The Baby Page - Lila's Third Year
If you're new to this page, and you want to read about my pregnancy, go to this page and read backwards. If you want to read the latest about Lila, just start now and you'll read the latest news! :) You can read about her first year here and her second year here. Start at the bottom to read it in order. All of this used to be on the same page, but I've split it up since it was getting so long!I've password protected the bulk of the new photos of Lila (my daughter) from 2004 forward. If you're a stranger to me, you'll still be able to see occasional photos on her main page and updates about her on this news page, but the great majority of the new photos will now be restricted to my family and friends. I hope you can understand. It's one thing to have my life on parade, but it's another to have my daughter's out there. If you're a friend or family member who has forgotten the password I sent you, or if I missed you when I went to send it out, and let me know and I'll get you the info you need immediately!
10/25/06
YARG! It be a voice from the dead! OK, not dead, but certainly not very present online lately! I'm sorry. Kind of. :) Mostly I'm sorry I had to do this GINORMOUS update all in one go and that I've missed out on detailed chronicling of Lila's life over the last year. I know I'll forget a lot of the tiny details about her life because I didn't write these updates regularly as I have in the past. :( It's sad, because there's so much that's happened from 2-3 that I can't even begin to imagine it.
Well, all I can do is tell you what I know now. :)
Since there are simply so many, many photos, I completely understand why you wouldn't want to slog through all of the pages, so I've begun with a "greatest hits" photos page, a single page with no words of the best photos from the last year. I hope you enjoy them. skip on over to the photos now, if you like!
Life here is good. Other than some minor house issues and the occasional bout with allergies, everything has been going very well.
Lila turned THREE yesterday, which blows my mind. Mom says "what a difference a year makes". Sondra has moved back to Austin, J9 is very pregnant, Lila is such a big, big girl now and so much more. Where will be all be next year??
We just had her 3 year checkup today. Lila is 37 5/8 inches tall (55th percentile) and is 29 lbs (30th percentile). That puts her at almost three inches since December 2005. OMG, that just doesn't sound right. Do kids actually grow that much in 10 months? ??? She's only two pounds heavier than she was then; I had been concerned that she would only be one lb heavier - or the same weight - but the doctor's scale weighed her at 29. I always worry she's not getting enough to eat, but Mom and the pediatrician AND the nurse all said better to have her in the low percentile of weight these days, and I agree, since more and more kids suffer from childhood obesity. I'm lucky she's so naturally active.
After stopping ever-so-briefly into 3T clothes, she went right on over into 4T for her arms and legs, but her waist remains a 3T, so sometimes we take up her clothes, or buy with elastic. It's really difficult to find good jeans for her right now, her waist is so small. Shoes are now a size 8, but that's only really recently being a solid size. For months, she could still wear 7 1/2s, but now she really needs the 8. Her hair is growing in so fast now after having no hair for so long. She has cute little bangs and a shag cut that hangs framing her face and touching her shoulders in the back. There's just the slightest hint of natural curl in her hair and it gives her a little flip some days.
Lila can TALK TALK TALK like nobody's business. She expresses herself extremely well, and has a large vocabulary. It enables us to talk about what she's experiencing in a way that I wouldn't have thought we could at this age. She's also talking now to other children. She'll just think up things to say, like "hey, I have on a red shirt. Your shirt is red" and the boy said "yeah, but mine is darker red" and Lila said "oh, mine is bright red". This just happened yesterday, so I remember it well. She loves to talk about boo-boos, to show bandaids or to ask what happened to people. She'll say "oh, are you OK?" in this very worried voice and say "I'll give it a kiss". She's very empathetic. We often talk about what another person might be feeling and what she would feel in their place. We talk a lot about her own feelings too.
She talks in this little high-pitched falsetto voice. Even though I very much prefer her "normal" voice, I don't want to make this big deal over it since I want her to find her own voice, figuratively and literally. As she's getting older, though, I am trying to help her find that central voice and power it through her diaphragm, not up high in her throat.
At the pediatrician today, I filled out this survey talking about "can your child say a sentence of four words? Give an example of one of these sentences." and I just laughed because Lila says four word sentences before I can walk from the door to her crib in the morning. Sometimes she has to take a breath in the middle of a sentence just to get it all out. Four words. Indeed. ;)
Teething is OVER, and has been for about every bit of the time since I've last seen you. I am, however, experiencing the Next Hurdle: potty training. Lila is not yet ready for potty training, but she's getting there. And I'm totally OK with this. For about a month, I was really pushing it; we had a chart with sequins and everything, but we ended up arguing about it more and more and I missed just being with her and not pushing her, so we backed off. Now, I'll ask her in the mornings if she wants me to change her overnight diaper for another diaper, or for Big Girl panties. Almost inevitably, she picks the Big Girl panties. She will go to the potty by herself on regular days, but if anything special is going on (a playdate or a birthday, for example), she will just put it off and put it off until she has an accident. I'm trying not to ask more of her than I think she can give me right now. I'm really proud of the progress she's made over the last 10 months.
