Growing up...

Lily's hair is long enough to french braid! I did one braid too, but two french braids work better because her hair is still shorter on the top. She is getting to be such a big girl. She'll be two years old in just under two months, she's weened now, and is talking so much more too! Today in church she was "reading" her books to herself. She has this really cute book called "Piggies" by Audrey Wood and each page is a picture of a little kids hands with a pig for each finger (doing something funny or silly usually.) Well, when she got to the page that reads "sometimes they're hot little piggies" she'd waveher hand and say "hooot" in a whisper. Then when it came to the one that said "and sometimes they're cold little piggies" she'd make a fist and shiver while saying "coood." It was so cute! Youssef got a little bothered when she'd get too excited and make more noise (though happy sounds) in church. Over all though she did really well sitting still and being quiet and so forth. She's becoming more of a Daddy's girl. It's so cute how she runs to the window and says "Dadadada" when he's home (or when she thinks he's home.) She sometimes will point at the window in the day and say "Dada?" and it's so hard to tell her "No, Daddy won't be here till after dark." She keeps hoping though. ;) When he comes home they run around together and she gets to climb all over him. She has always liked to play with my hair and now she does that to Youssef too (pets the back of his head when he holds her.) She's getting to that age now where she's not a clingy either and even though she keeps an eye on where I'm going (of course because I'm always with her) she doesn't mind when I leave her with Youssef now. They are buddies. ;) It's really cute how she welcomes people into our house too. She hands them toy after toy right at first (most people don't really know what to do with that, but you must admit that it's pretty sweet if you look at it from her toddler point of view how she's sharing with them and so forth.) She can be a little nervous around other little kids till she gets to know them, but I think that's because she's been knocked over accidentally or other kids will hit her or take toys away or something and she's just not sure what to do, but of course she has friends that she can learn how to deal with things like that from. When she was weened I was a little sad not because I wanted to keep nursing her but just because she's growing up so fast. It's also really good though because we are all slowly getting ready for the new baby. I'm getting more and more excited about having another girl! I'm starting to want to do some more sewing and knitting and things and picturing matching outfits and so forth (I like the matching kind that are different colors but the same style the best. ;) She deffinately won't need any more blankets than we already have (though it's always nice to have some specifically for the new baby) and Lily had just barely enough clothes for herself so I might need a few more baby clothes (but again, it's nice to have a few things that are special for the new baby.) We'll see if Lily is toilet trained by the time the new baby comes. So far she's sat on the toilet a couple times (just for fun apparently), but most of the time when I ask her "Do you want to go potty in the toilet?" She quickly says, "No" and shakes her head. Even if I tell her that if she goes in the toilet she can have some chocolate, "No." (I know... I probably shouldn't bribe her, but I thought it migh be a good insentive because she loves chocolate so much.) It didn't work to give her chocolate just for sitting on the toilet because she'd just sit there and eat till the candy was all gone if she could... just to eat the chocolate. *shrug* She'll be ready when she's ready though, and so far we are all adjusting to the new baby coming faster than I'd even planned. Right now Lily's room is just a little room right off of ours, but I think when Renna is 9 months or so we'll move into the back room and have them share the rooms in the front of the house so that it can be more of a play/tv room and the living room could be more for adults! (Imagine that?) I think it would work well because then they wouldn't be too far away from eye site but the mess would stay more in the other room. I don't think Lily would like that right now and would always be coming to our room more because she'd be lonely, but soon she'll never be alone again. ;) She loves to look through the scrap books and point at pictures of her friends and then point and pat my tummy (I told her that there was a little girl in mommy's tummy and soon she'd have a friend with her all the time and now she loves to pat my tummy and "talk" to Renna.) It will be even more fun when she can feel Renna moving. Youssef and I of course can feel her, but Lily doesn't have the patience or understanding to hold still to feel her kick, but soon it will be too obvious for her to miss. I carry my babies really far out from my body so it's really easy to feel them. Several times she'll stretch out or move just right so that she's even closer to the surface and I'd ask Youssef if he wanted to feel Renna and he'd be surprised at how obvious she was. Y. "Wow, there's a baby right there" L. "Yeah, now push her back. It feels wierd when she's sticking out of my side like that."

I just realized how long I've been rambeling.... I should probably go. Lily is still asleep, but Youssef should be home soon (he sells his plaszma on Sundays and Thursdays... I wish he didn't have to, but maybe if some more of my pictures sell he won't have to anymore!) :)

Her hair was wet when I did this so it looks even thinner than it is, but I was amazed that it was even long enough to do this!