Lily is a basket of glee and enthusiasm. She ADORES other children, even to the extent that she willingly shares her toys and food with them because she is so glad for their company. Yesterday, I happened to mention a certain one of Lily's friends--Jacquelyn, a little girl who is 12 months old--and Lily threw a sobbing tantrum and pushed herself backwards on her tummy all the way across the kitchen floor when I told her we couldn't visit Jacquelyn that day. She lives for nursery, even though she is technically not old enough to go. So I stay with her, but she ignores me the whole time and would not even notice if I left.
She is still fascinated by basketball, birds, cats, and dogs, and recently has taken a great interest in bugs and cars. "Bruuum bruum" she says seriously as she points, every time we see a car, which is almost constantly whenever we go outside. She has a friend spider that she looks at every time we pass the neighboring apartment's front window, and Lily always excitedly does the actions to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." She also does the actions to "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" when she wants me to make popcorn, which is often (although I refuse to make it before breakfast).
For Easter, we showed Lily a couple of the church's Bible videos about Christ, and explained what He did during His life and resurrection. She was particularly excited when, during the sermon on the mount, Jesus told the parable of the wise man and the foolish man. She recognized the words from the primary song, which we sing at home and in nursery, and started doing the actions. She wanted to watch it over and over, and signed "Jesus" and pointed to the computer several times a day every since. In fact, sometimes she throws tantrums when we don't let her watch it. I honestly don't know if I should be happy or chagrined at this development. I know it's not recommended to let toddlers have any screen time before age 2, and she already wants to watch it too much. But at the same time, she is watching a video about Christ! If there is anything I want her to be excited about, it's Jesus. :)
Lily is also into clothes. "Isn't that a bit early?" you say. I would think so too, since she's not even old enough to be in nursery by herself yet. But she has definite opinions. If I ever dress her without asking her opinion first, she will soon bring me the clothes she wants to wear instead, and she gets quite upset if I don't change her clothes. She loves outfits with animals, flowers, butterflies, stripes, bright colors, or some for no apparent reason. She got so excited about some new Winnie-the-Pooh shoes that she just stood bend over, excitedly touching her shoes for several minutes and wouldn't walk anywhere. She sometimes wants to change her clothes multiple times per day, and will try to put on articles of clothing herself by draping them around her neck or putting them on her head. This is not limited to her clothes. She even tugs on the clothes in my closet until she pulls them off the hangers and can "dress" herself in them. And of course she tries on my shoes. She's such a girl!
Other news: Adam is starting his therapy practice! He has an office, a supervisor, and even a potential client. Seeing as we have been here for a year and a half, this is pretty exciting news to me. Adam is always happier when he's doing therapy, and I am always happier when we're not living on borrowed money. I haven't been up to anything really exciting, although I have started running again regularly. It is harder, since I have to push Lily in the stroller, but I am doing it! I think I will run a 5k next month - the first I have done in years. It would be fun to do a triathlon or something like that, but I don't think swimming or biking are realistic at the moment, since I don't have a bike trailer for Lily and I can't really justify buying a membership to a pool. But running alone is fun.
That's probably all the interesting stuff, so here's some more pictures.
Happy spring! Hope you are enjoying the April showers, or at least some good ol' April puddle-jumping.
