All the Single Ladies

Yikes! It's been a long time since I posted!

The girls have been busy, and keeping us on our toes! Their language is exploding, and they think it's hilarious. Dan came into the kitchen yesterday and said, "I think I just had an actual conversation with Izzy... did you go to the library and listen to Miss Bonnie read a book about a kangaroo?" And indeed we had! Tonight, they said "I love you" in three distinct syllables, and I made such a fuss about it that they started saying it (clearly) and giggling. Over and over and over.

Dancing is their new favorite activity. Sometimes, they'll dance with no music, but most often, they request (demand) that we play the ipod. There are a few songs on the playlist that demand that they stop everything else and DANCE.... case in point:

They count on their own, sometimes for no apparent reason...

They're very much able to entertain themselves. Usually, this means entertaining each other, but occasionally, they'll each go off on their own. We've been maximizing our outside time, and they'll bounce around from swings to slide to picnic table to Mom's water bottle on the picnic table... and just play, play, play! It's been GREAT for me, as I'm trying to get our garden planted and our flowerbeds pretty for the spring. We're hoping for a plentiful harvest... we have both a tomato and a strawberry Topsy-Turvey, and we created a raised-bed-garden for our beans, spinach, carrots, and potatoes. We'll get the okra and the black-eyed-peas in the ground once the soil warms up. AND, we got two blueberry plants for our patio containers. Yum, yum.

One thing that is NOT so great about the girls getting bigger and more independent is naptime. Yikes. For the first few weeks, the girls stayed in their beds and cried when they were ready to get up. Then, we had a few isolated incidents wherein the girls unloaded their pajama drawer, or opened and shut the door and giggled a lot. Now, Abby gets up whenever she wakes up, runs over to Izzy's bed, climbs in, and starts jumping... whether Izzy is awake yet or not. It's not awesome. For Izzy or for Mom. AND she won't stay IN bed at the beginning of naptime. SO, I've been bringing a book in and reading while they fall asleep. It's not ideal, but it's better than sacrificing naps altogether... Izzy NEEDS her sleep. Hoping for a better sleep story for next week!