Her manners are lovely. She has really taken to saying "excuse me" to interrupt someone but still forgets to say "please". She says "thank you" a lot. She would never push in line and just waits patiently for her turn. She has a hard time sticking up for herself on the playground and is intimidated by large groups, but will play happily with only one or two kids, with me, or by herself.
She's not a picky eater per se, but it's the kinds of foods she prefers that are the odd things. She loves steamed broccoli, lima beans, green beans, sweet potatoes. She doesn't like cheesy or buttery things. She'll eat peanut butter sandwiches, but not if there's jelly. She prefers German Dark Wheat to other breads. She won't touch juice normally, but drinks A TON of water (preferably with ice). She will only drink milk from a bottle. She likes chalupas with refried beans on them, spaghetti (preferably noodles and sauce separated). She doesn't have that weird thing where her food can't touch, but she just prefers it separate often. She likes plain browned ground turkey. Black olives. Crackers. Pesto. Icing (not cake). Chips (any kind) & candy. FRENCH FRIES. Fruit, fruit, fruit, pears and plums especially. NO BANANAS; they just don't work well for her body, even though she loves them. I think she probably eats two solid meals a day with possibly two snacks in there. I worry about her caloric intake, something that Mom tells me to forget, but I am always conscious of.
She has this little quirk in that she will often just not feed herself, because she's too busy doing whatever it is she's doing to actually focus on feeding herself. My dad asked her if she would start feeding herself by first grade, and she said no, but I think she will. :) Right now, though, it's in my best interest to feed her, as an Unfed Lila is a Lila On The Edge, and that is never a good thing. When she stops being sweet, she can be very Dramatic and Willful. Her world is COMING TO AN END because her Tinkerbelle panties aren't clean and she must wear the Princess ones! OH NO!!
She's very conscious about what she's wearing, and I almost always give her a choice about what she's going to wear. I pick two things that are both acceptable to me, and let her pick. If she refuses both options, I tell her I'm picking for her and then I start counting to three and by two she's made a choice. The other day, she told me that she wanted me to drive to Uncle Loyd's so that she and Lane could "drop me off" and that they would then go to McDonald's and I would spend the night away. When I asked her who would sing "Hush Little Baby" to her (as I do every single night), she said "um, Daddy can do it". When I told her I didn't think I'd be doing that, she said "but that's my CHOICE, Mommy, that's my CHOICE!" :) It was really funny. Now she often says that to me when I say "Mommy said no" she'll say "but I say yes!".
Three is definitely more difficult than two. She requires more attention, more activity, and she's so competent and clever that I can leave the room for two seconds and come back to find the chair pushed over to the candy bowl and an inverted bag of jellybeans in a hillock on the sofa in front of her crossed legs. The girl knows what she wants. She has a plan. Last week she came in and asked me if she could have a "Pringle Feast" in her room, and I told her "Go ask Daddy" and she said "um, well, Daddy said no" and I said "then it sounds like the answer is no then, isn't it?" and I had to laugh, because this is the first time she's played us off each other like that! LOL!
FINALLY, FINALLY she will tell you how old she is. She was almost three and would STILL not tell someone her age. When we had her first bday party (there were two), I was telling her how old she would be, and we counted out her fingers "one, two, three" and as soon as I told her to count her three fingers, she could do it. Now she'll tell you all the time she's three and "growing every day! getting stronger every day". Finally, getting bigger is having the same kind of draw that being a baby has.
Speaking of which, I think you knew we got rid of the binkies. Or maybe you didn't know that. I can't remember. The binkies had to "go back to their mommy, who missed them", and she put them all in the "magic bag" and when we went back to look, they were gone. Soon, the bottle will go the same route. We're hoping to get her into a big girl bed in Feb or so and out of her crib (which she still totally and completely adores) and I want to have the bottle gone well before then so she doesn't associate the new bed with the loss of the bottle. How we will get her to drink milk after that time, I don't know.
Speaking of beds, she sleeps 11-12 hours a night and another 2-3 hours in the afternoons. The girl can sleep. I like it because I can stay up really late and still get 7 or 8 hours before she gets up. I know mommies whose kids get up at 5:30 or 6:00am. I would have to FREAK OUT if this were my child. I guess I'd adjust, but it would really suck! Lila goes to bed between 9:30-10 (sometimes 10:30 if we're unlucky) and will sleep until 9:45 or 10 every morning. Back in bed by 2 or 2:30 and up at 5 or 5:30. She's also capable of skipping her nap now. We can go to visit grandparents in the middle of the afternoon and then come back that night with no real behavioral problems in-between. It's really nice.
