Why do I have a sinking feeling about this?

Addie went to bed minutes ago – unswaddled. No pull-up. Just purple Ariel “big girl” pants between her and the nice dry sheets. I will add that she has had dry pull-ups the last few mornings, but I really wanted just a few more dry nights, as a bit of a cushion.

Still, she was so very insistent tonight that she is a “BIG GIRL!”

The whole time we were having this argument discussion, I kept having flashbacks to the night that Emma declared the end of her pull-up era. After Em had made up her mind – there was no stopping her. And I think that she has had maybe one (?) accident since that night.

So, tonight I relented. I let Addie go to bed and, hopefully, prove me wrong.

We’ll see.

More Sisterly Love ~ Best Shot Monday

I can’t stop photographing the two girls together lately. This is what? The tenth photo of the two of them in the past two weeks?

Maybe it is because I am missing my sister. Or maybe I feel compelled to document the love between the girls while I can, for I’m sure I’ll need to pull some of these photos out to remind us all of a simple time when they were just happy to be together.

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I love happy “accidents.” When you think you know which shot is going to be your absolute favorite, and then as they are downloading the photos, one catches your eye. A shot that you thought was a “throw-away,” but it jumps out, and really speaks to you.

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That was this one. Probably not technically the “best” shot I took all week, but the pure love you can feel radiating from the two of them – it literally makes my heart feel like it will explode when I stare at it. So therefore, it is my Best Shot this fine Monday.

New Spring Clothes!

Nana and Papa sent the girls some cash and instructions to get themselves maybe a “new skirt or some sandals” with their Easter cards.

The money has been burning a hole in the girls’ pockets all week. Finally we went to Target yesterday and Emma declared as we were walking in, “We have to find a skirt or sandals from our Easter money! Can we shop too, Mama?”

I told her yes, of course, but I didn’t say anything about what they had to buy, I kind of wanted to see what they came up with on their own.

My very literal Em, insisted that we had to find a skirt. When Addie picked up a little summer shirt that she liked Em chastised her, “No, Addie! You have to get a skirt!”

So I stepped in and told Addie if she really liked that shirt that it was on sale (good girl!) and it would be fine. She insisted that it was not a shirt, but a dress! But since the shirt was on sale, we were also able to get a cute little pair of shorts to go under her “dress.” Purple. Her favorite color.

Then we went over to the girls’ section and I was a bit disappointed I must say. Em is just on the cusp, her 5T stuff fits her, but it won’t for long and a lot of it is just too short for her long torso, so we’ve been trying to get straight up 5s. Which of course requires the girls’ section. But they just don’t have as cute of clothes over there. And some of it is down right hoochie. Which is another hard concept to explain to a 5-year old.

So, we get to Em’s section. She stops and looks so longingly at the sundresses, runs her hands through the dresses, looks at the tag and asks me how much all of them are, and then kept walking. (They were on sale and in her budget as well!) We got to the end of the row and she looked tearfully at me and said,

E: “But Mama, there just aren’t any skirts that I can get!”
M: “Honey, you don’t have to get a skirt! Papa and Nana just suggested maybe a skirt.”
E: “Can I get a little sundress – it is the right price?”
M: “Of course, yes!”

So she ran straight back to the sundresses, picked out the girliest pink one she could find and happily carried it to the checkout. And, of course, they both had to wear their new outfits this morning.

Em’s new dress…

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Ad’s new “dress”…

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And her shorts…

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And the two of them…just because they are cute, and I can.

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Some Days…

…it is so easy to be a Mom to these two girls. I think God realizes that you have to have some really, really, good days sprinkled in with the bad ones, otherwise nobody would ever have more than one child!

But we have had a really lovely – very busy – but lovely week. Pretty much a 180 from last week. Although J. did come home one night this week and asked if our courtyard was part of a crime scene.

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I was tempted to make so many wise-cracks, but it kind of makes me hyperventilate to think of anything related to that – so I will not go there. Em just wanted to make “snow angels” in the courtyard – don’t argue with the logic of an (almost!) five-year old. So she drew Addie, and I helped Addie draw her. Can you tell which is which? 🙂

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We took our friends Michelle and Emma Louise to the zoo. It is always a treat to meander through the zoo and take in all of the sights and sounds of the animals. And it was perfect timing, not crowded at all, and the girls were able to run around and check out what they wanted to see. They found this koala bear asleep in the tree…

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…checked out the new Gorilla Reserve (so very cool!)…

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…and Addie had her own little animal encounter.

