Lyla Bee

Oh Lyla, where should I begin? Lyla is beautiful, smart, funny, curious, caring, sweet, studious, snuggly, imaginative and a million other great things. On the other hand, she is defiant, stubborn, bossy and can throw a temper tantrum to boot. I have a love/hate relationship with this age. Most things I love, but there are definitely aspects I could do without. I learned the true meaning of a tantrum this past month... whatever I was calling tantrums before are a breeze compared to the temper tantrums we deal with now.

Lyla loves to make us laugh, and she does so very easily. She makes funny faces, talks in a funny accent and says hilarious things. But she is also very caring and intuitive and can be very serious. One day, I was on the verge of a breakdown because I was just emotionally wiped from the day. Lyla came up to me and said, "What's wrong, Mommy? I just want you to stay happy... do you want a hug?" It was the sweetest thing and made me feel a lot better. I love to watch her take care of her animals. She nurses them, rocks them, sings to them, and gets them band aids for their ouchies. Watching her be so caring makes me feel like I gotta be doing something right!

Lyla's sentences are unbelievably long these days. She talks so much, and the stuff she says just cracks me up. "Mommy, will you come see my show? It is really important!" "Hey Daddy, don't forget to call me!" "And then she can go back home in Mommy's belly!" We have a book called The Quotable Kid where we can fill in quotes... and it is filling up pretty fast! Lyla always says exactly what she's thinking... "Mommy, I don't like that little boy, he isn't nice" is something I often hear while we are out and about. She uses her words to try and negotiate TV time.... "I want to watch a lot. Two isn't a lot." "Just one more." And she is getting the hang of "You" vs "I" and "Yours" vs. "mine." Sometimes she still flips them around, so it's hard to say who she is talking about sometimes. Before bed, I give her a hug and say, "I love you so much!" And she flings her arms around me and says, "I love YOU so much!" And sings me a lullaby. She is so sweet!

I love watching her pretend. She pretends her room is the cottage home, a park, a barn.. all sorts of things. The other day, she pretended that Santa brought Kallan and I rocking horses, just like the one he brought hers, only different colors. So I pretended to rock with her while Kallan laid in her boppy. Lyla still pretended Kallan was on a rocking horse, too, and suddenly she hopped off hers, went over to Kallan and said, "Kallan, you need to scoot a little bit, you're too close to the edge! Careful!" She often acts out episodes of Dora or Diego. She makes bridges to help the ants. She catches falling animals in her room. She follows her map to get to certain places. Her imagination is endless, and I love seeing what she comes up with. 

Lyla is great about going on her potty and even goes on big potties sometimes while we are out and about. And much to my dismay, she has dropped her nap. So instead of a 3 hour nap, Lyla hangs out in her room for an hour of quiet time each day. Not really the same, and I am seriously missing the emotional reboot in the middle of the day. Things will be much easier in the summer when we have more to do during the day!

And she is a great big sister to baby Kallan. She talks to Kallan when she's fussy and says things like, "It's okay, Kallan, Lyla's here!" She doesn't hit anymore and she is very gentle and sweet. She always includes Kallan when she is pretending. Whenever Kallan isn't in the room, Lyla looks for her and asks where she is! Having two is definitely tough, though. I thought it was super easy at first because Kallan slept so much, and even Lyla would sleep 3 hours during the day. But now Lyla doesn't nap, and she is so noisy that Kallan has a hard time napping, too. Sometimes when Lyla is throwing a fit, Kallan will cry, too, and it's just a big headache waiting to happen. On the flipside, Kallan will sometimes laugh when Lyla is laughing... and that is like music to my ears!