Super Stuff Catch-up

I’ve only done it a handful of times, but I just KICK MYSELF when I miss one of my weekly highlight posts.  Ugh!!!  Thank goodness I’ve been keeping some notes, though, so for the past couple of weeks…here ‘goes!

1)      The girls were such good helpers making banana bread!  They mashed the bananas for me, measured and added the ingredients, and stirred in the nuts.  I melted the butter and greased and floured the pans, but they did the majority of the work!

2)      One night at bedtime, Baby A asked B to read the night-night story.  B happily obliged.  She picked a book she knows backwards and forwards, “Vicki the Vet”.  While that’s not a traditional bedtime story in our house, I LOVED seeing B “read”…and I LOVED that Baby A asked her to do it.

3)      The next night, Baby A wanted to “read”.  She needed a little more prompting on the book she chose, but I was SO proud that she wanted to try, and I was SO proud that B sat back and let A have the floor.

4)      We met some new friends at the bouncy house a couple of weeks ago.  I loved seeing my friend C’s girls together with mine, and it was extra-nice to be able to all go out to lunch.

5)      As I was taking the girls to the zoo a few weeks ago, Baby A asked how much longer until we got off the interstate (which seems to be her question of choice).  I told her we had about 15 minutes left, and she said, “15…5-5-5!”  Wow!!!

6)      For their preschool closing ceremony, I put B in a yellow dress, and A in a white dress with blue plaid and yellow trim.  The girls were ecstatic when Daddy came down with a navy plaid shirt with a tiny yellow stripe in it.  Baby A noticed it first, “Daddy!  Your shirt matches my dress!”

7)      One day in the car, Baby A said, out of the blue, “I have the sweetest Daddy in the whole wide world and I love him.”

8)      The girls have long said they want to be vets.  They started working through the details together one day – of their own accord – and here’s what they came up with…Baby A said she would be a vet in the morning and a Mommy in the afternoon…and then B said she would be a Mommy in the morning and the vet in the afternoon…and some days they could switch up.  B said, “If you can’t find me, you can go to A, and if you can’t find A, you can come to me.”  I think it sounds like an awesome set-up!

9)      Since the girls declared that “helping Mommy in the kitchen” was their favorite part of Christmas this past year, I’ve been trying to get them more involved in cooking.  One day they helped me make juvec (which I describe as Hungarian jambalaya).  I taught them to pull the stems from the mushrooms, and they did a fantastic job!  They added all the ingredients and helped me stir the pot.  They were such good helpers!

10)   On Memorial Day, I had my heart set on grilling, and then making S’mores for dessert…what would be the girls’ first introduction.  We had a malfunction with the grill, so we had to do our burgers indoors.  The girls didn’t get the full experience of roasting marshmallows over the grill…but they were enthralled watching the marshmallows expand in the microwave.  And of course they LOVED the ooey-gooey-chocolatey mess!

11)   For their upcoming tumbling class, the girls will need leotards.  They were SO excited to shop for them a couple of weeks ago.  Even more exciting, I learned, though, was finding “exercise shorts” to wear over their leotards.  I hadn’t thought about how often they see their daddy and me in Umbros or Adidas shorts, and they were ecstatic to find shorts like Mommy and Daddy’s!

12)   One day the girls were sitting at the table, coloring.  I couldn’t help but smile as I listened to them “yes, ma’am”-ing each other.  Hee hee!

13)   We were working on a little thank-you project for the girls’ preschool teachers, involving all their classmates.  One of my friends got a kick out of hearing my girls ask straight away, “Mommy, is this washable ink?”  I was reminded of that when I heard the girls playing in the bathtub, “Would you like some hand sanitizer?”  “Yes, thank you!  Would you?”  Hahaha!

14)   And then, a few days later, I asked B to tell me a story…"Once upon a time, Lily [her doll] wanted to change the garbage." And then what happened? "She changed it." [pause] "But she had these little gloves on her hands to keep them from getting dirty." I hope I'm not creating two little [germophobic] monsters!!!

15)   The girls have been pretty focused on my food lately.  Once, out of the blue, Baby A turned to me at supper and said, “I love this, Mommy,” as serious as she could be.  HA!

16)   I overheard Baby B, correcting her sister: "No, Sissy...it's 'I WAS', not 'I were'. You can say, "IF I were a ladybug, I would have black spots,' but otherwise, you say, 'I was.'"

17)   And Baby B again… "Mommy I just wrote it on my calendar. I'm going to behave well today." Learning early, what gets measured, gets done!

18)   Baby A proclaimed one day, in a fit of giggles, "Mommy, I'm as smart as a door!”  I have always heard what they say about doorknobs…but I guess doors themselves are pretty smart.  Who knew???

19)   Baby B’s wisdom…"Unfortunately, mosquitoes are very smart, and they know I am a sweet baby girl."

20)   Baby B’s recap of a shopping trip…”And since we had only a few things today, we went through the self-checkout, because it was much more expeditious than the regular checkout."  I love the commentary...and the vocabulary!

