My Love for a Munchkin Named Lily

She is the most precocious and precious 2 year old you would ever meet. She is my niece Lily. She is beautiful. She is becoming her own person with her own unique personality. We had a conversation today. She told everyone that "Mom and Jill are running in the Bolder Boulder." Although it wasn't said with that much clarity or concise speech. It was more of a "mom and jiw run in bower bower." But when she realized that it would make us laugh, she was so proud of herself and then would repeat it at random intervals through out the day. She really does have a good sense of comedic timing (It doesn't hurt that Aunt Jill loves to laugh). Then, just ask her about camping. Do you like camping Lily? Uh huh. By the way we had to leave the camp site at 6AM because she did not sleep well at all that night and would not stop crying, but even through the tears she does like camping. (Of course, she actually had a great time up until the time that the temperature dropped to about 30 degrees--for that matter, my enthusiam for the camping excursion was dropping by that point as well.) But tonight we did a little bit of indoor camping. She has this cute, cute, cute butterfly tent (strictly for indoor use). She would crawl in then tell poke her head out at me and say "let's go, jiw" (did I tell you that this all started when she woke up from her nap and said "I want jiw"--I so love this kid). So we would get in the tent--she would then take off her "pack pack" (backpack) where barbie was stashed, next would come the order to zip up (meaning the tent flap), inevitably she would open the pack pack and say "hello barbie" and then request a zip up of the pack pack. The next was one of two options-- woooaaa or shake it. Woooaaa consisted of her sitting on one side of the tent, me on the other leaning back and forth saying (can you guess... wait for it...) "wooooaaaa." Upstairs Craig and Rhonda weren't sure if she was crying until she would bust out into a crazy loud super fantastic giggle (she has one dimple, too cute). Shake it consistend of her standing in the middle of the tent (please keep in mind that the tent is maybe 4'x4'--great for a 2 year old but not so roomy for a grown up) and we would shake the side of the tent also ending inthat crazy loud super fantastic giggle of hers. The the normal routine would be a request for help in putting the pack pack back on, then she would crawl out of the tent poke her head back in and say "let's go", I would crawl out follow her around the pool table and repeat the entire process from the beginning. This only stopped because dinner was ready and resumed immediately afterwards.

The plan tomorrow... I get her all day to myself. Craig and Rhonda both have to work. We will truck on down to the park for some fabulous playtime. I don't think I have expressed it enough, this kiddo has my heart. She is the best super-kid in the world and she is only two (it can only get better because I hear the twos are terrible).