LILY IS READING

Lily brought home her first reader from school today, a 16-page book called The Tin Man. She pulled it out this evening and read THE ENTIRE BOOK to me over the course of about an hour. The word "the" tripped her up the most, but then she got that it is more of a sight word rather than one that can be properly sounded out. By the end of the book she was recognizing a bunch of words by sight!!!

I am SO SO SO SO SO SO PROUD of you, Lily!!!

When she finished it, this is what she said: "I read the whole book! And we can read it again tomorrow!!" (This at over an hour past her bedtime...!)

Wow. What a great day! (It also happens to be our 5th wedding anniversary. :)

Lily at preschool - even better!

Whew. After yet another morning of Lily crying and telling me over and over and over again that she really doesn't like school, and dropping her off only to have her ask a teacher if she can just sit in a chair and watch (as she's done for the first hour to hour and a half of all the previous school days), I received a call from the school 20 minutes after it had started. The owner told me that Lily had told her all about her birthday, and all the decorations and everything I did and everything her Tatus did, and then she said, "I think I'm okay now. I think I'm going to go play now." And with that, she hopped off her chair and went and sat down with all the other kids in CIRCLE TIME! and listened to a story.

WOW!

She was really not interested in sitting with all the other kids during circle time. She's never been one to enjoy crowds of kids... so hearing this is great. I'm so relieved, and so proud of her for deciding to give circle time a try today.

Boarding! Shane!*

Lukasz perfecting his 180s on Unka Shane's old skateboard deck. Incredibly agile. He started out only able to turn 90 degrees and not land back on the board, and after 2 days of practice he was doing 180s easily and landing perfectly back on the board. :o)

*Boarding! Shane! is what Lukasz says whenever he sees a skateboarder. :)

She knocked my socks off just now

Lily does not want to lie down for her rest. She wants to watch tv. I told her that we are not watching tv right now, but there are lots of things she can do - colour, build, look at books, do a puzzle. She settled on doing a puzzle. A puzzle we haven't done in 6 months or so. The puzzle "with the girl who is giving flowers to the little bunny with the yellow t-shirt". I knew which puzzle she was talking about but I couldn't believe she'd remember that the bunny was wearing a t-shirt, AND what colour it was, because I couldn't even remember what colour the bunny was, or that the girl was giving him flowers.

So I dug the puzzle out from underneath all the paper on my desk, and sure enough:

ABC!

I was just on the phone and I heard Lily singing so I came around the corner to see what she was singing and I heard:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y and Z,
now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me.

Holy cow!!!

Wow!

This afternoon when I picked Lukasz up out of his crib after his 2nd nap, he still had his soother in his mouth. So on a whim I said to him, "Should we put your soother in your crib?"

He looked at me, gave that little chuckle (that Gran loves so much :), reached up, took his soother out of his mouth, leaned over and dropped it into his crib!

He may not be talking yet, but apparently he understands plenty!

Continunally amazed

Tonight we were at Superstore picking up some things from the bulk foods section where there are lots of compartments with easily opened clear doors at the perfect height for a two year old to reach in and grab the contents. Lily did precisely that. She found the one with lollipops in it and picked out a bright red one. Then she proudly came and showed me, saying "Look what I got!" I figured the possibility of meltdown was about 80% if I tried to take it from her, so instead I said "Very nice. You found a treat. Can you put it back in the box?"

And you know what Lily said? She said, "yup".

And you know what she did? She opened the door, put the lollipop carefully back inside, closed the door and ran back to me with a proud grin on her face.

Two year olds can be SO challenging... and so amazingly wonderful!

Mommy's singing pays off

Lily really likes a karaoke book she received from Ciocia Natalya, Wujek Daniel & Babcia Nina for Christmas last year. You know how to flip a switch so the keyboard plays an entire song (there are 12... which means a lot of singing for Tatus and me) and which page and pictures correspond with which songs. Your two favourite songs are "The Wheels on the Bus" (but only the round of "the mommy's on the bus go shh! shh! shh!" which your swimming instructor taught us) and "ACDs" as you call the ABCs.

