Lili,
The other day it was one thousand degrees with one thousand percent humidity and we wandered around Brooklyn going from AC venue to AC venue dying of sweat.
On one of our stops we went to a children’s clothing store having a big sale. I was poking through the racks and you more or less were running around destroying the place. After a while I noticed you out of the corner of my eye looking through the rack like the other women in the place.
You grabbed a hanger with a pretty party dress on it and ran over to me. In a perfect valley girl tone you held the dress up to my face and said with an excited expression,
“UGH!! LOVE it…”
You cracked up the entire store and I sooo needed that belly laugh. Thank you.
xo
Dear Lili:
Here is a list of things you like/don’t like:
LIKE
car keys – sticking them in tiny holes all over the apartment, sticking a finger in each nostril as well as crayons (i don’t like), popsicles, lollipops, pacifier, Snowy your stuffed animal dog – from Tin Tin, hats, every night before bed you want me to replay the day literally from moment you got up until you went to bed and if i forget one item your scream ‘PARK!!!’ or ‘UMBRELLA’ and then i have to say something like, ‘ok sorry – yes – we carried an umbrella, play talking on the cell phone, you love plastic cups – stacking them – carrying them around – putting things in them, pouring water from cup to cup, climbing – on everything in the universe especially things that wobble and are totally dangerous, going through the recycling, standing in front of an open fridge and saying, “Hmmnn…” as if you are deciding what to eat, seeing pals in the park that you know – you get so excited it’s like a college reunion even though we see these people mostly every day, pizza, smoothies, quiche, fruit of all kinds except mango, dancing, music, like taking the little hidden key near our doorway and handing it to me each and every time we go in the door, like to rip off the stick on doorbell we put up by our mailboxes, car rides, train rides, bus rides, etc., hiding behind curtains, putting on shoes, love playing with blankets and pillows, water play or any kind, sunglasses, bubbles, carrying around a piece of cloth of some sort – dress or washcloth, play dough, feeding the fish – standing on kitchen chair and dropping food in bowl accept you always want to give more
DON’T LIKE
Hands dirty – if tiny grain of sand on your finger you say, “Dirty. Wash it.” Don’t like food unless it is cut into invisible morsels and say, “Cut it! Cut it!”, the transition from play to bed time (who can blame you really), veggies but will eat spinach, HATE meat – STILL! in any form, hidden or not hidden, etc., hate beans but will eat white fish if mixed in with rice, sleeping or cuddling in our bed – HATE IT ALWAYS HAVE, blowing on things that are ‘hot’, when I take your umbrella away and put it back in the stand, being in the stroller too long, the vaccuum – you are afraid of very few things but literally run and cling to my leg when you see it come out of closet and god forbid – don’t worry though – that doesn’t happen often.
xo
Dear Lili:
Last night Dad and I were in bed. It was super late at night and we were talking in the dark. We were laughing because we had a little flashback of the day you were born and how that night the nurses wheeled you down the hall to the nursery so we could get a good night’s rest.
Until…knock knock knock.
It was the night nurse. We heard the familiar squeak of wheels from the little bassinet cart they had you on and that oh so soon to be familiar scream from our baby not even 24hrs old.
Nurse: Sorry to bother you. But she…she doesn’t like it in there.
Us: Where?
Nurse: The nursery. Where we usually bring all the other newborns.
Us: Why not?
Nurse: Not sure. Maybe gas? Wants more milk? Not sure.
Us: Maybe the other babies are keeping her up?
Nurse: No. There are no other babies in the nursery at this time.
Flash forward: Lili. From the DAY you were born until now you HATE HATE HATE to be where the action ‘isn’t’. An empty playground, at home alone with us, a cabin in the middle of nowhere, etc. You need and crave and love stimulation at all times. This is who you are and how you have always been. We can laugh now only because we know.
xo
Dear Lili,
Sorry to fall behind a little on the old digital baby book over here. I promise to make up for it soon. I just accepted some intense amount of freelance work for the month of August and September which meant canceling two pre-planned annual family vacations. So bummed But yet I’m so grateful and excited for the work and look forward to celebrating with you and Dad when it is completed and finished.
In other news…
You are 20 months. You are the age where I can’t say your age in months anymore without sounding like those crazy parents that say ’45 months’ when asked the age of their child. Let’s just say you will be 2 in December and boy is that mind blowing.
Also mind blowing is your ability right when you wake up and right before you go to sleep to totally have a burst of language like never before. I can’t tell you how crazy it is to go into your room in the morning and have you say, “Morning Mama! Food. Breakfast. Waffles? Ok.” and then tonight before bed a similar deal.
Before bed tonight I brought out a book we’ve had forever called “First 100 Words” and it is a picture dictionary – of words. Every time I read it you show mild interest or play with your toys when I am reading it. But tonight you opened the book while on your belly and flipped the pages like a pro and with your little hand you pointed to images and said almost in a bored tone like ‘whatever’:
hairbrush fish baby towel pillow lamp book
(flip page)
tomato strawberry orange grape apple broccoli banana cheese
No pauses. No breaks. No breaths. As I said. One word after another in almost a deep sigh tone.
Ok. First of all. You’ve never had a piece of broccoli in your life despite our attempts to repeatedly give it to you. How on earth did you know broccoli much less say it clear as day?
The only way I can describe the tremendous amounts of leaps and rewarding bounds parenthood has to offer parents is imagine this… imagine one night your partner of several years just came into the living room and started ….oh I don’t know… playing the accordion out of nowhere – huge long complicated songs – and you are there on the couch having a glass of wine and turn your head their way STUNNED like, “OH MY GOD! I had no idea you could play the accordion?!!!” That is what it is like as a parent. The constant surprises. They keep our life fresh and interesting. Full of suspense.
What waits for us around the corner now?
