As a completely unbiased source, I would like you to know my kids are smart. And because I like to brag (and because, let’s be honest I am not exactly keeping up with Em’s baby book so this may be the only way she can track her accomplishments when she suffers from second-child-syndrome as an adult) I would like to share with you some of the recent goings-ons in my house:

Lily has started writing letters and identifying sound patterns when she looks at letters. Since she has started school she asks to do her homework and is reading a lot more. The other day she brought me a book to read to her before work and I told her it was too long and to get a shorter one. She looked at me, looked at the book and then folded the book and handed it to me, saying, “See it is shorter now!”. Haa!

Emilie is developing a greater vocabulary every day. She continues to demand people (and the dog) to Go! and has recently started saying ByeBye when she waves bye to you. She also started requesting her BaaBaa if you ask her if she is hungry. My favorite, though, is that she consistently says Thank You (DanDoo) now if you give her something. And because she is SUPER smart, she even says it as she tries to steal things out of your hand. Kinda hard not to give your 11 month old something if she has already thanked you for it!

[edited to add: Apparently I am shortchanging my kid's abilities and have been told to add by other bragging family members that Emilie can also say UhOh if she drops something, she can blow kisses while saying "Mwah", she high fives people (but snarls while doing it), claps if you say good job! and is in the process of writing a proposal for the UN to solve world peace.. she is starting where Lily left off.]

We had a great weekend visiting NJ and heading in to the city. Lily loved her first train ride and Mary Poppins was fantastic! Lily actually sang and danced along with the show. At one point she fell asleep (the good news is she didn’t miss any of her favorite songs!) and even clapped for the songs in her sleep.

I was pretty excited about getting some pics of the city… but when I got into the city I realized I had left my battery at home! Fortunately Lynn let me borrow her camera to get a few shots of Lily’s first “thoughts” on the city. She LOVED it!

On Sunday we had Emilie’s baptism, continuing a tradition of using our family’s church for three generations. Sadly, the church will be closing in a few weeks, so I was glad to get to see it one last time. We had all of our aunts and uncles and cousins over to Dad’s to celebrate and sing to Lily for her birthday (and my Dad and Liz too, since their birthdays are this week!)

The next month or so is going to be crazy, we are helping throw a baby shower (where we are going to make candied apples with all of the kids… MESSY and DELICIOUS!), pumpkin picking, Rachel’s shower and wedding, Emilie’s first birthday, Halloween. And soon after that is Thanksgiving, Hanukah and Christmas. Time is flying!!!

So I just told Lily that I would be coming to her Halloween parade and she looked at me and said (and I swear I am quoting here!) “I know you want to play with me, but I am going to go all by myself.”

Kinda bittersweet… but at the end of the day, all I really wish for her is to be independent and happy… we are definitely on our way there!

So Emilie has become a ton more verbal these days. She has a couple repeated sound patterns she uses in context like “UhOh” if she drops her bottle, “DanDoo” if you give her something she wants (I am pretty sure this is a response to her constantly hearing us remind Lily to say Thank You!). But tonight she used her first “word” in true context. She has been saying Go for awhile (Thanks Hip Hop Harry! Click here to be scared and yet intrigued! ) but tonight she started saying it as a demand. I would push her in her car and when I stopped she would turn back to look at me and say “Go”. She then came in this evening and was pushing around a little airplane and started saying “Go!” to it when it rolled. Hopefully some video to come this week…

Too big, too fast…

Dear Lily,

Today you turned three and I am still not sure how I feel about it. Watching you at your party, you were so big in some moments and still such my little baby in others. You have become this exuberant, energetic, cuddly, curious and imaginative child. You continue to surprise me with what you know how to do and what you understand. I often have to remind myself you are only a toddler when you throw a tantrum or do something “bad”, because there are so many points in the day where I feel like I am talking to one of my kids from school.

Please don’t rush into being big, at least not too fast. You are on your way towards growing into quite the little girl. I am so proud of you and have felt so lucky to have been able to watch you grow these past three years.

I hope you know how much we love you and adore you. Thank you for letting me see things again through your eyes. Happy Birthday!

Love, Mom

P.S. The party was great! Thanks to everyone who either picked up my camera to get some shots or sent us theirs (a huge thanks to Craig for that!)