Nonetheless, there is something decidedly girly about this scene.

I recently visited my home city of Chicago, and stopped by many of my former haunts. When I found myself in Roscoe Village I couldn’t help but stop in Village Discount Outlet, an enormous thrift store I frequented years ago. The place is massive, chaotic, dirt cheap and bursting at the seams with finds.

I’ve been there a hundred times, but only now had reason to visit the children’s section. As usual there were plenty of diamonds in the rough, some for as low as 60 cents. Ha! I had to stop myself at some point, because there was only so much room in my suitcase.

Here Lil models a favorite new skirt, from an old Children’s Place line. There are lovely patchwork & embroidered flowers on the front, sides and back. She loves the details and was all twirly at the children’s concert in the park that day. I think this one was 60 cents. Viva la Thrift.

We also love this comfy blue sundress, which was reborn from a small ladies’ tube top I found at Goodwill. Our thick 2yr old is already in 3-4T clothing, so the shirt fit her as a long dress easily. I removed the blue straps meant to tie at the back of a woman’s waist, and refastened them as shoulder straps.

There were many pics I considered because I thought they were pretty, or artistic, or cute. But then despite the everyday snapshot lameness, I ended up going with this one.

Hands and feet. My little girl and me. Posted to my blog almost 2 years ago, and so much has changed since then. In those days shoes were nothing more than an inconvenient frivolity; now she needs a range of footwear. Sneakers, flip flops, sandals, dress shoes. Rain wellies. And her little tootsies are growing out them as quickly as I acquire them.

These once tiny and pristine feet are now so active. Jumping, running, kicking balls, learning to pedal a trike. These bare feet slide across shiny linoleum, push their way into the gritty texture of beach sand and the squelch of wet garden dirt. And they dance through her days.

It makes me a bit nostalgic looking at pics from her first months. Then I start reflecting on this whole journey so far, how much has happened already and the wonderful kid she is now. And even so, she’s still only 2, and it amazes me to think of all that is yet to come.

Kids consignment sales, freecycle, craigslist, trading with other moms and a myriad of thrift stores have all been sources of great gems for us. She enjoys the adventure of accompanying me on these endeavors. A few weeks ago, while I was revelling in the victorious discovery of ideal gently-used sandals that were just her size, the gal was frolicking with a brand new friend. A bigger kid of course, a boy around 5. I had overheard her encountering him near the drapery, my heart filling with pride as she used her polite introduction talk.

“Hi, I’m Lilah. What’s your name? Nice to meet you. Play with me?”
Not bad for a brand new 2yr old. She is so friendly and articulate, when she wants to be.

Before long they were ‘building a city’ using tiki coasters and marble chess pieces. At least, that was what she kept proudly proclaiming over and over while they stacked and arranged and spread things out. Then they took turns spinning eachother in a swivel chair. And just as I was discovering the most awesome and colorful little cabinet for her bedroom bookshelves ever, the buddies were playing ‘basketball’ by tossing a styrofoam bird head into the basin of a mint green vintage toilet.

you can’t get experiences like these just anywhere.

Over a month ago, we happened to find ourselves at the Goodwill in Eagle Rock at the beginning of a lucky special: all childrens clothes were $1. It was Monday morning and nothing had been picked over. We got an insane amount of stuff that day including an ungodly amount of unique, well-made dresses I haven’t even delved into yet. A bounty so cheap it almost felt illegal.

Today ended up being one of those days the gal wanted to twirl in a dress throughout the house like a crazy person. I found this one in the stash at the back of the closet and she was psyched at the idea of trying it on. The sunglasses were by request also. Every once in awhile she can be quite a diva.

Sure she seems rather overdressed for the occasion. If you can call a day of the typical chaos, dirt and grime of toddlerhood an occasion. But for $1, who cares! She started dramatically singing at the top of her lungs immediately after this shot.

She’s been on the jazz kick lately on the bedtime ipod, with Miles Davis topping the requests. She’s occasionally been switching that out with Mediterranean Lullabies and, to a lesser extent, Bedtime with the Beatles. Although I think we’ve determined that neither of us is a fan of those musak renditions; the bonafide Beatles more than suffice.

Classic rock in general is another ongoing fave, whether its time for play or for sleep. At naptime, I often turn on the Top Tracks station on satellite radio and she drifts off to the Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Pretenders. The timeless music I grew up knowing.

Of course, she still asks for the Wall-e soundtrack plenty. And she knows every nuance of it, as well as the movie itself. That has been working less as a sleeptime choice, because she will keep herself awake to listen to it, and want to chat with me about whats going on during the movie during this song or that sound… rather than close her eyes and dream a dream. Really, it is alarming how well she knows the subtle and complex nuances of the movie, but sometimes its just time for going to sleep, kiddo! sheesh.

Not long ago, she was on a Bob Marley kick that seemed like it would last forever. Almost every night at 17 months, her little voice would sweetly say, “Bob…Marley?” at bedtime. And if it wasn’t a Bob night, it was Coldplay. Or perhaps another mainstay: The Blues. She’s a huge fan of Blues in general, she gravites toward the Blues sound. A sleeptime specific was John Lee Hooker, part of her regular rotation, way back in the day (a few months ago).

Music has always been part of our bedtime routine. She loves to decide what she will listen to, and from a very young age she was opinionated about it. Music and songs are very important to her. In the last few months I’ve gone back to leaving her nighttime choice on repeat all night long. That has definitely helped her sleep through the night, which was never her strong forte.

Does anyone else here have toddlers or older kids who still like to sleep to music? What bedtime tunes are a favorite in your family? I’m always open to new stuff I can share with my daughter.

We ended up with over 15 lbs of blueberries, and now we’re eating berries in our salads and our cereal… and we’re about to eat some yummy blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream.

Here are some pics I thought I’d share.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th with fun and family!

But in the midst of all the excitement, she and I managed to sneak away to the garage-turned-craftroom to make a special collage for daddy.

We displayed it at her party alongside zucchini-pineapple bread and salty dog mixers, a reminder that while Lil’ J was the star of this particular show, all dads at our party were to be celebrated too.

Happy belated Fathers Day to all dads everywhere! And thank you, my beloved husband, for our wonderful 10 years together, and for being the best dad ever to our wonderful little girl for the last 2 of those years!