I would like to just share with you what a HUGE difference parenting a two-year-old and three month child vs. anything younger is. You are able to totally tell me everything you need, want, etc. Half my brain is coming back – the part that used to think about my goals and personal health and remembering to buy milk, etc. The part that I devoted the last two years using only to think about you and your many needs – “Is she crying because she is hungry?” etc.

If something hurts we say, “Do you have a boo boo?” And you say yes and can tell us exactly where it us. When you want something you say directly, “Lili want more yogurt”. If you are full you say, “No – I’m fine”. If something frustrates you now you are able to say “Lili wants COLD water in sippy”. Right now I went in to put you down for a nap and you were not sleeping. Instead of solving the big mystery as to why you were still awake I opened the curtain to your room and you said immediately and clear as day, “I need a diaper change.”

This is HUGE for a parent. It saves soooo much time and energy just to know exactly what needs handling and to get it done. Our life is starting to resemble the little flowers poking up currently in our front lawn under  the melting snow. Things feel as if they can only get better.

xo

We had such a FUN day in the snow yesterday. It was one of those magical Brooklyn moments where the sun was shining and snow was falling in large flakes and all our friends joined us in the park and I took you for a ride on a sled. Dad plans to get in some serious sledding time with you today too and I know you guys are going to have just as much fun if not more!

The most ‘Lili’ part of the day was that you insisted on carrying your little silver shopping bag around with you at all times and held it on your arm like the proper little lady. The contents of your bag included some loose change, a set of house keys, some costume jewelry, a Metrocard, two Chapsticks and one packet of mustard. That’s my girl!

I hope you don’t kill me for buying you this snowsuit. It was $4 at a second hand store but SO CUTE! I like the bright color. It’s very happy like your personality. If not…also a little 1973 at the same time. Anyway, it keeps you warm and that is all that matters. Here you are with your buddy Charlie.

Baby Will joined too. What a trooper! He joined right in the snow bunny fun.

Having a kid has allowed me to get out of the house and enjoy the old fashioned winter fun I experienced as a kid. Now if only we can find a pond to go ice boating like where I grew up then we are in business.

xo

Mama, you need haircut day

You are truly my little winter baby. Born in December you relish in cold weather and getting outside. Nothing brings a smile on your face like a hearty freezing whipping wind, playing in and eating snow and overall temps near zero.

Your mother is a summer baby. I was born in August. I come most alive in the warm baking sun with a minty beverage on ice in my hand. When I leave the house I am constantly overdressed. A friend once made fun of me when I showed up to meet her for dinner wearing what she swore was my down comforter with a belt tied around it. Ok – so my winter jacket is a little extreme. Sue me.  But I really truly believe the month one is born in is the weather one really ‘comes alive’. Ok – it’s a little hippie dippy I know.

So here we are today – freezing cold outside and you are loving life. What are you doing in this picture? That’s right, you are on your back on the park picnic table watching the clouds go past in the sky as if we are on a picnic blanket in the grass somewhere in the middle of August.

Lili: Look Mommy! Clouds go fast!

Me: Oh wow! So fast! (inside voice: Are you kidding me right now?! I am FREEZING)

Once thing that is consistent about parenthood with you Lilian is that no matter what weather condition we are in – you continue to bring a smile to my face with your love for living life.

I love you.

xo

This weekend your Dad suggested we get out of dodge for a night or two to escape our normal routine. The thing about having a kid and traveling – or should I say a ’spirited’ kid while traveling – is basically you just go somewhere else to deal with the same crap you deal with at home but someone makes your bed and gives your fresh towels and sheets. Your Dad collapsed on the bed after the three hour drive and was like, “Why do I feel like I just took the red eye to Europe?” HA! So true.

No – in all seriousness though we had a great time. The first day was a little brutal because you decided not to nap and were in full Rain Man mode wherever we went yelling “CHAPSTICK CHAPSTICK WHERE IS MY CHAPSTICK WANT MY CHAPSTICK MAMA CHAPSTICK WHERE IS MY CHAPSTICK LILI CHAPSTICK NEED CHAPSTICK WANT IT NEED IT CHAPSTICK” for about three hours straight no breaks. You’d think by two years and a few months I’d be able to tune you out by now but I can sometimes feel like I’m dying a slow death with whatever item you are obsessed with at this particular point in time – stabbing me in the temples. In this case – cherry ChapStick.

