Sand!

I want you to notice here that Lillian is doing everything possible to keep her toes out of the sand. Seriously. I have a feeling that, next week, she's going to ask the physical therapist how to levitate. She was very much not into the idea.



Naomi, on the other hand, jumped right in. Like she'd been doing this for years. I was mucking around with Lillian and by the time I got her situated, Naomi had scootched into the sand, gathered a bucket, shoveled some sand in, and was poking at it with the rake. She's a natural.



Also, hallelujah. William installed the second swing today. May there be peace in the world again.

More of the Same

The swing.



We can't even get in the car anymore without one or both girls catching a glimpse of it. Naomi always has the same reaction--arms held out like a zombie, whispering, "Dat. Daaaat." And they're not terribly good at the concept of taking turns yet, so it gets a little dramatic everytime we go to make the switch. We do have another swing waiting to be hung, but we need to get more chain first. I'm sure if I told the girls that, they'd be marching off to Home Depot themselves. Lillian with her push walker, of course.

She continues to refuse to walk independently. (Lord help me, this child is stubborn. For anyone to whom I have ever been this obstinate, I apologize. Nothing like having your own character flaws magnified 1000 times in front of your face.) She threw an unholy fit at her physical therapy appointment today when we tried to get her to move around using a harness that holds her torso. It was all kicking and yelling. She just gets nervous about losing her balance and has really convinced herself that she needs to be holding on to something in order to walk forward. Now that she's rooted so firmly in that belief, it's hard to shake her out of it. As the therapist and I learned today.

Swing!

Spring/Summer is finally here. And we've been taking full advantage. We enjoyed a walk to raise money for breast cancer, an awesome Mother's Day Dinner at Nana and Papa's, and lots of good time in the backyard. You'd hardly know that both girls have an ear infection. In fact, I didn't either. They had their 18 month check up today and after wielding the little brain-inspector light, the doctor pronounced each of their right ears to have a mild infection. I asked if I was a bad parent for not noticing this. He soothed my fears and said that lots of kids never present any symptoms. So, amocycillin it is.

Here's Lillian enjoying the swing (with a death-defying cameo from Naomi and William)



p.s. Happy Birthday Nana!!

Celebrations

Ivy Jane turns one tomorrow, so we spent this beautiful Saturday at Nat and Amanda's to celebrate. She was a delightful babe-in-spotlight, just exploring and charming all over the place. Our girls didn't come to join until after most of the party was over, as their naptime takes precedence over almost anything, birthday parties included. But, they made the most of the lovely day in the lovely yard, climbing and swinging and making really weird faces at friends.

Here's Ivy, smiling at her cake. It's about as much interaction as she mustered with it.


And, if Ivy's turning 1, that means that the Lillian and Naomi are 18 months. (Poof!) That was the sound of my mind exploding. They are not babies anymore! They are so, so, very much toddlers. (Except for Lillian not walking yet. In that, she's still a baby.) They have wildly fluctuating and very severe opinions about just about everything. They are goofy and demanding and do lots of things that I don't understand. They thrive on repetition and, at the same time, are transfixed by the newness of the world.

Also, Lillian has amazing eyelashes.

Favorite Things

We cannot take Lillian out of bed without her demanding to see this quilt that Grandma Rand made for the girls. Here she is, doing a little independent review of the bottom row.



Also,now that the weather's changing, sometimes it's hard to find exactly the right pajamas.

Yes.

Yes, those are my underpants around her neck. Don't worry, they're clean. Upon finding the laundry basket in living room, Naomi immediately dug out 3 pair of underpants and immediately put them over her head. And then she hit on the idea that this was funny and kept at it for a long time. She's making this face for Nana--it's one of her new favorite expressions. I call it "The Surprised Turtle."

Intermission?

Sorry that it's been a week since I last posted. It turns out that preparation for, execution of, and recovery from a 48 hour trip takes a whole week.

William and I skipped town this weekend to attend a wedding in Maryland and left the girls to take care of Nana and Papa. When we returned Saturday night, Lillian was so tired that she fell asleep in her high chair during dinner. She's never done that before, so I think they all did a good job of wearing each other out.

It occured to me that I should try to make a list of the words Lillian says now, since she keeps adding more.

Mama
Daddy
Baby (times 1,000)
Dog
Eat (which sounds like tee)
Kiss (which sounds like tiss)
Papa (which sounds like pa......pa)
Bubble
Play
Ball
Some version of Naomi that sounds like "may-may"
Some version of Lillian that sounds like "ninnian"

She imitates lots of words that you say and still does signs for "milk", and when she opens a book, she does ths long crazy string of sounds.

Naomi is more of a signer and when she says words it's in this crazy whisper. We've taken to calling her Gollum. It's charming.

And since I've been irresponsible with my picture-taking this chaotic week, here are a few bonus pictures from Easter, taken by Nat and Amanda.

Honk! Ivy greets Naomi


Naomi, in all her frippery.