A few of her favorite things...

My last conversation with Lily every day goes something like this:

Mommy: "I love you!"
Lily: "I luv you too."
Mommy: "Have sweet dreams."
Lily: "Are you goin' to bed too?"
Mommy: " Yes."
Lily: "Sweet dreams!"
Mommy: "Night-night"
Lily: "Can you go stand next to Rody 'cuz he loves you an' I love plassic dog, an' leopard, an' rodeo, an' giraffi!"**
Mommy: "Okay. Night-night, Lily."
Lily, as she climbs into Daddy's lap for her story: "Night-night."

**The explanation... Rody is Lily's inflatable, bouncy donkey. He lives in her playroom, and evidently, he loves me. So every night, she asks me to go stand by him while she's sleeping. Lily loves her plastic dog, stuffed leopard, stuffed turtle named Rodeo, and stuffed giraffe, named Giraffi. They all sleep in her crib with herr. Apparently this needs to be reviewed on a nightly basis, so that no one forgets!

Recently, I've added to our conversation by teling Lily that I had a really great/fun/fabulous day with her. For awhile she just said "Yeah." Then she started responding with "I too." So now I also ask her what her favorite thing was that day. Her answers are hilarious.

Sometimes she'll pick something obvious, like going to Marbles, or playing at the park. Somedays she'll choose something we didn't even do that day, like go to T*rget or Tr*der J*e's. Sometimes she'll pick something from weeks ago, like going to "da jumpin' place wif Auntie!" But the one that had me and Shawn laughing hardest happened last week...

Did you know that the Southeast has almost no gas? Pipelines are down, people are waiting in lines for hours, it's madness. Raleigh has been pretty lucky, we haven't run out of regular gas at all, but we don't have any premium gas, which is of course what my car takes. On Thursday, Lily and I were on our way to the park, my car was basically running on fumes and I pulled into a gas station only to discover that they were out of premium. Stink! We went to two other gas stations and then called Daddy to find out if my car would explode or stop running if we filled up with regular. With his seal of approval, we ended up back at the first station. I was a little frantic during all of this, and every time Lily asked what was going on, I would tell her that we were looking for "fancy" gas. We finally filled up and got to the park and had a lovely time, including a picnic with friends. That afternoon we did art projects, puzzles and read a ton of stories. We had black bean soup for dinner - one of Lily's favorites! - and Lily & Daddy had a blast at bath time.

Still, that night, when I asked the Bug what her favorite thing was from that day, she excitedly told me "Findin' da FANCY gas!" It's good to be able to see things as a fun adventure...