Girlies

This picture is fairly old-a few months, but she bit part of the end off a washable marker, not sure why she is sad-except that I took the marker away!
Mostly just a journaling post about my girls and the things I love right now.  It is not the most orderly, as I found pictures I would add them.  The writing is from the last few weeks, most of the pictures are from the last 6 weeks-2 months.

I just wanted to write a couple things Ilene has started doing the last few days that make me laugh.  Sunday night I was sitting on the couch and she came and grabbed my finger and pulled on it so I would stand up.  Then she wanted me to pick her up and her "directed" me with her pointing and "talking" where she wanted me to take her.  She did this a few more times throughout the night and if she wants me to go somewhere with her she will just come "get" me and if that first little tug doesn't get my attention she wraps her other arm around my wrist :).  I love it.  

She also "blows kisses".  She has given kisses for a while and she thinks she is so funny, but Sunday night all of a sudden she made this sound and moved her hand away from her mouth.  After a few times I realized she was blowing a kiss.  She also will "blow her nose" by blowing on a tissue held by her mouth.  This one makes me laugh every time she does it.

Last night I was folding some laundry and she kept bringing me the makeup bag with all of the nail polish.  I wasn't completely sure what she was wanting, but I opened the bag and she unloaded it and then put it all back in (which is one of her favorite games, she loves putting things back in-especially after taking them out) a few times.  Finally she pulled out one color and handed it to me and climbed in my lap.  Then she pushed her chubby little hand so I painted her fingernails.  She then proceeded to "admire" her fingernails for a few minutes. And if I forgot a nail she would hold just that little nail out.  Oh man we love this little girl.  She is getting so big and has such a fun personality.  She is just so happy and she still loves to "tease" by pretending to give you something and then taking it back.  This results in her giggling while covering her mouth and kind of hiding her face in her shoulder.  She is so much fun! 

She also has started talking more.  She has said mama/dada for a while.  But about two weeks ago we noticed she was saying this Chinese sounding phrase a lot.  We realized it is "get down" and she is getting more and more clear at saying it.  She will say it when it totally doesn't apply just to make us laugh and then she gives us her giggle and smile.  She obviously LOVES to climb and she is so stinkin' fast!! She has also started saying "Uh-Oh" and occasionally she will say "thank you" and "Amen".  She has also figured out how to "cluck" her tongue and she thinks it is great if you mimic her.  She shakes her head "no" if she doesn't want something or if she is done.  She thinks it is great to pick out her clothes and I will show her outfits and she shakes her head "no" or she grabs them and gets really excited.  She is pretty much excited about every pair of shoes she has, she loves shoes and hugs them to her.  I love hearing her little voice and seeing her figure more things out each day! It is so fun to hear her talking while we are driving somewhere and she and Alli both love to "dance" to the music while we are driving or around the house.  Ilene loves dancing and does a "spin" with her hand cocked back behind her when she hears music or you ask her to dance.  And she will bounce more and more now too.  She climbs all over the place.  We rarely have our kitchen stools out because she likes to scale them and walk around on top of the bar, I am literally out of the kitchen for 30 seconds and I come back to this.  She has this little smirk on her face, which I love, but man she is a smart little stinker!  Here she was digging into a bowl of pomegranates.  And also she is an excellent cup drinker, so nice!

Alli is so sweet and soo helpful-95% of the time :).  She definitely has her "attitude filled" moments, but truthfully I feel so lucky because MOST of the time she can be reasoned with or a short time out followed by a little talking helps her calm down.  But like tonight when I was reading her stories and singing her favorite "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" at bedtime she turned and said "Mother, I love you, I will do anything you want" so I told her I wanted her to snuggle and go to sleep so she would be rested in the morning.  So she rolled back over to get comfortable-then she rolled back over to ask what the first thing I wanted to do in the morning was-drawing and play-doh? Sounds like a plan!  But I LOVE that she is old enough to have conversations and I am amazed by all that she comprehends.  I was at a meeting last Saturday morning and I get a text from Ryan that "Alli is a mini you".  So I respond "Why?" Well she was teaching Ryan and Ilene music class.  This year I have been teaching Let's Play Music an amazing program that I love more and more the more I find out about it, and I am truly grateful that I gave in and got trained after a few years of putting it off and "being recruited".  Alli is in the class and she will do the first year class again next year, but she loves it.  So she had the puppets out showing them the puppet show with the song explaining all the parts.  She sang the opener song and had them sit on their special spots.  Then she did the good bye song-nice, short and sweet class! She knows most of her letters and the sound they make, she can count like a champ-up to 12/13 and then it repeats starting at 8 :), and my favorite is that she will add things together or give me the total of things.  It kind of catches me off guard when she does it, but she will add her different animals together in all different arrangements or take some away.  I love that she is so inquisitive and that if we explain things she "gets it".

She loves stuffed animals like crazy! She always has a few with her and they have elaborate personalities and things they like/dislike.  Her favorite animals are dogs, cats, horses, and dolphins.  Oh and randomly enough I brought Full House home from the library a while ago and she was quite obsessed for a few weeks til we took it back.  We did have a haircut a few weeks ago.  Alli will cut paper and make projects quite often so she is usually really good with scissors.  Well one day while she was doing this I noticed her cute little pigtails were different lengths.  So I asked her if she had cut her hair and she said she had.  So then we got to do a little fixing.  I had asked if she wanted her hair cut, but she didn't want to go to a salon and it was "getting in her face"so she decided to do a little DIY problem solving.

That is another thing-she will tell me different solutions to things she wants to do.  Like going to the doctor yesterday for Ilene she wanted to take the computer so she could watch a show or something.  I told her there wasn't internet in the car, but she said well I could sit in the back (there is an outlet in the very back of the car) thinking that the plug would give it internet.  When I explained that wouldn't work she said she could just go to Ryan's work and do it there.  I hope she continues to think of different options for what she wants.   If anything is hurt she wants a band-aid and is very concerned about it and won't want us to look at it for extra long (like a tiny cut will be bandaged for 3-4 days when it was healed at 1-2).  She will be really sad that we can't do things like paint that fingernail because of the bandaid covering it.  Then when it comes off she is soo thrilled that it is all better, she definitely shows her emotions whether they be happy or sad :).  

 These are from Alli's Christmas dance recital.

 Love this poser :).

 I had her put one of my old shirts on for some finger painting/marble painting.  It was such a fun activity while Ilene was sleeping.  With both girls we typically stick to pudding finger painting :).  Alli loves forts! For a few weeks we were building forts every few days and she would seriously like move in-bringing stuffed animals, snacks etc.  Then it would get out of control and everything would be cleaned up.  She still loves if she can change her clothes in her playhouse and pretend it is her dressing room.

Alli had a dance recital a few weeks ago and it was "Alice in Topsy Turvy Land". She was an absentminded mouse and she had so much fun! Ilene loved dancing too and wanted to be up on the stage. She loves spinning around in a circle when she is "dancing".