Two Boys and a Seoul Sister

I hate this picture of me on so many levels, but it is so cute of Lyla that I can't resist posting it.

It's been a while since I've done a Lyla update. I keep thinking of so many things I want to make sure I document, but then I sit down to write and I can't remember any of them! She is quite the character. I can't believe some of the things that come out of her mouth lately. Like today, the boys were fighting and she pointed her finger at them sternly and yelled so seriously "You get in a time out!". When we put her down for a nap or bedtime and finish reading books, she immediately asks us to "lay down with me for couple minutes." Her favorite activity lately is riding her three wheeler around and around and around (and around and around) in circles on our deck. She always wants me to be out there with her and if for some reason I don't go out, she tries to coax me out by telling me "the weather is nice, mommy. Come sit outside and watch me." If I tell her it's too cold, she tells me to "put on a jacket, mommy." The boys have also taught her all kinds of tricks. The other day, we were out on the deck and she told me to look at the sticker on the front of her bike. There wasn't anything there. She then told me, "oh, look over there, the sticker is over there" and she pointed off the other direction. When I looked over, she said (chuckling) "ha ha, made you look!" - yes, my 2 1/2 year old is already a jokester. When I say "bummer" she replies "bummer in the summer." She also knows (and gets terribly excited) when a Justin Bieber song comes on the radio.

As of about a month ago, she is fully potty trained (YAY!). Interestingly, poop came much easier than pee, which is directly opposite of the experience we had with both the boys. Whenever she is pooping, she tells us to "leave! don't look at me!" And then promptly summons us to wipe her when she is done. It is so nice to finally be completely done with a diaper bag! We also moved her into a big girl bed a few months ago (after she started climbing out of her crib). She is really growing up!

She talks in all sentences now. No more single words at all. Her speech has come a loooooong way, as has her pronunciation. She says "Brennan" almost perfectly now; before, it was a one syllable jumble that only we could understand. She now clearly says a two syllable "Ben-an" and she even gets a tiny bit of the "r" sound in there.

We have taken to calling her "bag lady" because she has a curious habit of finding any and all bags she can dig up in the house and stuffing them full of random objects. Whenever we can't find anything - hair clips, shoes, kitchen utensils, you name it - we now know to go searching through Lyla's bags because chances are the lost item is in there. I couldn't find a pair of her shoes for weeks and finally found them buried at the bottom of one of her many bags.

There is no place she'd rather be than outside, and (unfortunately for me) she can handily unlock and open the back slider all by herself now. So even though she knows she supposed to ask permission first, she rarely does and simply lets herself out whenever she wants (not so great).

If she isn't outside or stuffing bags, chances are she is doing some sort of arts and crafts activity. She especially likes to "cut paper" as she calls it and I've had to hide all of the scissors because she just goes at it whenever she feels like it (again, without asking permission). I'm finding this is a big difference between her and the boys; they were a lot better about obeying and asking first. I also found the side of a kitchen cabinet scribbled with marker the other day and you better believe that she knows she is only allowed to color on paper! Little stinker! Thank goodness for washable markers + the magic eraser! Again, never had a problem with the boys drawing on things like that. She is also fond of "folding paper" (I guess she thinks she is making some sort of origami), making "birthday cards" for anyone and everyone she can think of, stamps, painting, and water colors.

She is still very much into princesses, and Snow White in particular. She loves dressing up in princess costumes - the bigger and frillier, the better. And she also likes to wear necklaces. She has also been asking about earrings, but I'm not sure how I feel about getting her ears pierced this young.

She is scared of many random things. Her latest is the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. She also claims to be scared of bugs, though she cried when I squished an ant the other day. She told me I squished her friend and burst into tears.

I know there are a zillion other little things I'm forgetting, but that will have to do for now.