8-27-08

Lily's attention span is growing so much that I have been able to take her to restaurants!!! I am THRILLED by this. Yesterday was our anniversary and we went out to eat with Lily in tow and she did great. When we were ready to leave it wasn't the result of HAVING to leave due to Lily being too fussy. She probably would have made it through dessert if we had opted to do that! Being prepared with toys and stuff is important, but before, no amount of preparation would have sufficed. Today she made it through a trip to IHOP without any problems.

Lily's "behaviors" have increased. Her arm over her eyes thing, her scrunching up her face (which I still think is cute), spinning, climbing, lining up her toys, hand flapping, and the new one is putting her finger in her nose. When she seems happy at the time, then I really don't mind most of these behaviors. I'm not sure how much is being a toddler or how much really needs to be redirected. When it makes her happy, why should I do anything? I think it's a legitimate question that I honestly would like an answer to because I don't know what's right or not. The arm over the eyes thing happens mostly when she is overstimulated but also when she in not, so I'm not sure what to make of it. It seems as though it is something that she feels she "has to" do, because it is very difficult to get her to do anything else when she is doing that.

Lily has continued her success with textures, for the most. We play with shaving cream in the bath daily to make sure she doesn't regress. Lily has been able to point to many objects in books now. Her vocabulary is really growing. Though she still isn't saying much, she has really been able to get her point across!

I just can't express enough that her happiness is just off the charts, which of course makes me feel the same way! She is just generally been such a happy little girl and I can't get enough of her giggles!