Why, Oh Why?

Bringing Lily home has brought many questions to mind.  Exactly how do toddlers go from happy  to upset in less than 1 second?  I have to admit that Lily is happy 99.5% of the time but that other part, geez!

 Please advise should you have the perfect answer to any of these!

Just doing a little work for the day - happy, happy.

WHY DO TODDLERS:

want you to hold them nonstop when at home but throw a fit to hold your hand in a parking lot?

get so sleepy yawning and rubbing their eyes, but when you put them to bed, they have enough energy to run a marathon?

are happy as a clam playing with toys until you decide to make a quick phone call?

won't finish eating dinner but wants the food once you go to give it to the puppies?

want the spoon to eat but continues to throw the spoon onto the floor?
Here's an example of that situation:

Having breakfast, life is good:  happy!

After throwing the spoon on the floor again, Mommy and Daddy didn't jump right up to get it.   To top it off, while nobody picked it up, Gracie the lab came over to lick off all remaining food.
Life is not good: very sad and upset.

And before you all are thinking we are horrible, mean parents and turn us in, here is the situation just a few seconds later.

Life is good again with Daddy:  happy, happy.

WHY DO TODDLERS:

want you to hold them and then once you do, they wiggle down only to want up again?

want you to take the clothes off of a doll or stuffed animal and then two seconds later, want you to put the exact same clothes back on?

want your help most of the time, but then emphatically shake their head no and wave their hand at you when you go to help them with something they can't do independently yet?

are  fine in the car until you go to get them out once you get home and then won't walk on their own so that you can get the stuffed animal, the cup, the snacks, the hair bow that was thrown off,  the jackets, the grocery bag, and my purse?

Life is never dull around here and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

St. Patrick's Day

Our wish for you today:

We are the lucky ones to have Lily in our lives now.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you from the three of us!

Bathtime

Thinking back to our time in China, there are some things I miss:  the daily cleaning of our hotel room and bathrooms, a driver who will take you wherever you need to go, and the breakfast buffets - oh, how I wish I had a pork dumpling right now to go with my coffee!

Of course, there are many things I don't miss and among those is how Lily was with baths.  We tried a bath in the hotel our first evening and she wasn't having any of that!  I mean, full out screaming, face turning red, shaking, etc.  Yup, that was our first parent fail. (Notice I said first, because I know there are others.) After talking with our guide, she believed the orphanage just did sponge baths.  So, that's what we did while in China and Lily really wasn't much for those either but did tolerate them.

Using the step stool for some entertainment while I got the bath ready

Once we got home, I took a bath with her for a bit and then she was off to the races!  This little girl loves bath time and gets so excited to put her clothes in the dirty clothes basket and get in that bathtub!  I've been told by my husband that I sometimes cut bath time short and that kids should be all "pruned" up by the time they get out.  Guess I'll work on that. :)

Turning into a ham!

Do you see what I did - turned the step stool upside down and sat in it!

This is just so fun!

The other night while we were bathing, we had a visitor - Gracie, our chocolate lab.  Gracie likes to watch over us and she needed to come check out all the fun we were having.

Gracie is wondering why she doesn't get to play with the toys when she gets a bath.

Some kisses for Gracie - thank you for checking on us!

Relish

I saw this quote the other day and fell in love:

So as busy as it is with a toddler at home, I'm trying to relish these days.  That's my new goal:  to relish as much as I can each day and to let the other things that aren't so important go!  She continues to change so much and so fast, that I want to remember every single moment.

One of the most recent things I relish is watching Lily rock her "Dolly" while watching on her Ipad an animated song of Rock A Bye Baby.  It's just the sweetest thing ever and I am the lucky one as I get to watch her do this at least 10-20 times a day.

Is that not the sweetest ever?? She'll be a good Mama one day.

We spend lots of time outside:

Deep in thought...

Trying to learn to stay still for pictures.

One day, I'll learn how to smile my pretty smile for the camera.

Yup, just hanging out in my chair with my sippy cup watching my Mama and the Puppy Dogs.

Learning how to step down and come outside without help:

Hhmmm....I want to get down off this step but how?

I better hold on to the wall.

Now that I'm holding on, I can step down!

We bought Lily her first tricycle a few days ago.  The pedals are just a tad too far away to reach so we are going to modify them a bit (thank you for the tip about duck tape and school chalkboard erasers!!).  She still enjoyed scooting around on it one afternoon.  Thanks to friends and people in our neighborhood, we've learned the fun of "driveway playing"!  We pull our cars out sideways across our driveway and then we have a lot of room for fun:  bike riding, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles. Great times!

We continue to go to all the great parks where we live.  Our typical day includes a park visit at least once, usually in the morning.  This day, Lily decided she needed to practice carrying bags and purses around.  Watch out Daddy, she's perfecting her ability to carry bags so she can go shopping!

Mastering the one bag

Working on getting both bags up there on that shoulder

Got it!  I'm off!

And time indoors too:

Reading a book and watching my Ipad.  Life is good!

"Counting and sorting" time while Mommy gets breakfast ready.  Yes, my mommy is a teacher, how did you know?  I really think she's about ready for school, don't you?  Reading, Ipading, playing with colored counters...

So, I'm off  to finish my cup of coffee, let the little one sleep in a bit and then relish my day!