While on our trip we had fun taking turns with you in the hotel pool – your first hotel pool swim ever!

You liked playing with the hotel phone. You LOVED the hotel shampoo bottles and couldn’t get enough. In fact over the the two days forget totally about your cherry ChapStick and moved on to your shampoo bottles instead – carrying several of them wherever we went in a mini Hello Kitty purse. You were great about sleeping in a new crib. And loved playing in the hotel room running here and there arranging things and making pretend areas for your stuffed animal Snowy dog and baby doll animal to play in.

Before we left for the trip I picked up a few free DVDS from the library as well as the book, Raising Your Spirited Child:  A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, Energetic – and can I say it was the biggest breath of fresh air to read I was not alone in the wonderful world of adorable children like mine that love and live life to the fullest! Your father and I don’t believe in labels – aka – that you are ‘this’ or a ‘that’ kid – but just to know you fit in the category of the kid that is MORE in so many areas of life is such a relief to read. The book is refreshing to read and real and honest. It made me recharge my batteries as your mother and want to continue to do everything I can to be a better Mom to you even if it means stocking up on about 300 cherry chapsticks for some rest and relaxation for the next oh…I don’t know…two weeks until we are on to some other obsession.

Some other highlights included all of us snug in bed in pjs watching the winter Olympics. Last night you watched figure skating for the first time and after the performance ended you sat right up in bed and cheered and clapped with such enthusiasm and genuine glee yelling, “GOOD JOB!” to the TV that it brought tears to my eyes.

You are a funny wild ride Lilian. But you are worth every mile. We love you.

xo

Mama: I like…flowers

Mama: I don’t like…dirty snow

Dada: I like…tacos

Dada: I don’t like…squash

Lili: (after long silence thinking) Lili no like…big spiders

Lili: Lili like…um…butterflies…and COSTUMES!…I like. I know.

One of my favorite activities to do with you is grab a slice of good Brooklyn pizza. You used to have to sit on my lap but now while ordering pizza at the counter I glance over and there you are. My little buddy. Little tiny head wearing a hat peering over the top of the table top. As a mother who carried you around in my belly and then gave birth to you – I can’t help but have these moments where I look over and go – woah! There is a little kid over there. Where did the little baby go?

You LOVE pizza and you love going to one particular place where you are a ‘regular’. The minute we walk in you say, “HI PIZZA MAN” at volume ten even though all ten dudes working behind the counter say hello to you. You love an audience.

This last trip I loved how glam you looked wearing your ‘jewels’ and eating your slice like a lady. My grandmother would be proud.

‘Gettin’ a slice’ would not be on the top ten things I would think of as something I would bond over with my daughter but here we are. It’s always after we’ve been rushing about here and there in the cold that we find ourselves bursting into the pizza joint, taking off our jackets and enjoying a warm piece of fresh Brooklyn pie.

Last time we went for pizza we shared a table with about seven cops on break. You were the queen of the table getting all of the attention. Many of the cops had daughters of their own and remembered this age hanging out together. You found it fascinating in particular that several of the cops liked to sprinkle garlic on their pizza so now when we go for our regular slice you too ask for garlic.

I hope we can always be buddies Lils. With my growing wasteline maybe come the summer we can move our Mom and Me time up to the smoothie joint down the block instead of our regular pizza but for now who cares! I’m eating it all up. Every second of it.

xo

You have been such a little adorable sous-chef to cook with as of late! Our favorite thing to make together is yummy salty kale chips. I need to feel blessed for the small brainstorms I have out of no where in regards to getting you to eat things since our track record has been a long, long road of anti-anything when it comes to getting you to eat. Recently it occurred to me that if I involve you in the cooking than maybe you will be more into the food? And I have to say so far so good. Never in my life did I think you would eat something green much less KALE.

