The Sitting Place

Today Lillian spoke often of 'The Sitting Place'.  When I asked her what the sitting place was she told me 'the pwace where you sit wif the paints.' It took me a while to figure out she meant a nail salon.  When I was 37 weeks prego with Wren-y-pants my Mom treated me to a pedicure at a nearby nail salon we had visited before.  Lillian came with us and sat in my Mom's lap the entire time.  She was wonderfully behaved (with only minor help of her favorite book and a box of craisens) and the ladies offered her a complimentary manicure.  So, today my two year old decided she was overdue for a manicure at the sitting place.  I don't frequent a nail salon often, really only when I'm so pregnant I need the knowledge that my feet are still around and not as swollen as the rest of me.  I rarely even do my toes at home, much less my fingers which haven't felt the swoosh of a nail polish brush since I was in school.  But, for the sake of my ultra-fem, fancy lovin' daughter I obliged to buy her a set of mini-paints in red, pink, blue, purple and SPARKLE.  After bath tonight we dried her hair, and spent the next 1/2 hour painting (and repainting after the fresh color was accidentally wiped onto the carpet, the laundry, the dog and her jamas) jelly belly red and blue on her very ticklish toes and fingers.  It was a delight to share giggles with Lillian over our girly-ness and love of color and I love the regular reminders that my girls are all girl in the girliest of ways. 

Conversations

Wren: Bwa! Bah! Dah Bahhhhhh!

Lillian: Awe you fussine? Wood you wike me to sing you a song?  'Away in a Manger...'

Wren: BAH BWAAAAAAAAH! DAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Lillian: Oh, you don' wike that song?  Ok, I'll sing anoder won.  'Jinguh Bells, Jinguh Bells, Jinguh aw dah way...'

Wren: (silence)

Two More Minutes

Lillian loves this phrase.  It is the final warning before playtime is all done, cleanup will commence, and rest times quickly follow.  I'm quite certain she doesn't know that it is not a great deal of time, but she responds with great excitement, 'Two More Minutes!?!' in her super-squeeliest voice ever.  Or maybe she has the right perspective and realizes that any amount of play time is something to be thrilled about.  Either way, she likes to hear it, likes to say it, and likes to ask for it.  If I don't give her the usual '5 minute' countdown she will look at me and say, with her finger wagging at the floor, 'You may have two more minutes!' Lillian also will remind her dolls that they likewise have two more minutes before it is time for their rest. She is a stringent dictator when it comes to doll rest-times, but they love and respect her for it. At least that's what I tell myself when my countdowns make their final mark and she breaks into the occasional tempestuous two year old tears. Children respect their parents for enforcing nap time.  Children respect their parents for enforcing nap time. Children respect their parents......

In My Experience

1. Girls like to put stickers on the wall, paper, their shirt, and their baby sister
   Boys like to put stickers up their noses
2. Girls like to wrap balls in dress up cloth and give them as presents
   Boys like to throw balls
3. Girls like to play with the toy that their cousin is playing with
  Boys like to play with the toy that their cousin is playing with
4. Boys like to lay down and let puppies crawl all over them
  Girls like to snuggle, hug, and generally irritate otherwise genteel puppies
5. Boys don't like to take rests
  Girls don't like to take rests
6. Boys love their Woof's
  Girls love their Bops
7. Boys have major Blow-Outs
  Girls have major Blow-Outs
8. Girls want to push their dolls around in a purple and green stroller
  Boys want to push their ninja turtle action figure around in a purple and green stroller
9.  Boys have blue toothpaste and a green frog toothbrush
  Girls have pink, Dora toothpaste and a pink penguin toothbrush
10. Girls like to have chocolate treats after using the potty
  Boys like to have chocolate treats after their cousin uses the potty
11. Girls have precious giggles
  Boys have precious giggles

This week it has been my pleasure to take care of my nephew during the day while my sister works out the daytime details of her new baby girl.  This Mama of two bouncing baby girls has often wondered how it would be to add a little boy to our family of Paul and his females. It has been quite a trip seeing how it might be should the Lord someday bless us with a baby of male gender. We could totally handle it.

