Life with Lydia

Lydia had fun with my slippers this a.m.

Lydia and I played with playdough today. She had me sculpt a dog, and I added a cat. She walked over to her kitchen, got them a water bowl, and placed them so they could drink. She also pretended that they went inside and outside, inside and outside, and so on. Cute!

Lydia has been having lots of cooking lessons lately. This time she made waffles with daddy. She loves measuring, pouring, and stirring. She had a ball!

Lydia was thrilled to shop today, since she got to push a mini cart and select things off the shelves. She picked 2 potatoes, 1 apple and then the items that Paul and I selected. She had a ball. She even got to put the items on the counter and help carry the bag!

Lydia made cookies today for the first time! She did a great job! She followed directions like “wait” “don’t touch” and was a super helper! She helped put the ingredients in the bowl, told me when to make the mixer go, and generally helped. She went through the whole process: from mixing the cookies, adding ingredients, putting dough on the cookie sheets, watching them cook (she brought her chair in the kitchen just for this), waiting for them to cool, taking one to daddy, and (finally) eating them! What fun!

Lydia decided Maggie needed to be fed today. So she put her in the high chair and shared her snack with the baby. This was all her idea!

We’ve been teaching Lydia the polite words all along, and they are starting to come out at the right times now. She’s been saying “peees” for quite a few months. In the last month she’s been saying “de deuuu” (thank you) at the right times and with a cute sing-song. She also says “de deuuu” when she hands us something that is ours. She loves giving us what she knows to be ours. It makes her very proud to find something and hand it to its owner.

And “saaawy” is starting to come out too, though not as easily or often as the other two.

Lydia also loves to negotiate. She asks for “one moaa” (one more) if she wants to continue with something she likes or wants to avoid something. When it’s time to go to bed she asks for “one moaa” or “fie” (always whispered and as in 5 minutes, I think). What’s funny is she’ll ask for “one moaa” even if it’s something that can’t be numbered, like rocking or playing. So cute.

Lydia started showing remorse a few weeks ago. It seems that 20 months might be early for this sort of thing. I’m not sure. If she accidentally hurts us, she pats us, looks sad, and says “saawy”. Or sometimes if she gets reprimanded, she looks down and looks sad. Interesting to see this sort of thing develop.

Lydia surprises us every day with something new: a word, an action, a reaction. Lately it’s her interest in the academic (at 20 and 21 months) that’s surprising.

She knows just about every letter of the alphabet by sight, and can say the alphabet. Well, not all the way through, but close. She knows which letter is next and even attempts the song part after z. So cute.

She knows her numbers almost all the way to 20. “waing, tttooo, free, foah (though she often skips this one), fie, sigh, seye, eigh, nigh, ten…” She knows the numbers 1-9 by sight and can say just about all up to 20 in order. We never taught her the ones past 10 until one day she kept going to 16! Amazing! She must have learned them on Seseme Street!

What’s really interesting to me about the numbers and letters is that she is leading us through what she wants to learn. We follow her lead and encourage what she’s interested in. She loves pointing out letters and numbers as we take walks or at the park. She’s genuinely interested in learning these things so early on.

Lydia has also started singing along to her music class CD in the car. One day I looked back and she was singing along. I couldn’t believe it! She was saying all the sound parts of one of the songs, and truly enjoying it.

I love watching her grow, discover, and learn. It’s an amazing process.

Lydia found a cozy box to read in recently, the perfect spot. She emptied her toys, sat in it, and started “reading”.