Spring!!

It's been a long time since I've posted - and in the meantime, spring finally showed up!!  Sunshine, warm breezes, green grass, the smell of things growing, daylight savings time, I love it all!!  I told Emily today that soon it would be warm enough to go outside without a coat on, and she looked at me blankly for a second, then said, "Wear a coat outside."  Okay, good plan, honey.

This morning, nearly everything she said to me was a one-liner worth reciting to others, although after a long day I can't remember any of them.  She has me cracking up all the time, that is, when she's not driving me insane.  I put Audrey down for a nap 4 times today, and 3 of those times I had to battle Emily saying, loudly, "Audrey awake!!"  Audrey's eyes would fly open for a second, and I'd shush and bounce her back to half-sleep... then repeat.  So frustrating!!

Also frustrating is this flirtation Emily is doing with skipping her nap.  Today she laid down for a little while, but popped right back up once she heard me trying to Audrey to sleep (see above cycle, repeat. gah!)  I just wanted to wait until Audrey was on a regular nap schedule, just so I could count on a break during the day, but I guess it's just going to be hard for a couple of weeks... or months...

Last week was spring break week, and Amanda had jury duty so I lined up alternate sitting for the girls.  After a zillion changes in plan, the girls spent Monday with Grandma Sullivan, Tuesday with my aunt Janie, and Thursday back at Amanda's because she was done with jury duty by then.  I am VERY glad last week is over, because with work-frustrations and the girls being out-of-whack due to the weird childcare, it was about more than I could take, especially after we JUST got everybody healthy again.

So we decided to go to Rockford for the weekend!  It really felt like a nice little retreat.  Mom is still recovering from twisting her knee on the ice a few weeks ago, and it's really frustrating her to be limited in mobility, but she had a great time with the girls.  Dad is finishing the basement, so he and Travis got to bang around and use tools for a while, so they were happy.  Emily was delighted to be there, and Audrey warmed up pretty quickly.  We seem to be pretty good at taking this show on the road.

Let's see, about the girls.  Audrey is ... a little stinker these days.  She is still picky about taking bottles, and even nursing, depending on the noise level and excitement in the room, and all that.  She laughs pretty heartily now, which is just awesome when it coincides with Emily's giggle.  She also likes to stick her tongue out a little when she's smiling - kinda cute.  She LOVES her baby bjorn!!  She recognizes it as her wearer is putting it on, and then kicks and kicks and smiles and wiggles and kicks the whole time she's in it.  Travis wore her for at least an hour at a St. Patricks' party a few weeks ago, and she was totally happy the whole time, and afterwards, too.  I wore her at the grocery store today and we got lots of attention.  Okay, she got lots of attention, but I enjoyed it too.  Audrey seems to be very emotionally mature: she misses me when Emily and I leave her with her dad for a second, she is very uncertain in new situations with new sights, smells, sounds, and she actually cries tears!  She seems to really know what's going on, and wants to be right in the middle of it - and therefore is hard to entertain, sometimes! She's not been the best sleeper lately, so I'm really worn out, but I'm going to darken her room a bit more tonight and hope that helps with the going back to sleep after eating.

I've been holding back in actually putting this in writing, but Emily is actually potty-trained now.  Instead of relying solely on reminders, she will take herself when she has to go.  There was about a week of accidents, which I commented to Amanda about one day while dropping them off, and since then, none!  Even with being sick, she still did a great job going potty.  Looking back, she always did seem to do better immediately after I had vented in frustration where she could have heard me.  It's weird to think that she got the message listening to me whine about it to other people, when communicating to her directly didn't work??  Is that possible for a 2-year-old to pick up on?  Anyway, I'm immensely proud of her, and don't mind the overnight pull-ups one bit.  She'll get there soon, no doubt.

Have I mentioned what an amazing singer Emily is?  She sings twinkle twinkle endlessly, but she can also sing Little Boy Blue, All the Pretty Little Horses, Rockabye Baby, Day is Done (Taps), and she's pretty darn good at her ABC's.  She also helps me recite some of the poems that we like to read at night, and she chimes in with quotes from books.  Sometimes I'll say a line from a book on purpose, to see if she picks it up, but sometimes she'll hear something randomly that happens to be from a book, and then the challenge is on me to figure out what the heck she's talking about!  Amazing what she's stashed in her little head already.

Travis and I were playing with the girls tonight, laying on the floor of the living room and holding them up in the air on knees or feet.  They were giggling, and it was just the best feeling.  I have such a nice little family!