Lorelei turned 2. Every time we mentioned that it was her birthday soon she’d say ‘presents, balloooooons’. The rest didn’t matter. We did have a lovely time. We celebrated when my sister, Rebecca, was in town. We made shortbread cookies and decorated them with flow icing. Lorelei got several ballooooons and some awesome presents, including stepping stones. Her physicality is just growing every week. Here’s a video of her jumping on her trampoline both backward and in circles. She’s really grown up the last 6 months. I was worried (a bit) about her language when she hardly knew 4 words at 17 months. Now, at 25, she’s saying multiword phrases every day, and sometimes stringing phrases together. My recent favorite exchange was:
Lorelei is on the changing table and I’m getting her ready for bed. She has a Sneetch stuffed animal in her hands.
Lorelei: throw up
Lisa: the Sneetch?
Lorelei: To see come over head. (clarifying tone of voice) Lorelei head. BOOOOOOM (mimes crashing into her head)
She’s also just maturing. Like making funny faces to be silly, or playing the harmonica with great intensity. She’s charming and silly, and just beautiful. I feel so lucky to be her mom.
In addition to a visit by my sister, my dad came to town. He and Moriarty played Lego breakfast-to-dinner Friday and Monday, and only a few hours on the weekend. They both helped me finish up the chicken run so our girls will have more space to play. We also went to the Roberts a few weeks ago and played with THEM. All these visits have been great, but my inner introvert is dying. I need to go be alone in a cabin in the woods for a month…um…yeah…Luckily, Moriarty is finding new ways to get his physical energy out.
And if that wasn’t enough trips and visits, we drove to Idaho to see Pip’s parents. Lorelei hadn’t really been on car rides since daycare stopped last spring, and daycare was only 5 min away. When I took her to doctor’s appointments this past year she’d say ‘all done, all done, ALL DONE’ when we were driving to/from. I thought she just wanted out of the car seat. NOPE. She’s got severe motion sickness and threw up 3 times on the way to Idaho. We had to clean off our tiny baby girl on a mountain, in the dark, with strong cold winds. Everyone was miserable. But we got there, smelly and exhausted. It was great to see his parents and Lorelei got a second birthday party. We got Dramamine to avoid a repeat on the way home. I have a PhD. I can learn things!