In this photo there is a PILE of Kale stems. I only once showed you how to properly peel off the leaves from the stem and then shred them into small chip sized bits and you took it from there. I am not lying when I say you peeled every kale leaf in that pile. And it killed a good 35 minutes before bedtime when normally you would be whining for me to play you a video!

If you have any memory of us together in the kitchen this will most likely make your father insane. Why? Because he is the real chef in the family. I am the microwave queen that only recently since having a child has attempted to move outside my comfort zone such as boil water and make rice – wow – ambitious I know.

I love you Lils. Thank you for reminding me to always move outside my comfort zone.

xo

My friends and roomies used to make fun of me in college. After hosting a party in our dorm room or at our apartment I would inevitably reach some point in the night where I’d look around at the John Hughes style scene – crunched beer cans, tipped over popcorn bowls, people passed out on floors, others making out, etc. and just want it all to end. Immediately. Right then and there. Why? Because I was tired.

I had an expression at the time which they still make fun of me today for. It was:

IT’S BEDTIME

Yes. That’s right. I would be hit almost immediately without warning with the urge to make the party end and walk around with a giant black garbage bag scooping things into it telling everyone the party was over and that …

IT’S BEDTIME

For the last two weeks you have been quite a handful to put to bed. You are SO SO SO clearly tired but you run around your room like a maniac, won’t sit still for a story, do forward rolls off your bean bag chair, ask for snack after snack after snack, beg for water, cry MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY, scream DADDY DADDY DADDY, etc. Yikes. By the time the house is quiet after a long, full, wonderful day it is at least 9PM. A long wonderful day. But LONG.

Tonight Dad was out watching football and I put you to bed. After 50 thousand attempts and needs and wants from you (snack, water, etc.) the lights were finally off and I left the room. I started to walk down the door and hear a huge scream and walked back in saying firmly in the dark:

K: Lilian? What is going on here.

L: Um…let’s see. (you actually said this – and with a perky tone)

K: Lilian.

L: Charlie sleeping?

K: Yes – your friend Charlie is sleeping.

L: Um…Sylas sleeping?

K: Yes – your friend Sylas is sleeping.

L: Um…Daddy sleeping?

K: No. Daddy is watching football. Then he is sleeping.

L: No office Daddy?

K: Lilian.

L: Hmn…now what… (you actually said this)

K: Lilian…(and without missing a beat it all came back to me…)

IT’S BEDTIME

xo

We are now wondering if you plan to attend medical school thanks to your recent obsession with playing Dr. Lilian. You are very serious with all of your ‘patients’ which include stuffed animal bears, baby dolls, Dad, Me and one snake. There are tons of Band-Aids used per ’session’.

Mostly I am concerned that my temperature is the same after each visit: four hundred ninety nine eleventeen sixteen

If you are planning on attending med school just give Mom and Dad a little heads up so we can…oh I don’t know…sell all of our belongings.

xo

Your favorite activity as of late is climbing up to my vanity mirror and sitting in front of it trying on my jewelry while fake crying in front of the mirror. Ohhhhhhhh boy do we have our hands full.

xo Mom and Dad

It’s 2010. Time for Mom to get off her lazy butt and write a few more blog posts. I know. You thought you were all ‘in the clear’ with me writing about you in public. No such luck.

Life with you has been fun lately. You are a real little person that walks next to us and down the street and eats a slice of pizza in a booth without a booster seat and well…it was a time I only dreamed of and now it is finally here. Some funny and random notes as of late:

LEAVING HOUSE: Before we leave the house you have taken to saying, “Mama…got phone?” This is because EVERY MORNING I pack absolutely everything under the sun but my phone and EVERY MORNING I haul all the crap downstairs two flights, lug heavy stroller full of crap and heavy toddler down Brownstone steps and then walk about one block at least and go ‘oh crap’ and then have to wheel you back Lili to the bottom of stairs and say ‘Mommy will be RIGHT BACK!’ and run up a flight of stairs and frantically search the apartment leaving it a total wreck as if a robber broke in.

