#8

Lillie James,

You are just the sweetest thing in the world.  You have a little bit of a defiant attitude (somewhat ornery) from time to time, but most of the time you are so sweet.  You are a little ham.  You love to laugh and make people laugh.  You are so outgoing and I love every minute of it because it is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of who I am with strangers (and even people I know).  When I was growing up and going through school, your Nonna would go to parent-teacher conferences to see how I was doing in school and they would always report good things but would say that I "never talked."  I have a feeling that your reports will be more like your daddy's in that you will be doing well in school but you will talk too much.

The other day I took you to the grocery store with me and had you in the cart.  We were strolling around the store and you would say very loudly, "Hi!!!" to any and every stranger.  The nice ones that say "Hi!" back to you are my favorite because they are inevitably fostering your sweet, kind outgoing personality.  If we began to stroll away from anyone you would say, "Byyye!" to whoever was around.  Then, randomly you began to say, "DADA!!!!" over and over again.  I told you time and time again, "He's at work, baby."  I was beginning to think that strangers would think I'd kidnapped you and you were desperately trying to get back to your dad because of how many times you called out for him.  But, this has become a pattern everywhere we go in that you call out for your dad.  It's the sweetest.

You have the craziest memory.  You remind me of your uncle Zak in home videos I have seen of him "reading" books that he had just completely memorized word for word.  I have a set of about 24 flash cards with animals on them and each flash card has a different animal on each side.  You have played with them off and on but we hadn't gotten them out in over a week until one night I pulled them out.  I really needed to clean the kitchen and you had been attached to my hip lately (literally) so I decided to lay them all out on the kitchen floor with the tiger flash card face down so I could tell you to find the tiger.  I laid them out and said, "Find the tiger," and within seconds you went straight for the card with the eagle which has the tiger on the other side.  I laughed and said, "Your memory is freaky, Lil."  Needless to say, this activity did not buy me the time I had hoped it would.  

You have a little book called "Babies on the Farm" that I love to read to you because you "read" it with me by trying to say the words like I do (some words are nonsense but you use the same inflection that I do) and you anticipate each animal that is coming on the next page by either saying the animal or the sound before we even turn the page.  You memorize these little books so quickly and are just a sponge for learning.  You are helping me convince your Papaw that the degree I earned and he helped pay for was all worth it because I am indeed teaching you things every day.  And what's even better than the words you are learning and shapes and colors is that I get to instill in you things like kindness, patience, sharing, etc.  And you help me be a better person because I don't want you to see me do anything that is not Christlike and emulate that.

One of my favorite things you do as of the last couple months is the sound you make when you put on your necklaces or when you have me and daddy put on your necklaces.  You say, "Oooooo!!!" and then act very bashful as if you are embarrassed of the attention but you don't fool us; we know you soak up every minute of attention you get.

You are mildly obsessed with the moon.  When you first recognized the moon and said the word, it was, "moot."  It was the cutest but daddy was trying very hard one night to get you to say the n at the end of moon and so he emphasized the n by saying, "moo-na," so sure enough,  you began saying it the same way.  You love to call out for things when you don't know where they are in the way someone would if they were out looking for a missing person or dog.  So, for days it was, "Mooooo-na?  Mooooo-na?"  You are always looking for the moon when we are outside, day or night.  And sometimes you find it during the day when I didn't even realize it was there.

You think every letter is "A" and it's the cutest.  It's my favorite when we are out in public and you say, "A!" and I look at a word you've seen that has an "A."  You love to count to three and when your dad and I continue counting you sometimes say six, seven, eight, and ten.  Never four and never nine.  It's so sweet.

You are very into giving kisses recently and my favorite is when I catch you giving your baby a kiss and telling her, "Nine-nine" (night-night).  This shows me that you have picked up on the routines we have with you and you have seen love being shown in these ways and it makes me happy to know that you have picked up on it.

You love going to Daddy's office to see him and you run around like you own the place.  You say, "Hiii!" to all the patients and you manage to always make people smile.  You call out for your dad when he is in a room treating a patient.  You get the sweetest smile when you see him come out of the room and you insist that he holds you.  You are not a big fan of watching Dad adjust me though.  You are getting much better because we smile a lot and then cheer when he is done.  You've come pretty far from the time you began crying when he adjusted my neck.

You make us laugh every day and we love watching you grow and develop day after day.

Xoxo,

Mommy