Lillian Meyer Deetz

Lily - our little bouncing ball. She is exudes life and light and energy. She definitely challenges us as parents, but the person she is and is becoming makes us proud to no end. Although her love can be overwhelming to William at times, she entertains him and makes him laugh in a way that no one else can. William lights up when she is around, and I know even at his young age, his life has been enhanced by their interactions.

Here are a few of my favorite Lily moments lately:

(This one is actually from about 4 months ago) - We were having some issues with Lily, like going up to take a bath at night without serious resistance, getting dressed in the morning, getting into the car in a timely manner, etc (typical kid issues). One of the ways we thought to address these problems was to create a sticker chart. I wanted to create the chart with her so that she would take more ownership in this process. When I asked her what things she thought that she needed to work on, she responded with the following list:

-Not giving anybody flowers that are allergic to them

-Not going in hot, boiling soup

-Not going down the drain because it has rats in it

-Don't ask for too much presents from Santa

-Don't get too much kisses from dogs

-Not making too much "i"s in your name

-Not flying with reindeers in the sky

-Going camping

-Going out in the spooky night

(From a couple of months ago) - Carl and I occasionally revert to the classic parent counting trick (e.g. "You need to put on your shoes by the count of 5...1, 2..."). Lily quickly caught onto this game, and one day instructed, "Mommy, you need to have my seatbelt on by the count of 7....1, 2...". And let me tell you, putting on a seatbelt under pressure is hard to do! I managed to get the seatbelt on with a little time to spare, and Lily and I had a good laugh together. :)

- Lily often interprets what William is saying. In my heart of hearts, I think she truly believes that she understands what he is saying. Conveniently, he often agrees with her, like when he really, really wants to watch Rufus the dog on t.v.

- Lily has been taking great pride in getting dressed on her own lately. In fact, she usually does not want me to see her before she gets dressed in the morning so she can "surprise" me. The other day she got dressed and came into our bathroom and while posing, asked, "Do I look distinguished?"

-These days, Lily has a hypothesis about everything. Anytime there is a situation that we need to figure out, she begins with, "I have a hypothesis that..."

-I love that whenever anyone asks her name or her brother's name, she always replies with "Lillian Meyer Deetz" and "William Oscar Deetz".

- When we went to the Magic House recently, they had all the pictures of the presidents hanging up in their government area. Lily picked out no less than 12 presidents, saying their names and fun facts about them. When she found good ol' "W", she loudly announced that he started lots of fights. I can't imagine where she heard that. ;)

- Carl's mom is visiting this weekend, and Carl and I got to go out for lunch while Mee-maw watched the kiddos. Yay - thanks Mee-maw! Carl told Lily to be careful with Mee-maw and not engage in the "tackle" games like Carl and Lily play, to which Lily asked, "Will Mee-maw be able to play tackle when she gets older?" We just love the childhood notion that no matter your age, you just keep improving with time.

- Lily has the idea that when you want something enough, the mailman just magically delivers it. She has been pining for Blueberry Muffin and her pet mouse, Cheesecake (80's edition Strawberry Shortcake). So one day, out of blue, Lily exclaimed, "I know that one day they just have to bring us a package with them in it! I just know it!" Mommy apparently believes this is true as well because sure enough, they magically appeared in our mailbox! ;)

-The process of reading is just that: a process. It starts from the time that they are babies and learn that books contain pictures and stories. Eventually they learn to turn pages, learn that we read English from left to right, top to bottom, etc. They then start "reading" books on their own, making up the words as they go along. Each one of these steps, and all the others in between, are so important when it comes to the process of reading. It is thus difficult to point to a specific time when a child becomes "a reader". However, Lily is now sounding out words and can (slowly) read and comprehend short stories. This is such an exciting process to watch, and I'm so proud of her progress in this area!