21)   And I could hardly contain myself when the girls were playing with their kitchen and their stuffed animals.  I overheard, "Look, Chicks! Scrambled eggs!!!" and all I could think was, “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?”!!!

Hoping to get back on track...SOON!  I don't want to miss a moment with my sweet baby girls!!!

Super Stuff on a Monday

So thankful for a full list of super stuff to share!

1)      After more than four years as “sisters”, our kitty Sasha has finally warmed up to the girls enough to let them brush her…at least a tiny bit.  It has been the highlight of their week, to have her come up to their extended hands and rub against the brush.  On occasion, she’s even sniffed their fingers.  Hooray for progress!!!

2)      For a couple of months now, the girls have been toying with the idea of using the jets in my bathtub.  Baby B has been really interested, but A has remained apprehensive, I think because I told her they would be loud.  They finally agreed to give it a test run this week, and they were in heaven!  B got in right away, and A worked up the courage after a minute or so.  They enjoyed the depth of the water (up to their chests!) as much as anything.  And I couldn’t quit giggling to see them be scooted along by the strength of the moving water.  Hee hee!!!

3)      There are few things that compare to hearing a four-year old’s correct usage of “may” and “can”.  It makes me a little bit giddy!

4)      I took the girls to the park on Monday afternoon.  I can’t help but marvel (although I still KNOCK ON WOOD as I type this) at how much fun it is to take the two of them these days.  It wasn’t long ago that a trip to the park with them by myself took quite a bit of courage on my part…and was rarely ever “relaxing”. 

5)      Over the monitor one morning, I heard the girls exchanging the sweetest nothings.  “I love you, Sissy…” and “…I love you, too.”  My heart melts!

6)      Baby A was successful in blowing bubbles, consistently, for the first time this week.  It’s such a fun milestone!

7)      It made me so happy to see Baby A RUN to get the soccer ball when she saw Daddy’s car rounding the bend towards home one afternoon.  I know it made his heart smile so big, too.  And then B got in on the soccer action, as she wanted to divide the four of us into “teams”…one would be Chelsea, and one would be either Manchester United or Manchester City.  Daddy never fails to beam at the girls’ English Premier League soccer references.

8)      On Friday we met our friends M&C for the season’s first trip to Jackson’s Orchard.  It began as a cloudy day, but turned out to be just beautiful!  We had SO MUCH FUN running and playing, and the girls went down the “bumpy slide” by themselves – and then together – for the first time.  They actually went down more times than I could count…at least 20!  By the end, they were definitely tired, though.  Baby A asked if I could carry her up the 25 or so steps to the top of the slide.  HA!

9)      We typically eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant about once a week, and we happened to time our weekly trip with Cinco de Mayo this weekend.  The restaurant was very crowded, so we sat someplace other than our usual table.  The girls enjoyed sitting under their beloved “donkey” picture, and I loved hearing B wish one of the waiters, “Feliz Cinco de Mayo!”  That kid will attempt to say anything, and she usually does a pretty fair job!

10)   Puzzle mania has continued at our house this week.  After lunch on Sunday, we stopped by the dollar store to get a couple new puzzles, each 63 pieces.  The girls have done them twice already.  I love seeing them so deep in concentration!

11)   Baby B was sitting in my lap, facing me.  She looked intently at me, and then almost gasped, “Mommy!  There’s something broken in your eye!  How did you break your eye?”  Poor kiddo was a bit traumatized at Mommy’s lack of sleep, apparently.

12)   As I was working in the kitchen one day, I heard B explaining some kind of made-up game to A: “OK, here's what we're going to do. It's going to be pretty challenging, OK?"  Way to set expectations!

13)   One morning at breakfast, Baby A was explaining the ways of the world to me.  I can’t remember the exact conversation, but she was really serious.  All the while, she had the cutest milk mustache that I couldn’t make myself wipe off…there was something absolutely irresistible about her little baby voice, her very serious eyes, and that smear of milk on her lip.

Here's to another SUPER week!

Fabulous Stuff from the Last Few Weeks...

I am kicking myself for having gotten behind on my “fabulous” week-in-review posts!!!  They say to spend New Year’s Day the way you want to spend the year, though…so there’s no time like yesterday / today to get back on track, I guess.

Thankfully, I’ve jotted down some notes.  Between that and Facebook, I can reconstruct at least part of what I should have recorded over the past three weeks…

1)      I was SO proud of the girls for going through their toys before Christmas, looking for things to be donated.  We do that every few months, and they really seem to grasp – at a three-year old level, anyway – that not all people have the things they need, as we are blessed to have.

2)      Baby B’s pronunciation has been pretty exemplary (I think) for a long time, and Baby A has improved so much, just within the last month.  Still, there are a couple of words that they still have such a baby way of saying…orange is “ah-yange”, and interesting is, well, interesting.  I can’t quite figure that one out, but maybe something along the lines of “inchresting”???  It always makes me smile.