NO MOMMY: Lots of NO MOMMY lately. And NO LOOK MOMMY! (complete with finger wag) when I merely glance over at you. Lots of NO MOMMY – GO! as you physically push me away. I know I need my bangs cut but am I that bad?

PRETEND PLAY: You are WAY into pretend play lately. Especially pretend doctor with your little doctor kit. You line up your animals and say, “My name Yil-lee-ann” followed by you bending down wearing a stethoscope at eye level with your dolls asking, “Wha happen?” (no T). You then like to take their ‘blue crusher’ (blood pressure) and use about a box and a half of Band-Aids on everyone. I actually heard Daddy utter the phrase, “No more Band-Aids on Cookie Monster. They are starting to rip his fur.”

DADDY DADDY DADDY: After a long day together doing my best to entertain and please you – you enjoy crying for DADDY DADDY DADDY like it’s nobody’s business. It’s very cute actually. Poor Dad was out on the town the other night and had to return home because you refused to go to bed because you needed, wanted, had to see him before you went to sleep. Every creak on the staircase you heard outside our front door your eyes got big and you said, “Daddy?” There were a lot of creaks from 4:30PM until Daddy got home let me tell you. When he returned home you stood up in your crib and literally shuttered with excitement and then did a little side to side dance. Your world was complete.

SPANISH: You pretty much understand most Spanish thanks to your amazing babysitter and teacher who speaks Spanish to you 8hrs a day for 3 days a week. Any time I break out my gringo Spanish you look at me and sometimes even put your hand on my mouth and say NO MAMA. Sometimes when I walk in the house and sneak up on your two playing you are speaking long streams of Spanish I never knew you could. It’s amazing and I feel so grateful for this. Soon I hope you can teach me.

FOOD: You love ice cream sandwiches. Edamame (sometimes – this is a new one). Pasta. Pizza. Chocolate Soy Nut Butter. Waffles. Honey. Juice. Fruit. Cereal. Yogurt. Pirate Booty. The occasional chicken nugget. And that is about it. You are in the 3rd percentile for weight. Used to freak out about this. Getting better that this is who you are and if the doctor says you are just long and lean and not to worry then that is what you are. I love you.

DRUG STORE: Every night to kill the last 15 minutes before dinner/tub/pjs, etc. you and I swing by the giant drugstore near our house. We wander the aisles. Like a person walking their dog – you have your little particular spots in which you like to stop and look at things. You love nail polish bottles. You like to say, “Look Mama! SCOPE!”, you like to take a fistful of Hallmark cards and hold up individual ones saying, “For Daddy?”, “For Nanny?” etc. You like to pick up all the toothbrushes. You like the toy car aisle and always ask, “This one for Lili?”, etc. Some kids have tree houses. We have Rite Aid.

STORIES: You LOVE reading and books. You love  anything Richard Scarry. You love pop up books. And no matter what the book you like to turn to the part in the book that is either scary or something wrong is happening. You are fascinated by anything going wrong just for the chance to yell dramatically OH NO!!!! complete with a gasp and worried frown.

DANCE: You love to dance sister! Luckily you got your moves from Dad and not your finger snapping/clapping Mom. Most mornings you and Dad are in your room and I hear Dad yell DANCE PARTY! And then when a song ends you yell back MORE DANCE PARTY! Adorable and cute you two are.

I love you my little sweetie. You are more fun to be with each and every day.

Now eat your veggies.

xo

Today was your first day of Practically Preschool. It is a program here in Brooklyn at a local playspace where they host a class for toddlers to get them ready for real preschool. Oh my gosh. What a trip it was.

We spent the morning prepping you about where you were going. We read a little book about Penelope a bear that goes to school. I changed your outfit like 15 times for some reason. I packed your backpack of snacks and you added two items of your own – a broken cell phone and a washcloth. We were off!

We we arrived I think the kids were picking up on the nervous energy of the mothers in the room because there was lots of clinging and crying and NO! and various other toddler outbursts. But soon the teacher Lauren took control and quickly got your attention with a combo of stories, music, snacks, art projects, etc.

