Music to My Ears

Lily - the deaf child I worried would never hear, let alone appreciate music sings songs all day long.  Her favorite movies are musicals and the second any music comes on, she starts to dance. 


Often, while riding in the cart on shopping trips, Lily belts out songs from "Annie," "Mary Poppins" and "The Wizard of Oz."


Today, while in the waiting room for a doctor's appointment, she found a red bound book on a side table and decided it was a hymnal.  She very solemnly started singing made up songs to me and my belly.  Then she noticed the woman sitting a few seats away.  Sweet an audience!  So Lily starts moving closer and closer to the poor woman trying to work on her iPad and singing directly at her.  By the time we got called back for my appointment, Lily had serenaded three different people in the waiting room.  I need to get her a tip jar!

Guess What?!

Lily now knows the "Guess what - chicken butt!" game.  Not only does she know it, she GETS it.  She has comedic timing and everything.  She'll totally fake you out with a real "guess what" question and then,out of nowhere, 10 minutes later and with a totally straight face she'll get you!  Even better - if you get her with it, she'll laugh hysterically, then say "Chicken Butt?!  That's absurd!"

Can we count this as part of her next language development assessment?  

What a character!

In addition to my bad-boy hang-up, Lily has apparently inherited my ability to remember random tv/movie lines and quote them in appropriate situations.  She also has a few favorite movies from which she assigns us all new names and insists that we be referred to by them.  When she's in an "Annie" mood, I'm Miss Farrell, Chad is Daddy Warbucks, Ginny is Sandy and she, of course, is Annie.  She frequently introduces herself to strangers as Annie and insists that it is her name.

"Madagascar" is also a big hit and I'm always Marty, she's Alex, and Chad has recently become Melman.  I've already told her that she may NEVER refer to me as Gloria (not good for pregnant mommy self-esteem to be called by a hippo's name)!

"The Wizard of Oz" is tied with "Annie" for #1 and she is always Dorothy (notice how she's always the main character?)  I'm usually the Scarecrow (no comments please), Chad is either the Wicked Witch or the Tin Man and Ginny is Toto. 

I love that she is always the star and I'm usually the best friend/sidekick and I love that she likes movies that I don't mind watching over and over again.  

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?

So, seeing as I had quite the "bad boy" hang-up in my teens and early twenties, it is only fitting that Lily (at 2 1/2) is already showing signs of following in my footsteps.  I stopped the tv on "American Idol" a few nights ago and as soon as Steven Tyler came on the screen, she said "Oooh, who's that?"  When I told her his name is Steven Tyler, she was hooked.  She immediately went to get her toy microphone and made up a song about him - the only recognizable words of which are Steven Tyler (though sometimes it sounds like Steven Tyban).  She watches You Tube videos of him all of the time now and whenever the camera focuses on anyone else, she has to know "where's Steven Tyler?  what's Steven Tyler doin?"

Fortunately, having come out the other side of my bad boy phase mostly intact, I hold out hope for her to do the same.

Memories...

This is going to be my forum for recording and sharing some of Lily's funniest moments.  My hope is to create a collection of stories from her childhood that will serve as wonderful memories and excellent blackmail when she's a teenager :)