Lulu. Loodle. Magoodle.

Lila turned 4 this week. Here's the thing about Lila: she's awesome. Sure, she has occasional moments of being a 3-year-old and being demanding or petulant or obnoxious. But they are few and far between. Really the majority of the time she is agreeable, pleasant, funny, charming, sweet and just all around nice to be around.

She's also a little bit spoiled, but that's OK, right? I think that all comes from being the youngest and being a girl. It's really hard to be the father of a little girl and not want to give her the moon and everything else she wants. Maybe it is because she is like a mini-version of Amy and I have never been very good at telling her no, either. Today is my day off and we went to the mall. Whenever we go to the mall, we have to park in a certain spot because we know Lila will want a cookie as soon as we walk in. And we buy her one. EVERY TIME. I am wrapped around her little finger.

And as she gets older she gets funnier and more self sufficient and more delightful to be around. Sometimes she'll talk my ear off. Or sit so close to me on the couch the she is basically on top of me. But I try and remember that someday she "would rather die!" than sit right next to me and won't want to talk to me at all. So I try and be patient.

Here she is with her pony. Because of course she got a pony.



And her new princess bike (with detachable baby carrier/carriage.) Because of course she got a princess bike (with detachable baby carrier/carriage.)

Sorry that Noel's hand is in his pants. It's hard to have him in a photo without that.

Her birthday also involved a princess cake:

PS. I made that. 

And a princess castle piñata. Did you know that you don't hit piñatas with sticks anymore? You just pull strings off the bottom and then one of them opens the piñata. Whatever will AFV show anymore?

And despite the pony and the bike and a doll and a Wii game, her favorite present was an inexpensive "makeup" kit her Aunt gave her. And every morning when she wakes up she says, "I need to do my makeover!" and then sits on the floor in our bedroom and applies her makeup. And looks like this:

 Heaven help us all.

Lila rocks!

Lila is obsessed lately with the drums. It's probably because she watches the Fresh Beat Band all day and gets really mad when Amy or I make disparaging comments about Twist. When she goes down to play her drums, we hear this about 100 times in a row and the "1...2...3...4..." is always as loud as she can muster. I am thinking of looking for drum lessons. (PS. She wrote all the lyrics herself.)

Girly girl

Lila is the ultimate girly girl. When presented with a choice, she will always pick the pink option. She picks her shoes before she picks her outfit and then changes them 10 times during the day. She is also sweet, agreeable, charming and easy to get along with. And she always wants to be involved. If Jonah is riding his bike, she wants to ride her bike. If I'm outside stretching after a run, she wants to be outside stretching with me. She's fantastic.

Today she got dragged along on a bunch of errands that didn't involve her and that she couldn't participate in and it was starting to wear her out. First we had to go register the boys for school. They were devastated because Jonah doesn't want to go to a new school this year (last year we started him in the school by Amy's mom's house because that is where we were living when the year started but this year his is in his regular school.) And Noel was devastated because he doesn't want to go to school at all. I had to promise them I would download TWO Minecraft Texture packs if they would come along with minimal complaint.

Lila kept asking "When do I get to start school? Who is my teacher going to be?" She will be in preschool but it isn't until October, which may as well be 2045 to a 3 year old.

Then it was off to get haircuts for me and the boys. Again, the boys were despondent. I promised we would download a Minecraft skin if they would be nice. So we made it through. But Lila cried the whole time because she loves getting haircuts but the place we were at was a barber shop and only did men's cuts. So Lila was again, out of luck.

Then it was off to Target for school supplies. Again, the boys were a little annoyed and just wanted to play Outwitters on the iPhone. Lila picked out a Hello Kitty Backpack and a Dora lunchbox and a pink ruler - none of which she could get because she doesn't need school supplies.

We felt bad. She'd been such a willing participant in a bunch of errands that were of no benefit to her. So we told her we would get her a purse instead. She was thrilled and happily chose one that was on sale for $3. Score. Then she picked out some chapstick to go inside. When we got home she insisted that she needed some money for her purse, because that is what mom has in her purse. She walked around all day with the purse slung over her shoulder. It's pretty darling.

Then she dropped the bomb. She informed Amy and I that her name is Lila and that she would only like to be called that from now on. No more Lulu. Or Lou. Or Magoodle. Just Lila. We felt sad. She seemed so grown up. But no so grown up that should wouldn't come cuddle with me on the bed.

In mid sentence describing her purse (which is the hot pink you can barely see clutched in her hands.) she fell asleep. All that being agreeable and running errands tuckers a girl out.

She slept for a while and then woke up, told us she had changed her mind and that we could still call her Lulu and Magoodle. And then when she saw that Jonah was outside on his bike, she went out to be involved. And had her purse in tow.

At Last

After much drama involving a group of Labor and Delivery Nurses holding our lives hostage in their hands and laughing maniacally (I'll spare you the gory details) we made it to the hospital and had ourselves a baby.

Lila arrived at 1:10am this morning weighing in 6lbs 11oz and stretching to an enormous 18in in height. She's a little peanut. She might actually wear size 3 months baby clothes for more than 6 days (which is what our boys did.)
Amy was a champ. Active labor lasted about 4 minutes. I however, almost fainted. Twice. (Once during the epidural, and once during delivery.) Seriously? Why did Amy getting an epidural almost make me faint? I wasn't even watching.
After being bright eyed and wide awake (but not at all fussy) until we gave her to the nurse at 4am, she came back to us this morning bundled up and sleepy. Yeah for those Labor and Delivery nurses, whom now we love.

PS. I hope you sang the title of this post like Etta James. At laaaaast.
PPS. Amy is not here to proofread, so if I used the wrong "there" or put an apostrophe where it shouldn't be, my apologies. Eric - can you help a brother out?