Halloween 2009

I am so far behind in posing anything, we have had birthdays and first days of school etc.

But here is a quick pic of the girls anxiously awaiting to go get some candy!!!!

L'enfant terrible. OK...not really.

We didn't really have any terrible 2s or 3s with Aubrey. I really can't imagine we'll have any in her 4s or 5s. If we have a complaint it's typically more that she doesn't listen very well. Or that she was a little too rough with Charlotte as they play together. No big deal.

It's mainly during meals that we're fighting Charlotte right now (though Tracy gets more during the day). She just won't eat and thinks its funny.

This morning I set some oatmeal down in front of her, she smiled, shook her head and said, "No...I'm not going to eat that". Perfect little sentence. And I made the mistake of smiling - impressed with her future simple verb tense.

Luckily she likes oatmeal, so the moment I walked away she started eating it. I guess hoping to eat as much as possible before I got back; when she'd have to act uninterested again.

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Over the weekend we spent a lot of time in the rain (rained all weekend). Backyard, front yard. Stomping puddles. I love that my girls like the rain as much as I do.

Tried to watch football sunday. Aubrey's response, "Are there any girls in this??". Um...no. "I want to watch something else." Tennis is OK. Girls play that. Track and field is OK. Girls do that. Football? Nope. No interest.

More happy tears.

Since today is Aubrey's first day of school...and her first real day apart from Tracy (which means Tracy hasn't slept in a week), I thought I'd share a quick story.

Aubrey has before talked about "happy tears". We've caught her teary eyed watching Cinderella when everything ends well. She's always going to be an emotional wreck, I guess. Too much drama for such a sweet little YOUNG girl.

So the other day at dinner Tracy and I were talking about how girls will always admit to loving their daddy, but it seems like every grown mom we know mainly talks about how she battles with her own mom. Can't remember what prompted this to come up, but I think it was a friend of hers who was having some sort of conflict with her mom. So I said something about how "maybe when Aubrey's a teenager sitting around with other teenagers griping about what their moms won't let them do - OK...maybe THEN Aubrey won't admit to loving you. But you'll know she does and she'll always tell you to your face, right?"

We didn't realize that Aubrey had been listening intently to this because we looked over and she was softly crying. We thought we'd upset her. Tracy asked her what's wrong? "No, mommy...these are happy tears. I will always love you and I will always tell my friends that I love you. I love you so much Mommy."

That of course was the end of dinner and a round of hugs. It's just so weird to me to have an almost 4 year old who gets so emotional over happy thoughts, not just sad ones. I don't think Charlotte has an ounce of this.

Growing together.

Talking and more talking.

Charlotte. 20 months old. She told me last night, "you're my daddy...and I love you VERY much". That's not a paraphrase. That's the exact sentence.

I must also add that as I bopped her the other night before bed I stumbled a bit and heard her mumble, "damn it...".

Yes, we have to watch our mouths better. The other day Jazzmin ran past and Aubrey looked at me and asked, "what the hell is she doing??"

Oops.

Sisters.......

As of July 4th.

Quick note on where the girls are.

Charlotte is grumpy a lot lately. Not sure why. She cut two big molars, but they're mostly in now. She still smiles a lot and giggles and plays. But it's SO easy to send her into a crying spiral.

Aubrey is a swimmin' freak. She decided she wants to swim on her on so no more floaties. She's pretty good for a 3 year old. She dives in and swims over to me under water. Mostly kicks. Not much arm movement yet. But she can hold her breathe REALLY well. She's had a few scarry moments when she swallows water and comes up coughing. But in every case she's ready to go a couple minutes later. Tracy's freaked out because she won't even warn us. She'll just launch off the steps and start swimming towards us. Or just out into the middle of the pool. If she could get her head up to take a breathe it would be OK. But she still needs us to pull up on to get her head out. Maybe in a month or so she'll figure it out. For now...it's a process.

Charlotte is also a great little swimmer. We put floaties on her and she just swims around all by herself.

