One way in which babies/toddler behavior seem to be like New England weather is that if you don't like it at the moment, just wait a minute or two - it'll change. The past few days have had some really fun aspects and some not so fun ones. The fun part has been all the talking she's doing! I did a couple of posts with word lists, but it's gotten hard to keep up lately. One night this week, she threw out four new words in about an hour and a half. My favorite so far is "whale".
I just bought her a bunch of new Carter's PJs while I was in Houston. One of them has a whale on the shirt. So she's sitting in her room before bed the other day "reading" Eric Carle's "The Grouchy Ladybug". At the end of the book the last creature the ladybug tries to spar with is a whale. So I took the opportunity to point out the whale in the book and the whale on her shirt. Lily was delighted and kept pointing to the book and her shirt and saying "whale, whale". The next morning she showed me the whale on her shirt again while I was changing her diaper. Fast-forward to tonight. She's wearing another light blue shirt, but this one has a kite on it. She points to her shirt, looks at me and says "whale". So I say "kite", she says "whale, whale" - this continues a while. Finally I go get the whale PJs to show her the difference. The following conversation ensues:
Me: (points to PJs) Whale , (points to shirt) "Kite"
Lily: (points to PJs) Whale
Me: (points to shirt)Kite
Lily: (points to shirt) Kite
Me: Yes! that's a kite that's right
Lily: (looks at me very seriously then points to shirt) WhaleKite!
Lily 1, Mom 0
On the less fun side of things she's been trying her hand at some really nice tantrums lately. The first one was my favorite kind - a public tantrum.
The scene: Pottery Barn Kids in the Burlington Mall.
It's getting to lunch time and we go in there because I just couldn't resist the adorable kid-sized Adirondack chairs any longer. Some of you may know about my love/hate relationship with PBK. The stuff is SO cute, but my god WHO BUYS THIS STUFF?
Me, that's who.
So I'm in there with her and Lily takes a look at the cute little table all covered with plates and cups and I'm pretty sure thinks to herself, oh great lunch now WHERE'S THE DAMN FOOD? So for the next 10 minutes I try to procure a cute chair while she tries to mouth every plate and cup on the table pausing only to throw herself on the floor and scream when I take something out of her mouth.
My favorite part is when the helpful PBK salesperson tells me that sure they can bring the chair to the loading dock, they make one trip on the half hour and I have to be there when they get there with it. Umm... yeah, scheduling anything to the minute with a toddler, not so much. So after some brainstorming (all the while Lily is pitching a fit) we decide that I'll just haul the box out of the mall myself while pushing Lily in her stroller... somehow.
Finally I escape PBK and the stares of all the other Moms with their perfectly behaved kids who I'm certain are shaking their heads in pity and judgment. Lily is, of course, still freaking out. I wrestle her back into the stroller, but she was having NONE of that. Finally I get us to a mall sofa, sit her down and pull out the lunch I've packed to see what kind of snack we can have. Here's what I find in my bag:
hummus, sunbutter smeared on a rice cake, cucumbers and cheese
Ok folks, what was I thinking? and WHERE ARE THE ANIMAL CRACKERS? To my dismay she rejects the cheese and we end up sitting on this nice sofa eating hummus with a spoon. and smearing it all over the place. Now I'm ignoring the glares of the mall goers who are thinking "really? can't she feed her kid in the food court where they have tables and NAPKINS?"
The morals of this story are:
Hummus, although healthy and a favorite, is really not great mall food.
Always pack some animal crackers
Don't forget the wipes.
Lily 2, Mom 0
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