The skin of Lillian

Lillian is ultra observant of her surroundings and noises. We have had several incidents recently revolving around her skin and what is on it.

• I was taking a bath with her when she asked me what was on her leg. I looked at it and didn't see anything. I asked her to show me what she was talking about and she pointed to some lines around the top of her ankle. It was the mark her socks had left on her leg. She began crying and demanding that I take them off. I tried showing her that I had sock marks too and they would fade after awhile but she was not having it. So daddy comes in to see what is the matter and make the wonderful suggestion that we put some cream on it. This Lilly liked and said that she also needed a band-aid. So as we were getting her ready for bed, we put cream on her ankles and band-aids and covered them back up with socks. She had to have cream and band-aids on her ankles for three days but no longer screams when she sees sock marks.
• At another bath, Lillian asked me what was on her finger, her thumb to be exact. I looked and all I saw were the prune lines from being in the water so long. I told her that it was just wrinkled skin from the water and showed her that my fingers were also wrinkled but she did not accept that and began wailing to get them off. I was on my own this night but used the old cream trick and that worked.
• Yesterday in the car, Lillian asked me what was on her hand. Of course being in the driver's seat I had to wait until we were at a stoplight. I looked and did not see anything. She kept rubbing and when I asked her to show me what she was rubbing, it was the lines on her palm. I have no idea what those lines are called so I called them palm lines and she told me to take them off. I said that they don't come off, they are just a part of you she screamed, "NO! I don't want them." Not so much crying this time, just lots of rubbing and fussing. I sat in the car trying to think of something for these lines and finally came up with kissing lines. I told her that the lines are where mommy and daddy can kiss on Lillian's hand and then close her fingers around the kiss so our kisses are always with her. She did not seem too sure of that story and kept rubbing at them saying, "I just take them off."
• The other day she pulled out her hair bow and a piece of hair was stuck on it. She pulled the hair off and asked me what it was. When I told her it was just a piece of hair that came out, she started crying and asked - no told - me put it back in.
• Lillian found a cat whisker one day on the floor. She asked daddy what it was and he said it was a whisker from Elsie. Lillian started walking over to Elsie with the whisker saying, "Here Elsie, put back in." Elsie was very smart and ran away.

I am hoping she will outgrow this phase quickly. It seems to only upset her the first time she notices these marks. She has spotted the sock marks since and has not had a fit - she just wants cream. So we have PLENTY of cream around to erase her marks.

A sweet cookie monster

Last night as we were finishing dinner, Lilly was dancing around the kitchen. She grabbed onto the back of her big girl chair - no more baby booster seat for her, she demands to sit in a regular chair both at home and out - and said to me, "Do you want a cookie Mom?" I said that I was still eating dinner so she turned to daddy and asked him the same question. When daddy said no Lilly then said, "I would like a cookie!"

At this point, both Joe and I start laughing because she is just too darn smart and funny. Which in turn sets Lilly off into a crying jag - simply for the fact that we were laughing at her. I picked her up and tried to explain that we were laughing because she made us giggle and we were very happy. I think she has laughing confused with crying and gets very upset unless she is laughing too.

Why she asked for a cookie, I don't know. She does not get a dessert every night and if she does it is usually an all-fruit popsicle or a homemade yogurt popsicle. It just so happened that we have miniature alphabet cookies in the freezer (a birthday experiment in the works) so I said she could have one cookie. She said "No, I want three cookies." It was so cute that she ended up with three cookies - but she had to name the letters before she could eat them (she had a Z, S and L).

Baby in belly

For awhile now, I have told Lilly that babies grow inside their mommies bellies. There are a couple pictures she has seen of me pregnant with her and I tell her that she was inside my belly. She also likes to look at our wedding pictures and she will say "Mommy and Daddy getting married." One day when she was looking at a wedding picture and when I asked her what mommy and daddy were doing, she said, "Getting pregnant."