Songs

Aubrey loves music. But unlike her daddy, to whom the melody is where I'm hooked, she's a lyrics girl. We have to closely monitor her music intake because she listens so intently to what's being said. And she extrapolates FAR more than we'd like.

Yesterday in the car the song Say It Right came on. She was quiet for a minute then proceeded to explain to me what she was singing about.

"Maybe all her friends were always the same. But then they all changed and she didn't have any friends any more. And then no one loved her any more"

So...um...what do I say to THAT?

More photos from the Arbo

Sisters

Big step last night. Over the weekend we sold the big furniture and pared Aubrey's room down to just a few larger items. Then last night....WE MOVED CHARLOTTE INTO AUBREY'S ROOM! For the record, this is Tommy writing this - not Tracy. Tracy wouldn't have used caps there.

Don't get me wrong. I already miss her too. But I mostly miss what has already passed by us several months ago when she was a tiny lil' thing in our bed. When she would only sleep holding my hand. When she kicked me all night in the face and pushed me to the very edge of the bed so that she could curl up in my crook. When we got a full night of soft baby sighs. That's all gone. Now she's growing up and falling alseep on her own and waking up wanting to play. So we moved her into Aubrey's room and with a little coaxing, got her to sleep. Aubrey did her part as well, staying quiet in bed until she fell alseep instead of her usual nightly song and dance routine (I mean song and dace as a literal statement). I'm sure this week will be more headache than ease, but it's a nice step to take and both girls seem excited to finally share that room.

On that note, this morning (with a 5:30AM wakeup and Aubrey racing into our room screaming "Charlotte's awake!!!!") I was outside with the girls on the swing. Aubrey started chatting with Charlotte as they swayed side by side.
"I'm so happy to have you Charloote. You know - you'll always have me as your big sister! I will be your mommy if you want me to."

On and on. It was the sweetest thing I've heard in a long time. They truly love each other.

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1 night later edit. Spent last night on the floor of their room. Charlotte keeps waking up crying. Aubrey feels she needs to run and tell me (we have a monitor, so we're VERY well aware). I finally camped on the floor so that I could respond each time she woke up. Hopefully this only lasts a few days.

'scuse me

New phrase: 'scuse me. She says it after farts, burps and right before she rolls over your toes with her baby stroller.

The other night I was bopping her to sleep. She had the hickups. 2 minutes of:
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me
hick...scuse me

I was finally giggling so hard I had to drop her in her crib, kiss her and leave. Didn't hear another peep, so I guess she hicked herself to sleep.

FREEZE!

Stop growing up already! I am happy just as things are right now. How is it that I already have a 3.5 and 1.5 year old. I should be getting pregnant with #3 :) But, that isn't going to happen for me, so I cry every time Charlotte grows out of something, or learns a new word. Aubrey walks away from me sometimes and I am sure that she is already 16. I am not ready. I want them to stay small and in my arms, and in their cribs forever, is that too much to ask? I know, I know what you are thinking - that I should look forward to all of the amazing things to come, but I am trying to come to grips that there will be no more teeny tiny babies, no more of those amazing baby smiles while they are asleep in your arms.........I have to let it go, but it is so much harder than I thought. I love my little monkeys, but they grow so fast! So I say to Charlottle all the time - FREEZE! Maybe she will listen.

Mother's Day Parade

We had a fun day at the Swiss Avenue Parade for Mother's Day and the Home Tour. We got to decorate our stroller, and hang out with Firemen and be entertained by some guy with puppets that the kids just LOVED!! I need to figure out who he was.










I want to live in that white house.......

Claire!

Check this out!

Best Jump Ever!

While Daddy is away, and it rains every day......

We take baths in the sink.......

And Lots of Scarf Dancing.

But Best of All.....Ballet!!

The girls Missing Tommy in China.......

Come home soon!!!!!

My Favorite....

What could be cuter than a cutie in a tutu???

Most of her class did not show up, but tha meant she got more attention which was fine with her. She felt and looked like a little movie star!!!

