Sunny 9 for 2006 August 1

Wow, August is here already. I can't believe that we have lived here over a year now. This month Lily turns 2, and I turn a quarter century old! It is unbelievable how much Lily has metamorphasized into a walking, talking personality.

I feel compelled to let everyone in on the gold nugget memories Lily has left for me these past couple weeks. After being sleep deprived from Lily's illness (the one where she woke up every other hour screaming in pain from her sore throat) I really needed to rest a little bit so I could make it through the day. It wasn't quite Lily's naptime, but I hoped that if I turned on Wonder Pets that she might be occupied enough to let me lie down on my bed for a half hour.

In the next 20 minutes in 5 minute increments she would come to visit me, climbing on the bed and stepping on my hair saying "nigh, night...sleeping" and poking me, then suddenly her hands in my face smelled familiar. Actually they smelled pretty good. I shot outta bed when I placed the smell back to a lotion scent I owned. In the family room she had smeared lotion all over her tiny table and chairs set. Luckily, only trace amounts were on the carpet. The punishment does not end there.

Later on that day, probably while I used the restroom-who knows, but while Lily was unattended for a short amount of time, I returned to the family room to find Lily standing on her mini table with parts of the internal a/c temperature control in her mouth! She had broken the case off and opened it, ripped out the coiled wire that connects to a glass tube of mercury. The little pointy hand that tells you what temperature your house is set at, gone and irreparable. There is a bright side to this mishap as well. Along with the carpet being spared, the glass tube with mercury was not broken; therefore Lily was not poisoned and I did not have to call a repairman to fix it because this tube I guess is the thing that triggers the a/c to kick on when it gets too hot. Thank you for saving me some money, Lily. How very considerate.

It gets better...the same day after I put Lily to bed in her big girl bed for bedtime, I always have to check on her a couple times before she actually koncks out. I round the hallway corner to see light leaking out of the floor crack in the door. Hmm, how on earth did she ever turn the light on, she can't even open the door. I open the door face to face with the monster! She had climbed up her diaper changing table which is up against the wall when you open the door. Apparently, climbing her mini table gave her the idea that she can climb anything she wants to. Everything on top of the diaper changing table was flung on the floor and she had taken off all the pictures on her magnetic decorative board hanging on the wall and half of the magnets were in her mouth.

Nice ending to the perfect day. I scolded her and put her back in bed hoping that she wouldn't have the guts to attempt that climb again. However, my instincts were correct and I waited by the door to see the light turn on just seconds after I closed it. Now, I was mad. The heck I was going to be rearranging furniture after such an exhausting day. Besides, I had already been forced to move Lily's table because she climbed up on that. So I pulled out the big guns. I got Lily's port-a-crib out, which I had just taken down, and set it up. If she wasn't going to stay still in her bed, then I was forced to trap her in.

Wrong. I didn't see her do it, but I know she climbed right out of that crib and up on the diaper changing table and turned on the light. (Good foresight on Aaron's part that she was going to be doing this shortly and started training her to sleep on the big girl bed.) I wouldn't have minded so much that she was roaming around her room because she was doing it every night, but getting onto the diaper changing table was dangerous and high and I didn't want her falling and breaking her neck. So I did what I had to do in the past. When she kept taking all the books off the bookshelf cupboard, I had to move them somewhere else. When she kept getting into the kitchen and into pots and pans and getting them all over the floor so I had to wash the pots and tupperware again and again, I had to put a gate up even though Aaron and I have to hurdle over it and sometimes trip. When she kept getting into my jewelry, lotion, trash, and what not in my room, I had to keep the door closed at all times. I had to give up one more spot in my house that was mine and safe. I had to move her diaper changing table out of her room, which has all her clothes in baskets mind you, and put it somewhere else. I still don't know where to put it. I guess I have to find somewhere else to put Lily's clothes sooner or later with another one coming, but I would have liked to have done it on a less pressing schedule. I consider myself to be semi-organized with a place for everything and everything in its place, and I don't like things to be in limbo.

I can't complain about not having my things to myself any more. I mean I can't even use the restroom without an unwelcome visitor busting in on me or sleep in till whenever I want, but I did make this decision to be in this predicament. But I can warn those of what's to come when they have a very curious independent 2 year-old, and solicit sympathy from those who know what I am talking about. But there are some perks to the job. There are plenty smiles, tears of joy, and belly laughs when they learn new things or do or say something funny. Like who can get mad at a child who walks out of a room trying to be sneaky when they think you can't see them because they have a blanket on their head? Or when they say I love you it sounds like "hi lover".

Basically, Lily is teaching me how to not be so selfish, and I really need that lesson. So the moral of the story is I asked for it when I got pregnant, and I need it to make me a more understanding, patient, and less rigid person and one who is more fun to be around in the end. Looking back, I have come a long way since I got married on being a little less closed-minded and selfish, but I still have a long way to go.