As I mentioned last week, Arwyn is not always going down to bed as easy as we are normally used to with her. This week when I tried to put her down, she'd start crying, tantruming, and pointing to something that she wanted. I was willing to give her whatever it was, but when I'd try to walk where she was pointing, she'd just keep pointing me in circles, never arriving at anything specific! Done with that and to bed with you! It's kinda funny because, in contrast to Leia who is clearly a morning person and wakes up buzzing at 150%, Arwyn is a little grouchy first thing in the morning, and she really hates how loud and 'in-your-face' Leia gets with her, even though Leia is just trying to love her. But as soon as Arwyn gets her milk and wakes up a little more, she starts to like her sister's love and attention again. Arwyn's word of the week is, "I wah!" (aka, I walk), yelled while trying to wiggle out of my arms when she actually doesn't want to be carried. Sometimes I don't know if these words are really new, or if I just pieced new clues together to decipher something she's been saying for awhile? Either way, the words are new to me! Arwyn mostly just cries when she wakes up from sleep and wants to get out of bed, but more and more she's also been calling out to Mommy or Daddy to get our attention. This week, to my surprise, she actually added Leia to her list of names to call out to come rescue her! However, usually that happens after a nap, and Leia is normally still taking her nap. So when I get Arwyn up and she asks me again about Leia, I always say, "Leia's sleeping." Then together we put our fingers to our lips and say, "Shhhh." It's pretty cute. This week we finally had beautiful sunny weather for our weekly ski day at Alpine. I started Arwyn on the Magic Carpet, but then we headed off to try to find Leia. The first chair ride was fine, but on the second Arwyn started getting squirmy and fussy, trying to jump off the lift. I was about to abandon ship and head inside when she knocked her whole boot and ski right off the lift. She wasn't too happy skiing down on one ski, so she behaved a little better on the ride back up after recovering the lost boot. Then we finally found Leia, who was heading up the Hot Wheels lift, and I had promised her I'd watch her ski, so we went up for one more run with her. Well, apparently Arwyn was long past her limit (which would explain the fussiness) because she actually fell sound asleep on the chairlift! I was holding on tight to make sure she didn't try to squirm off again, and all of a sudden it felt like she tried, but I realized that her body had just gone totally lax and almost slipped right off. Thank goodness I was holding her so tightly!
It felt like Leia had a pretty profound week developmentally. First she seemed to come to terms with her fears. She said to me, "I'm afraid of Yetis, bees, and flies eating my boogers. That's what I'm afraid of, Mom." I had to agree with her, all those things are a bit frightening, especially the last! Then she learned a hard lesson about friends, namely that they don't always do exactly what you want. She was so upset, like major tears and shocked disappointment, when Echo veered from their normal games and wouldn't do exactly what Leia had planned. Unfortunately for Leia, I think she is going to learn this lesson the hard way over and over again because she is a born leader. Leia got really sentimental with her sister this week too. She decided she wanted to put Arwyn to bed herself and sing her a nice bedtime song that she made up. It was so cute, but Arwyn only barely tolerated it. Leia also seems to be getting a much better understanding of empathy, sympathy, and right vs. wrong. When she does something wrong, she likes to come clean about it now, and when she apologizes, she's not coerced into it, and she really sounds so sincere. "I did that. I'm really sorry I did that Mommy, I'm really sorry." Of course, I have to remind her that if she's really really sorry, she can show me that by not doing it again. But that's still pretty hard, even for adults! Leia also shocked Josh and I into giggling disbelief when she had the following conversation with me: "Mommy, can you please take the dress off this doll so I can put other clothes on her?" "I don't think this outfit comes off, Leia. Plus, we don't have any other clothes for this doll." "It's ok Mommy, we can just improvise to find clothes for her. Improvise, take what's around you and put it all together in a brand new way." I about fell to the floor when she said that. I'm always so amazed by this little 3.5 year old's ability to take advanced concepts and apply them correctly in new and different circumstances. We are pretty sure those are actually the lyrics to a song she heard on her Sofia TV show, but that made it all the more hilarious that she spoke rather than sang the words, and applied them to a situation that had nothing to do with the original show. And then yes, she did totally improvise. She had the idea to use all her little hair ties to put around the doll's body in a way that looked like a rainbow striped dress! So amazing! Leia's favorite thing to do is try to make deals that benefit her when she doesn't like what we want her to do. For example: "I have a deal, Mommy. I'll share my favorite toy with you if I don't have to eat that dinner." We've decided we need to try to catch more of these dealings on camera so we can make a whole video about the art of making a deal. Recently, as if her own deals weren't enough, Leia has started to negotiate on behalf of Arwyn as well. I'll tell Arwyn it's time for bed, and Leia will try to negotiate five more minutes, even though Arwyn herself doesn't seem to care one bit that it's time for bed! The final big development of the week was Leia taking her first run down Hot Wheels with her ski school. It's actually a relatively steep and long run, especially compared to what she's been doing, but she and the other kids in her group all did great! Nice big controlled turns, didn't seem to be afraid, and only one little crash when she got going a little to fast to stop as quickly as the girl in front did. I was so impressed. I love how well she's doing at this ski school. We did have a bit of a fight about going in the first place, but bribery worked and she had fun to boot!
