Cecily the WIld

Oh my Cecily. She is joy, humor, intensity, intelligence, particularity, antagonism, boldness, curiosity, strength, bravery, independence, cuteness, snuggles, and sweetness, all rolled into this adorable blonde-haired, blue-eyed tiny package. These days lately she has given me a run for my money and I am still navigating her and how she works and what works on her. She is so much fun and so tiring all at once. I think the biggest adjustment for me in learning her personality vs. Evangeline's is that she doesn't stop. Hardly ever. And while she can play well by herself, she prefers to be at my side most of the day. TV doesn't hold her attention for more than 5 minutes, which overall is a great thing but let me tell you there are many days when I am internally screaming, "please just watch a show!" Because when she is with me she is not just ally sitting by my side, she.is.busy! always. 

Whether it is turning the lights off and on, changing clothes and costumes, dressing her doll and having an extremely frustrated fit because she can't get the sleeve over the doll's arm, pushing buttons on the remotes, buckling and unbuckling every buckle on Verity's toys and seats, trying endlessly to figure out the password to unlock my cell phone, having imaginary conversations on said phone, asking for an apple squeeze incessantly, opening drawers, packing a lunch box, hanging from the table, jumping from the couch, finding a cup and getting ice and water from the fridge, playing her "Hello Time" Kindermusik cd on one particular song over and over again until we all want to scream from mad repetition, yes, she is just going all the time. 

As I typed that out, I thought, "yep that pretty much sounds like a typical day around here." She is busy but she is wonderful. I laugh so much and enjoy seeing the dramatic play that spills over from her imagination. I love to watch her play "Hello Time" and sit her dolls on the floor next to her as she asks them which motion they would like to do and leads them in song. I adore how inviting and friendly she is to people. "What's your name again?" is a favorite question to both strangers and the familiar friend. I love how much she loves and needs physical attention and snuggles. She asks to be snuggled every time she goes to bed at night and for every nap. "Mommy, please snuggle me". She asks us to "open her back" which means to lift up  her shirt and rub her back. She is so independent lately and pretty much gets dressed all by herself. I can tell her to go put a pull-up and her pajamas on at night and she does. She is a fast learner. Once she sees something once, she's pretty much got it and remembers it. 

She is fully potty-trained and has been since about the end of August. It's been an adventure. The thing that made it easier with her is that Cec didn't really have accidents, she erred on the opposite side and would just hold it and not go at all. The main motivation for her  to not hold it and go was a princess potty that we bought her. She took to it right away and mastered pee-pee in the potty pretty quickly after that. A Whole Foods run was the first outing with no diaper and we haven't gone back to them since. Pooping however has been a different and comical story. She will still hold her poop usually until we make her go or until she absolutely can't hold it any longer. To describe what it is like when she has to go poop, well, the only thing I can liken it to is having future glimpses of her labor experience. She panics, screams, sometimes cries, yells at me with hurried demands "hold my shirt up!' and makes me hold her hands while she goes. It's seriously hysterical. but getting better. 

And sadly, I am just now adding stuff from notes that were last updated in July so it's mostly from over the summer months and a lot of this has passed or she's already outgrown but I'm still going to put it in this entry. And some of it is still relevant, mostly the things that I will put last. She runs around the house and chants, "I win!" and "whoo-hoo" when she gets excited about something. "give it me. I do it". "Mommy, how bout?" is a new thing. Like "Mommy, how bout the yellow marker?" Vitamins are now "nianins" and she used "it" in place of "ing". Mommy I'm pooping = Mommy I poopit. Bang-it. = "Mommy, I banging." etc. Says "oh my goodness" when she makes bodily noises. Is very particular about my hair being pulled up. The second I throw my hair up in a bun she charges toward me and stomps that little foot and demands, "Mommy, keep your hair down!" I have no idea why but it makes me laugh. She has known all of her colors for several months now, (she caught onto those insanely quickly) but will still call blue "baloo" and orange "orange juice". She calls Evangeline "Beanie" and on the rare occasions that she calls her by her full name, it's 'Ebangeline'. Her "F's are S's, for instance: Slush, slashlight, shruit snack, are flush, flashlight and fruit snack. "Kway" is how she says "OK". "Hand polish" is nail polish. Instead of saying, "I'm Cecily" if someone asks her what her name is, she says, "My Cecily". She has a big problem with waiting in lines. Totally impatient. Whether it's traffic or the line in a drive-thru she shouts from her little car seat, "Go away cars!"