Brown Eyed Girl

Words

Charlotte keeps talking up a storm. We can't even list the words she knows. Too many. Each morning we bring her to bed when she wakes up for 10 minutes of extra sleep/snuggling/eyepoking (our eyes, her fingers). This morning after a few minutes Charlotte bonks me on the head and says, "WAKE!!". I turned my head towards her just in time for another bonk and a "WAKE UP!!"
Keep in mind, this is a 16 month old. The other morning we got a "TWO!!" out of her after I said, "One"...so she's already thinking she can count. She says, "donwanchu" all the time, which means, "Don't want to". Yep. She's past the "no" phase and went straight for multi-word combinations. "Letsgo" is another favorite.

Life

One morning as we lay around talking...
Aubrey: I'm sad.
Me: Why are you sad?
Aubrey: Because you yelled at me last night and told me to go to sleep.
Me: Well, that was last night and you were a good sleeper, so I'm not upset.
Aubrey: But you yelled at me and it made me sad and I can't dream any more.
Me: Um....
Aubrey: **taps her heart** You hurt my life.

__

That was a couple weeks ago. Just the other day she mentioned her "life" in connection to dancing and how dancing makes her "life" happy. To Aubrey, her heart IS her life, and that's just fine with me.

Mind of their own:

Aubrey, get your feet off the table.
But they want to be on the table.
Well, when they try to come up on the table, tell them to stop it.
OK...but they don't listen very well.

More sarcasm:

The other night I was playing with the girls. I had the AquaDoodle thingie out - sort of like EtchaSketch with a pen. Aubrey said, "draw me!!", so I quickly did a line drawing of a girl sitting on the ground. Aubrey walks up, looks at it and frowns.
"Is that me....or a bumblebee?"

Speak and spell

Maybe most kids are doing this at 16 months...but Aubrey sure wasn't, so we're pretty impressed.
We're not really the flashcards - teach your kid to do math by age 2 type of parents. We'd rather they play and slowly learn what they need to know. But we've been working with Aubrey on her letters. She knows how to spell her name, but doesn't really like it so much.
So yesterday I said, Aubrey, let's spell your name. I said, "A", to start it for her, and instead of Aubrey taking it, I heard a little "Yoooooo" from beside me. It was Charlotte. Surprised, I looked at her and said, "B"....and she smiled and said "awwwrwww". I said, "E"......and sure enough, she smiled really big and yelled "Y!!!"
So...um...my 3 year old won't spell her name, but luckily her not quite 1 1/2 year old sister is there to help her. A couple more times since has gotten Es and Bs out of Charlotte. So I think the only letter she won't supply is the A, since that's our job to start it with.

Sarcasm

"Here's your water Aubrey", I say and place the sippy on her table. I say goodnight and close the door. 1 minute later she's back out. Not surprising...she usually comes out and asks for her "big hug". It's part of the ritual. So I pick her up and ask if she wants her hug. "no...it's not cold".
What's not cold?
"The water's not cold".
Oh yeah, I'd used tap water because I hadn't had a chance to put a new water jug on the Ozarka dispenser.
"I know Aubrey, we're out of cold water"

"Well, are we out of ice?"

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She's done this before and I might have even blogged about it before. But now it's taking on a new urgency.

Tracy tells Aubrey all the time that "a girl can do anything she wants to do". This is mostly in reference to how a girl can be anything and do anything in life she wants.
Last night I told the girls it was time for their bath. Aubrey starts to whine and said, "but I wanted to play dress up!!!". Aubrey, not now...maybe after your bath.
"but a girl can do anything she wants to do!!!!"

"ok...but just for 5 minutes, then we take a bath"
From there I walked in to tell Tracy that she needs to explain better to Aubrey what that phrase means.

Speaking of explanations...how do you make a child understand what "tomorrow" means. When we say, "tomorrow's gym class", the next day Aubrey asks, "is it tomorrow??". Um. "No, it's today". We're sort of at a loss here.


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This morning as we played on the floor I pulled a cover over Charlotte and I to hide from Aubrey who was walking in. Charlotte smiled and whispered, "hiding" with perfect pronunciation. So fun.

Dance Recital Costumes!!!!!!