Here are some of your highlights in bullet form:

• The minute we walked in the room you said MAS SNACK (more snack in Spanish) MAS SNACK MAS SNACK for the entire 45 minute duration of class (despite the 15 min snack time) and despite the fact you ate a huge breakfast

• There is a boy named Nicolas in your class which BLEW your mind since every night we read a book about a bunny named Nicolas and you literally looked around the room like dude…where is this guy…each time his name was mentioned

• You sat quietly and properly at the table like a big girl. I give myself big props for getting that cheap-o IKEA kids table and chairs a while ago because we’ve been practicing for a while with you and so far so good!

• You asked for 45 helpings from the very patient teacher of water in your tiny paper cup which you dramatically guzzled like I’ve never given you a cup of water in your entire life

• You made a self portrait on a paper plate – middle one

Overall a great experience. It was amusing to watch each toddler in the room with their various ‘isms’ including you. You were snack and water obsessed. Another kid couldn’t stop crying because the teacher wouldn’t sing the song that came after Wheels On The Bus on their cd at home. Another kid melted down during the part where the teacher said to whisper because he thought it meant it was nap time. Another literally clung to his mother’s leg when she made a single move thinking she was going to leave the room.

Kids are so honest and true and hilarious. It was a great lesson for all the Moms in the room who have spent the last twenty plus months devoting ourselves to knowing the ins and outs of our wacky little kids and all their likes and dislikes. The bottom line was hey – here we are – lets celebrate our accomplishment of making it here! And you know what? They’re fine.  We are growing up. All of us.

I only fought back tears once during the end song of ‘You Are My Sunshine’. As I held you on my lap my big girl – at practically preschool – I knew it was time to hold tight and at the same time – start to let go.

xo

You are now 21 months – aka the age I can no longer count in months without sounding crazy. In other words – you will be 2 in December. Seems hard to believe.

You are such a little fun buddy to be around lately. You literally crack us up and we crack you up and we are one big pain in sides laughing family. The rest of the time we want to kill each other in our small overcrowded apartment but you know. You can’t have it all.

Right now we are in Maine on a family vacation. It is cold here! But then again your Dad thinks I am being a wimp. I didn’t grow up in New Hampshire so what can I say. For a nap just now I dressed you in a long sleeve onsie, tights, footed fuzzy long-sleeved pjs and leg warmers on top of that. I also put about three blankets in your travel crib. As we know I tend to over due it with the layers so forgive me.

We’ve had a great time here so far and despite you acting like a bored teen the first day but you are starting to adjust. You were so excited to tell me after a walk with Dad about seeing an eagle that you came running up the driveway screaming EAGLE! EAGLE! EAGLE!. You were also excited to report back to Dad that we say a chipmunk on our walk about. You also told Dad the chipmunk was eating a muffin (?) – which was a lie – but that was ok it made up laugh out loud anyway.

Some things you love doing as of late include going through a list of everyone you know before bed. We do this every night and as you might imagine as a Brooklyn kid on a large playground – you know a lot of people. Usually we do it in pairs – matching the kid with their parent or caregiver. You start and I match like this -

You: Charlie

Me: Roz

You: Cheryl

Me: Sylas

etc.

Then right before bed you yell DAY! DAY! and we have to – in the dark – go through our entire day (in order) starting with what we had for breakfast until we went to bed. This routine I love because it helps both you and I wind down from our busy day by reflecting on everything we’ve done. The best is you now chime in with random things that I have to figure out. For example you might say “cello! cello!” and I think long and hard until I remember that’s right. We stopped to talk to our neighbor Nina who was carrying a cello.

Speaking of – you are obsessed with the cello right now. We’ve played you a few Yo Yo Ma (as you call Yo Ma Ma) and you like to imitate his head movements when he plays and then play with a pretend bow. I’m wondering how young I can start you in playing an instrument and hope you keep interested. It would be amazing. The other day our neighbor Nina that tours around the world in a famous musical trio invited us over for a real live viewing of a cello being played. You stood there dumbfounded. Literally frozen as you watched Nina play right in front of your very eyes.

We love you.

Yes I cutting this short. I am starving and need to make lunch.

xo