This afternoon we were lying on your bed after you'd woken from your nap (with mommy unsuccessfully trying to catch up on her sleep after working last night) and you started saying some letters, and I realized you were saying them in order! You finished off with "Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X"!

Wow!

Lily draws more

Lily has come a long way with her drawing in the past few weeks. Not only does she draw smiley faces on every circle, sun and balloon I draw, but she draws her own suns:

and funny faces:

and this she proudly titled "misiu with balloons" meaning teddy bear with balloons. When I was drawing her a teddy bear, I'd make the side of it like loose zig-zags (a quick way to make it look fuzzy). I think she's imitating that here, and the bit on the far right is obviously a balloon.

I'm so proud of how artistic she is becoming! :)

Letter to Lily: month 25

Dear Lily,

My method of disciplining you has come into question a couple of times, and that made me think that now might be a good time to explain it all to you, so later you might understand my reasons for raising you (and Lukasz) as I am. And maybe this will help you in some way when you have children of your own.

The essence of it all comes from The Way to Happiness, a book I read and studied when I was younger. There are two precepts I follow in particular with you: Treat others as you would like to be treated and Set a good example. Simple, really. Sure you are a child, but as much as I can I treat you as an equal. You are a person just like me, after all. And I do believe that all children are born brilliant. You continually amaze us with the speed in which you pick up new skills and new words, and how you react to certain situations using something you noticed or learned at a previous time. I try to let you experience life and everything in it with as little obstruction as possible. If there is something you want to touch that you shouldn't play with, such as one of my figurines, I let you hold it and tell you to be gentle. Once you are done looking at it, i'll put it back on it's shelf and tell you that it belongs to Mommy. This worked for my mom, and so far it is working well for me, too. Rather than telling you things are off-limits and saying NO! all the time, letting you look and touch seems to diminish your curiosity and you move on to more appropriate things, like your toys.

This isn't to say that there aren't times I have to discipline you. You started throwing dirt at the park and this was something I don't think you should do under any circumstances. It could get in people's eyes, and it makes everyone around you dirty. This was something I said "No" to, and also explained why, and then told you that dirt stays on the ground, or we can put it in your pail. You tried throwing it a few more times, but I repeated myself and then showed you how we can put dirt in your pail to make a castle. You haven't thrown it since. Now every time we go to the sandbox at the park you want me to help you build sand castles.

You also went through a phase of hitting me. I could tell by your face that you were curious to see what sort of reaction this would bring, and each time it was the same. I said "NO. Don't hit Mommy." Then I told you it hurts me. You've stopped hitting, and now when I hurt myself and say "ouch!" you come running and asked me what happened. I tell you how I hurt myself, and you often try to make it feel better. Lately, you blow on my owie and if I ask, you'll give it a kiss.

Speaking of hitting, your Tatus and I both agree that we will never hit or spank either of you as a disciplinary measure. I think that getting you to understand why what you did is wrong, and then fix it or apologize for it or somehow make up for what you did is a much better, more productive approach. When you spill something, I get you to help me clean it up. If you make a mess of folded laundry, I get you to help me put it all back on the couch or the bed. If you treat Tatus or I in a way that is not nice, I tell you it wasn't nice and get you to apologize and give us a hug & kiss.


This all has worked really well for you so far. There are times of course when you have a little spaz or tantrum, mainly when I turn the TV off after a certain amount of time (usually 1/2 hour) has passed. But distraction works wonders for you in these situations. I always try to have a plan of what we are going to do next, so the TV quickly leaves your mind and you follow me to the next activity or outing. Just now, for example, I turned the TV off and you asked "again?". I picked up one of your dolls and said, "oh, it looks like Madeline is getting sleepy" and rocked her a bit. I asked you if you wanted to put her down for a nap, and you held out your arms for me to give Madeline to you. Then you carried her down the hall to your bed.

Tatus calls this my "low-conflict" method. :) And I guess it's true. I am proud of the days when you do not get upset at all, when you treat Lukasz and I well, and we all have fun.

When you ask for help, I help you. If I'm in the middle of washing dishes or changing Lukasz at the moment I tell you I'll help in a minute and that I'm just doing something else. Then I always go help you with what ever it is. I've seen this come full circle more and more lately. You don't like the vacuum, but as soon as I'm done, you come running saying "help me! help me! cord" which means you want to help me wrap the cord up. The same thing happens when I'm doing the laundry. You love to sit on the dryer and help me throw clothes into the washing machine.

