Question #4. What about Lylli?!

Lylli. She is one of the most inspiring people in my life... She's spring time and snowflakes and the middle part of an oatmeal pie that makes you squeal with delight. She's the epitome of a teeny tiny person that's "going on twenty," and I know she's already smarter than me, which makes me extremely jealous. I'm practically wrinkling and graying with envy.

I have nightmares about her turning five and suddenly realizing that I make up some of the answers as I go, and I will turn into a sobbing mess knowing full well that her teen-aged-evil years will start before she hits double digits in which she will think that I, naturally, have no freaking idea what she's going through. I clearly see her sitting in the bathroom painting her nails on the sink just like I did as a kid, thinking that I'm lame, emotional, and most concerning, out of touch and wrong.

Yeeps!

I give her a lot of grief because she's spicier than habaneros and she's feistier than Ricky Martin, but she's also extremely compassionate and overwhelmingly intelligent, and even though those traits are enough to make her excel in life, they both pale in comparison to her twisted and hilarious sense of humor.

She helps me do therapy with Dylan, and rubs his back while I put on his jammies, and knows how to give "knuckles" to people and say "PSH!!!" while you do it!

Without turning into an emotionally unstable cry machine while talking about how I lean on my 18 month old for love, support, encouragement, fun and giggles, I'll just say that I thought my heart was totally full when I had Dylan and I couldn't imagine any more room for another child. When I found out I was pregnant with Lylli, I loved her as soon as the line turned blue. I needed her before the pang of nausea. I don't know what I ever did without her to balance my life - she's teaching me how to be fearless!

I need to focus more on my Lyls in this blog, because though we can learn a lot from Dylan handling his autism, we can learn just as much from Lylli, who doesn't give one hoot that her brother has a "disorder." He's simply "Boy!" to her :)

Lylli - I hope one day you read this and are horribly embarrassed and type me some acidic response with you beautiful long fingers (with dark polish, no doubt) and know that even though I'm out of touch and my music is whack, that I love you to itty bitty sparkly peicedsand you realize that I'm a pretty good mom.

-Kel