Lily Growing Up

As I am on the road right now with the girls, completing a mini-sojourn of sorts, I haven't written as much as I would have liked to int he recent past. However, Lily has simply blossomed in the past few weeks and is really becoming a little girl. Elliott and I have been amazed at this transformation, right in front of our eyes. I had to record as many as I could here for you:

Dancing: Lily loves to dance. LOVES IT! If any sort of music comes on the TV she will start dancing (shades of Ava dancing to the Final Jeopardy music) and many times she will go round and round in circles, even when no music is on. However, she does love to do the Hokey-Pokey and Ring Around the Rosie with her sister, and she's good at it! Her Hokey-Pokey cracks me up; maybe I can get a video of it someday.

Singing: She is very good at imitating you, and if you want her to sing to you you simply start melodically making up "la la la" sounds, which she will in turn produce into her own tune. She also lights up and likes to do the hand motions to Five Green Speckled Frogs, This Little Light of Mine, and Patty Cake.

Speaking: Lily has a quickly growing vocabulary. Even though she has not been signing as much as Ava was at this age (we also signed much more consistently with Ava than we do with Lily) she has excellent communication skills. She has an extremely wide vocal range and I can understand what she wants 99% of the time even if she doesn't say all of the words. As for words, her vocabulary grows more everyday. Currently she says "bye-bye", "night-night" (both accompanied with waving), "mama", "dada" (and she does know the difference between us and addresses us as such), "touch", "Jack", "down", "no", and "yum". Every day brings new sounds and she tries so hard to imitate what we are saying and speak back to us.

Movement: She is a very busy girl! All over the place. all of the time. She loves to climb, successfully climbing into dining room chairs and up stairs. (Climbing down the stairs is a developing skill, but she is getting better after all of the practice at Grandma and Grandpa's house.) She also follows directions fairly well. If I tell her to lie down for her bottle, she will go into the living room and lie herself on the carpet in anticipation of the bottle I am going to bring her. She also goes to her high chair when I tell her to (when it's dinnertime) and lines up by the door with Ava when it's time to leave the house.

Above all I think the cutest (and most practical) thing she has been doing lately is when it gets close to her bedtime at night and she gets tired, she starts waving her little hand and saying "night-night" to everyone. Even when it seems a little early, I take my cue from her and off to bed she goes. I haven't had an unsuccessful bedtime yet when I follow her lead!