A Few of My Favorite Things

Although I don't have a poignant, reflective end of the year post for 2014, I do have a quick review of some of my "favorite things" about the girls that I've been keeping track of the last several months (although many have already come and gone!).

Evie

Evie in her classroom for International Day.

Evie has had some quirky language habits lately that I think are so cute, and I'm sure they'll pass, so I just let them be.  She's been annunciating her 'T's in 'th' or 'd' sounds, like saying 'boty' instead of body, 'alreaty' instead of already, and 'anoter' instead of another.  I think she thinks these are very proper ways to say these words. She still does the 'st' replacement for 'th' sounds, so she says 'sting,' 'stink,' and 'stirsty,' in place of thing, think, and thirsty. She's been saying 'an' in front of words that begin with consonants, like 'an chair,' 'an tree,' or 'an book,' and I think it's another way she's trying to do the proper thing when figuring out our language rules. She also consistently says 'news' for 'use,' like "sometimes we news towels instead of paper towels," or "I was newsing it first." It takes a few times to pick up on, but she's pretty sure about it when she says it.

Learning to share space more with her sissy.

She's also become very sweet with Eleanora and will independently try to comfort her when she sees her crying (like that time I let Eleanora fall off the bed and she tried to comfort us both). She'll also pat her in the head and say, "it's okay, sweet girl." She has been very protective of her recently, too, and if she sees other kids in the play area, for instance, getting too close to Eleanora, she will go over and put her arms around her to ward off the other kids. She also just gets excited when Eleanora accomplishes little things, and she'll make a big statement and clap for her. Her joy is contagious.

Of course, Evie always has her own little quirky words or ways of saying things. In the food realm her recent misheard vegetables are 'sauca' for salsa (makes sense, right?), 'braucamole,' and 'sprussle sprouts.' Sometimes she just makes it harder than necessary. She has picked up on the casual statement, 'that's okay with me,' and uses it regularly with me and Gabe. She has been adept at applying her new favorite adjective, "twiggly," to many different things including braids, cheese sticks, and fruit snacks. 

Sometimes we are struck by the pure joy and excitement she radiates over seemingly small things, like visiting friends or family.  She LOVES to have visitors and is just so physically expressive when she knows they are coming.  I think she was way more excited for Eleanora's birthday party than anyone else and was running around like she had just eaten 5 cupcakes when people started coming.  She reminds me a lot of the lady who can't contain herself around surprises on SNL. But really, her joy makes us so happy just seeing it. 

Evie with one of her favorite "visitors".

Eleanora

Hamming it up for the camera, as usual.

Man, I don't know where to start. Even though things still feel hard sometimes, I've never been unaffected by her completely engaging smiles.  And she just smiles and laughs all the time and likes to play little looking games to get your attention and get you to smile with her.  She's charming, for sure.

One of my very favorite things right now is her kisses.  She gives real (smacking sound and all) kisses all the time.  She started out by kissing dolls or stuffed animals, and then it went to good-night kisses to Evie, which is a full body, climb-on-the-bed and on top of her experience. Evie was a little unsure of this at first, but now she loves it too, and it still just melts our hearts to see them kiss each other so sweetly. Now Eleanora will not only give us kisses if we get close and ask her, but also she'll just come up sometimes and kiss wherever she can (a leg or a back, for example).  So she may not get the rules of the game completely, but we're not complaining. 

Bouncing on Papa after dinner.

If she sees me or Gabe lying on the ground, she assumes it's an invitation for her to come over and sit on our belly and bounce really hard until we "budumpaduh" Gabe with her where we bouncer her up and down while singing the theme song to Bonanza.

She is forever our playful little puppy and still loves to just come running over (it used to be double hands and knees run-crawling like a real puppy) and bounds into our lap.  She's just so soft and warm and snuggly that I can't help but hug and kiss her all day long.  She has, however, started exploring the world of bear hugs, and she'll come up behind us and ram into our legs and grab on with a big smile.  She's also done this to Evie a few times recently, actually knocking her over! I never thought that this would be something I'd have to be concerned about, but Eleanora is definitely more physically adventurous than Evie.

I also love that she always seems to have a little song in her heart.  Sometimes she just hums while she's playing, or she sings more specific songs like Let It Go (or "deh deh doh") if she hears it.  She also loves to dance lately and will squat down a little and start bouncing and twisting.  It's so cute!

Showing off her nose-blowing skills.

She has really been imitating movements a lot lately, and does very exaggerated versions of nodding her head for 'yes' and shaking it and saying 'neh!' for 'no'.  She has also perfected the "bend and snap" (from Legally Blonde), where she bends down to pretend to pick something up and then snaps back up really fast, giggling and saying, "sna!" 

She is also pretty fanatical about blowing her nose (or pretending to). She's pretty sure she's adorable when she does it, and really, she's right!  She's been doing signs now, too, like the ones for "more," "please," "eat," and some of those she uses for other things too as she tries to decipher everything, but it's pretty neat to watch her really communicate this way. She also says some words like "nigh nigh," "bah bye," and "bah" for ball, but a lot of times she just says, "uh, uh, uh" very persistently until we (hopefully) figure out what she wants.

So there they are. My current favorite things, which will all too soon be replaced by new things. I keep having moments of just feeling so happy and lucky with our sweet girls, and even though I complain sometimes or dwell on the hard stuff, this is the awesome stuff, and it is greater than anyone can really explain. But I realize that I don't remember as much as I think I do as I reflect on Evie's earlier years. So we have to keep documenting through pictures, videos, and blogs, and hope that it will be enough.

On stage after the Frog and Toad show we saw.