This meerkat was fascinated with Addie! He was right in front of us and every time she would say something or move, he would just stare at her.

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She was delighted, of course. He looks a little like a real kitty, so he was “ok” in her book.

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And then, there is a park that is about halfway between Em’s school and our house and we have been anxiously awaiting its’ unveiling. They have totally redone the playground and every time we go past it, one of the girls will pipe up with a “Hey, Mama – it looks like the park is almost done!”

So yesterday, after we dropped Em at school, we were driving past it and Addie says the line on cue. And I realized that there were kids on the playground. So she and I did a little “test drive” of all of the new playground equipment.

Addie thought it was cool that she got to go to the park first, but when I suggested we go pick up Em from school and tell her we have a surprise for her and bring her back, she was over the moon with that idea! She could hardly contain herself as we waited for 4 o’clock.

She marched into Emma’s class and gleefully told Emma, “We have a surprise, and I’m not telling you! Come on we have to go!”

So we went to the park. Again. But, man, it is a totally fun park! Very different and fun toys to play with and on. The girls had a blast and Addie told me, “I love this park, Mama. It is my favorite!” Of course, she says that about a lot of parks, but I think it might be Mama’s favorite.

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Em was climbing all over the jungle gym thing-y, and was pretty high up, too. I’m still not used to her being so agile, courageous, and able to get so high up, so quickly. Did I mention that she looked like she was so high up? I told her to be careful and she said,

E: “You want to see how I got up here, Mama?”
M: “Sure. How?”
E: “I just put my leg here and then did this…”
(And she hiked her leg up and scrambled up to the top.)
E: “Hey, I think I got the hang of it, Mama! (Then she laughs as if she has just told the funniest joke!) Hang of it! Like I’m hanging! Do you get it, Mom?”

I got it. Funny monkey.

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Ring Around Our Rosey

Maybe it is because of one of her (many) nicknames, “Rosey Toes,” but Addie is infatuated with Ring Around the Rosey (or is it Rosie, or Rosy?) right now.

Talking Em into playing with her…

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Ring around the Rosey…

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Pocket full of ashes…

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We all fall down!

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Recruit a new player – start all over again.

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Here we go, Here we go, Here we go again…

I can’t believe I am even about to write this because, well…I am tempting fate here. But, while we were on vacation our “baby” decided that she is “a big girl.” Seriously, if you even just call her “baby” affectionately she will stop dead in her tracks and screech “I’m not a baby, Mama! I’m a big girl!”

So, she slept in “big” beds the entire time we were on vacation. These photos were shot after our exhausting first day of travel to Hawaii and a luau. She fell asleep in my arms at the luau, (Sigh. That was so arm-breakingly lovely. It has been a long time since she has done that.) she remained crashed through the entire bus ride back to the hotel where I deposited her on the bed and changed her into her pjs. And then she continued to sleep through until morning. It was crazy…

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…but I loved getting a lot of opportunities to watch both of the girls sleep this past week. So peaceful. Sweet, little, angelic sleeping faces.

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Fast forward to our first night back. Last night.

“I dohwanna sleep in my crib, Mama. I will sleep with Emma? I will sleep with you?”

So I promised her last night that we would make her crib into a big girl bed today, if she slept in the crib last night. It sorta worked. She was up early and ended up sleeping with me, anyhow. But we did move her to the big girl bed tonight.

Again.

But, didn’t we just go through this a few month’s ago? And didn’t it fail miserably?

Yes. And yes.

All day Addie kept saying, “I am so exciting for my kitties and my new bed, Mama.” (I found a really sweet “kitty” quilt a few weeks ago for her big girl bed.) And she kept saying we were “breaking” her crib. “Thank you for breaking my crib, Daddy!”

So how did bedtime go you ask?