All in all, each day presents new situations, new challenges and new scenarios. Every day is a day of learning for me as I try to keep up with how much you are learning and trying to do and consistently stretching every limit you can. But I love you all the more for it, and I hope that my love, understanding, explanations and "low-conflict" discipline will guide you more effectively than a finger being shook in your face, or a spank across the bum would.

Potty training has been difficult, to say the least. I tried to ease you into it by putting you in cloth diapers so you'd feel when you were wet. It seemed to have no effect on you. You'd sit in a wet diaper until it soaked through the liner with no complaints. Then I tried letting you run around with no diaper on, watching you carefully and hoping that you'd complain when your pee ran down your leg. At first, I thought you'd held your pee until you couldn't take it anymore, at which time you peed while standing right next to me. I couldn't get you to your potty fast enough. Later that evening I discovered you had peed elsewhere, twice. Both times on your bed. I tried asking you every 10 minutes if you need to pee, but the answer was always "no". So within the last couple of days, I have started sitting you down on your potty when you wake up from your nap and before and after we go out. I'm going to start doing it more frequently than that in the coming week. So far this is working pretty well. When we first started trying to get you to just sit on your potty, you refused outright. If we sat you down on it regardless, you cried and flexed and wiggled and ran as soon as you could. I didn't want to force you because I figured if the potty became something you hated because we made you sit on it, potty training would take even longer. So I went the roundabout route with the above-mention tactics. Then, someone mentioned to me that giving you something while you sit on your potty can work wonders for getting you to stay put. So I bring small toys and books into the bathroom when I sit you on the potty, and I read you books and play with the toys with you while you sit there. This is working great so far. On Friday (the 5th) you peed on your potty twice. Yesterday you peed once, and so far today you've peed once (although I'm wondering if that was because you asked me to tickle you and I obliged so you were laughing pretty hard). :)


One thing I'm still worried about is that you haven't figured out yet how to pull your pants and diaper down. I'm going to have to practice that a lot with you in the coming days.

This has been a very busy month of changes for you. Not only have we started potty-training, but we are also trying to break you of your thumb-sucking habit. I read up on this and apparently it's acceptable until a child reaches the age of 3-5. For a young child, thumb-sucking is often a comfort. I certainly see that in you. And I understand completely--I still have my baby blanket and there are times I bring it out and knead it between my fingers for comfort as I did when I was a child.

Our reasons for getting you to stop now are two-fold. One, you started sucking your thumb so vigorously that the skin started cracking, peeling and bleeding. Two, we've noticed that your teeth are getting pushed outward by your thumb. You have an adorable, slightly buck-toothed grin that I love... but I'm thinking long-term and hoping you won't have to have a lot of work done to fix your bite.

So first I bought a soother that was supposedly appropriate for your age, although it is bigger than your thumb so I didn't know how you'd take to it. I think it was a novelty for you at first, having a soother just like Lukasz (you love to give him his soother when he loses it). But when it came time to sleep, the soother was nothing compared to your thumb. Then we noticed how cracked the skin was getting on your thumb, so I put a "sticker" (band-aid) on it along with some vitamin E to help it heal. You didn't seem too upset by this, you love stickers after all. But you did stop using your left hand almost entirely and always kept your thumb well out of the way of whatever you were doing. I've seen that you favour your left hand when eating and drawing and playing, so I hoped tht you'd soon see you could still use your hand even with a band-aid on it.

It's been a couple of weeks now that we've been putting "stickers" on your thumb, and while sometimes you do get upset when we are putting it on (and my heart goes out to you each time... I know how hard it must be to watch a thing of such comfort get taken away), you are fine afterwards and proudly show us your "sticker". And since I use the Elastoplast brand (super-sticky) you haven't been trying too much to peel the band-aids off. You did get one off once, but that's because it was peeling and needed to be changed.I have to say that even with the daily challenges, you are SO much fun to be with. Your level of understanding increases each day, as does your vocabulary, and not a day goes by that Tatus and I don't marvel at how clever you are, and laugh at all the ways you surprised us that day.

