Vocabulary Explosion & Evil Toddler Doings

Lili's vocabulary went from 20 words to about 100 in the last couple of weeks alone. She also transformed from toddler to "evil toddler" in that same timespan. We'll talk about her fun words first and the 2-3 word phrases that now come flying out of her mouth...

apple juice = "appy jew"
Dakotah and I color = "Koda I color"
cup = "cuppy"
I want bunny = "ah un money"
Fork! Fork! Fork! = "fu*k! fu*k! fu*k!" (she really does say it 3 times...)

She also does this adorable thing where she points to each person and says who they are..."Mama", "Daddy", "Lee-lee", "Bee-Bee" (occasionally she calls him "bruller"). I ask her to make me some soup, so she brings me "koop", but if I call it "koop" she looks at me like she doesn't know what I'm saying. Sometimes she calls Drew "buddy", because he refers to her as his little buddy and she knows how to say "Nice!" and use it in the same sarcastic context that Mama uses it in. She started laughing when we fart and burp and still seems surprised when she does it herself (that tempts me to post another list of similarities between Lili and Lola (the dog)...but I'll leave that for another day).

Although her cuteness is killing us, I'm pretty sure there are a few new "behaviors" we could live without. While most kids go through a food throwing phase around their 1st birthday, Lili never did that too much back then and decided to save it all up for later in life. I don't know if there are major food throwers at the center or what...but suddenly EVERYTHING is on the floor and she doesn't just toss it....she WHIPS it down there like a major league pitcher. We have stuff flying by us constantly and we're LUCKY if we actually see where it lands.

The new and improved Lili also likes to inflict pain on people so that she can give them hugs to say she's sorry and kiss the boo-boos to make them better. Each week Drew's scrapes and bruises on his legs from Grown Man Fight Club get larger and larger. He came home from class this past Saturday and was entertaining Lili in the kitchen while I finished up the dishes. They were both sitting on the floor, playing with a car, when she noticed his skinned knee. It was completely red and just starting to scab over. She walked right up to him, curled up her fingers and scratched the hell out of it. Drew howled and she stepped back to observe. He explained that that hurt and she needed to say she was sorry. She went over, gave him a big hug, bent down and kissed his skinned knee. He "thought" she had learned her lesson...........until she did it again just a couple minutes later...........and again a few minutes after that....and again. Finally I told him to change into some jeans and that he wasn't allowed to wear shorts around the house anymore. Since then, she has continued to find ways to "hurt" other people (smacking Will in the face, throwing wood blocks at Mama's head, etc.) so that she can say she's sorry with hugs and kisses. Yes, we take the toys away...yes, we tell her that's not nice...yes, we've put her in timeout... My guess is that we're not believable enough when it comes to her understanding the "seriousness" of what she is doing, but I have no idea how you teach a 21 month old who PUTS HERSELF in timeout and LIKES it, not to do these things. There is nothing that we can "threaten" her with or bribe her with, to make her behave.......at least not that we've found so far. Again, she reminds me a lot of Lola................