My Precious Lily

Some days I am sad that the camera doesn’t seem to capture Lily’s funny personality.  She talks non-stop, is smart as a whip, and a silly girl to boot.  But when the camera turns on she seems to shrink away, quite the opposite of her sister.  I hope I can fully portray in writing how delightful she is.

Lily has such a generous heart, always talking about sharing things with Ava or asking me to let Ava do things (like ride the pony outside the drugstore) even when Ava is not present.  She starts her days with “Good MORNING mommy!  Good MORNING Ava!  Good MORNING Piper!”  She loves to do puzzles (she is a whiz at puzzles), color with pencils, and get dirty outside.  If she is missing, take a look amongst the tomato plants.  She can usually be found “making dinner for the buggies”.  She loves to help you in the garden by picking beans and cucumbers, whether she is supposed to or not.  I have given up on trying to keep her clean throughout the day or berating her for getting dirty and instead have taken to soaking her clothes on Oxi-Clean and appreciating her love for life.

She also seems to be prone to that middle child syndrome of accidents.  You know what I am talking about.  That one child who seems to always be getting hurt.  Lily is that one in our family.  She currently has a scraped elbow (falling off her scooter), all of her ankles and heels have sore spots (from her shoes being too small at church at not telling mommy until blood was pooling in them), a spot on her big toe which is constantly being reopened as she refuses to wear shoes outside, and a fat lip (biffing it on the way to the car to take Ava to preschool).  I remember when I was growing up my sister Tracy, the middle child, was that one in our family.  Lily’s cousin Asher (the second of four) is that one in his family.  And Lily is that one in our family.  Luckily for me she take her bumps and bruises in stride fairly well (did I mention she never complained about the shoes tearing up her feet?)

And that hair.  *sigh*  Can I just give up now?  Lily’s hair is out of control.  She has just enough curl to make it stick out in all directions, but hair jut fine enough that it gets tangled easily and never looks curly.  I think it would look curlier if we shortened it, but it has such a nice length that we are this close to being able to put it up all of the time.  So until then, I suppose it is not redeemable.  Elliott said last night it wouldn’t be so bad if we could wash her hair every night (I mentioned how dirty she gets right?) but Lily has started refusing to wash her hair at bathtime (even though she loves bathtime) and trying to get it clean is like wrestling an alligator in the tub.  Exhausting.  And seemingly pointless at times.

Here’s a Lily-ism to end this note:

At lunch one day Lily said "I all done eating, I want to talk." OK Lily, what do you want to talk about? "Ummm, Xander and Julia" (her cousins) I think she misses them.  We called and talked to Julia later on the phone.