Liliana Lately

Liliana, at four and a half, is probably the most spirited of my children.  Nothing she does is halfway.  When she is happy, she is the happiest girl in the world.  When she is sad, she is in the depths of despair.  She is passionate about, well, everything.  She is incredibly loving, a wonderful sister, and quick to make others laugh. Here is a little bit of what she is up to these days:

--She is slowly but surely figuring out how to read and spell on her own.  As her mother, this is fascinating to watch.

--She currently loves for me to read her the Amelia Bedelia books.

--She spends a fair amount of time sounding out and asking me how to spell words so that she can write lists.

--She enjoys dressing up in fancy dresses, but is equally happy to be in scrubby play clothes so that she can make mudpies and splash in mud puddles.

--She has little treasure hoards all around the house.  She collects little things and hides them together in any empty drawer or cabinet space she can find.

--She has an alter-ego named Bubblegum Girl

--I overheard her talking to Little Ish about Saints the other day.  After Little Ish told her that he has always liked Saint Michael a lot, Lily told him: "I always look up to Saint Mary; she's my girl!"

--She has an unrivaled enthusiasm for glitter glue

--She loves to pick and gift people with wild flowers and dandelions.

--She will get Little Ish to play house with her by asking him to play Ninja Turtle's house.  It is just house where they call eachother by Ninja Turtle names and occasionally bust out the ninja moves to prevent Shredder from disrupting dinner.

--She is starting to demonstrate some facility in basic addition and subtraction.

--She finally has long enough legs to pedal the tricycle.

--She asked me to do a photo shoot of her so she could wear a flower crown I bought as a photo prop.  The photos above are a result of that shoot.