Password = Leia
Leia's Lullaby for Arwyn from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.
Leia wanted to help sing for her baby sister's bedtime routine. Just like her father, she likes to make up the most wonderful songs.
It felt like Leia had a pretty profound week developmentally. First she seemed to come to terms with her fears. She said to me, "I'm afraid of Yetis, bees, and flies eating my boogers. That's what I'm afraid of, Mom." I had to agree with her, all those things are a bit frightening, especially the last! Then she learned a hard lesson about friends, namely that they don't always do exactly what you want. She was so upset, like major tears and shocked disappointment, when Echo veered from their normal games and wouldn't do exactly what Leia had planned. Unfortunately for Leia, I think she is going to learn this lesson the hard way over and over again because she is a born leader. Leia got really sentimental with her sister this week too. She decided she wanted to put Arwyn to bed herself and sing her a nice bedtime song that she made up. It was so cute, but Arwyn only barely tolerated it. Leia also seems to be getting a much better understanding of empathy, sympathy, and right vs. wrong. When she does something wrong, she likes to come clean about it now, and when she apologizes, she's not coerced into it, and she really sounds so sincere. "I did that. I'm really sorry I did that Mommy, I'm really sorry." Of course, I have to remind her that if she's really really sorry, she can show me that by not doing it again. But that's still pretty hard, even for adults! Leia also shocked Josh and I into giggling disbelief when she had the following conversation with me: "Mommy, can you please take the dress off this doll so I can put other clothes on her?" "I don't think this outfit comes off, Leia. Plus, we don't have any other clothes for this doll." "It's ok Mommy, we can just improvise to find clothes for her. Improvise, take what's around you and put it all together in a brand new way." I about fell to the floor when she said that. I'm always so amazed by this little 3.5 year old's ability to take advanced concepts and apply them correctly in new and different circumstances. We are pretty sure those are actually the lyrics to a song she heard on her Sofia TV show, but that made it all the more hilarious that she spoke rather than sang the words, and applied them to a situation that had nothing to do with the original show. And then yes, she did totally improvise. She had the idea to use all her little hair ties to put around the doll's body in a way that looked like a rainbow striped dress! So amazing! Leia's favorite thing to do is try to make deals that benefit her when she doesn't like what we want her to do. For example: "I have a deal, Mommy. I'll share my favorite toy with you if I don't have to eat that dinner." We've decided we need to try to catch more of these dealings on camera so we can make a whole video about the art of making a deal. Recently, as if her own deals weren't enough, Leia has started to negotiate on behalf of Arwyn as well. I'll tell Arwyn it's time for bed, and Leia will try to negotiate five more minutes, even though Arwyn herself doesn't seem to care one bit that it's time for bed! The final big development of the week was Leia taking her first run down Hot Wheels with her ski school. It's actually a relatively steep and long run, especially compared to what she's been doing, but she and the other kids in her group all did great! Nice big controlled turns, didn't seem to be afraid, and only one little crash when she got going a little to fast to stop as quickly as the girl in front did. I was so impressed. I love how well she's doing at this ski school. We did have a bit of a fight about going in the first place, but bribery worked and she had fun to boot!
Password = Leia
Leia's Lullaby for Arwyn from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.
Leia wanted to help sing for her baby sister's bedtime routine. Just like her father, she likes to make up the most wonderful songs.
Fun day riding triple on the sled in our back yard!
We finally braved the crazy trek up the huge snow banks and all the way around our house to access our back yard, and this is what we found!
Probably at least 5 or 6 feet of packed snow here on the putting green.
Snowy creek banks.
Awesome sled track.
Arwyn and gloves don't get along too well.
I said to stay put, but Leia couldn't resist sliding down the 5 foot cornice where the flood waters washed some of the snow away (she was helping me chase the sled that she tossed off the edge!)
It was a pretty high drop, and hard to get back up...I can't believe she wasn't afraid!
The high part is our lawn, the low part was our rock patio that the flood waters washed away! Got snow?
The snow where we've been shoveling is almost up to the level of our 15+ foot deck!
No more stairs, just another good looking sled track straight from the deck to the creek!
Arwyn jail!
Arwyn and Emmett meeting all of Nana's "Ski Ladies."
Daddy Day hot tub adventures.
I used to think Arwyn looked like me, but here it looks like these two are practically twins!
Goofs all three!
Finally decided to clean out the fridge a little...looks like we brought this one with us from our old house when we moved 6 years ago, not to mention the fact that it was expired back then!
Armed with her laptop and her skis, Arwyn is ready for a morning of business and pleasure while Leia goes to ski school!
Apparently Arwyn thought regular skiing was too easy, so she decided to kick her ski AND boot off the lift so she could practice skiing on one ski!
Squirmy Wormy, like her Uncle.
Skiing on one ski turned out to be so exhausting that Arwyn literally fell sound asleep on the lift!
Sound asleep and almost slipping off the chairlift!
Password = Leia
(Leia is wearing the white helmet and blue jacket sleeves.)
Today was Leia's first time skiing down Hot Wheels at Alpine. It was steep, but she did great. Only one little fall at the top, and the rest of the way was full of nice big controlled turns.
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