We take it some places with us now, on longer car rides and if we're dropping her off somewhere.  She sure loves it.  Before she takes a nap or goes to sleep, she'll say, "Tuck you in!" because I tuck her in.  And then I'll ask her if it's comfortable, and she says, "I comfatle."  And lately, I don't know why she does this, she'll then say, "Yiya smile." and then smile at me, lol.  Love it.

Is getting better at coloring.  She can draw circles, which are pretty bad circles, but they're still circles.  Has very good control over the crayon and holds it like an adult would.  When she wants to color, she says, "Paypee (paper) cowor." 

She is pretty attached to our iPhones.  "Mommy Phoney" and "Daddy Phoney."  And the "Hi Pat" which is the iPad.  She knows exactly how to use iPhones too and it's so funny to see her tapping the screen with her little fingers or swiping it.  Really cute.  She mostly likes to watch videos of herself, but has some apps that she likes.  She really likes this Primary music app that I have... play some Primary songs and has pictures that go along with them.  She'll listen to that a lot. 

Loves Uncle Mike, Cassandra, and my sister Emily.  Would prefer them to play with her and carry her around than Mom and Dad when we're around.  Which is great, because that's what aunts and uncles are for, right?  (At least the ones without young children.)

She's starting to say prayers!  It's adorable!  One time lately, she said, "Heavenly Father.  Mommy, Daddy, fam-a-wee (family), Yiya. Go outside. Walk."  lol

I love this kid so much.  She is my world.  I love all her little sounds, the sounds she makes when she chews, the way she breathes.  Jake thinks this is funny because I don't like the way he chews at all.  But she's just so cute.  I love kissing her cheeks, and she kisses me back too now.  Today she licked me a little bit and said, "I eat Mommy!"  LOL.  She lets me hug and kiss her a lot, and I love that.  I really don't know what I'd do without her and can't imagine not having her in my life.  She is my little blondie girl and I'm blown away sometimes by how beautiful she is.  She is gorgeous.  I think her little face is so perfect and can't believe I had anything to do with creating her.  God is so good to me.  Overall, this is a really fun age and I love that she is more interactive and independent.  She is starting cry more over not getting her way, but she's usually a really good kid.  I feel blessed.