Apparently Arwyn grew taller and smarter because she has started opening doors, and we are in trouble! It was so easy before, we could just close the door if we couldn't keep constant eyes on her but didn't want her to go somewhere, but now she goes where she wants. And the extra height is allowing her to get into all sorts of new stuff as well. She loves to open the door to the entry and bring back every pair of sunglasses that we have on the table out there! She's also got many more words. It is just so fun to hear her say more and more. Unfortunately she has been having lots of sleep trouble these days. It took a full 8 days to finally get her close to being back to "normal" after the time change, and still, it seems to be the bad luck of the draw whether she'll wake up at 5 or 6 each morning. Also, if she wakes up in the middle of the night, it is very hard for her to fall back asleep. One night after we woke her up to bring her home from Nana and Poppy's, I watched her lie awake in bed trying to sleep for a full hour before she finally gave up and started crying. And it was still another 1.5 hours after that before I finally got her to sleep. And then I got sick and couldn't sleep either...talk about a rough night!
Leia was really funny this week when we were talking about her lunch one day. She asked me what I had packed, and I listed everything, including the one new test item, cucumbers. She immediately said, "Yuk, I don't like cucumbers!" "But Leia, you've never even tried them. I love them. Plus I put your favorite rice ball sauce on them (seasoned rice vinegar)." Then all of a sudden she remembered an episode from a new show she had been watching, The Magic School Bus: "Hey, Mrs. Wizzel makes pickles from cucumbers. How do you do that again?" "Well, you put the cucumber in vinegar and keep it in a jar and it turns into a pickle. And guess what, I put your cucumbers in vinegar today!" "And did you put them in a jar?" "Yes!" "Yay, I'm making pickles in my lunch today! You are the best Mommy ever!!" It was quite an amazing encounter, and I was on the edge of my seat all day waiting to find out if she would actually eat her cucumbers after that. In the end, I think she only ate a few, but hey, better than nothing. And Arwyn ate ALL of hers! I ended up getting really feverish and sick from mastitis this last weekend, and Leia stepped up to the plate being very concerned and helpful (unlike Arwyn who was distressed that I was too sick to properly care for her so she started crying and hitting me!). Anyway, Leia walked me up to my bed, tucked me in, and made me take a drink of water before leaving it next to my bed. She came back to check on me once, but then she left me in peace the rest of the morning. She and Arwyn ended up having a great time playing with Nana and Poppy for the rest of the weekend...lots of great art and treasure hunting. Leia made a cool realization this week. She finally paid attention to the spelling of her friend Levi's name and noticed that it has almost all the same letters as her own! Now every time she see's the letter L, E, I, V, or A she attributes them either to her name, Levi's name or both. V's are now upside A's and vice versa. It's very cool to see her make these connections. Finally, Leia really wanted a belt just like Princess Elena to complete her costume ensemble, and was hugely disappointed when all mine were way too big and fell off. I kept telling her we could get creative and make one, but at first she didn't really like that idea. Then, later in the day, she found some "treasures" on our walk home from Nana and Poppy's, and she decided to make them into the belt she wanted. All I did was give her some pieces of tape, and everything else she did on her own to create her belt. I also helped tie the ribbon on it to actually attach to her. She proudly wore it the rest of the day. Unfortunately, she designed it with many sharp spikes that poked her a lot, so she has decided not to wear it again until she can make it a little safer, but all in all, it was quite a success and I'm so impressed!
Leia's Christmas list for Santa.
Arwyn's first painting!
Happy to be back at the Airport Park!
Password = Leia
Leia's getting brave and adventurous with her rock jumping skills!
Arwyn getting her first introduction to chop sticks.
She successfully got the rice ball in her mouth using the chopsticks on the first try...Chopstick master!
Both girls were getting silly with chopsticks, straws, and water, but at least they were relatively quiet, well behaved, and didn't make too much of a mess...all good qualities when dining out at a restaurant!
Many water experiments taking place here...big smiles!
Very long Lady and the Tramp style noodles...Arwyn was digging it!
Poppy always has the patient magic touch to cheer up his granddaughters.
Knocking over towers is awesome!
Wheee, airplane!
The crazy hair and the big smile tells me we have one happy Poppy airplane customer!
Leia has always been quite the engineer with her carefully balanced tall towers...and we even managed to keep two little kids and 2 dogs from knocking it down!
Another look at this brilliant creation.
Out and about on another fun Daddy Day.
Watch out Arwyn, it gets a little steep and treacherous when you follow Leia on one of her off-road treasure hunts!
Arwyn also getting some good tower building practice.
Leia's homemade belt creation! Stand back, she's armed and dangerous!
The rubber strap and the blue poker stick were found on the road, the toothpicks were acquired from Nana, tape from Mommy, and the ribbon she had from an old present...talk about crafty!
Glue and glitter art project from Leia's day with Nana and Poppy.
Some sort of cool slap/stamp art Leia created at school.
Leia's spiders.
Arwyn is starting to do her own art at school too!
Another Arwyn original.
First words out of Josh's mouth when he saw this creation by Arwyn: "Brilliant!"
It was a bit of a struggle, but we finally got Leia to participate at gymnastics without Mommy being right next to her!
Great balance!
Arwyn takes great pleasure in her duty of waking Leia up after naps...lots of back rubbing and kissing, as well as the occasional body slam!