She is very, very funny. She has us laughing all the time. He comic timing is excellent, and I know she's going to have a very quick wit. She loves to dance, to sing, to do art, to cook. She roleplays a lot, often being a teacher or student or mommy. She LOVES baby dolls and will tell you that she is having a baby girl named "Sunshine". Sunshine lives in Lila's belly and is often "getting bigger" or "about to come out". We have several pregnant friends, and Lila is taking their condition to heart. She's been talking about Sunshine for probably 6 or 7 months by now, maybe longer. She loves to pooch out her belly and pat it. :)
She loves to watch TV and gets really into Little Einsteins, 64 Zoo Lane, The Upside Down Show, Dora, Diego, Handy Manny, Calliou, Strawberry Shortcake, Kipper. She loves to watch the movies Milo & Otis, Finding Nemo, Shrek (apparently 2 is funnnier to her than 1). The Disney Princesses are a big hit around here right now. Stickers, sticker books (HUGE), plush animals, animals that are in pairs like "daddy/baby" or "mommy/baby", baby lambs, baby chicks. A strange sudden interest in dinosaurs, but we're going with it. We routinely go the Nature Science Center and take things we've found and take cool things home. Storytime at the library. Time at the park. Swimming (back when the pools were open), playdates, driving downtown and looking at the buildings and listening to the music.
As if you can't tell, life is good. On a personal note, I've finally managed to lose about 10 lbs and keep it off for more than a week or two. I'm really hoping I can go into the holidays and not lose too much ground before Carnaval. :) All is well with husband, home and child. Could have used more rain there over the summer, but it's really nothing to complain about.
Please see the notice above about the password protection on her new photos if you haven't already. For those of you with the password, you can see new photos of her beginning here.
12/30/05
Hello friends and family! We've had a wonderful fall/winter, and since I've last spoken to you, Lila and I have both had birthdays, we've celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving AND Christmas, and so very much more.
If you're only here for the photos this month, you can skip down to them now.
Lila is TWO now (well, technically, she's 26 months, but "two" will cover it). :) I can't believe it's already been two years since she was born. I reread my birth story, and I'm just amazed that it was so long ago. I can remember parts like it was just last week (some, blissfully, are starting to fade!), and I can't imagine when I'll stop going "I can't believe Lila is XXX old!".
She continues to grow like a madwoman. She is somewhere around 34 1/2" tall (50th percentile) and 27 lbs (just under 50th percentile). These measurements are getting more "general" as we're measuring her against walls in on my bathroom scale. I miss the accurate days of the digital scale at the doctor's office.
She's in 2T clothes, although the pants can run a little big in the waist. She's in size 7 shoes (also a little loose). FINALLY her hair is coming in a little better, as you'll see from the photos. All of a sudden, it's thickening up. I'm keeping her bangs trimmed as well as the back, because the hair is still only growing from the "crown" area, and if I let it get too long, it just look stringy and tacky. I really like how it's shaping up to look!
She still loves to talk. I wouldn't have thought that she was speaking all that more clearly now, but I watched a video of her from three months ago, and the difference in her enunciation is really pronounced (no pun intended!). She likes to tell you all about what she sees and thinks. She's got strong opinions about things. She likes to have choices. Fortunately, she's no longer saying "not" for "no"; that stopped a while ago.
Two more of her last set of teeth have broken ground since we last spoke: her lower right and her upper left second year molars. I can't WAIT for that last one to come in so we can be done with all this teething madness.
She's till exhibiting signs of "being two", with willfulness and saying "no", but mostly associated with her clothing. She doesn't want to wear ANY clothing, especially her diaper. She's learned how to get her diaper off if she's not wearing pants, and it's only a matter of time before she can completely undress herself (assuming the outfit has no buttons). I give it a month, at most, before we can leave her in a room fully-dressed, only to return to find her naked. :)
Absolutely no progress on the potty training front. I'm patient. :)
Two things I forgot to tell you LAST update that have been going on for a while. When she really loves something, she'll say "I love it all day!" She also pretends to be a "tiny baby" who doesn't know how to walk, and will crawl slowly over to us and curl up very small in our laps. When I mentioned the latter to our pediatrician and asked him if that was unusual, he said that yes, it is, for a child her age. He says he doesn't expect to see that particular kind of pretend play for 6-9 months yet.
She still loves to sing. She's trying really hard to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and sings the last line with great gusto! She'll tell you "it costs FIVE DOLLARS" about something you're trying to take from her. We don't know why she says this, but it's super cute. You'll tell her about something fun, like going to a party, and she'll ask "Now? Now?" in this little sing-song way, and if you do something funny, she'll say "Again? Again?". She loves to color with her markers. Markers are King. She'll watch the same TV show or read the same book over and over again for what seems like weeks at a time before tiring and moving on to something else. She'll quote her favorite shows and just laugh and laugh.
