Katharine Lange: Arwyn Week 86: My Little Storm Troopers Conquer the Slopes

Arwyn's love of books really took off starting at the beginning of November, but now she's even starting to read them by herself! The other day she had pulled out the "Bandaid Book" that both girls absolutely love, and was literally reading to herself. She would turn the page to the next injury, say "ouch" out loud (like the words on the page say), and then lean over to kiss the owie and put the bandage on it. Too cute! (Thanks again for that book Aunt J!) Arwyn is really into doing anything and everything that Leia does; it has to be the same! The other day she was sitting in a chair, but when Leia came up and sat next to her on the floor, Arwyn got off the chair and moved onto the floor right next to Leia. If Leia wants some special food, Arwyn wants the same thing. And when we were next door playing with Echo but I tried to make Arwyn come home with me to make lunches while Leia got to stay, oh man was Arwyn pissed! She's so cute when someone is in her way and she wants to get past. She says "Beep beep!" and tries to push you over. It's hilarious. After watching the video of her friend last week, she now tries to take over my phone anytime she notices me browsing FaceBook, and starts chanting "Jewya Jewya." She wants more videos of Julia all the time! Her new favorite activity while "helping me" at the kitchen counter is to completely rearrange the silverware drawer. Luckily she mostly steers clear of the knives, and I have to put it all back to normal afterwards, but it's actually a great activity to keep her occupied while I work! We had another week of bad weather for our ski school ski day. It was pouring rain and she was completely soaked, but when I asked if she wanted to ski more or be all done, she said "more"! I couldn't totally understand, so I decided to clarify, asking if she wanted to take another run and she said a very emphatic "Yeah!" Josh had the day off and was able to join us for skiing that day, and Arwyn really liked chasing after Daddy and skiing into his arms. She took a 3 hour nap that day, which she has been doing on ski days because she gets so exhausted, so that has been really nice for us. Unfortunately, she woke up pretty cranky that day despite the long nap, so clearly she even more exhausted than usual. Arwyn has started making the funniest faces, like all different emotional expressions (surprise, shock, disgust, etc.); she seems to be following in her sister and father's thespian footsteps! She's also been doing so much loud babbling, as well as making these really funny fake sounding laughs that crack us up. She's also been hiding her bottles all over the house. One minute she has it, the next minute it's not in sight and you spend an hour hunting only to find in inside some random bag or backpack. There is still one bottle that has been missing for over a month now, which will surely be so disgusting if we ever find it!

Leia had another long weekend of playing well with Echo. I was so impressed how well she was sharing with her day after day, even lending some of her favorite princess clothes for dress up. Then all of a sudden, no more! All of a sudden she wouldn't share anything and had a huge meltdown tantrum. Luckily she managed to recover well, apologized to Echo, and they still managed to have a good time playing for the rest of the day. Leia got a new ballet dancing book from Grandma, which has all sorts of classical ballet music on a CD that she's been dancing to like crazy. I'm still so impressed by her ballet improvisation moves! I like to listen to NPR on the radio in the car, but usually when the kids are in the car I can't actually listen because they are talking or screaming so we just change to music. Recently, however, I've managed to keep the volume loud enough on NPR to actually listen even when the kids are with me, and apparently Leia's been listening too because she picks up on things they say and asks me about them. "Mommy, they just said stupid on the radio!" One time she asked me, "What does duty mean?" Initially my mind jumped to poop/dog duty, etc because of Leia's potty talking she picks up at school, but then I realized they had just been talking about an "off-duty fire fighter" on the radio. It was cool that she picked up on that and was able to ask me about it, and I'm thinking she too focused on the word "duty" because of potty talk but realized that wasn't how the word was being used at all. Grandma was so generous to get Leia a few new ballet leotards because she was always upset that I wouldn't let her wear the one she had if it was dirty with pee. It was a really great idea, but of course this was Leia we were talking about so we should have known it wouldn't work. She now has 3 great leotards to choose from, but likes the new pink one the best, so she's still throwing tantrums when it's dirty! Plus, the girl has a closet full of great clothes, but likes to wear the same thing every day, and she's down to only 1 skirt that she currently likes, so that's another tantrum if that one gets dirty too! Oh the life of a 3 year old! As I mentioned earlier, it was pouring rain at ski school this week, and barely a handful of kids actually showed up for the class, so Leia had a private lesson. Shockingly, she had so much fun all day, despite the horrible weather! Her clothes kept her dry, and she had a spare pair of mittens, and they took a fair amount of breaks, so she stayed surprisingly comfortable. I even went out to get her early when it looked like she might be done, but she said no, she wanted to ski more after another little break. It was great because she made progress on her turning skills, and she even skied through her first set of gates! She and this other little girl were the last ones standing at the end of a long wet morning! When we picked her up she said she "had so much fun!" She also said she still had so much energy because she had eaten all of her snack, but later, after also waking up from a 3 hour nap, she admitted "I'm exhausted!"

Tea party in Daddy's Snow Palace on Daddy Day!

Arwyn loves to be a big girl now and carry her own lunch bag!

Don't know what it is about Saturdays that makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall over and over and over...couldn't be these two cuties could it??

This adorable vest has been in her closet for a year. Today it was finally deemed worthy to be worn as an accessory to her favorite skirt and leotard!

Best part about haircuts is getting the braid at the end!

Seriously, it's like she's a rockstar in training or something!

Arwyn is loving playing with all the big girls!

There are two humans somewhere in this bed...it's like a game of Where's Waldo!

Giggling wrestle party!

Password = Arwyn

Arwyn's Twister Jumps from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Arwyn trains for the ski slopes with her huge twister jumps!

Arwyn's favorite item of furniture...she's very adept at moving it all over the house as needed, and it serves as a great table when she's done climbing on it.