What's Up with the Girls

Head's up - this is a long one!

It’s been a while since I’ve given any updates on what the girls are up to these days.  I am documenting these things in part to help me remember these moments before they fade away.  And I know there are some of you out there who would be especially interested to know what the girls are up to.  So here goes…

Big Girl has really been doing well with her writing and reading, especially considering that she just turned 4 less than a month ago.  She is really good at writing her first name now.  She can write most of the uppercase letters, but still struggles with the curved ones.  I’m impressed with how far she has come just in the last month.  She can read several of the Dick and Jane books.  It’s so exciting to see her excitement to learn!

She is also so eager to learn about God.  Anytime we talk about God’s power and majesty, she’ll say “Isn’t God amazing?” (and just writing this down doesn’t do it justice because her voice goes up higher with excitement as she says “amazing”).  I love talking to her about God and hearing her excitement as she relays what she’s learning.  What an awesome privilege and responsibility as a parent to teach your child Biblical accounts and truths!

Big Girl has also done a couple of things in the last couple weeks to embarrass us.  First, we were walking in our subdivision a couple weeks ago and there was a young boy several houses down from us playing his trombone in his open garage.  He sounded like a beginner.  When we passed him, Big Girl asked what he was doing, so I told her he was practicing on the trombone.  So then when we walk past him again as we’re going home, she says really loud “sounds like that trombone needs batteries.”  Oh, I felt really bad and just hoped that the boy didn’t hear her.

Then a day or two later we had pizza delivered.  The delivery guy chatted with us for a minute or two and as we were closing the door, Big Girl asks, “why did he sound like woman.”  Oh, so inquisitive. :-)

L’il Girl is really talking a lot more now and putting words together to make little sentences.  One of my favorite phrases she says now and has been for a while is “milkese”.  Sometimes it sounds like “monkeys”, but it is actually “milk please”.  She also imitates her sister a lot.  She’ll hold out her hand in front of her and say “stop” in a very commanding voice if you are doing something she doesn’t like.   Another phrase she says a lot is “shoesawn” which is “shoes on”.  Whenever I say anything about getting ready to go, the first thing she says is “shoesawn”.

My favorite thing with her right now though is listening to her pray!  It is soooo sweet.  We’ve taught her a standard meal-time prayer and bed-time prayer and she sometimes gets them confused.  We have to coach her a little so she actually thanks God for the food at meal time and doesn’t just ask to have a good night’s sleep. :-)

She can say 1-10 really well now, but in terms of actually counting, there’s a lot of duplication at this point.  She recognizes circles and knows the colors orange and pink.  She can put on her shoes and pants by herself.

L’il Girl is getting so big now!  She’s in 3T shirts and 2T or 24 month bottoms.  She’ll be 2 in less than a month.  She’s so big, I have been thinking she’s like a 2 year old for the last couple of months.

And lastly, on to Baby Girl.  She rolls all over the place now.  I lay her in the middle of a big blanket on the living room floor, and before I know it she’s off the blanket and up against the couch.  I don’t know how she can do it so quickly.  She’s still having blowouts, but not as frequently.  :-)  She “talks” or more like “ahhhs” a lot, but no consonant sounds yet.  She still consistently soaks her shirts, but no teeth have popped through yet.  She is such a happy baby and oh how she loves her sisters!  She watches them and smiles and giggles at them.  I know she must be thinking, “I want to play too!”

One funny thing that she does that the other two didn’t do is that while laying on her back in her bassinet, she’ll lift her legs straight up in the air and then slam her feet down.  It makes a loud thud.  She will do it repeatedly.  Mainly she does it when she’s sleepy, so either right before going to sleep or right after waking up.  Sometimes I hear through the night thud, thud, thud.  I tried taking a video of her doing it Sunday night, but she only did it twice and then stopped.  She was more interested in smiling and talking to the camera.  That video is below as is one of Big Girl writing her name on the chalk board.  For the record, she calls me and Hubby "Mommy and Daddy", but she ran out of room so she wrote "Mom" and "Dada". :-)

So that’s the update not in a nutshell. :-)  I love my sweet girls!  I am so thankful God has blessed our family with the three of them.  I can’t imagine life any other way!