TOYS GALORE!
She understood what the cake was for!
Note to self: apply strawberries before serving. Not the night before.As for my little gems, they are fast becoming pals despite their personality differences. Little Lucie is (and has been from the start) a little firecracker. There's a lot of spunk in that little bundle, and when she squawks, she means it! She charms everyone she meets. I'll tell you her flirting secrets:
1) She begins with a coy smile, looking up through her long eyelashes, and pushing her cheeks up into her eyes so you can only see a sliver of the energy that alights from her eyes. 2) After you return her smile, she will reward you with what I call the "Muppet Smile": a smile that takes up the whole lower half of her face, so big you can see her tonsils. Now you're hooked. 3) You laugh and might approach her because she has seemingly given you a pass to advance, but now she will play hard-to-get. She will bury her face into her shoulder or mine or her blanket while squealing. Then she will slowly peek just enough to see you with one, triumphant eye just to make sure you're still looking. You've been caught! 4) She will return to step one, give you her coy smile, and she may repeat the process as many times as you choose, or for however long you follow her in the grocery aisle.
Abigail maintains her "less is more" technique of wooing friends. It's a struggle to photograph anything but a blur of a face yelling in protest. I have a lot of pictures of her lovely blond curls. I can occasionally trick her by asking her to "make a face at the camera,"
which she gives rather willingly so far. With the advancement of Abigail's age, we decided to promote B the Goat to Lord and Protector of the Front Hallway. We even bought him a throne. When we leave the house, B sits (or lays if he is feeling lazy or sleepy) on his throne with a book or toy and wards off potential criminals from breaking into our home. We need a "Beware of Goat" sign for our door. Even so, the transition from taking B EVERYWHERE to taking him nowhere has been surprisingly painless due, I'm convinced, to the implementation of the Goat Throne. Speaking of thrones, potty training has finally gone to seed. We started last January, got it NAILED, as in she was trained in a week and was accident-free for a whole month, when she regressed. There was a lot of stress in the home at that time and I think her little heart just couldn't stand being all grown-up for a while. We let it go for a few months and tried again in July. 
This time it took off and despite a few set-backs (including one accident on my nanny-family's couch), we are now even past the rewards stage (although she does request a marshmallow for a #2 from time to time).
Lucie isn't walking quite yet, but she is signing "please" and "thank you" (which she gets the biggest thrill out of) and she can locate her belly button (or yours if you're within reach). She is all about speed, so I think she is unwilling to walk because it will not take her to Abi's cup/toy/book/open crayon box before her sister notices and yells, "BUT NO BUT NO BUT NOOOOOOOOO!" **SQUAWK!!** is usually Lucie's reply. She likes to stalk the bathroom; if you don't latch the door shut she will 
usually invite herself in and crawl in between your legs. If you do latch the door she'll either pound on it and squawk or just sit there nicely so you have a surprise baby waiting with big smiles for you after you flush! She throws a mean fast ball. She also has a lovey, the flannel blanket I used to swaddle her in (all the way til she was 9 1/2 months old...oops). So even as I've partially weaned Abi from her Goat, Lucie's blanket replaces the need to REMEMBER TO BRING THE LOVEY WHEREVER WE GO AND DON'T FORGET IT THERE. She's a real mama's girl, and I kind of like it that way since her sister followed the meaning of her name and basks in the delight of her daddy.
Abigail gets brighter every day, using words like exquisite and privacy. She started Preschool this fall and asks for it every day. She was so eager to learn how to write her name that I showed her how and now she can actually do it, which surprises the socks off of me. She's not a prodigy by any means, but she's a pretty sharp little tack. She wakes up at 7:30 on the nose and announces to the world that "The number 7 is on!" (I have her clock set a half hour back, hehehe, joke's on her!) She started a chore chart last week and has been faithfully making her bed, picking up her toys, getting dressed, and clearing her dishes without complaint, or at least with the promise of donuts at the completion of the chart. She draws faces with hair, big eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears, cheeks, and long legs and arms sticking out of the head. Some are happy, some are sad, she can't really control what emotion they'll be feeling. She also draws donuts now. She knows all her upper case letters, most of the lower case, counts to 20 (but leaves out 16, just like Alexender who keeps having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), "reads" books to Lucie/B/herself, rhymes, knows her colors & shapes, but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket :) All the same she loves to play that one note on the recorder when you don't cover any of the holes, and play her little snare drum like Christopher Robin. When either of those items are used as violent reminders for Lucie not to touch her matroshka doll, they get put up for the day, and she gets a time out. Favorite food: cake and mac n cheese. Favorite movie: Sweet Pea Beauty. Favorite song on the radio: In Christ Alone. Favorite Book: ...this is impossible to narrow down to even 25. Right now she is obsessed with Little Bear.
