The Endearing Lyra Rose

Lyra turns two this week! I can hardly believe it. She's already started the nasty habit of lying about her age and saying "I seven! I four!" and consistently denies she's about to be two. She doesn't want to be a big girl though, just a bebe. 

Lyra is intensely friendly. She'll walk up to any stranger and declare their life-long friendship before even knowing their name. She generally launches into some story about who knows what. Today, she went up to a teenage girl and told her about how many fingers she had. The girl was polite and listened intently as Lyra counted them "One-two-three-one-two-three-seven" 

Her favorite color seems to be blue. They eat gummy vitamins with breakfast and whenever I ask what color she wants, she says "BLUE!". There have never been any blue ones. 

Lyra is as hydrophilic as they come. She dumps any and all water she can find. It's painful and taxing. I will give her credit for being very dutiful in cleaning it up when I command her to. 

She loves to sing and be sung to. Every night she'll ask Sel or I to sing her "I Love to See the Temple" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' over and over and over again. She usually joins in to excitedly scream random bits of the lyrics. 

We only wear dresses in this house. Trying to get her to wear shorts is like asking a lion to go vegan. It's not going to happen. Someone is going to get ripped to shreds. Even when I try to get her to wear little shorts under her dress, it is a futile battle. Anything girly, frilly, flouncy and fluffy is all this girl wants. She's also VERY into accessories. She loves hats, purses, sunglasses and earrings. 

Lyra still reminds me so much of an animal. The way she moves when she runs away from you while playing (or not playing and just trying to increase my step count and heart rate for the day) is like watching the Animal channel. She loves to hide and is impressively good at finding spots to do so. Her favorites are under the dining room table and behind my legs. 

Rowan and Lyra are the sweetest platonic love story around. They play together in a rough, crazy way that just works for them. Even though Lyra is SO rough on Rowan, he responds gently and with a laugh. They love to chase one another around the house mostly or play hide-n-seek. 

Lyra loves going to church and asks regularly if we can go today. She loves to dress up for it and play with friends and dollies. Honestly, any social outing is easy for her. She just enjoys being around people. Lyra gets so animated and excited about so many things, but particularly seeing her friends (actual ones and strangers too). She'll run full force shouting the name of her friend and crash-hug them. I mostly don't have to worry about her hitting, biting, pushing, or being too aggressive with them anymore. 

Despite her wildness, she is so very sweet. She gives tender hugs and kisses. She loves to give Sel some of her best hugs and kisses in the mornings or when he gets home from work. However, I should share the hilarious story of her telling Sel to go to work one night. When he's home, we alternate who puts who to bed. One of his nights to put Lyra down, all she wanted was me (which is unusual since she truly adores Sel). He tried to sing her some more songs and she yelled "Go to work Daddy! Go away!" Att-i-tude man. 

Lyra loves soup! yeah!!! Both Sel and Rowan are not big lovers of soup, but my gal pal and I could eat it for every meal. She loves broccoli, beans, apples, oats, cheese, and butter. So all things healthy, right? She has been known to open the freezer, take out a stick of butter, and just dig in until I find her and freak out. 

Lyra likes to announce that she's "tootsing out mine bum". She's even announced to people that "Mommy is tootsing out her bum" which is hardly embarrassing. 

She's starting to get some hair! It's really exciting because it has taken 24 months exactly for her to have enough to cover the top part of her head all the way. 

We got chickens and all four are just a few seconds from a broken neck anytime Lyra is around them. She will squish them into her chest saying "Goldie likes me! Hulk likes me!" until their panicked squawking stops and they almost lose consciousness. Sometimes she reminds me so much of Agnes from Minions. Her ponytail is often straight up and she just wants to squeeze anything that's fluffy. 

If I ever cry, she'll get right up in my face and say "Is okay mommy! Is okay mommy. I kiss it." It's both comforting and comical. She just gets sooo close to your face when she says it. 

She's still immune to pain. We found out she does have spina bifida occulta (thanks to her rad radiologist uncle looking at it for us). It's surprisingly common and does essentially nothing to her. I wondered before finding this out if she somehow had lessened sensation in her body because she is just unnaturally tough. Things that would have most toddlers sobbing for awhile she bounces back from in seconds. 

Quantity over quality with this one. She continually tries to carry as many stuffed animals, barbies, dolls, ponies, etc around as she possibly can. She and Rowan both have My Little Ponies and it doesn't really matter to her that he has Rainbow Dash, she just wants all of the ponies in her arms at all times. We know because we bought her a rainbow dash and she still tries to steal his. Stealing from Rowan is usually which evokes her skittish little animal run and cover. She'll snatch it then dart away to hide. While he tries to grab her, she'll sit there out of his reach and giggle. It's awful as a parent because a huge part of me just wants to sit there and laugh, while the adult part knows I can't laugh while my son is being the victim of such deviousness. 

Her language is still pretty impressive for a not quite two-year-old. I'm so proud of all she knows! I certainly didn't do much to get her to this level which makes her abilities even more impressive to me. 

I love this one of her! She looks so beautiful with those sun rays behind her and making her characteristic lip purse. 

Lyra is so endearing. My friend used that word to describe her the other day and it is so fitting. Her little quirks and the combination of her wild and sweet bits make her absolutely captivating. Even if one minute I am frustrated with her toddler antics, she finds a way to charm me right into a laugh. We love our little Lyra Rose! 

She only wants to wear sunglasses every. single. minute. 

Poor Goldie is getting a lot of love in that coop