I give her a 10

I've been accused often of my blog being all about Lily (and since last fall, Irie). And well, yeah, there's a little truth in that. I am head-over-heels crazy about my niece. I admit it. I accept it as my fate in life. But in my defense, let me tell you - the girl is phenomenal.

I know, I know, I'm biased. But as Kathleen would say, "she is objectively cute." Virtually everyone I've ever shown pictures to thinks that. Of course, they may say this just to appease me, but I don't really think so. Often the remarks are unsolicited. And I always hear that she looks like me (which I don't 100% agree with), but come on, let's face it - I was a cute baby. Just kidding.

But really, it's not even about how she looks - though the little curls and sweet face do certainly help. It's really more her personality. And really... it's more just how much personality she has. She's just full of it!

I love her tantrums. (Especially when Irie howls along - they're quite the pair.)

And her not so "tantrumy" way of shaking her head and backing away with arms in front of her when she says (in a very concerned tone), "noooooo."

And how she can't say "yes" without a smile on her face. Or the way she says, "please."

And how smart she is. I mean, come on, the kid isn't even two years old yet and within five minutes of my being there this weekend she was upstairs with me and looked at Irie and Terra playing on the bed and said, "Two doggies on the bed." And she can count to ten. Granted 5-10 is said so quickly you have to really listen to understand it, but it's so cute the way she does it, "5, 6, 789n10."

She's very opinionated and quite adept at selecting her own meals, clothes, etc. And determined. I about cracked up when she was carrying a dog toy over to Terra which Irie promptly grabbed out of her hands. She looked shocked for a split second and then started yelling, "No no, Irie. Ra-ra's toy." And when Irie paid her no attention, she turned to me and with a highly pitched pleading kind of tone, "I had it! I had it!" Which I could only take as the reasoning coming from classroom sharing - I had it first, in other words.

Alright, alright, I'll stop now. She's awesome. That was the point. :-)