Camille has been walking, and she's started saying a bunch of words already. I've been trying to get her to try saying words, and I've also been teaching her what noises some animals make. She has growling down, though she's had that one down for months. ;) She has been growling at people and things for a while now. And usually when I ask her what some animal says, her first response tends to be growling. She knows that a duck says 'quack quack', but it always comes out somewhere between a growl and a quack. It's pretty cute and funny.
So here are some things the girls are doing and saying --
Brooke:
- Brooke opened a puffs container filled with cheerios, and all the cheerios go flying everywhere. Brooke says, "Oh, no, Mom! There are cheerios everywhere!"
- While at the park, riding her bike, I told Brooke that it's okay for her to ride her bike into the grass if she wanted, and she responded, "The grass is not a sidewalk!"
- Brooke has been singing everything -- she'll sing as she finishes up in the bathroom and washes her hands (she tends to narrate her actions in song, in these cases); the other day, as we were going home from shopping, she started singing about 'beautiful goats' and making me sing along: "The gooooooaaaaatsss are soooo beeeaaauuuuutiful!" I never know how the songs are going to go, so when she wants me to sing with her, I tend to just say random things or mumble in a sing-song voice. That usually satisfies her, with minimal effort on my part. :)
- "Brooke, do you want sugar and peanut butter in your oatmeal?" "Yes, that would be lovely."
- "That tree has snow on it!" -- they were little white flowers. :) It's springtime here.
- Brooke loves riding her bike. She's gotten so good at it, and every time we go anywhere, she asks, "Can I ride my bike?" She cruises! She's pretty fast.
- Brooke has had a hard time playing by herself lately. She seems always to need me to be at hand or right there in the midst of playtime. On the one hand, it's very cute that she wants to play with me, and I often accommodate her. I aim to please. :) On the other hand, it gets frustrating for us both when I have other things to do. She tends to have a one track mind, and she'll ask for something over and over and over and over again until she gets it; even when I tell her, "just a minute!" Ooo, it ruffles my feathers sometimes.
- Brooke has kind of gotten over whining when I tell her 'no' to something, but she does this funny little, "Aww." all sad-like. Much better than fits! And it's kind of cute, too.
- She loves her little preschool. She loves hanging out with her friends, and she's been really learning her letters, as they go over one each week. I'm glad that she has a little weekly playgroup, some structure and some learning. I hope we can keep doing it for the next year, though I know most of her little classmates are going into a real preschool.
- Brooke's imagination is running wild. It's sometimes fun to be around when she's playing. She is especially into coloring, drawing, painting and playing with play-dough lately. Every day she seems to do at least one of those things sometime during the day.
Camille:
- Camille's new words : Mamma and Dadda (which end up being "MAAAA!" -- usually shouted; and "DA!" as she points to Daniel); Grampa (Bampa); Jesus (too hard to write phonetically); ball; Brooke; bath; she did 'car' tonight, and I've been working on 'thank you' and 'banana'; she says 'done' as she signs it, which is really cute; she indicates hot (whispering 'ha-ha' and pointing to the oven or whatever)
- Camille has started taking longer naps lately, since we got her on a tighter schedule. She goes down between 11:30 am and noon, and she'll sleep for at least an hour and a half, but lately it's been 2 hours and upward. One time in the last couple of weeks, she was sleeping late, and I went in to wake her up. She has taken to sleeping on her stomach with her blankie pulled up over her head and kind of wrapped around it. It's so funny!
- She is walking a ton, now. I have to be more conscious of putting shoes on her when we leave the house. It's not something I'm in the habit of doing, but needs to happen at this point. The problem is that we don't have many pairs of shoes that fit her little feet -- especially ones that she can't just pull off, and ones that are conducive to little feet just learning to walk. I think it's adorable how she just will walk around for a long time, not doing anything else in particular or going anywhere in particular. She just likes walking, so she does it. Today, she was being so cute. Daniel had given her a bouncy ball, and she would drop it and watch it bounce away, and then chase after it, and do it all over again. She was having the time of her life!
- Camille is getting opinionated. She gets more upset when Brooke takes something she's playing with, and she resists naptime and bedtime (she knows, now, when that is happening). She protests when we do something she doesn't like. But she's a good girl, and she is pretty easy to calm down again.
- Millie has started to pay more attention to books lately. She'll sit down and let me get through most of a book, usually. She's especially attentive at bedtime. When I'm sitting in the loft with the girls, while they play, she often walks over to me, book in hand, gives me the book, crawls into my lap and looks at the pictures. Sometimes she lets me read; sometimes she just wants to look. But either way, I'm so glad that she's taken a greater interest in books these days.
- Camille likes playing with balls -- throwing them around or rolling them back and forth with Mamma. She likes to be with Brooke -- she follows Brooke around all day and likes to get into whatever she is doing. She doesn't like when Mom has to make dinner, and often follows her downstairs in the late afternoon, fussing a little and walking around the kitchen while I'm trying to make dinner. Eventually, she gives up and starts pulling things out of the cupboards. Or she'll wander away to mess up something else. :) She likes playing with our big duplo blocks when we pull them out. She's pretty good at connecting and disconnecting them.
- Camille is the best eater on the planet! She eats almost everything I give her to eat. She doesn't seem to be picky at all, and she eats a whole lot at every meal. It's really refreshing, after Brooke, who is quite finicky.
And I can't forget about the most important person in my life! Daniel is my best friend, my most favorite person in the world! Here's what's up with him:
- He's just working a ton lately. I often stay up late waiting for him, which isn't always smart. But I hate going to bed at night without seeing him. I miss him during busy season, even though I try to keep busy.
- He still seems frustrated with his work, although I do think it's getting better. It always seems to go better when he actually has things to work on. The last few weeks he has, so that's good.
- He is so good and kind to us girls. I think he really misses seeing his little girls. He doesn't get to see them much at this time of year, and it makes him a little sad. And Brooke especially misses him, too. Every night, when it gets close to dinner and bedtime, she asks if Dadda is coming home. And usually, I say, "No, I don't think so." And she says, "Aww."
- He's such a good and nice husband. He's so quick to forgive my mistakes and shortcomings. He doesn't seem to see them at all, even though I know that can't be true. He always tells me how glad he is that he married me and how happy I make him. He always says he's the luckiest man in the world. And he's always telling me that I'm beautiful. I don't think he knows how good he makes me feel. He's always complimenting me and telling me he loves me. I'm pretty sure I'm the lucky one!
- Poor guy hasn't been able to work out much, because he's working so much. Life will get infinitely more exciting for him once busy season is over.
- We have been reading the scriptures for our couple study and also the 1st Harry Potter book, both in Spanish. It's been very fun and exciting to develop our language skills doing this together. I love learning from him in this way.
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