Our Baby Girl

Lilah is not like our other kids. That's not meant as any kind of insult, it's just the way things are. Up to this point we have led a fairly quiet existence with moments of craziness, but the addition of Lilah to our house has rocked our world.

Firstly, she is strong-willed. She is relentless when it comes to getting her way, and she will tantrum, give you "the death stare," when she is unhappy with the way things run. The upside of this is she will keep at something until she succeeds.

She is extremely inquisitive. She has to try everything (including our food) and wants to be right in the middle of everything and will not be left out. The downside of this is that she is exhausting at times. If you don't find ways to entertain her, she will make her own fun. This has included us finding her in the bathroom scrubbing out the toilet with our toothbrushes. We have no idea if she has done this before, so Daddy had to run to the store to buy new toothbrushes for everyone and pray that she has not secretly done this since October.

She has an intense sense of fair play. When anyone leaves the house she insists that they hug or kiss everyone. This might seem nice, but there are people in our lives we just don't hug or kiss and this can make for some squirm worthy moments.

At the same time, she is learning that we are hers and she is ours. She constantly recites the people who live in our house ("Mama, Baba, Casey...etc never forgetting the cat). After being away, as we pull into our driveway she tells anyone in the car who lives there and ends with a big finish, "Lilah's home!!!" We are working on snuggling, which seemed like a foreign concept for our girl. Yesterday, she actually sat on my lap, let me stroke her cheek and leaned into me, heaven for me, and Lilah was much calmer afterwards.

She is the consummate survivor. When she runs us down, we have to stop and think how she is a tough little kid who has fought for her place in this world from day one. Now we just have to teach her that the fighting is over, we've got her back, and her place is HERE with us as our silly, smart, beloved daughter and sister!