Eva Lilly — 33 Months Old

“I’m having fun! I’m on an adventure!”

Shouted multiple times at the top of her lungs while tearing around the living room on a toy tricycle, this is Eva’s new motto. Followed up very shortly with the perennial favourite, “Again! Again!”

In the last month or so, Eva has started to be just that little be more adventuresome, just that little bit braver, and just that little bit less cautious. Whether it is climbing up the equipment at the playground or exploring the park, Eva is more and more willing to do things on her own without Johnny or me as hovering back-up.

The other big change is more subtle, but sometime recently Eva crossed that line from a babbling toddler to a story-telling, opinion-expressing little girl.  It’s as if her ability to express herself has been a dimmer switch being slowly turned up. And it’s only when I think back to Christmas time that I realise just how much more articulate she is now and that we have whole conversations about this or that.

It makes me wonder, just 3 months from now, how much more grown up is she going to be? It’s such a bittersweet thought.

Favourite Books: Oliver Jeffers’ Stuck, Green Eggs and Ham, Fox in Socks, I’m Not Sleepy and I Won’t Go to Bed, Where the Wild Things Are, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, A Proper Little Lady, Room on the Broom  

Favourite TV Shows: Charlie and Lola, Peppa Pig, Play School

Favourite Movies: Toy Story, Kung Fu Panda

Favourite Toys: Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, & Woody acting out various rescue  scenarios, Hop (her plush rabbit), her plastic toy barn animals

Favourite foods: sushi, inari, avocados, banana bread, apples, nuts, bananas, yogurt

Favourite Colour: Red

24 February 30 Permalink

Two and a Half

328/366

November 23 — 3:47pm

“Two and a Half”

Here are the things I want to remember about this age: Eva’s cheeky giggles, her over-excited-snorting giggles, her pretend snoring, the first time she said ”I missed you, mummy” when I came home from work from work, and when she said it again after I got out of the shower, and those random first-in-the-morning sentences, like “there is a moose in my ear”, and finally the endless games of chasey up-and-down the hallway in the 30 minutes before bed every night.

Eva has matured so much over the past 6 months. Her new-found concepts of sharing and swapping are now making trips to the park and play dates easier. And although Eva is still strong willed, she is no longer face-palming other kids and is better at sharing and waiting her turn.

This maturation has resulted in Eva making some real friends. It’s amazing to watch how much joy Eva gets from her developing friendships. Before the kids would play mostly independently in the same room and every so often accidentally play together. Now, Eva is excited about seeing friends and days later will retell stories about the games they played together: chasey, hiding in her teepee and dressing up. Eva still talks about hers and her friends halloween costumes from October.

Eva’s make believe play has gotten so much more imaginative and involved. Her toy animals are often involved in complicated dramas such as taking over the pirate ship, playing hide-and-seek in the rocket ship, or just meeting-and-greeeting each other on the street.

Though we started with the best intentions to not let Eva watch too much TV, she still watches too much for my liking (even though it is usually no more than an hour a day). Her favourite shows are Play School and Charlie and Lola. Charlie and Lola is definitely her first commercial obsession. She has a number of the books and will go through them on her own. She loves the cartoon but thankfully they have not usurped her love of the books.

Another development we have noticed is a real jump in her language ability. She can now narrate complex stories, speak in longer sentences, uses prepositions, and has such a large vocabulary that I couldn’t tell you how many words she knows. She also recognises all of the letters in the alphabet and even has a dozen or so sight words that she knows. Eva can count to ten, but unless counting pieces of chocolate, usually omits three and four.

She also loves to sing. Her favourites are Baa Baa Black Sheep, Happy Birthday (including the hip hip hoorays), and I’m a Little Teapot (with actions).

Physically, Eva is getting more and more agile and steady. And she is JUMPING! That deserves to be in all caps because she is doing so much of it.  Now that Eva has finally hit this milestone, she loves nothing more than to jump on our bed.

She also loves dancing. Most evenings, she makes Johnny crank up the music, dictates which songs are played (Temper Trap’s Sweet Disposition, Slow Club’s Two Cousins and Mumford and Sons’ The Cave are must-hears), and they both dance around for half an hour. Eva tries to do the Charleston like the guys from Two Cousins, and at other times they pace around the coffee table imitating different animals.

Eva thrives on asserting her own independence: whether it be using the step-stool to turn the tap on and washing her own hands and or simply completing a jigsaw puzzle by herself. This independence can be rather tricky as most of our requests are met with a resounding “no”, at which points negations begin. Just getting Eva into the car after a trip to the park can often take as long as the time spent playing in the playground! 

But despite her headstrong ways and determination to be self-reliant, she is still as affectionate as ever. She loves “big” cuddles, and she loves “little” cuddles, and she loves group hugs, and really really loves “sandwiches” hugs. 

27 November 37 Permalink

Eva Lilly — 2 years and 4 months old

After Eva’s 2nd birthday, I stopped writing monthly updates and instead, decided to write them every six months. And although I say this every other week, all of a sudden, Eva seems so grown up. 

Every day, she is surprising us with something new she’s learned. She’s skipping now? When do little girls learn to be little girls? — because Eva certainly hasn’t been watching me skip around the house. 