3)      Baby A has started enunciating consonant combinations much more clearly.  For squirrel, for example, she used to say “soorl”.  I really had to listen for context to understand what she was saying.  Just within the past couple of weeks, she’s articulating “skoorl”, which is a big improvement!

4)      Baby A got to be the line leader during the last week of preschool.  I don’t know what all that entails, exactly, but I know they get to call their classmates to line up when they go to the bathroom or outside.  I asked A who she called first, and she answered, “B!”  The tone in her voice was a bit incredulous…as if there’d be another answer.  So sweet!

5)      On the last day of preschool before the holiday break, nothing could have been cuter than seeing the girls and all their classmates pile out of their classroom wearing construction paper antlers, their noses painted Rudolph-red.  They were all bursting with excitement…the epitome of that magical preschool age.

6)      After their preschool Christmas party, I asked them what they had to eat and drink.  "We asked for water, but there wasn't any.  There was only juice."  Really?  "Maybe Jesus really liked juice," they reasoned.  HA!

7)      At some random time, I grabbed my camera to make pictures of the girls playing with their daddy.  Baby A took us all by surprise when she reached up, turned Daddy’s face to the camera, and told him to smile!  She’s not exactly golden in that department herself…but this shows me she gets the idea, at least!

8)      When B was asked several times what she’d like for Christmas, she consistently replied, “I would like a toy for Sasha.”  It warms my heart to see her sweet, tender heart on display.

9)      We had originally planned to go to JD’s for a special snack one day, but we didn’t realize they are closed on Mondays.  We went instead to the tea shop downtown, and opted for an order of beignets.  Little did we know we were their very first beignet customers…kinda cool!  And the girls passed that “trial run” for a trip to NOLA with flying colors.

 
10)  At the tea shop, the girls had milk, while I had hot tea.  They both asked to try my tea, and I told them they could have a sip.  I poured a tiny amount in each of their cups when they finished their milk.  Baby B took a tiny sip, and made the worst face ever.  Baby A couldn’t get past the smell.  I appreciate their adventurousness…but I’m really glad they didn’t like it!

11)   When we decorated cookies with M&C before Christmas, the kiddos tired of the decorating after 30 minutes or so.  After we got them cleaned up (which was no small task!), they were running around with spatulas, having a blast.  Baby A kept chasing everyone, trying to take their picture with the kiddie camera…wonder where she gets that notion from?!

12)   Wisdom from Baby A:  “I have holes in my head so my hair can grow.”

13)   Playing with Silly Bandz they got from preschool, the girls ran up to me.  “Look at our hand rubbers!” they squealed.

14)   B, from the potty one morning:  "Mommy! I got just the right amount of toilet paper! I'm so organized!"

15)   B was drawing one morning, and I asked her why her snowman was wearing glasses. "Because he hasn't put his contacts in yet, Mommy."  Yup, ask a silly question....

16)   When we were at GG’s before Christmas, Mr. Randy told the girls their eyes were so shiny.  “We just had a bath!” B exclaimed.  (That was a reference to Mommy’s “shiny clean” characterization, I guess…HA!)

17)   I was upstairs folding laundry, and I wish I had counted what was going on downstairs from the beginning.  The girls rooked Daddy into singing “Happy Birthday”…at least 20 times.  When I came downstairs, I heard “Happy Birthday Dear Pillows…” “Happy Birthday Dear Carpet…” and “Happy Birthday Old Blocks and New Blocks…” just as a reference point.

18)   The girls have been ALL ABOUT playing hide and seek this week.  They’re so bad, though!  Baby A called out one time, “Where are you sissy?”  And B answered, “I’m hiding!”  Later, B explained that she didn’t want sissy to get tired looking for her.

19)   And I think I fell in love with my husband a little more over one particular game of hide and seek.  In response to the girls’ uncontrollable laughter, I went in the living room to see what was going on…Daddy was sitting in the middle of the floor, completely covered with a blanket.  Hahaha!

20)   It’s not unusual for Baby B to “read” books aloud, but it was so sweet to see Baby A this week.  She was “reading” the entire “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” and “Polar Bear, Polar Bear” series to B…and B was listening so intently.

21)    Daddy was so proud this week...the girls were bopping around, pretending to be "Chelsea" and "Liverpool", two English Premier League soccer teams.

22)   While we were in Alabama for the holidays, the girls got asked several times what they wanted to be when they grow up.  My A surprised me by answering, “I want to be a cook, like Mommy.”  Now if one only got paid for being “a cook like Mommy!”  HA!

23)   B is so proud of learning to spit her toothpaste.  She comes out of the bathroom every night to report to her daddy, “I spat excellently!”

24)   We celebrated New Year’s Eve with M&C and their mom and dad.  The kiddos were playing with the train set (along with every other toy we own).  I asked B about one of the loops on the track, and she said so seriously, “M and I made this.”  I just got a kick out of how grown-up she sounded…AND her proper use of the “someone and I” construction.  Squee!

So thankful for these...and all the other moments in time!

Happy New Year!!!  Here's to the start of a fantastic 2013!!!