Tuesday, March 13, 2012

On my toes

Today's post is an update about my adorably perfect children. This is a pretty loaded post so try to keep up. I thought about splitting it up, but time and the stream of thought I'm having aren't permitting that right now. Here goes.

From the minute Lila could talk I knew she was smart. I could see the wheels moving at the same rapid pace I see in Seth. From what I can tell, Evie is smart too...however, her smart seems to be more along the lines of sneaky. Street smart, if you will. Yes, I'm aware she's a baby.

The past week has marked the beginning of verbal communication from the littlest Burrow. She already says her version of Lila. I believe Lila was her first word and she has been saying it for a while. YA YA! She's right on target for her age in regards to the "drop the (insert noun) so that you can say uh oh!" game. In the drive through at Starbucks today she energetically held up her hand and yelled "HI!" to the person in the window. She repeats the word "ga!" very loudly when Molly comes around. This one took me a few days. Unfortunately, what she's really saying is "go!". When Molly gets in my face and licks me that's what I say...it seems I say it a little too often. Lastly, she is well aware of what the word no means even though I've only heard her say it once so far. I know she knows what it means because of the video below. There are two areas of the house I say, "no, no, no Evie" when she goes near them. The dog water/food bowls and the brick area and entertainment center in our den. She smiles and shakes her head, but it does seem to deter her from going near them. I'm sure that won't last long though.



To say that Evie has found her voice seems silly to me. Evie has had the most piercing, horror movie style scream since the day she was born. I'm pretty sure if I wasn't her parent I would be concerned that we were harming her in some way. You've seen her "singing" voice already, but since she so loves to show it off I had to share again...



How easy it is to forget the newness of things at this age. Each new word is like a light bulb going off! What's so spectacular about the second child is that they refresh your memory of these things with the first. I go to bed at night thinking about all the things I saw in Evie during the day and then remembering those same kinds of things with Lila. I guess this could also be considered a plus of having kids close together. It's got to be easier to remember :-)

In regards to other benefits of the second child I want to state for the record that I have made great strides in being less OCD as a parent. I feel I did Lila a huge disservice by being so particular about getting dirty. These days I don't really have the luxury of time to make sure everyone stays all clean. I am finding this VERY liberating. I think Lila is as well. And Evie is just happy to play with dirt...


My neighbors have a bit of a dip in their driveway where a puddle forms when it rains. One day the puddle became a mud puddle. We met outside to play and naturally the mud puddle became far more enjoyable than the plethora of outside toys. We played in the mud for quite a while and I just kept thinking I wish I had not waited so long to let Lila just get dirty.




Speaking of Lila, I don't really know how to comprehend that she will be three in a few months. Every day I see more of a three year old and less of the two year old. She's more logical and yet more imaginative. She's determined to do everything I do and yet do everything by herself. When Evie was fighting napping at all today, as she often does, I sat down with Lila at the kitchen table while she was eating a snack and put my head in my hands. I looked up to see her doing the same thing. Every gesture I made from there she copied. If I put my elbow on the table, scratched my head, or rested my head on my hand she was doing it. Typically this would be that stupid mocking game that people do to drive each other crazy. But she was sincerely doing it to see if she could imitate my gestures. It was priceless. She's on the verge of being potty trained (which will get it's own post). She's emotional and yet much more level headed than her early two year old self. Watching all of these stages is one of the best parts of parenthood.

One minute she's all business...


...and the next she just wants to be that little chubby faced one year old that got to be a duck for Halloween. Sigh.


With these new stages of development for everyone come similar stages of becoming this family of four instead of three. Evie has decided that the only fun things to play with in the house are the ones in Lila's possession at any given moment. This holds true for Carson as well. You can imagine that the two big sisters don't enjoy this very much (yes, Carson states frequently that Evie is her little sister too). There have been some physical altercations that have been hard to navigate. On the one hand, I have been the big sister. I know that intense frustration of feeling like nothing is yours anymore. I also now know what I wish I had known most of my life. The little sister adores the big one. Adore doesn't really even begin to cover it. And I'm not saying this as a way to toot my own horn. My mom told me most of my life that Sara thought I was the greatest thing that ever happened. I would laugh and shrug her off. But the way I see Evie look at Lila sort of breaks my heart. I don't know how to teach Lila to be everything she needs to be for Evie. I wasn't a good big sister. I would even go so far as to say I dropped the ball when my parents got divorced. We were so far apart in age and nothing was relatable until we were adults. I wish there was a way to convey to Lila how beneficial it would be for her to rise to the occasion. I'm working on it, but the sibling relationship is a tough one. It would be nice if they could just be like this forever...





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