No matter how hard I try, I can't find the right words to describe what Lila's second year has been like. Aguilar and I have never, ever experienced such joy and laughter. Since Lila was born, that's all we've experienced.
Lila is an entertainer! She sings, dances, jokes... She loves coloring, drawing, sculpting with play-doh, playing with stickers. Lately, she is loving pretend play. She's so funny! She opens the fridge and pretends her Danimals yogurt are people...so there's the mommy, the daddy, the girl and the baby sister. It goes a little something like this: "Hi mommy! Oh, hi daddy! (then she makes a fake crying sound) Mommy, I made a boo-boo! Oh baby, (kissing sound) boo-boo is much better!" It's hilarious!
Lila is the best big sister in the world. She is caring, she is attentive, patient, loving, playful, and incredibly sweet. Whenever Mia cries she immediately tends to her, gives her toys, kisses, tickles...whatever causes Mia to stop crying.
Lila is helpful. She gets diapers for Mia if necessary. She tries hard to be calm when the house is "upside down", which keeps me calm. She plays independently which is awesome. Like I've said before, she entertains Mia when she's fussy. She's extremely obedient, believe it or not. If I tell her NO or WAIT she may not like it but she makes her peace with it.
Lila is sweet. She can't stand to see us sad. She hugs and kisses us, and keeps asking us "are you much better?" or "are you happy now?". She loves cuddling, loves being held, loves to be caressed by Mia. Being funny is very important to her. You want to break her heart you tell her she's not funny. She'll cry and say "Lila IS funny!" until you tell her that she is, indeed, funny.
Lila's favorite things lately:
TV shows: Pocoyo, Olivia, Peppa Pig and VeggieTales.
Books: Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy and the Bible.
Lila still doesn't have a favorite color. Yes, she does say "pink" for lots of things but she's not settled on one color just yet. I know this because at ballet class she always picks a different color for her pretend bike or pet when it's time to use her imagination. Also, she loves doing her nails but never asks for the same color. She likes purple with pink polka-dots, or red with white polka-dots, or even "french manicure". I have to say, I LOVE THIS about her because I can have things go my way a lot of the time. She's somewhat flexible. :-)
Finally, Lila is now toilet-trained. Considering we've been trying since 18 months old, she took a long time, but when she was finally ready to let go of diapers it only took 3 days (exactly March 10). We invested in 3 different potties. The one that finally worked was the musical one. Rewards that worked for us were balloons. I seriously feel that it had nothing to do with the potty and even though the rewards helped the key thing was Lila being ready. She's very proud of it!!!
LILA'S 3RD BIRTHDAY
It was such a great day!!! She said WOW when she saw her present (a big doll house) but was really in awe when she opened Mia's gift to her (crayola gel paint). Her gratefulness touched us...she couldn't stop saying "this is for me, Mia? Thank you so much!!!" Later, we went shopping for a fish. That was one of Vovó Mê's presents. So she picked a red fish and pink floral bowl decor. After hours of asking her what she was going to call the fish, she finally came up with "Well" or something that sounds like that (I actually think she calls the fish a WHALE). After getting balloons we went home to bake cupcakes. Her cousins came over and she played a lot! We sang Happy Birthday and she had her moment to blow out candles...then Vovó Mê came over and we did it all over again. Of course, she refused to go to bed but was too tired to put up a fight.
Lila never ceases to surprise me with the things she says. She spilled oil all over the kitchen counter as we were making the cupcake batter. I had walked away for a minute and told her not to touch anything until I came back, but she wanted to use the measuring cups and poured almost the entire container of oil inside the 1/4 measuring cup. It went everywhere...under the microwave, mixer, coffee maker... and I had just finished cleaning the kitchen. Needless to say I was really upset. I showed her the mess she made, told her to go to the living room and told her how upset I was she didn't obey me. She played quietly while I cleaned up her mess. When I was done I asked her if she still wanted to help me make the cupcakes and her face lit up. She ran to the kitchen, gave me the biggest hug and said "YOU FORGAVE ME!!! I'm sorry mamae! I'm sooooo happy, mamae, you forgave me!" I get teary-eyed every time I remember the purity of her joy when she realized she had been forgiven. Why don't I have this same reaction every single day towards God? No wonder the Bible says we have to become like children to enter the Kingdom.
Needless to say, our lives have been more joyful since Lila became a part of it. Everyday there's a reason to laugh, and to be thankful. She reminds us of the little things that really matter. We are so grateful for the experience of being Lila's parents. God is awesome.
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Lila's stats at 36 months: she weighs 30 lbs and is 38 inches tall.
