Lilyisms and Jack learning how to write with Uno

Lily, singing "I Will Go, I Will Do" sang it "I will go, I will probably do..." She loves to sing, and I catch her mixing up the words a lot. "Adam was a prophet, first he was a child! Eena eena eena, in the latter days! Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, he knows the way!" I know "I Am a Child of God" in French and Spanish, and I caught her one day singing the first line in French, the second line in Spanish, and the rest of the song in English. Tim and I both sing "Divina Luz" a lot ("Lead Kindly Light" in Spanish) and she sang it perfectly one day in the car. Just now, she said "Charlotte has cute little legs and fat little rolls!" because I comment on my baby's oh-so-cute fat rolls enough, apparently :D One day last week, Jack wanted to play the card game, Uno. He was really excited b/c he learned the last time we played that one can keep score and play multiple rounds and have a grand winner. He wanted to keep score! I was nursing Charlotte, so rather than just wait for me to be done, he gathered the pen and paper, got an alphabet book to show him how letters are made, drew an "M" for Mommy and a "J" for Jack on the page, and set up the game. He was even so excited that he was writing that he wrote the numbers for the score the first 2 times. After that the paper was full (beginning writers write HUGE!) so I wrote the rest of the numbers. It was so satisfying for me to watch him do all this so cheerfully. If I had sat him down at a table and told him to draw those letters and numbers, he would have fussed and whined and barely tried. I know it's just a start and he's still got a long way to go, but he persevered and learned and even submitted to correction (I showed him how to hold the pen correctly).

Summer flu, nursing Lily, dear friend visited

We caught the summertime flu. Please don't send me lots of sympathy and "Oh I'm so sorry you're sick!" comments, b/c every time we're sick we grow closer together as we all pull together and take care of each other. Yeah, I'd like to gain that family closeness another way, but it's still worth it! I've been re-reading the beginning of this blog, smiling as I remember things I had forgotten, frowning when I read something and simply cannot recall it at all. I'm glad I wrote it when I did, and I wish I had started earlier in Lily's life. The only real failures are giving up and not learning from your mistakes, right? Today I napped with Charlotte while Jack and Lily watched movies. I also did laundry and played with Charlotte, and read to Lily and Jack and got food for them. I nursed Lily a few times... Yes, she is still nursing. And when she's sick like this, I'm really glad; all she ate yesterday was my milk. She's learning some better manners, asking nicely and not throwing a tantrum if I tell her I need to do something else first. She also is VERY sweet about staying carefully in a position to not hurt me (I thought the pain of nursing her would go away when I had Charlotte, but it didn't...). I can see that she doesn't need to nurse as much as she did when she was a toddler, nor as much as she did right after Charlotte was born, but neither of us is quite ready for weaning yet. It was tough right after Charlotte was born; I had my baby in Charlotte, and nursing Lily was painful and awkward. But we persevered (with tears on both sides), and we're in a good place now.

My dear friend came to visit a few weeks ago, with her four kids ages 1 1/2 to 9 1/2. (She doesn't publish her name on her blog, so I won't publish it on mine, but it rhymes with Selena Huf.) I laugh at myself b/c I was there for her youngest son's birth, the one that's holding Charlotte in the picture, and he doesn't usually like me. I feel so miffed and slighted. I say "I saw you come OUT of your mama, kid!" and he still runs and hides every time he sees me. But Charlotte gives me leverage! He LOVES her! So I can get close to him without him screaming, if I have Charlotte! Good night!

Things I don't want to forget: Charlotte cooed and gurgled at me for about an hour, nonstop, after we came to pick her up from Tim's parents' house. She missed me and had to tell me all about it! Lily hardly nursed at all today. The one time she did, I had to stop pretty quickly to take care of Charlotte. Lily started to cry, but she stopped when I suggested she look at a book. I even read it to her. It was our lift-the-flap Baby Jesus book, and after I read it to her, she proceeded to read it to herself out loud. I didn't get to listen to all of it, but what I did hear she got right! Jack asked me what I want for my birthday, and when I told him "Chocolate!", he said he would get me something else so it would be a surprise. I told him it's a good idea to get someone the thing they want, and it will still be a surprise because I don't know what kind of chocolate he'll get me. He was excited! We went out to a fancy restaurant for our 8th anniversary tonight. It was so yummy! Malina sent me a birthday card and I called her to thank her. I love how we always laugh when we talk to each other! She said she decided years ago to not be offended by people because it takes so much energy. I want to be like that! So I will. I love the way my sweet tiny one sleeps soundly as long as I'm cuddled up to her. She'll sleep all night long, only waking once or twice to nurse, and I don't mind that because I can just roll over and nurse her while I go back to sleep! My memory is affected by this depression. I cried last night when I realized how little of Lily's baby days I remember. When Tim and I discussed it, we decided that it's not so much my memory as my recall, because I remember a lot when he reminds me. In any case, writing it down will help!