Today: Four Poops and Mommy Go Pee-Pee

So here's silly girl playing peek-a-boo with the mirror.

About today. It's dry season here, what with the cold and the radiator heat on all the time. So two of my knuckles are bleeding from washing my hands so much today. Not spurting or gushing, just cracked skin and really sore, even with lotion on. The best stuff John and I have found for trying to keep our hands from being totally ravaged is Neutrogena's Hand Lotion. But I have to use it constantly because I'm always washing my hands, especially on a day like today, with FOUR POOPS! That's rather a lot, I think.

Okay, then the sentence thing. So far Lily only says a few words besides "Mom," "Dad," and her favorite, "DOG." Often during her naps she'll sit up and say "dog" and then go back to sleep. The other night I went to check on her after we'd put her to bed for the night, and she said "Dad." In her sleep. How cute is that? Sometimes she says "my dog" or "my dad" or "hi dad," and then there's words we've heard once but she didn't repeat them. Like "cracker." And the other day in the car she said "Mikey," her uncle's name. He'll be psyched to hear this. Of course, what he wants her to say is "Uncle Mikey is cool." That's gonna take longer. But she's babbling A LOT now and so I guess I'm tuning in to her more.

This evening I took her upstairs with me and told her "Mommy has to go potty," and went into the bathroom. She followed me in and while I was sitting there on the pot, I could swear she said "Mommy go pee-pee." Is that possible? Could she really string that together at this point? She's 18 months old tomorrow. We don't really use the word "pee-pee," we just say "pee." But she could have added the extra "pee" on her own, I suppose. She says "dog-dog" all the time.

Part of me thinks it's really funny that I'm all ga-ga over potty talk. But it really is exciting. John and I keep having dreams lately that Lily suddenly starts talking in complete sentences. It's really fun to be at this stage where she is starting to communicate back with us. I mean, you basically talk to your baby from day one as if they understand everything you're saying even before they can talk at all, and it's like talking to the dog. But now that's changing, she's following simple directions, like "take this to Mommy," and when we say "We're going upstairs now," she goes to the stairs. That's one stage, where you realize your child is truly understanding your words. But it's such a huge step to hear her then start using words herself for us to understand her.

When you ask her for a kiss now, she doesn't quite understand, but she does get it enough to put her cheek next to your face so you can give her a kiss. Like "You may kiss me now." Hee hee.