Shark!

Dear Lila,

Some things about my Lilabear:

-This is how you currently count: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, twelve [you always skip from seven to twelve], three-teen, fourteen, fifteen . . ."

-You learned how to ride your scooter on your own after just two trips to the playground.

-You weigh about 39 pounds now (that's almost as much as GuhGaw and more than many of his 4-year-old friends!).

-You eat foods that some adults don't even like to eat: onions, celery, bean sprouts and bok choy.

-You've graduated from calling me Mama to calling me Mommy (which I'm sad about; I like Mama!).

-You like to draw, pretend to cook in your play kitchen, sing and dance, play with trains with your brother and build things with Legos and your favorite toys are your princess figurines and princess castle. Belle is your favorite Disney princess and it's cute the way you pronounce the other princesses' names: Slee Booey (Sleeping Beauty), Rorah (Aurora), Aree (Ariel), Schnoh Why (Snow White), Cindalella (Cinderella).

Dressed up as your favorite princess!

-When I'm laying down in bed, you often sit next to me and say, "You Schnoh Why, me Prince." Then you hold my face, kiss me on the lips and "wake" me up. So adorable!

-When you watch TV, you often sit with your hands folded in your lap. So proper!

-You love to hide under blankets.

-You also love to play this shark game you invented. I know you want to play when you climb onto the couch, get this concerned look on your face and shout, "Shark! Shark!" We sit on our boat (the couch) and look out for the shark in the water (the living room floor). You pretend to slip off the boat and shout "Whooooa! Whooooa!" But fortunately, I always pull you back up onto the boat before the shark can get you. We play this almost every day and you can "fall" off the boat over and over without tiring of the game!

Love,
Mom

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Dear Lila,

Your nanny was about to put you in the tub for a shower earlier today but you said, "Pee pee! Pee pee!" and pointed at the toilet, so she put you on the toilet and you pooped. Yay!

But then after your shower, you ran into your room butt naked and peed all over your play mat. Doh!

Love,
Mom

Mama Here

Dear Lila,

So much cuteness!

-When you are excited about something, you exclaim, "Yeah-hoo!"

-I was eating a piece of string cheese and you wanted some, so I shared it with you. When you ate all of it, I said, "Aww, no more for me." You immediately opened your mouth and started to take out a piece of chewed-up cheese so that you could give it to me. Haha, thanks but no thanks!

-After I got you out of bed yesterday morning and changed your diaper, I asked you if you were ready to go downstairs and get some milk. You looked down at your pajamas--which I had forgotten to change you out of--raised your hands up questioningly and said, "No change me!"

-When you were getting ready to go to the playground with your scooter yesterday morning, you kept asking for knee pads. I told you that I had ordered them and that they would be arriving later in the day. When you came home with your nanny a couple hours later, there was an Amazon package sitting on the front steps. You carried it into the house while shouting, "Knee pads! Knee pads!" It's so adorable how you remembered that your knee pads were arriving and instantly knew they were inside the package!

-We were reading one of your books today and there was a page about baby spiders. You said to the photo of the spiders, "Ew. Go away, spi. No like you."

-You love pretending to be a mommy. One of your favorite things to do is wrap your baby dolls up in blankets, rock them, pretend to feed them and push them around in your doll stroller. You also like to pretend that I'm your baby, so you tell me to lay down and then lay a blanket on top of me, pat my cheeks and say to me, "Mama here. Mama here."

Love,
Mom

Sweet Thanks

Dear Lila,

It's funny how the littlest things can make your day when you're a mom. You pooped last night and after I cleaned your butt and changed your diaper, you stood up and said to me, "Tank you change me." It was so sweet and thoughtful and made wiping your tushee totally worth it, haha!

Love,
Mom

Sup What?

Dear Lila,

You made me smile today when you were so sweet toward your brother. While I was putting GuhGaw to bed, you ran into his room, climbed into his bed, gave him a hug and a kiss and said, "Goo nigh, GuhGaw."

You made me happy today when I put you to bed and you told me, "Luf you."

You made me proud today when you wouldn't give up. You put on your lion backpack and attempted to clasp the buckles together. They're a little difficult for a toddler to close and you were struggling with them quite a bit--so much so that your whole body was shaking--but refused to let Daddy or me help you when we offered to close them for you. Instead, you kept working at them and really impressed us when you eventually buckled the buckles all by yourself!

You made me feel sorry for you today when you came up to me looking so sad and told me softly, "Daddy yell me." (Oddly, Daddy said he hadn't yelled at you, so I'm not sure what you were talking about.)

You made me laugh today when we were counting in Chinese and every time you said sup yut (Chinese for 11), it sounded as if you were saying, "Shut up." Ha!

Love,
Mom