Saturday Morning Breakfast

I think I've mentioned before that I love low key Saturday mornings. Here are the girls this morning having breakfast on their picnic table and watching 'toons.

Okay, so she really doesn't have enough hair for a pony tail. However, I am able to fashion the craziness that is my child's hair into a spike on her head that shouts to the world: I AM A GIRL! I long for the day when her hair grows long and lush enough to put it into braids and pigtails. But this will have to do for now. I'm tired of that old guy at Walmart calling my pink-clad baby girl "little fella".

Isn't she cute?

In other news...I finally got a "mamma" from her last week. And now she knows how to use it. Sometimes it's a sweet, like "Ahhh mamma" because she's happy to see me. But she uses it when she's ticked too. Like when I take something away from her or she wants something that I'm holding. Then she's screaming at me, "mamma mamma mamma!" She's repeating lots of other words now too. Nothing consistently, of course. If I want to show off her skills to someone, she won't speak on cue. But I know she can and that's what counts. : )

An Anatomy Lesson followed by Christianity 101

Never a dull moment with a 4 year old in the house. Tuesday night after dance class, Ava was especially energetic. Dare I say, annoyingly so? She was bouncing off of the walls! After dinner, Mike was trying to wipe off her hands and face. She was bopping this way and that and making it near impossible. And she had a bad case of the giggles. She was giddy. I saw the frustration all over my dear husband's face. Then Ava yanked down the top of her leotard and flashed him. "Ava!" he said sternly, "pull that up, I don't want to see your boobies!" And then Ava went silent...long enough for the 'tude to fall over her face. "Daddy!" she said sharply, with her hands on her hips. "They are NOT boobies. These are my breasts." AHHHH. I could've died right there. I had to turn around. I was shaking with laughter. Boy is he in for it. Three women in the house and him. Poor guy.

Yes, never a dull moment.

Tonight as I was tucking her in, she said to me, "Mommy, why did Jesus die on that X." I asked, "You mean, the cross?" "Yeah, that." she answered. This led to a very long conversation. I kept it pretty basic, but she had lots of questions. I need to brush up on my theology. Lots of questions from my pretty girl.

Boy, do they grow up fast!

First Dance Class

Another first. Ava has been begging me for months to let her go to a dance class. Since September the requests happen daily. I finally called around and found a school with an opening. You can imagine her excitement when the day of her first class finally arrived. She was so excited, in fact, that she couldn't stand still long enough for me to take a picture before we left. She was "practicing". Because she's a ballerina, you know. I hoped the experience would live up to her expectations...and it did. She loved it! Even better yet, her friend Anna will be attending the class with her. She had such a good time demonstrating what she learned in class while I made dinner. She wouldn't take her leotard off.

Here she is before we left for dance class tonight.

First Snow

It started snowing here the week BEFORE Halloween and we've seen flurries off and on ever since. However, this is the first real snow of the year. The one that stuck. We were all excited to put on our snow gear and slide around. Yesterday after I picked up Ava from school, I put Emily down for a nap and took Ava out to play. We built a little snowman. Before we could give him a face, Miss Emily was paging me through the monitor. What to do? Leave him with such a blank expression? Nope, I put him on a cookie sheet and brought him in so that we could all share in the decorating fun. He got mini oreos for eyes, the traditional carrot nose, and a pepperoni smile. Emily had fun eating snow. She'd take a big bite and make a horrible face from the cold and then go back for more.
More snow fell overnight and so this morning we bundled up again and this time Emily got to share in the fun. The forecast predicts snow every day through the weekend, so there is no end to our fun in sight.

Here are the pictures from last night and this morning.

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First Word

Emily said her first word last Tuesday. She was in the bathtub, which is one of her favorite places, and she stood up and lovingly patted the faucet and said, "Bath, bath." It was so darn cute. The next morning she expanded her vocabulary to "Dada". This week, if you ask her to say grandpa she says, "Ga Pa" or "Papa". She's putting together lots of new sounds this week, so who knows what she'll say next. Can we get a mama?! Please? Here are a few pics of her last week being her cute lil' self.




And one of her this morning with some serious hat head after playing outdoors. See all of those teeth? #6 is on it's way through!

Emily's 10 Month Report

She's 10 months now! I know that I keep saying this, but I've forgotten how much fun babies are at this stage. One of my favorite developments that has really emerged in the last couple of weeks is that Emily knows what to do with "stuff". If she picks up a phone it goes to her ear and she babbles away. If she picks up a comb she puts it to her head and tries to give herself a little baby hairstyle. Yesterday she found Mike's belt laying on the floor and she carefully wrapped it around her mid-section. She knows where it goes! It's a nice change from just putting everything in her mouth. Oh and baby dolls....she loves baby dolls right now. She gives them kisses and says "Awwww." No other words to report yet, but she knows the sound to express affection. It's very sweet to watch.

She's still into everything. Tearing laundry out of baskets, Tupperware out of cupboards and books off of shelves, to name a few. She's cruising all around the furniture and starting to stand on her very own. She's a climber just like her big sister was at this age. She climbs onto the rocking chair, love seat, dishwasher....

Her favorite place to be right now is on the stairs. I know, not good. We have them barricaded, but as soon as she hears the gate move, she's off like a rocket toward the stairs with the hope that we might let her climb. She's pretty brave. Our stairs are scary. There are big spaces between them that she could fall through! Mom, if you're reading, I promise that she is never on the stairs unchaperoned. The video clip not only shows her climbing the stairs, but also her ability to stand. A little.

I do have to brag on Ava's problem solving skills for a moment here. Ava loves her High School Musical dance mat. The problem is, so does Emily. And why wouldn't she, it's got that crinkly texture babies love, not to mention lights and music. She's like a moth to a flame with that thing. Consequently, throughout the day I hear, "Mom! Emily is on my dance mat again. MOM! Get her!" and "Get off baby! This is not for babies. Get off!" followed by poor Emily wailing broken-heartedly. Finally, this morning I told Ava that if Emily was bothering her that she just needed to move the dance mat into another room and play with it there. Then it got quiet. Ahhh. Sweet silence. Then the music started again. I was just getting ready to remind Ava that I asked her to take the mat to another room when I looked up to see Emily bouncing to the music on the AquaDoodle water paint mat and Ava happily dancing away on her dance mat right next to her. Problem solved...at least momentarily. Go Ava. Good thinking!

If you can look past Ava's crazy dancing, you'll see Emily behind her and to the right, trying to get up off of the floor and dance along. Oh, and please pardon the mess. I promise that the house got cleaner as the day went on. Here are Ava and Emily from this morning:

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