Katharine Lange: Arwyn Week 93: Arwyn Likes Babies

Arwyn's language skills continue to explode. This week she likes to tell us all the things she loves. "I love Mommy" was the best! Unfortunately she was saying this as she was walking away from Daddy, not happy with what he had to offer at the time. He said, "Do you love Daddy?" and she replied with "I love Leia" and "I love Mommy." Clearly she loves him too, and I'm pretty sure Leia did the same thing to him at this age, so I'm sure she'll tell us about how she loves Daddy next week! Arwyn has always been very happy to oblige me at bedtime, but this week she started putting up a fuss at bedtime, so I tried out the routine we use with Leia. "Arwyn, do you want to go to be now or in 2 minutes? Ok, I'm going to set the timer, and when the time goes off, it's time for bed." I couldn't actually understand what her answer was, but it was clear that it was NOT "now," so I went ahead and set the timer. And guess what, when that timer went off, she willingly hopped right up, walked over to Leia and Daddy to give them goodnight kisses, then took my hand and walked right to her bedroom, no problems at all. She sees Leia do that routine every day, so she knew the deal. So smart! She's also started to willingly lie right down on the floor when I say it's time to brush teeth. She still doesn't love it, and I have to trick her into keeping her mouth open, but it's so amazing how she lies right down. She's totally got this bedtime routine down pat! Another new word this week is sky, which she get very excited about at the exact same spot everyday on the drive to school. Right before we get to the traffic light after the tunnel, she's looking up at the sky and pointing with her finger, yelling "guy, guy, guy!" I finally pieced it all together to figure out that she's saying "sky," but I still don't know what's so special about that particular location.

Leia apparently has ESP, and this is not the first time I've been convinced of this phenomenon. The other day she picked up the nail clippers and tried to make me take them with me when I was leaving for work, "Here Mommy, you might need these today. You should take them to work." I thanked her, but said, no, I wouldn't need them, and proceeded to leave them on the counter at home. Then, not 2 hours later, my finger nail chipped and I had a really annoying jagged edge. I was so pissed that I hadn't brought those clippers with me, and Leia knew it!! So crazy. Leia as also been really overly sensitive to body sensations this week, which goes right along with that ESP. Everyday when she puts on her underwear, she freaks out and throws a fit about how uncomfortable they are. They all seem to slide up her butt or feel too scratchy around her waist. Truth be told, she's grown out of most of them, and the few pairs that still fit are more bikini style and don't really stay down very well. I finally got so fed up with listening to her that I went out and bought more of the style that fit her best the last time I bought them. Just regular old granny-style briefs. I had a hard time picking a good style and after I hit "purchase" I regretted my decision, because I think the hipsters would have been better (full butt coverage but not so high up the waist). Anyway, they showed up and I thought I was going to be down one life problem, but alas, she's still complaining, and I do think I'll have to go back and get the other style. Oh well. And, in case you think I'm crazy for this whole explanation about underwear, I'm not. Even Poppy had to deal with her underwear tantrums and made a point to tell me that I should just toss all her underwear. Seriously, who knew it could be such a problem!! We had a family clean Leia's room event this week because it was such a mess and totally out of control. She never puts anything away after she pulls it out, and she makes 5-10 outfit changes per day and leaves all the discarded clothes on the floor. Then when we ask her to pick up, she politely says, "No thank you, I don't care to clean." Well, this time she wanted to earn back some TV privileges, and she had everyone helping her, and my gosh, was she still the drama queen. "Aghh, this is horrible for me!" over and over. It was quite hilarious. We didn't take video til closer to the end, and of course missed the best scenes, but it's still funny. Now that it's clean again, we are both trying to stay on top of her to do the daily small pick-ups so that it doesn't get so overwhelmingly bad.

Porcupine for P week? I like the colors!

I'm really impressed by the skill of drawing this rainbow of concentric circles!

Yummy salmon dinner grilled on cedar planks.

Arwyn loves babies right now, so she was so happy to find my old doll named "Big Girl."

Even though they are the same size, "Big Girl" is still a baby, and great to talk to!

Nice for hugs too!

Warm, light, spring evening...perfect for a little snowball throwing practice!

The windup.

The release.

And the follow through. Bam, contact with target!

Josh was fast, but not fast enough...lots of tears over who got the next snowball!

Hey, it's Aunt Stacia...get her!

Password = Leia

Target Practice for Dad from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

The kids liked getting splattered by snowballs and Dad liked getting to try to nail them...win-win for everyone!

Yummy Jamaican themed dinner with Sarah!

Double-fried plantains with jerk-rubbed pork cooked on Josh's rotisserie.

Password = Leia

Cleaning is Horrible For Leia, Part 1 from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

Despite the received from the whole family, Leia the drama queen thought that cleaning up was so horrible!

Password = Leia

Cleaning is Horrible for Leia, Part 2 from Katharine Transue on Vimeo.

So funny watching Leia suffer with a little cleaning, especially with the great victim performance she was putting on for us!

Even though Arwyn doesn't care about watching TV, she does like snuggling with her sister. She also likes practicing her new "pretending to be asleep but still peeking out closed eyes!"