1. She's a full fledged walker. That's all there is to it. The knee walking and crawling have been left behind in the dust. She's on to the move 24-7 and Ron and I think it's the cutest thing (Yes, we are still in the honeymoon stage).
2. This is definitely a highlight: Lia now hugs us sometimes when we first pick her up. It just melts the heart.
3. When I am sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, while playing with Li Li, she will sometimes walk over to me, turn around, and sit in my lap. It's so sweet. Although she has sat in my lap many times while we've played in the past, this is a first for her to initiate it.
4. This is a definite lowlight: Lia finally discovered her nostrils. Great. As you just guessed, her little index finger finds her way up north for some exploration from time to time.
5. She discovered a new game....blinking. If you blink at her, she will blink back. This can go on for hours (well, not really) and with any willing participant. i.e. the people sitting behind us in church last Sunday.
6. To quote the Prince of Denmark himself, "Words, words, words." This has definitely been the theme of Lia's past month as she has finally stopped favoring her one and only pet word, "uh oh." Although she has been babbling the words, "ma ma" and "da da," for many months now, she is finally using them to refer to us. Also, due to her fascination with canines (dang it!), she now says "dah" whenever she hears or sees a dog and even barks at them. I'm just thrilled about that one. She was taught the word, "baby" by her grandma (from a book) and uses it frequently--especially to refer to other babies and children. In fact, I think Lia seriously offended the 5-year who was in line behind us at Costco the other night. After Lia identified her as a baby, the girl adamantly declared, "I'm not a baby, YOU are!" Woops...it looks like she'll have to use that word with a bit more caution in the future. She also can say "nana" for banana and "chee" for cheese and "sh" for shoes. In addition, her grandpa passed on his favorite question, "What's that?," while taking Lia on the walking tour of various clocks and nutcrackers in his house. As a result, Lia now says this question all the time. And, although she can't say it, she understands the phrase, "Put it on your head," thanks to a game that Ron has been playing with her since the beginning of time. As you can see, our daughter is practically fluent in English.
7. Another definite lowlight: Lia's developing pickiness for food has continued to expand. Urgh! Not only does she now refuse lots of vegetables that she used to eat, she has begun to refuse meats. So, the glory days of just sharing food with her from the dinner table have come to a screeching halt. It's back to the nasty lasagna and chicken noodle baby food. How can she prefer that over my own cooking? It's almost insulting.
8. The lowlights continue: Lia now starts crying when I leave her with the babysitter in the morning on my way to work. This past week, she even manged to get such a tight, monkey-hold on my arm that I could barely pass her over to Jessica. I definitely do not feel like mother of the year when I hear her screams while walking back to my car. Only four more weeks till summer....
9. She's invented some fun ways of expressing herself while she is excited. When it's regarding a food that she loves, she will wiggle back and forth and hum a little song. When she's excited about something while standing, she will sometimes lays on the floor (face down) and kick her legs. It's so funny to watch!
10. Since she is now walking full-time, I have finally gotten around to putting her sneakers on her little feet on a regular basis. Sheez! As a result, she is fascinated with them. When not wearing them, they are her favorite toy and are found wherever she is. She loves them and even tries to put her feet in them...unsuccessfully of course.
Here are a few favorite pics from the last few days....
Doesn't it almost look like she's dancing? Such a little show-off. Lia dressed in her Sunday finery on May 17th. This is the first time she's been big enough to wear one of the adorable white dresses she inherited from our wedding that four of our nieces wore (who were all between the ages of 10 to 18 months at the time).
Simply being happy in her happy place.
Lia finally started to become comfortable cruising around in the grass last weekend (she had never been a fan of the scratchy, green stuff). She went out into the backyard to enjoy the sun with her papa last Saturday, May 16th, and these are some of the photos I snapped of her.
I thought these two photos were so precious...One, playing with the grass and the other walking towards her father.
Oh so cute, I just love reading these Lia updates, I hope you never quit. It's so fun to hear all the things that my kids have been through, and that I have been through and now you are going through it. You're lucky you get hugs! I have to beg Weston to stop and give me a squeeze around my neck! Weston loves his shoes too, isn't that funny! Lia looks like a perfect little ballerina in the white dress, like she's in the middle of a dance. Are you going to put her in ballet when she's older?
ReplyDeletewow! that was quite a post- I hd to block out time in my planner just to read it...who am I kidding you are the planner girl...so darling, she will love to read about herself when shes older. I need to take the tie to write things like that down. AS for the French dauphin- don't you think he looks like that little boy on the Scarlet pimpernel?
ReplyDelete