Today Mommy Gets to be a Pig

We spent a good part of our day today acting out a scene that I've never seen from an older cartoon version of Charlotte's Web. Olivia likes to pretend that she's Fern and I'm Wilbur (I know, lucky me. I get to be the pig). Anyway, it's a scene where Fern is putting Wilbur to bed with a "nice, cozy blanket." Olivia has obviously watched this scene very carefully because she has every step memorized, including the words of the song that Fern sings, in addition to the parts that she hums. It's pretty funny, but I have to say that after pretending to be a sleeping pig 15 or more times I was pretty relieved when Olivia decided that it was time for Sophia to be Wilbur. Sophia was surprisingly cooperative. She did lie down on the special blue blanket, but she didn't stay there long enough for Olivia to say all her lines. It didn't take long for Olivia to get frustrated with her sister's lack of dedication to acting out the full scene, and she was back to asking me to act like a pig and lie down and go to sleep.

Sophia Turns One

Sophia celebrated her first birthday over the weekend. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but we waited to celebrate on Saturday. She was excited to get to spend not only her birthday, but several days with her Kaul grandparents. My sister, Beckie, and her family also came over to help us celebrate the big day. Sophia doesn't really understand the whole present opening process, but her big sister was more than willing to help. In fact, I think Olivia was more excited about her sister's birthday than Sophia was. Sophia got a couple of adorable summer outfits, some very cute sunglasses, a little car that she can ride on, a Little People's bus and farm, and a set of musical instruments. I think she will be kept busy for quite some time. Since Yale's parents were here, Yale and I enjoyed our first night away together since Olivia was born. We kept it simple and just stayed in a hotel in downtown Denver. It was nice to be able to have 24 hours worth of conversations with complete sentences, and to just be able to enjoy each other's company. Sophia and Olivia loved having their grandparents here. Sophia clearly is quite attached to her grandpa. It's pretty cute to watch her try to get his attention. Speaking of attention... I think both of the girls will go through attention withdrawal now that their grandparents are gone.

A Doctor is in the House

Sophia is having no problem climbing stairs now. Even if everyone is downstairs, she'll climb up the stairs just because she can. Whenever she get to the top she crawls a few more steps, and then turns around to flash us a check-me-out-I-made-it-up-the-stairs grin. I have to admit, it makes me kind of nervous. I also know that once she can do it without a problem it will make my life a lot easier. I've been working some on teaching her how to go down the stairs. It will seem like she's getting it, and then she'll start crawling back up the stairs again. I remember Olivia doing the same thing. It's like they are so used to going forward, that if they don't think about what they are doing every second, they just end up going back up the stairs. Sophia has recently earned a new nickname. Yale and I have both started calling her Doctor. She has become very fond of the stethoscope from Olivia's doctor kit. Every time she gets her hands on it, she puts it around her neck and will wear it until someone forces her to take it off. It seems like it would get in the way of her crawling, but she doesn't seem to mind one bit. A couple of Olivia's current funny words: Volleyballey - volleyball dishwish - delicious ice cream bread - ice cream sandwich Olivia has enjoyed singing for quite some time. Recently she started adding a new twist to it. Now she likes to sing the first few words of a song and then she closes her eyes and hums the rest of the song. If her sister starts to cry, she will run over to her, get on her knees and start singing and humming to her. I find that absolutely heart warming.

Ravimama

Funny Olivia quote of the week: Me: Oli, would you like some ravioli for dinner? Olivia: Mama, are you going to have ravimama? The girls and I went to visit my sister Beckie and her kids yesterday (her husband, Sam, was working all day). Olivia had a grand time! She got to play their piano and stare at her cousin Kylie for hours on end. She even got to put her Aunt Beckie down for a nap. She went through the whole routine. She got Beckie some water and a snack bag, and told that when she woke up, if she went pee in the potty she could have a sticker for her foot. Beckie even got to sleep with Olivia's beloved bunny. Olivia was so committed to her task, that she took a nap without her bunny because she wanted Beckie to have it. As we were leaving and had been in the car about 30 seconds, Olivia said, "I miss Ry (her cousin)." About 2 minutes later, she said, "I miss Ry and Kylie again." Ever since then she's been pretending that she is Kylie, who she says is very pretty. I think that means she likes her cousins.

She's Growing Up

Sophia has been acting more and more like a kid and less and less like a baby. Lately she's taken an interest in attempting to climb the stairs. It drives her crazy when her sister speeds upstairs and leaves her behind. It's especially frustrating to her if I go upstairs for a moment to grab something and she's left downstairs by herself. I'm sure this has been the motivation to learn how to climb the stairs. As a result, she's taken a few spills, but nothing serious. I'm guessing it won't be long before she's ascending our short set of stairs with ease. Phones have also become a favorite of Sophia's. She rests the phone on her shoulder and, pretty convincingly, looks as if she's talking on the phone. You might remember that Olivia took a great interest in phones at a young age. When Olivia starting pretending to talk on the phone, I felt like it was a result of seeing me talk on the phone a lot. I used to feel kind of guilty because it made me think that I spent too much time on the phone, and the truth is that, when given the time, I do have quite a bit of stamina for gabbing on the phone. However, now I don't feel that way because these two girls don't allow much time for me to yap with my friends. Another one of Sophia's steps out of babyhood and into childhood is combing and brushing her own hair. If she ever gets a hold of a brush or a comb , she clearly know it's purpose. Not that she always gets the comb or brush facing the right way and strokes in the correct direction, but she's definitely giving it a good try. Maybe when she's older, she won't despise having her hair combed like her older sister. Maybe she'll even let me style it with cute little bows and hair clips. If I put anything in her hair now, she just tries to eat it. Hopefully that won't always be the case.