Lately we seem to be surrounded by pregnant women. Two of our story time ladies are pregnant and a couple of moms in our playgroup have had their second babies. At least once a week, Lilly will announce, "I used to fit on mommy's belly then I pop out!" If only it was THAT EASY!!

Today we were in a store in the baby section and she was looking at the infant swings. I told her the swings were for babies and she used to have one. Lilly said, "i be in swing when I am little baby crying." We kept walking and then she stopped in front of some infant seats and said "I get baby in belly when I get married in a day." I'm not sure what plans she may have for the rest of the week but mine certainly does not include her getting married and having a baby.

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Lady Godiva rides again!

Lilly riding her Rody pony (a gift from Santa) before her bath

The Christmas Post

Yes, I know it is no longer Christmas but our neighbors still have their decorations up so I am finally posting Christmas pictures.

Lilly had a good Christmas although she was very overwhelmed. She has three days of presents (Christmas Eve with extended family, Christmas with us and Granny and the day after with Joe's immediate family.) We actually had to wake her up Christmas morning at 7:45 am - she is normally up around 6:45 - 7:00 am. Next year we will let her sleep in. She was very grumpy for the first hour and-a-half she was awake and had several fits during the opening of gifts. We all were just so excited to have her look at her presents. Once she got some food in her she was much better.

We made sure we left some food for Santa and the reindeer. When we asked Lilly what we should leave for Santa to drink with his cookie, she said hot tea. So Santa had a cookie, hot tea and the reindeer had carrots. Santa was even nice enough to jot down a quick note for Lilly:

Lilly with her kitchen:

A whole new meaning to mommies favorite expression to Daddy - Sit n' Spin:



Pushing Diane in her stroller:
The kitchen quickly get converted to a restaurant when Lilly sits down and says," Where's my menu?"

Modeling a Christmas present - Baby Legs

Chocolate is good!



The Ayscue cousins got together again for the Christmas pajama photo. Not so easy with four children. Lilly was not into sitting still for the pictures and kept fussing which would then make Cameron start to fuss. So it was real easy to pick out which pictures to get: this was the ONLY ONE that all four children were looking in the same direction:

Boys vs. girls

For some time now, Lilly understands the most basic differences between boys and girls. Over the summer she realized that daddies can not breastfeed. She knows boys have a penis and girls have a "bagina." The other night I was taking a bath with her and she said "mommy's leg rough, hurt Lillian." It took me a few seconds to realize as she was rubbing my leg that she was referring to the stubble on my legs. So I then explained that mommy needed to shave and that she was feeling stubble. Lilly later saw daddy's legs and said that daddy had stubble on his legs and we said daddy' shave stubble on their face.

A few days later in the car Lilly was chanting "girls have stubble legs, boys have stubble face, girls have bagina, boys have penis." She will bring this up through out the day and we play along. It is especially funny to hear her say "boys have penis - don't touch it!" which she has learned from bathing episodes with daddy.

While we are on the subject of bathing with Lilly, she will now take a shower with you. This is a great development since that means I don't HAVE to shower before Joe leaves for work in the morning. Of course the shower with Lilly is not that great - you have to deal with her running all around in the tub and pulling her bath toys out but it is fun at the same time. When she showers with me, I hold hold while we get in the tub and let her get wet in the shower spray and then put her down so she can play. We tend to leave each other alone for the the most part and do our own thing in the shower.

Over the weekend, she decided to take a shower with daddy. A shower with daddy is a much different experience for Lilly. I walked in the bathroom to give them fresh towels and pulled back the shower curtain. I found Joe sitting down in the tub with the shower spray still running and Lilly behind him with a bar of soap and a washcloth. Joe was actually putting her to work by having Lilly scrub his back. She looked at me and said "Mommy go, I still shower with daddy." Joe told me Lilly also washed his leg and helped shampoo his hair. And yes we do know there is a drought and we do soap up with the faucets turned off (which is NOT a pleasant experience for me) but this was just too cute to miss!

Since she obviously does not mind this type of work, I want to know when I can start teaching her to give me a massage and a pedicure.