Boy, this week is flying by, which is strange because I have almost nothing going on. A comprehensive house-cleaning regimen was formulated a week or so back, but I’ve only done a few things on it. Why get the house all sparkling when you’ve got kids who will just mess it up again before the guests arrive? Expect mad cleaning to occur Friday night, Saturday morning. Cookie baking, too. I’ve been reading a lot, which has been fun. Baring something crazy, I should get to, if not slightly beyond, 20 books for the year. My status as an elite reader should remain intact.
Below, a couple stories about the girls. Because they are tiny tots and their eyes are definitely aglow.
Last Thursday, I took the girls for an afternoon walk. I couldn’t write down everything M. said, but here’s a rough approximation of what words tumbled out of her mouth while she tagged along behind C. and I.
M.: Oooo, a stick! Hey, where all da doggies go? Daddy! A pine-cone! Another stick! It windy! Daddy, it windy?
Daddy: Yeah, it’s windy, come on.
M: Want more sticks, daddy? Here another. Ohhh, a school bus. Hi school bus! It close, daddy.
D: Yes, it’s close, come on, move it.
M: Where M. house? Where it go, daddy? Dat not M.’s house.
D: No, it’s not M.’s house. We’re taking a walk, it’s around the corner. Come on.
M: Hey Daddy! It slippery! (This is what she says anytime we come to a section of sidewalk that is angled towards the street. She stops and acts like it’s icy. I’m not sure where this came from.)
D: It’s not slippery, it’s ok. Come on.
M: Daddy, where Christmas go? (She asked this when we came to a house that has a bunch of Christmas lights, which were turned off, of course, during the day.)
D: They’re still there, they’re just not on right now. Keep walking.
M: Christmas go bye-bye?
D: Sure, Christmas went bye-bye. Come on.
M: Bye-bye Christmas! Oh, there’s a doggie. Hi doggie! Woof, woof!
You get the idea. Oh, and everything above happened in about a 20 foot section of our walk. And was pretty much repeated over the entire half hour we were walking. Meanwhile, C. just sat in her stroller and played with her toes.
This whole repetition of words thing is making S. and I crazy. I swear she said “pizza” 60 times a minute for a half hour this morning when she was playing with a puzzle that she thought looked like pizza. We’re really looking forward to having relatives in the house this weekend so they can listen to her and we can go sit in an unoccupied room and just enjoy the silence.
Speaking of C., she’s reached the great stage where everything mommy and daddy do is great. Anytime she catches our eyes, she smiles and laughs and tries to initiate contact. Thursday night, after M. had gone to bed, C. wasn’t quite ready, so I put her on the floor next to me with some toys while I watched The Office. She knocked her toys around for awhile, making herself laugh silly, then would intentionally roll into me, grab my shirt, stuff it into her mouth, and start laughing. I took this as a signal that she wanted to be tickled, which sent her into even more fits of laughter. Friday, she had a stretch where she laughed at almost everything for about six hours straight. She’s a funny kid. She’s getting up on her knees and rocking, doing a few army crawls, and making moves that seem like she’s close to crawling. Boy do they develop fast. Finally, she and M. are turning into terrific playmates. They get each other giggling and can’t stop. Last night, while I was fixing dinner, I heard laughter and looked in to see C. writhing uncontrollably in her exersaucer while M. tickled her toes. Good sounds, good times.