Happy Birthday Ladybug

There is a very special little lady in my life who celebrated her second birthday today. Her name is Lauren, and since her birth day, my family & I have grown fond of calling her LuLu. Almost everyone calls her LuLu, and she is SUCH a LuLu! My dad calls her Cap'n Lu, and her four-year-old sister has taken to calling her Loofie. We call her the Loofa Doof, Lu, Lula, and of course - the baby. I came up with a little nickname for her, which is so long I never use it. I call her my Little LuLu Lily Ladybug.

LuLu is my mother's brother's child, but she is more like a niece and less of a cousin. It's been such a treat to watch her and her sister, Catie, grow. They live right down the street from me so I have been able to be present (or at least quickly informed) of every milestone. This past Halloween, LuLu was dressed up as a peacock and there is a picture of her making a mean face in her peacock costume. She looks like Baby Godzilla.

I'm pretty sure her first word was "ya-ya-ya-ya-ya" which was her standard response to everything. She wanted nothing to do with walking for a long time - or crawling for that matter - and she would get so frustrated trying to crawl and just lay down in defeat on the floor. Her NEW favourite word is "no". Most of our conversations go like this:

LuLu, do you love me?

No.

Does Catie love me?

NO!

Do you love anyone?

NO!

Do you want a snack?

Ya!

She has an amazing vocabulary. She has little conversations with me and I crack up. I was trying to get around her in the kitchen not too long ago, and she put her hand up in front of me and said: "STOP!" LuLu is an exceptionally happy little girl, and she's not afraid to stand her ground. If she doesn't like you at the time, (and she's two, she's fickle) she'll just push you out of her way. I like that she's asserting some independence. Another new and awesome thing she is doing is coming up to you moving her little fingers and saying "tickle, tickle, tickle" She puts her hands up to her face and makes little tickle hand motions with a big grin on her face like she just figured out the coolest thing in the world.

If you ask me, she did.