2010 Time Capsule

January 2010:

December 2010:

My sister had a baby boy two weeks ago, and every time I look at him, I think, "Man, I don't even remember the girls being that small!" Thank goodness for photos, videos, and blogs, which at least allow me to save memories that wouldn't last nearly as long in my little pea-brain (which needs to be reminded how to get to Bear's work every single time I go there, and which forgets every single year to mail my grandma's birthday card early because there's no mail on New Year's Day). I thought that on the last day of 2010, I'd take a few minutes to capture each of the girls where they're at now:

Keira

Let's start with the obvious: Keira is an underwear-butt. We can convince her to wear clothes when guests come over, or to leave the house, but inside the Bears' Den, she has a strict no-clothing policy. In fact, if given her way, she wouldn't have anything in her hair, either; she wants it "down like a princess, Mom." She's not much of a tantrum-thrower, but I recently told her she had to wear pajamas to bed because it was freezing that night, and she...came...unglued. Like, we were ready to call for an old priest and a young priest and start the exorcism, unglued. This being a prime example of the "choose your battles" principle of parenting, I backed down, and on any given day, you can find me lounging around the house in sweats and fuzzy socks while Kiwi braves the brrrrr in her Tinkerbell panties. There's a nudist colony about a mile from our house that might as well emblazon her name on a locker right now.

Aside from her aversion to clothes, Kiwi's big into pretend play, chocolate milk, baking with Mommy, avoiding meals at all costs, and toting around random small items in random small containers (right now, it's a purple purse with a pen, a toy flute, some stickers, and a handful of pennies). At bedtime, this container, along with the baby Jesus she made at preschool and his manger, must be placed in their designated spots on her dresser.

Our usual bedtime routine is for me to put Elliana to bed while Bear snuggles Keira in her rocking chair and tucks her in...and then after I get Ellie down, I go into Kiwi's room for a second round of rocking-chair snuggles. (Another way to see her flip out is to try and deny her any of these bedtime rituals. Whoa.) This is a fun time of night, because she sits there quietly in my lap and thinks, and then asks completely random questions, like, "What's Bittle's favorite animal at the zoo?" or "What lives in the ocean?" or "How old is Grandma?" with a series of very serious follow-up questions for as long as I'll allow it. It's way cute.

She's a smart little girl: she knows about 10 sight words, does simple addition sometimes, and can sound out and spell simple words by herself. Things she hears on TV or from the adults around her seem to be immediately committed to memory, and then she'll bust out with things like, "Did you know rainbows happen when sunlight shines through water droplets in the air?" out of nowhere. I'm not in any terrible hurry to start formally teaching her to read and write, but I have no doubt that she'll pick it up in no time flat! She's also just plain clever: a few nights ago, after telling her we wouldn't be having ice cream after dinner, Ellie came toddling into the kitchen and I heard Keira whispering to her from around the corner, "Ellie say ice cream? Ellie ask Mama! Ask Mama, ice cream?" I expect to see more exploitation of her big sister role in the coming year!

Finally, our little Kiwi is a DRAMA QUEEN. On the way home from Grandma Marmee and Pop-Pop's house on Christmas Eve, she went into a panic when I mentioned we'd forgotten our crockpot there. "What will we cook in?? What if we need it??" She almost cried. Yesterday, she tripped and bumped her leg against the wall. She said, "Owwwww" and then seemed ready to move on...until (dun-dun-DUN!!) she inspected her leg and found a mark on her heel. "Mommmmayyyy!!" *sob* "Look! Looook!! I can't walk on it!" *sob sob* When I went over to check it out, I found it to be a pen mark from when she was writing earlier. She hadn't even bumped her heel. As soon as I told her what it was, the tears disappeared and she was ready to play again. Can you say freakazoid? We're not quite sure how a child like this was born to two such completely non-dramatic people as Bear and me, but she's definitely fun to be around!

Elliana

Ellie-Bug is all kinds of fun, and mimics her big sister all the time. She's recently started saying three-word phrases like "ice cream man," "Daddy-boy home?" and "HAD IT FIRST!!!" Today, after watching a cartoon with a big giant in it, she said what might be her first 4-word sentence: "Big giant loves you!" She loves to follow Keira around and take direction from her, but every once in a while, I find her in the playroom all by herself, putting play food into the little oven or sorting through a bin of toys. I think that's good for her (and for us), because the girls do a fair amount of squabbling over toys lately, and we can all use an occasional break from the screaming of "MINE! MINE!! I need dat!! Give it BACK!!" And that's just Ellie.

Like her big sister before her, Ellie became obsessed with the song "Jingle Bell Rock" during December, through no doing of my own; apparently, Bear and I carry some kind of recessive gene that just kicks in around age two, and the first time she heard it, she started yelling "AGAIN?!" every time it ended. Keira did exactly the same thing at around this age, and so apparently every December, distances by car will be measured not in miles, but in how many repeats of "Jingle Bell Rock" will play before we get there. It's 14 to Grandma's house.

Ellie's other recent obsession is Christmas lights, which she calls "pretties." She tries constantly to lead us by the hand outside to look at the neighborhood nights, and when we drove around looking at lights a couple of weeks ago, she kept shrieking, "More more MORE pret-ties!!" every time she saw a house lit up. I fear she's going to be highly disturbed to find that all the pretties are being packed away until next year!

Bug is a reader already. She loves Curious George stories, Purplicious (and says it almost perfectly, which is sostinkingcute), and pretty much anything someone will sit down and read to her. Just like Kiwi did, Ellie memorizes stories and will fill in the missing word if you stop and let her.

She eats Cheez-Its and Triscuits like it's her job, sleeps with her fuzzy yellow blanket (which she calls "Blankie-bee"), and is going through a stripper stage of her own--Keira knows to alert us immediately when she starts taking off her diaper! Ellie is full of hugs and kisses, and sometimes spends a good 5 or 10 minutes just running back and forth between Bear and me, delivering smooches and snuggles. Overall, she's a super-happy little girl and I can already see a "class clown" element in her personality, as she loves to put on silly hats or make funny noises and wait for us to laugh.

I can't wait to see what 2011 brings for our two little girls!

Happy New Year!

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