She is her mother’s daughter. I love my little cake-loving girl.

Lately whenever Lu is left to her own devices in the bathroom, she gets into my makeup and decorates herself. Usually she puts on kitty cat whiskers with mascara. I only know that the random black streaks are cat whiskers because she excitedly screeches “MEOW! MEOW! Pweeh meow face! Pweeh PWEEH meow!” She also loves to smear a little lipstick or gloss onto her already pink lips, then eat half the tube. She doesn’t understand my concerns over her ingestion of too much Sweet Lust lip glaze or that Momma is really trying to get out the door on time just this once, my little Lu just loves all things she deems ”pweeh.”  

A recent rainy, boring night seemed like the perfect opportunity for some mother-daughter bonding by playing with makeup. It was also the perfect excuse to get a contrary and rather dirty toddler into the bathtub. I gave Lu free reign with some of my older makeup, which is most of it now that I work long days and have a young child. She gave herself some kitty whiskers, then gave me kitty whiskers, and then asked me to give her a whole kitty face. Lu wanted hearts and glitter, so we decorated her in hearts and glitter. We wore matching lipstick and gave silly kisses. I let Lu make me over and I emerged looking a lot like Lady Gaga. We were blindingly beautiful.

In the bath I recalled that most of my makeup was long-wearing. I think Lu may be getting her own makeup kit at the tender age of two. Better that then the two of us – or even the dog – looking like Picasso paintings for a week.

While Lu is napping I thought I’d share some of our favorite toddler-friendly websites…

• Starfall.com – Lu loves the ABCs section of the site and now recognizes many letters. She doesn’t have the patience for the reading or books sections yet.
• Mrs. P – I like this website because I have always been a reader. Lu likes the little hidden tricks.
• Teaching Tiny Tots – I’ve found some fun activities on this site.
• No Time for Flash Cards – Another site with lots of great educational activities
• ANY site with babies – Yup, just pictures of babies keep her fascinated

Here Lu and I are jumping for joy this morning!

This is Lu, who is two!

This little one is Lu at one.

Here is Lu when she was brand new.

My little Lu, I love you!

Ho, ho, ho … Oh no!
Santa FAIL.

When Lu was a newborn the only song that seemed to quiet her was the ABC Song or when her dad pretended to sing opera. Then when she became a very opinionated Baby Big Girl the ABC Song was the only song Momma could sing at all, but only when she wanted me to. Now Lu really is learning her ABC’s and getting so smart!

A friend and fellow blogger recommended Starfall.com to me a while back. It’s a great website that teaches reading skills, starting with the alphabet. Lu can’t get enough of it. She screams “A-E-O! O-O-O!” at me when she wants to play. In fact, anytime the computer is on in her presence she begins demanding to play. Her favorite letter is O. At first Lu just seemed entertained by the music and cartoons, but then I noticed she was repeating the sounds of the letters. A few days later she was correctly pointing to and naming letters. She really is learning the alphabet from all that computer play.

We also read lots of ABC Books. Lu really does love any illustrated ABC Book, but some our “regulars” include A to Z by Sandra Boynton, Dr. Seuss’s ABCs, and Oscar the Grouch’s Alphabet of Trash (this was a favorite book from my childhood).

I am making Lu her very own ABC Book. Starfall also has printable booklets and worksheets, plus a store to buy the materials (but the great part is that it’s all free online). So I printed out all of the Alphabet Worksheets, colored them, and on the blank letter pages I am in the process of pasting on pictures of words beginning with that letter that are of importance to Lu. I have all of her family members and pets in her book. I plan on having the pages (glued to colored construction paper) laminated and bound so the book will last a lifetime.

On the way to Lu’s Gramma and Bobba’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner, we were discussing things we are thankful for. I told her I was thankful for cake and Lu. Then I asked what Lu was thankful for.
Silence.
“Are you thankful for candy?” I asked. “YEAH!” says Lu.
And that started her hurricane of gratitude:

“An kookiesh! An Bobba an Gramma an Guy-Guy an Bruddah an Dout Dogh an bwirdees.” (Translation: And cookies! And Papa and Grandma and Daddy and Brother and Scout Dog and the birdies.)
“What about horses?”
“Yeah, Nay-nay! An meow MEOW! MWAH MEOW!” (Yes, horses! And cats. Thankful for CATS!)
“What else?”
“Booksh. Mwah beenbees, MWAH! An boo-ells. An babee dawls. CANDAY!” (Books. Thankful for binkies, THANK YOU! And bottles. And baby dolls. CANDY!)

There you have it… What a nearly-two-year-old is thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Lu with Angelina and Brad, look at her smile!

Lu gives the birds some hugs.

Birdies in her hair!

Lu is pointing out Angelina.

Birdies give Lu the silly giggles!

Image via Wikipedia

 Lu loves “Baaa!” That is what she calls Shaun the Sheep, a really cute British claymation show about a funny flock of sheep. Shaun is the smartest sheep (this is why the show is so funny!) of the bunch and he leads them into trouble, away from danger, and always on some sort of adventure. There is no spoken dialogue in the show, making it an easy show for anyone to watch. What it lacks verbally, it makes up for in charm, slapstick, and dancing. The animals are universally recognizable, understandable, and - with the exception of the rude pigs and the angry bull – loveable.

Lu love, love, LOVES the show. There is a special little dance she does for the theme song, we call it the Baa Dance. Whenever the sheep dance (more often than you’d think), Lu joins in the fun. She actually cries when the credits start rolling. She hates when we turn it off, that’s when the laying-on-the-floor-kicking-and-screaming begins. I love the Baa Show for letting me take a shower undisturbed.

I just discovered Timmy Time, a spin-off of Shaun the Sheep that features Timmy the baby sheep and is meant for the very youngest viewers (like Lu.) With both Christmas and her birthday next month, I must find out how to get more Shaun and Timmy for my obsessed little girl. Lu will just love the games on both the Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time (especially the “Noisy Name” game where you match the animal to its’ sound) websites. She’s recently started playing on the computer (thanks to a neat idea from our friend Holly) at starfall.com, so this will be a fun addition to computer time.

She can also count backwards:
“Doo. Wah.”

She loves to count blocks, dolls, shoes, books, rocks, and my cosmetics. A few times I’ve heard her throw in a “Fro!” or “Ni-ine” after 1-2-3. She understands the concept of zero, and says “Nun buh-bye” to indicate that. The neat thing is that she’s learned all this just from free-play and reading books together. We are just too exhausted (and believe in child-directed parenting and learning) to do any sort of formal teaching. I am so proud of how smart she is and how much she learns every day.

Lu always counts before jumping off of something, a very helpful warning. Maybe someday soon she’ll learn to count to five (or even ten!) and we’ll have much more warning.