Quirks.

I know everyone thinks their kid is the cutest, funniest, smartest little being there ever was...

But that doesn't stop me from finding everything (okay, scratch that - most things) Lilah does hilarious and unbelievably adorable.  Two is such a funny age.  Even the tantrums are comical.

(Sometimes.)

Here are just a few of the  irresistibly amusing things Lilah has been doing lately:

"Making a house." Apparently this involves sequestering herself in the remotest little nook she can find in our tiny condo and surrounding herself with toys or other random junk.  Perhaps this is how they keep the kids entertained at daycare?  I'm not sure, but this has been an obsession of hers for quite some time now.


Lilah "in the house," caring for her naked baby.

 If this is what her house looks like, then I really am concerned about her future as a hoarder.  This is "Buried Alive" material, people!

Developing a strange fascination with balloons.  She is half terrified, half mesmerized.  The terror part wins out when it comes to touching balloons or having them anywhere near her person. We're still hearing about the Elmo balloons from her birthday, but God forbid anyone should try to actually give her a balloon or even touch one in front of her - that sends her shrieking and running in sheer horror.  I kid you not.  I know I shouldn't be amused by my child's phobias, but I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing when I see the look on her face.

Singing "Happy Birpay To You Lilah." At the most random times.  And at top volume.

Answering questions in a very confusing manner.  This is a sample from a conversation we had recently:

Me: "Lilah, do you want to go outside?"
Lilah: "No."
Me: "You don't want to go outside?"
Lilah: "Yes."
Me: "You do want to go outside?"
Lilah: "No."
Me: "You don't want to go outside?"
Lilah: "Yeah."
(And so on and so forth, until I finally figure out what she means.)

Claiming everything as her own.  I realize this is not particularly unique, given that she is a toddler.  But Lilah being Lilah, she takes her possession obsession to a whole new level.  It's not just "My turn" and "No, my do it," which are entirely de rigeur with the two-year-old set.  It has escalated to possession of people ("No, my Uncle Jon!") and even snippets of conversation.  Yesterday, as we were driving in the car, the Hubs and I were talking in the front seat and I trailed off a sentence with, "...when we go in August."  A small voiced piped up from the backseat, "No, my go in August!"


A "My do it!" moment

  Stripping down to her birthday suit at every opportunity. She'll say, "Get naked?" and start clawing at her clothes until we help her take them off. Once the clothes are off, she figures the diaper is fair game, and she can get that one off by herself, so we need to have the potty nearby at all times. Of course, another one of her "quirks" seems to be sitting on the potty for half an hour only to pee on the floor the moment she stands up! She prefers her dollies naked too (see photo above).

Running around the house topless making strange noises while holding my bra, which she must have fished out of a nearby laundry basket:

(Okay, so it was really just the one time, but still.  Quirky.)

But then again, maybe I'm being too hard on the poor kid.  It's really not her fault she's so weird.  I mean, look where she came from: