KDUNK

You pointed to the faucet in the bathtub and said ‘water…comes’

Dear Lili,

For some reason you have fallen in love with the world’s most boring animated television show on planet earth – Bob The Builder. It pains me to watch (no offense to the creators) the few episodes I’ve seen. None of which are on actual TV any more and instead are found on You Tube as far as I know.

Here is a little taste of the excitement from the show synopsis:

“Bob The Builder follows the adventures of Bob and his lovable gang of friends and machines ­ Scoop (a scooper), Muck (a dump truck), Lofty (a crane), Dizzy (a cement mixer), and Roley (a steam roller) ­ as they work together to solve problems.”

Don’t feel bad. I nodded off by the second line too.

So how did you come to hear of this show? Sure ok. It’s my fault. I was in a used bookstore searching for books in Spanish seeing as we are all trying to learn. And there it was. In the ‘take this book no one wants it’ 25 cents pile. When is the last time you bought something for 25 cents? That’s right. Never. And this is why.

The book was shaped like a hammer. Perfect for your little hands. A quick glance revealed some cute animation and it was off to the cashier.

When I got home you were so happy to see this book. You said, “mas mas mas” wanting me to read it over and over again. The only problem that became quite clear quite fast was this book was not written in baby Spanish not to mention – TOTALLY BORING. It was full of complicated vocabs for words I’ve never heard of in English much less Spanish – all having to do with construction and tools.

Then…I attempted to hide the book. Sure. That is mean of me but I couldn’t deal – I’m sorry. But no matter where I hid the book you found it and would come running at me clutching the book with eyes wide saying “mas mas mas” which made me cave each and every time.

Well then tonight…we were playing with Play Dough. And you had a plastic tube and stuck a long piece of clay on the end that sort of flopped off the sides. Without saying anything to you I said to myself, “Wow – that looks just like a hammer”. Two seconds later you started to sing the Bob The Builder construction theme song:

Bob bee dee doo ….Bob bee dee doo

(Bob the builder….Bob the builder)

So here you are little darling. My little construction obsessed toddler. I look forward to discussing with you some big ideas I have for our apartment. So get those tools ready.

xo

Dear Lili,

A quick post to tell you that your vocab as of late has been out of control in such a great way. As your mother, each day becomes more and more enjoyable for me as you learn to communicate your needs and thoughts. It literally is the most moving and adorable thing I have ever seen.

Some highlights:

Every time your father and I get into a car service (most – driven by men) we say the same thing each time – “Hello sir, how are you?” The other day we were coming home from a long commute back from a great weekend in Fire Island and when we stepped into the cab you beat us to the punch (all the while strapped in my Bjorn) saying, “Hello sir, how are you?” clear as day – I nearly died laughing. My little parrot.

Tonight before bed you were hungry and marched in your little footed pajamas into the kitchen. You held your hands on the fridge door and said, “Hungry. Food.” then you walked over to your highchair and said “Sit? Bib?” Then once seated you said, “Food. Mas. Agua?” And then once I fed you you said “All none (all done) and then for the first time you said “I’m finished”.

You are also doing something funny as of late which is tagging a very enthusiastic OK! to the end of your phrases and often in a very tricky, funny manner. For example I will say to you, “What do you want for breakfast?” And you will say, “Popsicle. OK!” Um – no. Or I say, “Lili, it’s time to put on your pajamas.” and you will say, “Swings? Park? OK!” Good try babe.

As a parent I can’t EVEN begin to tell you how fun and amazing this level of communication is. We have endured 19 months of crying that could be any number of things due to gas, hunger, sleep, thirst, etc. And now you tell it like it is. Way to go babe.

I love you.

xo

Dear Lili,

I am totally digging your pretend play as of late. Nothing is cooler and more inspiring to me than a kid’s imagination.

There is a lot of fake eating with fake foods and drinking from tea cups in a tin tea set. There is a lot of fake ‘night night’ involving you or your dolls laying on the rug in your room with a pillow and blanket. You are showing tiny hints of interest in dress up – wearing sunglasses and hats around. Tonight you held up a doll blanket that had a little fringe at the end and said, “Dress?” (pause) and then motioned to your pajamas, “Off?”

The best was watching you do something you’ve never done before tonight. You carefully took the pile of plastic toy animals (2 dogs and 2 leopards) and placed them carefully and slowly in a row lining them up and facing out the door of your pretend play house.

It made me laugh because it is SO your personality (and your Dad’s too). Line up the troops. Open that door. And lets go go go!

Dear Lili:

You are now 19 months old. I’m hoping 18 months was a tease to motherhood like, “Hey, didn’t that totally suck? Well guess what. It gets better.” Much like newbornhood was for us where right when I thought I was going to lose my mind you did things like roll over, giggle and be super cute. Don’t get me wrong. My love for you never fades. My patience however can get a little dim.

For whatever reason 18 months was a beast. A month of nightmare battles of will in all areas including eating, sleeping, etc. You hated your stroller. There was a lot of yelling. Throwing food. You nearly injured yourself over 8 times a day by crying, kicking, screaming and nearly rolling off your diaper changer when getting your diaper changed. You insisted on only drinking water from a plastic bottle. You hated tubs. There were a lot of fake boo boos. No interest or patience for books or stories. Many full body tantrums. 5AM wake ups. The capper was the end of the month where you insisted on holding everything in site at all times even if it was too big for you. Like when we were at Trader Joe’s and I bought a bag of tortilla chips the size of your entire body which you INSISTED I let you hold and eat from the bag our entire walk home. I considered taking side streets so as not to run into other Mom friends wondering, “What mother in her right mind lets her child hold and eat from a giant oversized bag of tortilla chips in their stroller?” Me. That’s who. Tired old me.

A friend with a newborn created the best phrase ever recently. She called her kid a ‘two person baby’. I am now stealing the phrase because it literally describes you as a baby from the moment you were born. The good news is I imagine all this will is going to be channeled into something great as your progress in life like climbing Mount Everest, sailing around the world, writing a novel, saving lives…

When I was a lazy student teen in high school my poor mother was at wits end and finally ordered a video series off the internet that she forced me to watch called, “Where There’s A Will…There’s An A!”

Babe? We will not be ordering this series. Why? Because you already have your will. And I give it an A.

xo