Our Kids

We finally got a rug for our living room… Mystique and I rolled it out last night after the girls went to bed.  At the time I wondered what the girls’ reaction would be… sometimes (most times) if something is out of place a chorus of “uh oh!  uh oh!” can be heard from two little ones as they point at what’s different.  I was half-expecting that as Lela walked out to the living room this morning.  Her reaction when she saw the carpet?  “Nice carpet.  Nice carpet.”  That was followed up by a “Nice Otto” when she noticed Otto lounging on his new carpet.  Too funny.

So far the girls are turning out to be a perfect mix of both their folks.  More and more personality is coming out and we can see it all unfold like some fascinating story line.  Lela was just amusing herself by fake sneezing into her bag of broccoli and then laughing her head off because she thinks she is sooo hilarious (uh, I claim that trait, I think I am hilarious all the time, LOL).  Piper was following suit and the peels of laughter were so loud I finally had to move my chair away.  Piper is very smart but likes to perform, Lela’s feeling can be very sensitive but she is also very empathetic towards others.  Curly hair, wavy hair, blond hair, brown hair, long waisted, long legged, short legged and long waisted…..the perfect mix:)

We had a great Easter week and Easter weekend.  The girls got a kickin’ package from their Nana Peggy filled to the brim with lots of cool stuff like a whole summer wardrobe, tons of plastic easter eggs, crafts, books, bug houses and much much more.  Then on Sunday they got to hunt for Easter eggs and prizes at their Grammy Kathie’s.  They carried around their bug houses all week and were absolutely adorable.  On Sunday for the hunt Piper (who generally rules the roost) was easily distracted by something shiny while Lela zipped around the yard and quickly filled her basket to brimming.  I think Lela was actually dragging her basket, it was so cute.

Today Piper was eating a bowl of blueberries when she decided that she would eat like a dawg.  She promptly stuck her head in her bowl and chowed down leaving a trail of blueberry juice for us to clean up.  She had fun and could not stop telling me how she was eating like a dawg.  Too funny.

The girls both also had their first real dip in a pool.  Piper really liked it and Lela got a real kick out of Piper “swimming.”  Both of the girls can blow bubbles in the water without inhaling (most of the time).  Our neighbor has a pool so I see me getting really comfortable with the water PDQ since they enjoy it.  I also see a lot of floaties in our future!

Lela loves to cook, Piper does too but Lela LOVES to cook.  She is a very big helper dumping in ingredients but her favorite thing to do is to stir.  She loves it so much that I have to take the bowl to finally dump whatever it is we are cooking.  This week she helped make molasses bread, tamale pie and even a tossed salad.

Lela also loves to talk to Nana Peggy on the phone.  This week she talked to her and told her that she rode the lion at the zoo.  Then when we got off the phone she just cried and cried saying Nana Peggy Nana Peggy Nana Peggy.  Now she gets her play phone and chats away to Nana Peggy and tells her all about her day.

Piper can recognize all the letters of the alphabet by sight.  I suspect that Lela can too she is just not as interested in performing as Piper.  I met a lady who has a deaf child and she was telling me that he daughter could read by age four because of all the things that they did to help her with sign language.  So we have been putting some of those practices into place and it seems to be really working.  I am amazed at what the girls can learn and do learn without much effort from me.

Lela has become quite the singer as well, only when you are not paying attention of course (or when she thinks you are not paying attention).  She will sing along to most songs and then sing on her own.   Her favorite songs are “5 little monkeys” and “twinkle twinkle.”

The girls are saying more and more things, using sentences, repeating, repeating and repeating everything you say.  The other day I was out front with the girls and I called inside to Jason so he could bring out the hummingbird feeder.  I called “Jason, Jason” and then Piper went to the door and yelled in “Jason, Jason” and for the rest of the afternoon called him Jason every time he went into the house.  It was so funny we could not help but laugh.  Piper also likes to talk about herself in the third person, lately Lela will take two bites of food and then say she doesn’t like it, then Piper follows up with Piper likes it.  She also likes to say, Piper tooted, Piper hungry, Piper thirsty etc.  So cute.

Whenever I ask the girls, “what are you doing” Lela says “doing.”  I don’t think she quite gets what I am asking.  Other than the usual stuff we went to the zoo today and it was fun but tiring.  The girls napped all of 15 min in the car and refused to go down the rest of the afternoon.  They were a mite bit cranky but we went to the lake and fed the ducks and that cheered them right up.  They are both doing super learning shapes, colors and numbers, the colors they have down pat and the numbers are coming along with the shapes.  This week we are going to make some shape sorting games that will be lots of fun (I hope).  They also like to color more than before and are spending more time on each activity.  They love to play in their kitchen making coffee and cleaning.  Okay so I can’t think of anything else but I am sure I will by tomorrow:)