As We Are Now

I'm realizing more and more that my girls (still slightly weird to use the plural there, although I'm getting used to it) are rapidly growing in front of my eyes, and by the evening I often can't remember what happened that morning. So I'm gonna try so hard to start posting to this regularly, if nothing else so I can have a record of memories about our lives. And if you have interest in hearing about our lives too, all the better. So, I'm gonna start with a wrap up of where we are now, and then hopefully get into the swing of things on a more regular basis.

EMMA

Emma grows more and more precocious and clever every day. And she is growing literally too - she's so tall, taller than almost any other kid at school. She definitely looks older than 3, and often sounds like it too. The other day, out of nowhere, she came up to me and said, "Remember a long time ago when we saw the play about the pirate?" (We saw the play about 7 months ago, I believe.) "That was one of the best days of my life." One of her favorite words is Actually, as in "Actually Mommy, that's not the way you do it," or "Actually, Daddy told me I COULD have another glass of milk before bed." She is bossy as hell, which is something we are working on with her. Sometimes she just wants to help people - but also, she's a control freak like me. She loves to tell me, "Mommy, calm down, caaallllm doooowwwwwn" whenever I get upset or frustrated. Those are my exact words coming out of her mouth (b/c, in case you've never met her, our Emma can get worked up sometimes), and I find it alternately annoying and amusing. She has the most infectious laugh, and every time I come home after being gone, even if only for a few minutes, she will stop what she's doing and come running to me with a big smile and arms wide, screaming, "Mommy! I missed you when you were gone." Right now she is hard-core into pretend - she makes up songs, situations, dances, foods, scenarios. She is known to breastfeed her baby doll (imitating Mommy and Sophie, of course) and is very careful to always put her dolls to bed, sing them to sleep, make sure they are fed, etc. Her favorite TV shows are Dora, Diego, Backyardigans, Spongebob and Yo Gabba Gabba (this last one particularly perplexes Chris and me, but she things it's da bomb). Her new favorite movies are The Jungle Book and Tarzan II. The latter Chris rented for her while Sophie and I were in Indiana visiting Cadin, and I think in the week we had it she probably watched it - no exaggeration - about 20 times. Her favorite part is the Disney music video under Bonus Features, where she will imitate every dance move and vocal vibration the little girl with big pipes lets loose on the screen. Lately she's been having nightmares and waking up at night - sometimes only a kiss and more milk is needed to calm her down, and sometimes she needs to snuggle with Daddy and watch TV until she stops crying. She can't tell us what the dreams are about, only that they are scary and often involve a lizard. (Said lizard has been banished from our apartment many times, but yet he still keeps coming back. Darn thing.) She is - FINALLY! - completely potty-trained during the day, and Chris and I are so shell shocked from 9 loonnggggg months of potty-training struggle that we have no inclination to tackle the nighttime training for quite some time yet. She adores her baby sister and says at least 4 times a day about Sophie, "She is so cute!" If anyone asks about Sophie, she calls her "my baby," and she's very excited that her cousin Callie now has a baby sibling too, which of course Emma refers to as "Callie's baby." She loves to list all her family members and where they live (ie, Grandma and Grandpa in Indiana, Grandma & Grandpa Kitty and Grandpa Greg and Grandma Connie in St. Louis, Nonnie & Leo in Buffalo, etc.) She's an attention-hog and often demands you look at her ("watch me, watch me!" and "Look. At. Me!" are frequent laments) while she runs circles in the living room or shows us some brand-new dance she's just made up. She digs drawing, can write her own name, knows all her letters and can count to 30 with no help at all, and way beyond with a little prompting. Her favorite books (as of right now, it changes OFTEN) are Goodnight Sun, Hello Moon; Leonardo the Terrible Monster; Goodnight Moon; Kitty's First Full Moon; Knuffle Bunny & Knuffle Bunny Too; and Me Too! Me Too! She's also into games like Memory, Ants in the Pants and Don't Break The Ice. She is quick to give kisses and hugs, quick to laugh and quick to cry, has at least one screaming fit a day and an average of about 4 full-on tantrums a week, is a shrewd negotiator, a keen observer who misses nothing, a tireless question-asker, and has been known in the course of a day to go from helping keep her sister company while Mommy showers and cleaning up her lunch plate without being asked to taking apart the drain in the bathroom, getting into and eating an entire tupperware container of brownies and pulling a slice of cheese into about 40 tiny pieces and then squishing them into the sofa. (Sadly, all true stories.) In other words - she's 3. We often want to muzzle her and she pushes us to the absolute limits of our patience, but we also adore her and can't wait to see what she'll do or say next.

SOPHIE

So...Sophie. Not as many details yet, but the one thing we've learned about Sophie so far is that she's very different from her sister. She is usually relatively chill. She will sit in her swing or bouncy seat for up to a half hour on average without fussing, and she loves her Bumbo seat (although she has a habit of having exploding poops while sitting in it - not sure of the connection yet, but I know now what to do if she's ever constipated.) She does not hesitate to let you know when she's unhappy, but she works up to it, sort of letting out a cry here or there to give you time to respond before she takes it to the next step and completely loses it. She LOVES to be held, and 9 times out of 10 if she is upset, this will solve it. Chris thinks she's a Mama's girl, and I'd have to agree - although she certainly knows her Daddy. But she's a girl's girl - if she's a bit out of sorts, one look from Daddy can make her burst into tears, as if she's condemning him simply for having testosterone. But Mommy or Aunt Jayme or Grandma gets ahold of her and all is well. She is very quick to smile and loves to have conversations with you - although her responses are mostly limited to "ooooooooh" in many different inflections, both Chris and I swear we've heard her say "Emma." She has the most potent toots I've ever encountered in man or animal, and she'll let them rip with a smile. She's still in our room for sleeping right now, and she crashes in the car seat. She isn't the best napper - she'll fall asleep relatively easily but usually doesn't stay asleep more than an hour at the very most. She's still waking up on average two times a night, but she's never up for long and is super good about going right back to sleep. Her favorite things right now are the toy on her bouncy seat, the bears on her swing, and Mommy (or more specifically, Mommy's breasts). She is an utter joy, and all three of us are completely in love with her. And I think she's falling in love with us too.

So. That's the girls, as they are now - 3 months and 3 1/2 years. And now let's see if I can keep this up - I've never been good at journaling, but I'm gonna give it the old college try. Stay tuned...