All right…again, I know I’m tempting fate…but it went really, really well. It is only 11pm, so we’ll see how the rest of the night goes, but she climbed into bed and was very insistent that I keep the door open and the closet light on (ala what Emma always asks for) and was also adamant that I NOT put the gate up in her doorway. So I told her that if she stayed in bed and went to sleep, I would not put the gate up. I went in to put some clothes away and she was already asleep when I started downstairs.

It is such a bittersweet milestone. But I think this time we are ready.

Fingers crossed.

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Edited for update:

It is 8:10am –  she is still in there sound asleep. Didn’t make a peep all night. This is really too good to be true, right??

The Worrisome Park? ~ Best Shot Monday

We are at a beautiful, sunny park running all of our “ya-yas” out. So what could this girl possibly be so worried about?

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She is going to get worry lines on her forehead at the ripe old age of 2 if this furrowing of the eyebrows continues…

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This one is my favorite and my Best Shot for this fine Monday.

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It is fine, of course, because J. comes home today – Hallelujah!

And what could make this week even better? We are headed to Hawaii for the ProBowl and a little R&R on Wednesday. It’s a rough life, I know. I haven’t said anything about our impending vacation because I have been, ah…burned, a few times on some of the other scheduled trips. But we are going. For sure. We leave this Wednesday and we’ll return the day after Valentine’s Day. And my laptop is taking a trip to the genius bar for a little TLC, so it will not be accompanying me. I will maybe hop on J.’s laptop for a quick post here and there…but I may not. We’ll just have to see how all of those the mai tais affect me.

Make sure to stop in for other BSMs over at Tracey’s though! Next week, too…even if I can’t tear myself away from the beach to post one, there will be some great ones, I’m sure!


This One’s For The Boys…

…mostly Daddy because he misses his girls so much. But also for Papa because he is apparently unhappy that I have not posted anything in the past two days.

So here you go guys, photos of the girlies from our park expedition yesterday –

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I have been tirelessly trying to keep our days filled while J. has been gone this week, so that (1) the days go by a little more quickly and (2) it keeps the girls busy – both of which will inevitably keep all of us happy.

Ah, who am I kidding? I’m just trying to wear them out as much as possible so I can put them to bed by 7:30pm and they’ll be so exhausted they won’t think of getting up before 8am.

Which I must say has been the case this week, so my evil plan is working. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

We have had a pretty uneventful week, pretty routine stuff. The girls have been a good mix of “pulling-my-hair-out” frustrating and “cavity-inducing” sweet. Which means they give me plenty to be thankful for and remind me that J. and I are very blessed, while at the same time not allowing me to get too complacent and lulled into thinking I have perfect children.

They have been C-H-A-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-E-S lately, though.

Em keeps asking random questions. Persistent questions. And I guarantee that we are not done discussing this topic. It will come up again, probably tomorrow.

E: Mama, what would you say to an alien if you met one in outer space?
M: Well, I don’t think there really are “aliens” like you think of aliens, honey. They are kind of just make-believe, like on cartoons and such.
(Sorry to offend any of you E.T. believers out there…but I was trying to figure out the easiest way out of this without inciting any sort of nightmares of possible extra-terrestial life!)
E: Oh, I know. But if you could go up in a rocket ship to outer space and you did find an alien? What would you say to him?
M: Hmm…well, I think that if I did find one, he would be so scared because he had never seen a human before, he would run away before I could even ask him anything.
E: Oh. Yeah, he probably wouldn’t want to talk to you anyway.

And Addie…the girl just doesn’t quit with the funny stuff that comes out of her mouth. Yesterday they both came up to me and wanted me to open something –

Em: Mama, can you open this for us?
M: Just a sec, babe. I’m cleaning the cat poop box out.
Ad: Ewwww! UCK! Let’s get outta here, Emma!

And this morning as she was trying to sneak out of eating her bagel, she leaned over and whispers…“Emma, let’s get out of here!”

She has impeccable timing, too. The minute I am about ready to lose it, she will get this goofy grin, look at me out of the corner of my eye and say something that has me cracking up. The other day she was being…well, a two-year old, again, and Em said to me, “Mama? Is Addie pushing your buttons right now?” And before I could even respond, mostly because I was laughing at Em and her assessment of the situation, Addie looked up at me with her big, puppy dog eyes and said in her little sing-songy voice, “But I love you, too, Mama!”

Who can argue with that?!