Five more things

Here are five more things you might not know about Reilly:

1) Reilly has learned how to count to 10. She sometimes gets stuck at 7 and reverts back to 4, but for the most part, can do 1-10 in short order.

2) Reilly has learned how to sing her ABC’s. Like the counting, she sometimes gets stuck in the L,M,N,O,P section, but for the most part can belt out the song pretty well. She can identify by sight about half of the letters, and understands that “R-E-I-L-L-Y” spells her name.

This morning, as Shawn dropped Reilly off at school, she drew a heart on a piece of paper and wrote Reilly’s name in the middle of it. Reilly look up at Shawn and said, “That’s my name!”

3) To keep Reilly calm while on the way to preschool, Shawn and I redirect her unhappiness by singing. Now when Reilly is in the car, she just sings to herself, mostly songs that we sing to her at bedtime or that she learns at school.

Lately, she has also started humming the songs, or the bits that she can’t remember. I don’t think I have to tell you how cute this is, but sometimes I like to really drive home the point, in case you’re not getting it: the humming is super cute, and makes me well up sometimes.

4) Trapped inside the house one rainy day, I built Reilly a fort out of pillows and a blanket on the couch. I called it her ‘cave.’ She instantly changed the word to ‘cage.’ The game went like this: she would hide in her fort and when she peeked her head out, I would growl, “Get back in your cage!” to which she would respond with a squeal and a dive back into the pillow fort. We repeated the game like 100 times that day. It was fun, but now she wants me to make her ‘cage’ every afternoon.

I’m just dreading the day that her teacher pulls me aside and says, “Reilly says you put her in a cage every night at home.”

5) In the morning, we like to take Reilly into bed with us for a little snuggle. Reilly likes to snuggle, but only for about 30 seconds or so. Then she slides out of bed, puts her face in my face, and says, “Get up daddy!” Then she walks to the other side of the bed and says, “Get up mommy! Feet on floor!” Then she walks back to me and says, “Daddy get up! Daddy make coffee!”

*Sigh* She’ll make a great drill sergeant some day.