Shine down on me

Yesterday, we had a beautiful sunny warm day. After being in the deep freeze for over a month, we really appreciated a 50 degree day. The girls were finally able to get out and play. Yay for being outside on sunny days.



Lily with hair all a-glow pushing her trike around the courtyard. Lily's been doing better at night. She seems more content to sleep in her pullups and hasn't asked to use the potty for a couple of nights. But, she still wants mama to come in a couple times at night to fix her blanket and give her a kiss. I think we're in the process of resetting the sleep patterns which always go awry after a bout of illness and/or hitting a major milestone like pottytraining. Since we've had both, it may take a while. Very much looking forward to the time change next month when the 5/530 wakeup time changes to the six o'clock hour. I'm having a hard time being a nice mommy at 5am. Poor Mark's been taking the brunt of my bad mood in the mornings. It is very frustrating because Ms L ONLY wants her mom when she wakes up.


Ms. Elsa running up and down the sidewalk. One thing that I love best about Elsa is her quirky sense of humor. She makes lots of jokes usually involving animals. She also does imitations. Lately, if we ask her what she believes to be an obvious question, she'll use this special voice that sounds a bit like Eeyore. Oooo-kay, maaa-aam. The first few times she did it, Mark and I cracked up because she was clearly making fun of us. She'll do the same thing to her sister, when Lily gets into tantrum mode.

Since her sister has been getting the bulk of parental attention lately. Elsa really cherishes her dates. On the weekends, we often take the girls out individually. Elsa just loves it. She just beams when it is her turn to go the grocery store. She's such a good helper. She'll sit in the car, chattering away and give me lots of advice about what to buy. She could stay out all day.


Stomping in some puddles. The girls are getting really interested in the natural world. They are completely perplexed by the disappearance of the snow. Where did it go? Why are their puddles? They also ask me lots of questions about day and night. Where's the sun? Make it come back? Why is it dark? How come they can only see the moon sometimes? Budding young scientists.



Pretty picture of Lily.
The other cool thing they've been doing lately is memorizing rhymes. They can recite some nursery rhymes by heart like "hey diddle." It is really cool. They can "read" us Goodnight Moon and get the words right. I often find the girls sitting with a book, reciting the story while moving their fingers over the words.

I've noticed their taste in books has become more sophisticated. They like books with lots of words. This week, I finally let them check out library books and they picked out Dr Seuss and the original Berenstein Bears. Their at home favorites are currently any of the Clifford series. They have a bunch and will read them over and over again.


Elsa's making her imp face.
Their writing and drawing skills are changing, too. All of the sudden, they are getting pretty good at staying in the lines of their coloring books. And Elsa, especially, has been practicing making letters. I kept noticing that that someone had been putting letter-like drawings inside my unfinished crossword puzzle squares. (Mark and I are on a crossword kick). Turns out that Elsa has been pretending to write. She makes these tiny scribbles that kind of look like letters. Today they both insisted on writing their own grocery list before we went to the store.



This is when they realized that stomping in mud puddles makes their pants wet. They started crying because they were dirty. L and E really hate to be dirty. Ironic since they are so good at making messes. But, they do like to clean. Sometimes, I think they make messes, just so they can "clean" them up. Yesterday, they both took sponges and helped me clean the bathroom.