So my little girls are not so little any more. I keep seeing babies and thinking about #3, but we're going to hold off for now. At least through November!
1) She begins with a coy smile, looking up through her long eyelashes, and pushing her cheeks up into her eyes so you can only see a sliver of the energy that alights from her eyes. 2) After you return her smile, she will reward you with what I call the "Muppet Smile": a smile that takes up the whole lower half of her face, so big you can see her tonsils. Now you're hooked. 3) You laugh and might approach her because she has seemingly given you a pass to advance, but now she will play hard-to-get. She will bury her face into her shoulder or mine or her blanket while squealing. Then she will slowly peek just enough to see you with one, triumphant eye just to make sure you're still looking. You've been caught! 4) She will return to step one, give you her coy smile, and she may repeat the process as many times as you choose, or for however long you follow her in the grocery aisle.Abigail maintains her "less is more" technique of wooing friends. It's a struggle to photograph anything but a blur of a face yelling in protest. I have a lot of pictures of her lovely blond curls. I can occasionally trick her by asking her to "make a face at the camera,"
which she gives rather willingly so far. With the advancement of Abigail's age, we decided to promote B the Goat to Lord and Protector of the Front Hallway. We even bought him a throne. When we leave the house, B sits (or lays if he is feeling lazy or sleepy) on his throne with a book or toy and wards off potential criminals from breaking into our home. We need a "Beware of Goat" sign for our door. Even so, the transition from taking B EVERYWHERE to taking him nowhere has been surprisingly painless due, I'm convinced, to the implementation of the Goat Throne. Speaking of thrones, potty training has finally gone to seed. We started last January, got it NAILED, as in she was trained in a week and was accident-free for a whole month, when she regressed. There was a lot of stress in the home at that time and I think her little heart just couldn't stand being all grown-up for a while. We let it go for a few months and tried again in July. 
This time it took off and despite a few set-backs (including one accident on my nanny-family's couch), we are now even past the rewards stage (although she does request a marshmallow for a #2 from time to time).Lucie isn't walking quite yet, but she is signing "please" and "thank you" (which she gets the biggest thrill out of) and she can locate her belly button (or yours if you're within reach). She is all about speed, so I think she is unwilling to walk because it will not take her to Abi's cup/toy/book/open crayon box before her sister notices and yells, "BUT NO BUT NO BUT NOOOOOOOOO!" **SQUAWK!!
Abigail gets brighter every day, using words like exquisite and privacy. She started Preschool this fall and asks for it every day. She was so eager to learn how to write her name that I showed her how and now she can actually do it, which surprises the socks off of me. She's not a prodigy by any means, but she's a pretty sharp little tack. She wakes up at 7:30 on the nose and announces to the world that "The number 7 is on!" (I have her clock set a half hour back, hehehe, joke's on her!) She started a chore chart last week and has been faithfully making her bed, picking up her toys, getting dressed, and clearing her dishes without complaint, or at least with the promise of donuts at the completion of the chart. She draws faces with hair, big eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears, cheeks, and long legs and arms sticking out of the head. Some are happy, some are sad, she can't really control what emotion they'll be feeling. She also draws donuts now. She knows all her upper case letters, most of the lower case, counts to 20 (but leaves out 16, just like Alexender who keeps having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), "reads" books to Lucie/B/herself, rhymes, knows her colors & shapes, but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket :) All the same she loves to play that one note on the recorder when you don't cover any of the holes, and play her little snare drum like Christopher Robin. When either of those items are used as violent reminders for Lucie not to touch her matroshka doll, they get put up for the day, and she gets a time out. Favorite food: cake and mac n cheese. Favorite movie: Sweet Pea Beauty. Favorite song on the radio: In Christ Alone. Favorite Book: ...this is impossible to narrow down to even 25. Right now she is obsessed with Little Bear.
So my little girls are not so little any more. I keep seeing babies and thinking about #3, but we're going to hold off for now. At least through November!
