Ila loves her "Wo-weez"

Ila has a new obsession: "wo-weez." To the common english-speaking person, they are known as flowers, but not to Ila. It is "wo-weez?!" "wo-weez?!" from morning til' dusk. It started with the first blooms of daffodils at the park, and in a matter of weeks flowers have appeared everywhere; even in unexpected places around our house. Ila continues to prove just how girly she is with this new obsession. I usually let her pick just one when we're outside and she holds onto it, sniffing it periodically as if she's trying to inhale the entire wo-wee up her shnoz. Here are some beautiful pics I took of her on Sunday after church . . .

Bed Head

This is what Ila looked like when she woke up from her nap . . .

Happy Wear a Green Shirt Day!

Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, we bought some yummy cupcakes from Cappellino's Crazy Cakes on the downtown mall. The icing was Ila's favorite part . . .

"Annyong" Teaches Diversity

I feel better about myself on the days when Ila doesn't watch any TV at all. But there are a couple mornings a week where an episode of Sesame Street can allow me to lay on the couch and zone out for a bit before I start the day. (Not that I think TV is all terrible for kids; I think it's ok in moderation but don't want it to be the center of our household or a daily ritual). Anyway, Ila has come to absolutely adore this magical red furrball called Elmo, or "Annyong" according to her. (Annyong is the adopted Korean character in our favorite show, Arrested Development, so we get a huge kick out of that). She is just completely smitten by him, or it, or whatever. When we do watch Sesame Street she only wants to watch the parts with Elmo in them so I have to fast-forward (thanks DVR!) the other parts which I'm not always that thrilled about either. I know she's too young to actually be learning that it's healthy to drink water, waving your arms around in the air counts as exercise, plants have feelings too, and sometimes a Chinese father and a Caucasian mother can make an African American baby (they're big on diversity), but I do enjoy watching her light up when Elmo dances across the screen and talks to her fish Dorothy or "Darthy" as all the northern kids say on the show (which is all of them).

All this is to preface our experience of Sesame Street influencing Ila's awareness of diversity . . . We were at Bodos eating breakfast Sunday morning and sitting next to us was a family of five. The mother was Caucasian, the father was African American, two of the kids were a mix of them and the other kid was as blonde as can be. Ila was SO excited to see this diverse family that she continually shouted "Annyong!! Annyong!!" while pointing at them as if Elmo was going to show up at any moment! If they are here, then Elmo must be afoot!! Fortunately they had no idea what she was saying and thought she was really cute. Ross and I hightailed out of there after it got a little ridiculous though.

Baby Flowers

The past two days have been heavenly. Lower 60's feels has felt like a hot summer day and we have spent as much time as possible outside. The playground right next to our house has some little yellow flowers popping through and Ila is obsessed with trying to pick them. Today she followed this 3 or 4 year old boy all the way across the playground to give him a mangled flower she had been carrying for a while. He finally took it, she immediately turned back around and started walking back toward me, and he stared at it confused for a few minutes before giving it to his dad. It was so cute. The boy acted like he had never been given anything before. I know children are, by nature, pretty self-absorbed and only aware of their own needs, so it was so sweet to see this simple act of kindness. She didn't even stay to watch his reaction - she just really wanted to give him her little mangled flower.

ILA at 17 months

The older Ila gets the more active she becomes and the more she wears me out! Right now I feel like I am constantly trying to come up with new things to occupy her. She is not as satisfied being at the house anymore, so we are always on the go! Some days she will point to her coat, stroller, or bring me my shoes saying "go! go! go!" until I will finally take her somewhere for the third time that day. Luckily there are lots of places to go close by that we can walk to, and it doesn't take much to satisfy her once we "GO." There is a library one block away with a great children's section, downtown mall is fun for her to just walk around and comment on all the "doggies!", and then there is the discovery museum on the mall, Lee Park, and McGuffey Park all within a block. She also likes to walk across the street to the church office and see Ozzy, a giant German Shepherd owned by one of the administrators.

Ila has become very vocal and is saying new words almost every day. Not all of them are completely coherent or correct, but at least her version of them communicates what she is trying to say. Let's see if I can come up with most of them: Mommy/ Mama, Daddy/Dada, Doggie, GO!, All-done, All -done Dada, Cheese, Keys, Duck, Truck, More, Moon, Up, Happy, Puppy, Baby, Apple, Uh-Oh, Socks, Gocks (Blocks), Gool (Ball), Bup (Cup), Pees (Please), Tanku (Thank you), Bubbles, Anyun (Elmo), teetee (TV), Awk (Off-->she tells Sydney to get AWK of the couch), Good Girl, Bad Dog, BaBa (Bye Bye), Hi, yucky, ewww, egg/eggies, Kiki (cookie), and some sentences she has said a few times are "I want that," " I want to play with that," "I want Mommy," and "I want Mommy now," That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure there are more. What's more amazing is how much she understands. If I ask her to point to almost anything in her books, she can identify what it is. She can also follow two step commands like "go in the kitchen and get your juice" or "pick that up and throw it in the trash." She's just amazing! She's eating very well with a fork and spoon at all her meals and it's funny to see how she doesn't like to get dirty or messy. Even when we're at the playground if she gets dirt on her hands, she comes to me saying "eww" asking me to clean them off. This girl needs to toughen up a bit! Amidst all of her cuteness, she has also starting throwing tantrums if she can't get her way, but fortunately they don't last very long and are often humorous. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh when she throws herself on the floor in protest for some reason. Even that is cute! (I'm sure it won't always be).

She has been RUNNING all around now for a while, she likes to dance and be silly, and sometimes if I ask her to sing a song she will start humming something and shaking her hips a bit. It is too cute. . . She takes one bigger nap in the middle of the day now, which has been nice for me to have extended time to get things done.

Though i am thoroughly exhausted at the end of most days, I feel so blessed to spend my days with this little girl who brings so much joy. Thanks for reading! I hope this will be nice to look back on to see what she's doing. More to come!