The skills you suddenly show us just blow us away some days. For example, we were at the park a few weeks ago, and you were playing on the slide and then you grabbed the sides of it and just walked all the way up it on your own without our help. I think your Tatus' jaw hit the floor when he saw you do that! And you've started playing catch with us, too! You have such an arm on you already--maybe you'll play softball like I used to!

We're really really lucky to have you for a daughter, and not a day goes by that I don't check on you after you've gone to bed, brushing your hair back from your forehead, pulling the sheet up that you've kicked off, and just looking, marvelling at what a beautiful talented daugher I have. The love I have for you is so strong it brings me to tears sometimes. And no matter how tough a day we've had, when I watch you sleep, part of me is anxious for it to be the next day again so I can hear you call me, and run to me and we can begin a new day of learning, adventures and fun.

Love,
Mommy

A big surprise

Thursday night was the start of our big surprise. The four of us piled into Babcia & Dziadek's Ford Excursion, along with Babcia & Dziadek, and we drove the 1200 kilometers to Edmonton to surprise Ciocia Natalya and Wujek Daniel with a visit. They knew Babcia & Dziadek were coming, but they didn't know the four of us were. It was quite a surprise for them!

We left at 10 p.m. and luckily Lily and Lukasz slept through the night in their car seats. What awesome kids. Even when they woke up, they didn't complain. We stopped for breakfast and to stretch our legs at a Tim Hortons just past Jasper. I woke up when we were still in Jasper. So beautiful. Towards the end of the drive Lily got restless, so we popped some Polish cartoons into Babcia & Dziadek's built-in DVD player and she was happy. TVs and DVDs are great for times like that (but not much else, really).

We arrived Friday afternoon and Ciocia Natalya cooked us a delicious dinner of salmon, halibut, asparagus and potatoes. Then we went for a walk and saw their neighbourhood, watched the amazing lightning storms...

...and chatted until it was time for bed...

On Saturday they took us to the West Edmonton Mall. Holy Cow. What a mall.Roller coasters whizzing right over our heads as we walked through the amusement park part.

Loop-de-loop-de-loop and a half! And a crazy drop ride. You couldn't PAY me to go on that!

Dziadek and his wnuczek (vnoo-check... sounds like a Dr. Suess character to me :)

Awesome looking merry-go-round!!!

We didn't go on it. I'm too cheap. That mall is expensive.

Wild swing ride. Erk.

HUGE water slides and one side of a....

... very large pool. The pillar in the centre of the deep end is for bungy jumping.Free sea lion show (as seen from just above Lily's head). She loved watching this. I think he's taking a bow in this one.

And in this one.

Gorgeous make-a-wish boat.

Enormous clamshell just under the...

Ship! In the mall. Bizarre.

This dragon was so neat... unfortunately it scared Lily. Kinda scared me, too. This music comes on, lights flash, it starts moving and then it shoots fire out of its mouth! Twice! It was hot. We were standing right in front of it though. My face got toasty. Ciocia Natalya took Lily farther away so I could do my tourist thing and get a video. :) Can you believe this dragon does this every 15 minutes?



Awww.. we took Lily to this pet store and right in front was this little guy, snoozing away:
In the evening Natalya cooked us another amazing meal of chicken and roasted vegetables. Yum! Then we all watched The Bee Movie. Pretty cute. Lily thoroughly enjoyed it. And stayed up waaaaaaaaay past her bedtime. Oh well. It was a treat.

New word, BIG word

Lily and I were reading books this morning as Lukasz napped and as we were reading The New Baby by Mercer Mayer, she stopped me at this page, and pointed to the square on the wall.Then she said "light", rolling the L sound around in her mouth a bit before continuing on to the other sounds. So cute. Then she said "light....light...switch!"

My jaw literally dropped open. I just stared at her, and finally said "oh my gosh!"

She looked at me hard, then back at the book and said again "light switch!"

Then I recovered and gave her the answer she wanted, "Yes! That's a light switch."

She's so incredible. I never thought it would be so amazing to witness someone learning how to talk. And I thought seeing her learning how to crawl and then walk was amazing.

I really love being a parent. :)