Posted on the go:
I (Joel) was snuggling with Kate, watching the stars the ladybug was projecting on her ceiling (?!). I leaned over and told her "Merry Christmas."
She said, "Merry Christmas ... Best family ever."
Then she thought for a minute and said, "We've got SOME daughters."
Indeed.
We've had lots of big changes in our household over the last few weeks. Our girls are growing up quickly and they just don't stop impressing me with their desire to learn. A few weeks ago, Kate started drawing the letter X, as in X marks the spot on the treasure map. She was drawing treasure maps and figured out on her own how to make the X. I decided to build on this, so I bought an activity book that teaches kids how to write letters. At first she was really intimidated, but I walked her through the first few exercises, drawing vertical and horizontal lines, and she was so thrilled by her success she wanted more! We worked through three letters, and she successfully made, on her own, the letters L and T. I decided to quit while we were ahead and introduce more letters on another day.
Comparing the kids, Part 93 -- my favorite Kate 1-year old sentence "Daddy ... key, out go walk" (New Years 2006-7). So far, Isabel's best ... "Joel ... I want Mommy" (uttered from the bottom of the stairs / gate, October 2008).
What is it with little girls and princesses? They so buy into the movies, it is crazy. We got Sleeping Beauty for Kate this week, and she loves it. In fact, she has watched nothing else but Sleeping Beauty since Tuesday when it came home with us. She knows all the characters' names, and calls me in to show me interesting parts of the movie. She is now afraid of the dragon, but can't keep her eyes off of it. She remarked on how everyone in the kingdom woke up when Sleeping Beauty got her true love's kiss. Maybe this explains why she and Owen were kissing at school the other day.
Isabel is having a blast with her new walking skills. She is up to 6 steps in a row, and now surfs around the walls of the house, making short 3-5 step transitions when necessary. She is talking up a storm, with so many words I can't keep up. She is really jumping by leaps and bounds with her communication skills, too. She wanted to nurse this afternoon, and told me "I want nur, I want nur." When I told her we would nurse in a little while, she started pulling the sleeve of my shirt up, and then took the sling, which I use as a nursing cover, and started pulling it over her head, repeating, "I want nur." It was like she was saying, "Can't you see I'm willing to go under this thing for some milk?" Yesterday she started saying, "I want sit!" while tapping on the couch or the chair in the living room. Then when I helped her into the chair, she said, "Big girl!" Of course, as soon as I turned my back, she toppled out of the chair onto the floor. Fortunately she is made of rubber and doesn't seem to have even a bruise.
Kate is on a dress kick. Pants are out, dresses are in. She won't even wear skirts because they all fall down, elastic waist or not. She is just too skinny. She loves cotton twirly dresses. She likes to spin around and watch them flow. I guess this goes back to the princess thing? They all wear dresses except for Jasmine.
We decorated our yard for Halloween. That night, someone stole a bunch of our decorations and removed light bulbs from our orange strand of lights. Sometimes I hate New York.
It has been a busy month for us, and the girls are advancing by leaps and bounds. Kate loves her new school, has charmed the teachers and the director, and has made new friends. Isabel has developed language skills by leaps and bounds and now says so many words I can't count them all. She learns a new word every hour or so, sometimes more.
About a month ago, we were walking in the park with the girls in the stroller. Kate and Izzy were asleep, and Izzy woke up and wanted to be carried. I carried her for a bit, then tried to put her back in the stroller, when she reached up towards me and yelled "I want Mommy!" I looked at Joel and asked him if I heard her correctly, and he said he thought the same thing. A couple of days later, she did it again, this time much more clearly. By the end of the week, she was saying "I want Mommy" frequently, and added "I want ball" to her repertoire. Now she says "I want rice," "I want pizza," "I want ride" and "I want drink." Today she learned strawberry, nose, ears, meow, banana, yogurt and no. The phrase that I love the most is, "Mommy, eat eat eat." Now she has added her order to the end of the request for food and today it was "Mommy, eat eat eat strawberry," and then later, "Mommy, eat eat eat banana." It kills me, because Kate never really asked for food much, but Isabel thinks about it a lot. She asks me for food at least 5 times a day and it's not always the same request. It is nice to know what is on her mind so she's not disappointed. One less thing to worry about!
Today Kate made a new instant friend. We went to Back to the Land after school to get some of Isabel's wheat free cereal bars for our daily stroller rides in the morning. Outside, both Kate and Isabel wanted to eat one, so we sat down on a bench outside the store and ate our cereal bars. Then a little boy, Ezra, who is 2, joined us, and he and Kate hit it off instantly. They played on the bench, and then Kate invited him to join us at the playground. Turns out his family is moving to Park Slope next month only 4 blocks from us, so after chatting for an hour or so while the kids played, his mom and I exchanged numbers and made plans for a future play date. How nice would it be to know more people in our neck of the woods?
We also found out yet another family from Kate's school lives on our block, for a total of 4 out of 60 something kids from her school live on our block. Now that is weird, especially since we live 2 miles from the school. We should have a block play date!
Now I'm researching car seats because Isabel has about another half pound before she can turn around and face forward, and a month ago she was at the height limit for her car seat. We are planning to give Izzy Kate's old seat and get a more toddler one for Kate, but I'm not sure I like most of the ones I find. I think she needs the harness, so we're limited, and she doesn't weigh enough to go purely booster anyway. I found a couple of toddler booster seats that have 5 point harnesses, and the only one I like is the Britax Frontier. The others seem to hard to force her to sit in for extended periods of time. Part of me is debating just going with one of the other Britax models that don't convert into a belt booster, because who wants to give her the opportunity to unbuckle? The Marathon weighs 6 pounds less than her current seat and the Frontier and has better looking patterns. Oh, what to do?