The Queen of the Castle

We are both the oldest of two siblings in our families. Everyone has a number of children they’d ideally like to have (none at all in some cases). While we didn’t want to limit the upper end, we knew we wanted more than two, God willing. One seemed lonely, and adding another seemed almost obligatory. So we always wanted at least three. Once we hit three, we weren’t sure we could handle any more, so we settled on three.

This is Lily, our third:

She is amazingly happy and independent.

Every morning, she comes downstairs while I’m sleeping, gets right up in my face so that I can feel her hair brushing against my nose and says “I want milk” (sometimes just “Milk-y” or “milk-milk” if she is trying to act like a baby) about 6:00AM. I make her say “please” before finally succumbing and getting up. On the occasion I’m not fast enough, she will run into the kitchen, grab the entire gallon from the refrigerator, and lug it over to me.

Once it is in her little cup, she always wants to put the cup in the microwave, shut the door, and push the buttons “4-5-START”, which she will sometimes say as she is doing it. She watches her milk go around and will sometimes comment on the motion of the plate. For some reason it reverses itself at times, and the other day it was off the spinny-thing, so Lily alerted me by yelling “IT’S NOT MOVING!” Once it is done, she opens the door, and she shakes up the cup, just to make sure the heat is evenly distributed.

From there, she plops down on the couch, demands a blanket, a pillow, and one of her favorite shows. We have On Demand cable, and much to my dismay they stopped running her favorite show Max and Ruby, which she refuses to accept, as she asks for it every morning. Much like her shows, she will bring me a book in the morning which I will read to her. After the book is done she will want to read it again immediately. I try to get her to expand her horizons and bring me a new book (also, so I don’t have to read the same thing twice in a row), but that only elicits a “read it again” demand from her.

She is extremely friendly and outgoing, and wherever she goes she will introduce herself to people. Adults love it, but other little tykes look at her like she’s nuts. When we drop her off at Sunday School or a class of some sort, she walks in like she owns the place with a huge smile on her face. She’s also quite bullheaded, and it takes some serious negotiating, which usually erodes into threats of privilege removal, to get her to do simple things like buckle into her car seat or stand still so we can brush her hair.

In the hardest of times, it's tempting to “break her spirit” like we were taming a wild stallion, but we continue to try to harness and focus the little strengths that are already showing. The traits she has that drive us crazy at three are the same things that will make her a strong, confident adult, so we often err to the side of leniency and let her run free.

I thought I’d give her some blogspace today, since I focused on Allie and Julianna’s lemonade stand a couple days ago. Lily has two parents and two older sisters that dole out the love every day, so she is definitely not lacking any attention!