She's got a great sense of humor, and is also very kind. She says "excuse me" to the animals when she walks by, and is the first to say "sorry" when someone gets hurt. She's so very sweet, it's precious to see her. I hope she stays this way as long as possible!! When people come to our house and we're walking them to the door to say goodbye, she'll say "Thank you for coming over to see me!"
She's becoming more and more conscious of her clothing, and having more and more opinions about what she wears. She's the first to point out if her socks match her shirt, or if something Lane is wearing matches something she's wearing. I love it when she does this. :)
Christmas has been a delight with her. She has really enjoyed giving gifts to her friends and to our family for Christmas. She's loved every party, every Christmas light, every little special thing we did around the house. As she would notice things, she'd be so excited to see them! Decorating our tree was great fun for the whole family. We got the basic tree up and strung with lights before Lila woke up from her nap. Once she woke up, she was SO ECSTATIC about each and every ornament. I think she spent about two hours just jumping up and down, clapping her hands and squealing. Each ornament was like a new discovery. I tried to let her handle every one that wasn't extremely fragile. She got to direct where many of them went on the tree. Mom came up with this great idea to give her her own ornaments, little cheap resin ones, so she could have some she was allowed to take on and off the tree whenever she wanted. It worked great! She also had a small tree in her bedroom - SILVER with fiber optic lights - that she hung ornaments on as well. After it was over, she nearly passed out from exhaustion after being so excited for so long.
When her teeth don't hurt, she's a great eater. Bacon, lima beans, crackers, raisins, broccoli and ground beef are among her favorites. She's no longer doing that "I won't swallow my liquid" thing she was doing last time we talked. THANK GOODNESS. She can count up to 16 now, when she feels like it, and can reliably do the alphabet (although "l, m, n, o, p" are a little fudged!). Her vocabulary is HUGE. We wait until she learns one word, and then teach her an alternative for it. Like "too" became "also" and "big" became "enormous". My favorite word that she uses is "cumbersome". :) I swear, she says it! When you ask her how old she is, though, she'll say "fine" (which everyone thinks is "five" if they don't know what she means)....she's responding to the question "how ARE you?" not "how OLD are you?" and answers "fine" instead of "two", which is obviously what she should be answering. :) It's still adorable!
Lila's memory is fantastic. She'll mention things I haven't talked about in months (no joke). She's also the best Finder in the house. Lane lost his wedding ring: Lila found it. We lost one of her favorite toys: she found it weeks and weeks later. It's so interesting to be able to come to her and go "Mommy is missing XYZ. Do you know where it is?" and then to have her come back days later and go "Mommy, I found it!".
She was really cute about her birthday and Christmas. First, she'd tell me in early November, "Mommy, I want my birthday back. I want my birthday to come over." :) And then as Christmas was approaching, it was "When will Christmas come over? I want more Christmas!" She says that "come over" thing about TV shows, too, like "Dora is coming over!"
I want to brag on her here and say that my pediatrician said that she's functioning mentally and linguistically on a 3 year old level. We were talking about preschools, and he said that we'd have a hard time placing her in a class, as she'd be suited mentally to the three year old class, but couldn't keep up with them physically (even though he said she's a few months ahead of the "norm" on that). I don't like to mention her "advancement" very often, because there's such a wide range of "normal", especially these days, but I'll tell you here. We're pretty proud. I tell you, I would be so grateful to have an "average" child, and to have one that is above the average, that's just an even bigger blessing.
On a personal note, I spent the majority of late October until the end of November being sick - first with a cold and then with severe allergies. Just as I was enjoying my health once more, Lane, Lila AND I came down with severe Cedar Fever and I spent early December ill, as well. I think we're through it now - a cold snap seems to have finally squashed the mold and cedar, but we're washing our hands a lot more and staying indoors as much as possible, just in case! :)
I lost a lot of my fall to being sick, and it feels as though I just threw November in the trash can, for all I got accomplished. Mom says she's never seen me as behind or disorganized as I am right now. We got our tree up so late, and also our gifts were late, so this has been a Fall of Chaos. Because of it, Lila's schedule is ALL OFF, and she's back to falling asleep closer to 11 than to 10 and to getting up at 10, not 9:30. :( Hopefully in January, we'll get back on track. We've had almost NO playdates in December, between people of one family or another being sick, busy or just too stressed out to play.
Mom's and my "health" bet went to the dogs from the holidays. I have one month until Carnaval, so I have to GET BACK ON IT! I will report back. At least I haven't PUT ON weight, right???
Please see the notice above about the password protection on her new photos if you haven't already. For those of you with the password, you can see new photos of her beginning here.
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