"Full of Leadership"

"Full of leadership" is the phrase that Liliana's teacher, Ms. Linnie, used to describe her in an email to me. She also said that she, "tries very hard to make sure things go her way." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read those words. It was as if I was looking at one of my many report cards from childhood and reading the comments that my teachers wrote about me (though some of the teachers didn't phrase it quite as kindly).

On the days that I am watching other kids here in our home, I would be hard-pressed to use a euphemism like, "full of leadership" to describe the way Liliana behaves. She can be a little terror when I am giving other kids attention and when things aren't going her way. Her "fits" (they are more than just the tantrums where she used to just cry and yell) often end with all of her tutus and dresses strewn across her room and her yelling at me that she doesn't want me in her room anymore. (Yes, she is only 2--many years from 13.) I know that most of this is about jealousy and it not being the "Lila Show" when other kids are here, because on the days when she is the only one who gets my attention, the fits are rare and I have more time and patience to deal with them so they don't escalate. Her fits have gotten so bad that I signed her up for another day of preschool! She will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings starting in June.

School has been going much better for Liliana. She doesn't cry when I drop her off (sometimes she whines a little) and she is happy and talks excitedly about her day when I pick her up. She also got the hang of going to the potty at school and isn't having any more accidents. HOORAY! She is liking it so much and Adam and I are so happy with the program that we have decided to keep her at Ms. Linnie's next year as well. We will start her in Montessori when she is three. I appreciate that Montessori is more academic and I want that for Liliana, but she is still young, this school is convenient for me while I am nannying, and it took her a while to get comfortable and I want her to thrive in this environment before I switch things up on her.

Swimming lessons are going great also. We started taking her twice a week and she has made huge improvements. She is currently working on going from swimming underwater to flipping on her back and floating to catch her breath and then going back to swimming. She is also learning to dive to get rings at the bottom of the pool. The teacher still has to assist her with these tricks but she is getting close to being able to do it independently.

Some memorable moments from April:

~I was getting Liliana dressed for school and having a hard time (as usual), arguing with her over what to wear. Ms. Linnie likes her to wear play clothes so she usually wears a casual outfit with a tutu over it. She ONLY likes to wear pink these days and I was trying to talk her into a tutu with a few shades of pink to tie together the different shades of pink that she was already wearing.

M: Liliana, wear this one because it matches everything else better.

L: NO! I don't want to wear that one!

M: Why not?

L: Because I wore that to school LAST TIME!

I had to stop and think about what she was saying. Was she really telling me that she didn't want to wear the same outfit to school twice at two years old?!? And, how could she remember what she wore last Tuesday?!?

M: Are you sure you did?

L: Yes! Remember? With my pink sparkly purse-necklace and pink leggings!

And then I remembered. She did wear it. And, I dropped the argument right there because I was the kid who wrote my outfits down on a calendar one year so that I was sure to not wear the same thing twice. I also stopped arguing with her because I was suddenly very afraid of what the future held for me.

~She is "bee-sessed" with wearing pink and making sure that everything "match-ix" or "goes". She will have fits over the panties that I try to put on her and yell, "I can't wear those! That doesn't match-ix!" Or, she will come out of her room dressed in an entirely new outfit and ask, "does this 'go' Mom?"

~"Fweak out" It sounds so funny to hear her say this for some reason. One time she was at the Farmer's Market with my mom and my brother and Colin asked her if he could take her away from my mom to get a balloon. "No Uncle. If you do that I might fweak out!" When I asked her if she had fun at the park with her Dad she told me, "well, I fweaked out because a big girl was on my swing." She says it a lot and I always giggle.

~My mom was giving Liliana a tubby and told Liliana, "your hair is getting so long. It is almost down to your buns!" Liliana replied, "OH! Then I will be just like my Daddy! He has hairy buns!"

~One day when Adam and Liliana were driving on PCH...

L: Dad, that's Capo beach. That's where mommy and me live.

D: Yes, and Daddy lives there with you too.

L: No, you live in Anaheim at work.

~She has a huge imagination. She pretends that she takes things off of the page in a book or off of the television screen and holds it in her hand. For example, she will 'take' the cupcakes off of the page of her favorite book, "Pinkalicious" and hand me one and keep one for herself. "Here you go mommy, don't forget to take the wrapper off!" And we both enjoy an imaginary snack. She also has imaginary pets. There was a cow on Sesame Street the other day so Liliana pretended to scoop it off of the TV and put it in the palm of her hand. "Look at my pet cow Mommy!" I asked her what its name was. "PUPPY!" she replied! She 'played' with her pet cow named puppy all day and even brought her to ballet.

Adam always tells her that she has his heart so every once in a while I will notice her cupping her hands around something imaginary. When I ask her what she is holding she smiles and says, "Daddy's heart!"

~She tries to act so big these days. She wants to do EVERYTHING by herself. "No, don't help me! I can do it by myself." And, when she is telling you a long story and trying to act grown up she wrinkles her face seriously, shakes her hands around like a New Yorker, and ties all of her words together with "I fink", "actually", and "pro-bally". She sounds like a little valley girl when she does this.

~I recently cut my hair pretty short (and cried about it by the way) and she was such a stinker about it. "Mom! Put your hair back in a pony tail!...Let me see it again...NO! Keep it in a pony tail!" (Usually she gets mad when I have it in a pony tail because she liked it down when it was long.)

~Out of the blue to her friend Jack at dinner the other night: "Jack, do you love me?" Thank goodness he yelled "YES".

~I was busy cleaning up her art supplies from her table in her playroom when she quickly knocked the rest of the supplies on the ground with her arm to make room for a new game she wanted to play. I took away the new game and said that she wasn't getting it back until she helped me clean up the last mess.

L: (she ran to the other side of the room) UGH! Now I'm not happy anymore!

M: Well, I'm not happy either. It's not my job to clean up after you.

L: (runs back over to me and gets right in my face with her finger) OH YES IT IS! It is your job! Yes it is!

Even though there is a lot of "spice" in this little girl, there is a ton of "sugar" too. Check out this video where she is giving me what she calls, "forever kisses". I basically live for these.

My big girl...