And when did she get so cheeky and crafty? The other day while sitting on our balcony, Eva took two pegs from the clothes horse and surreptitiously dropped them over the side into the courtyard. “Where’s pegs gone?,” she asked innocently. Only to follow that up with, “Quick! Quick! Shoes on! Outside!”

And when did she get so good at this talking thing? Johnny always notes when she produces a new grammatical construction: past tense, present perfect, possessives. Eva has a whole range. She can name and identify colours and has moved on to various shades and easily fifty different animals, including ibises, crows, yabbies and noisy miners. She has finally started referring to herself as “Eva” rather than “E”. I am truly going to miss her shouting her name out as “E Willy!”

She can also name, recognise and identify the majority of the (upper case) alphabet, and has made connections between the letter and various objects — “H” is for “Hat” and “Horse”, “C” is for “Cat”, “P” is for “Poppy”, “G” is for “Grandma”, and Johnny’s favourite “T” is for “Texas!” And although, her name is only made up of three letters she can now spell her name out loud “E-V-A”. 

Eva loves to count, sometimes in no particular order. She will occasionally count in the correct order but drops a couple of numbers here and there: 2,3,5,6,7,8,10.

As you can see from a few of the recent 366 Project photos, Eva loves imaginary play. She crouches down on the floor and hops around pretending to be a frog. She will roar like a dinosaur and wave her “claws”. She loves to have her animals and dolls “talk” to one another and to her. I overheard one conversation she had when playing with Noah’s ark. “Quick, Quick!” she said, “Get inside. It’s raining! Two ducks inside”. (It’s even funnier because we are not church-goers and Eva has never even heard the Noah’s ark story!) And not a day goes by without Eva wanting to play dress-ups. Sometimes she’s a dinosaur, sometimes a cowgirl, sometimes a princess, and sometimes a tutu-wearing-cowgirl-princess-ghost with a dinosaur tail.

Recently, she has been fascinated by Halloween. We have a large number of Halloween decorations that Johnny’s mum sent over. Eva will play with the spider and it’s web saying, ”Oh no, help I’m stuck! Help me!” She loves for us to read her the Halloween story books, and every night throws her white blanket over head and pretends to be a ghost.

Eva is pretty well potty trained. Accidents are a rare occurrence, even at the child care centre. She is still mildly proud of herself when she goes, but she has gotten so good at it that it has started to become old hat.

And of course, we couldn’t be more proud of her.

26 September 33 Permalink

Eva Lilly: 2 Years Old

2-Years-Old! 

Eva has turned two! Two years ago, I would have said that 2-year olds are still babies, not independently-minded little creatures bursting with personality. But Eva has taught me better than that. She is a well and truly a little girl. Able to have conversations. Able to feed herself. Able to choose her own clothing and put on her own shoes.

It’s amazing to hear her communicate Eva wants and needs. She can now understand complex questions and commands. And even though she is not really able to articulate what she wants to say, she has pretty interesting “conversations” with us. 

She is at her cutest though when she is upset and we are trying to guess what she wants. “Do want some water?” “No,” she whines with as much frustration as she can manage. We continue the questions until we find out what she does want to which she answers “Yes” with so much relief in her voice that it is impossible not to laugh.

She often drops the first letter of a word “home” is “ome”, “hurt” is “urt”, “food” is “ood”. Some words are too difficult for her but are just too important not to try, like Churchill (her uncle Joey’s Great Dane) who she called, Dur’dill. 

Eva now moves more like a little girl than a toddler. She climbs and bounds around the house with ease. She can walk up and down stairs without holding on. She is still cautious, compared to many of her friends the same age, but will still surprise us with a leap off the bed or throwing herself down the slide at the playground.

Her ability to concentrate amazes me. She is able to sit and come puzzles from start to finish. And has an interest in learning the alphabet and can complete this preschooler activity with minimal help. She has extended imaginary playtime in her toy kitchen completely setting the table or “cooking” up an “everything soup”. This patience also makes her a fantastic traveller, enduring the long, overseas plane rides with minimal fussing —as long as we have plenty to keep her occupied that is.

She loves to play pretend. Almost daily she has us dress her up as a butterfly, fluttering around outside and using her butterfly wand to hit the ants. She loves hats, sunglasses and bags. She carefully selects a hat and bag, then put on her sunglasses before gleefully waving and telling us “bye” as if she were just stepping out to the shops.

Eva has an intense love of animals, but especially cats. At her playgroup, there is ginger cat who hides under the bed. Eva will sit and watch him for up to 20 minutes. She will then try and read him a story, and when the cat moves on, Eva follows him to his next stop so that she can finish the story for him.

She has changed so much over this past year that I can’t even imagine what she will be like at three. 

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Favourite Books: How to Catch a Star, The Way Back Home, Each Peach, Pear, Plum, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Favourite Nursery Rhymes: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Grand Old Duke of York

Favourite Songs: Happy Birthday Song, Peter and the Wolf Soundtrack

Favourite Foods: Rice, Sushi, Beans on Toast, Pineapple, Grapes, Carrots, Broccoli, Tofu, Isreali Cous Cous

Favourite Toys: Chuggington Train Set, Balance Bike, Stuffed Toys — bunny rabbit and teddy, Puzzles

5 June 37 Permalink