Kindred Spirits

There are few book characters that I identify with as closely as the Fancy Nancy Character, written by Jane O'Conner.  Lillian seems to have the same flair for the 'exquisite' that I did as a young girl.  She wants to change clothes several times a day, loves fancy (I mean 'extrodinary') clothing, and accessorizes without thought to whether it matches, is in season, or even if it is being properly used.  There is something wonderful about a girl who chooses to wear a tu-tu, straw summer hat, and cowboy boots over cupcake 'jamas...

Fancy Nancy, Bonjour Butterfly
By Jane O'Connor
Read by Lillian

Don't you think butterflies are exquisite?
(Exquisite is even fancier than beautiful.)

Whenever my friend Bree and I see one, we say, 'Bonjour!' That's French for 'Hello!'
'Do butterflies understand French?' my dad asks.
'Maybe,' I tell him.

(skip some)

Bree's Butterfly Birthday, Saturday at Noon
Come as your favorite Butterfly
R.S.V.P.
R.S.V.P. is short for Repondez s'il vous plait.
That's French for please reply.

Gomez Super Bowl

We are not what I would consider a sports family.  My husband can enjoy watching sports and I can enjoy watching sports but neither of our Sunday's hinge on whether we will catch the game or not...unless the cowboys or Yankees are playing. (disclaimer: I do not profess love or any form of affection for either of the former teams.  I'm partial to the Rams and Cardinals, but not partial enough to care too much.)  So it made me smile when I found this set up on our kitchen table the day before Super Bowl.  Footballs are only a seat filler for tea in a home full of girls.

I Thought I Had More Time...

 I guess it's inevitable.  But I had honestly hoped that these two lovies would be different than every other sister on the planet. Here's to the relationship they will have AFTER they aren't sharing a bathroom!

 P.S. Look Who's Sitting Up...Sort of

Photographic Ketchup

Wren turned two months old during this little outing to a family cabin nearby. (This was also about when this stinkbug computer stopped working. Thus the considerably late posting.)

 We dug in the dirt most of the trip.  I had a time teaching Lillian it's ok to get dirty (sometimes).

 All things hold the attention of a two year old on a short, but very long walk.

 My pack mule.  Ain't he a dish?

 Notice how she's carrying her Bops?...

 She saw someone doing something similar.

Christmas Catch Up

 Funny Cousins

 Tea Time

 Yes, it's a doily.

 First Cereal.

(Don't let the smile fool you.  It didn't last long.)

 Did I mention we were snowed in?

Twice

Because Paul fixed my photo problem...

 Valentine Ladies (in matching outfits of course)

Today was lovely out so Lillian and I had a tea party on the patio.  We poured 'tea' (water) from her tea pot, snacked on warm-from-the-oven cookies, and talked in British accents. Lovely Dawling!

When They're Grown 2010

Yes, It's a little late to be making conjectures for last year but I just realized I hadn't made them yet.  So, to keep you all from the suspense of when I will playfully guess at my girls future professions, I will publish my....

!!!2010 Predictions!!!

Lillian: She will be a movie director for deeply moving, traditional comedy type films, perhaps of the British variety-due to her keen ear for accents.  Her mantra for each of her spectacular, Oscar winning documentations of the human condition? 'We Need To Be Careful!' (which she currently enjoys saying while running around in circles.) And careful she will need to be indeed.  Lillian often walks a fine line between being a leader and just downright bossy. She can be extremely pensive with a great memory for facts and occurrences (recent or not) and often incorporates these into her play, or direction of play with her cousin.

ClaraWren: This sweet sugar plum will be an Opera Singer. She has quite the flair for the dramatic 'I DON"T WANT TO GO TO MY TRAILER! I WANT TO SIT HERE AND BE UNHAPPY!'. She has already perfected her vocals and has a vibrato that will put Whitney Houston to shame. She will star on Broadway as acclaimed characters like Katherine in Taming of the Shrew, and could even pull off Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof (heavily costumed of course).

It's so much fun to watch my little ones grow, and my attempts to make light of the fact that they will grow up and out of my arms someday thinly veils my sadness at the realization that they do indeed grow up far too fast.  Sweet babies, you could try growing a little slower, maybe just a smidge?