sister sunday - just another ....

... manic magic Saturday:

What passes for normal around here.

The girls, wearing PFDs (personal flotation devices, aka life jackets) as riding vests, cleaning the "pasture" of "horse poop."

sister sunday: just the two of us...

you wouldn't know if from here, but these two were going at each other most of the weekend, with Miss L getting over some little virus and so feeling especially punk, and K getting a bit miffed at the attention her sister was getting, so acting especially like a punk!

Still, they had their moments too....

And I was lucky enough to catch this one.

Sister Sunday: i got you babe!

wearing t-shirts from cousin keoni

Sister Sunday - ... you can close your eyes....

It's Sister Sunday Tuesday, the Two Days Late, 2 Bucks Short edition.

Starting on Sunday evening (shown below) the girls have been sharing Miss L's bed. That first night they woke up at 1.30-ish to complaints about covers and talking and not enough space, but they've enjoyed it enough that L uses the option of K sleeping in her bed as leverage in disagreements.

As in:

L: K, let's play horses, and I'm the baby.
K (reading): No, I don't want to play.
L (miffed): Ok, but then you can't sleep with me!
K (tossing the book aside): Ok, you're the baby, but I'm the new horse, right?
L: Yeah, and pretend that you notice me and you think I'm beautiful, right?
K: Oh, I haven't seen you before! You're beautiful.
L (tossing her head): Neigh!!!

And last night they slept through to 6am. Tonight, we'll see...

But enough of the words already:

... talk to me baby...

Yesterday L had an after school birthday party at the local bowling alley, so K and I had a date of sorts. Which involved watching 2 Saddle Club episodes, and then walking up to our standard "going out to dinner" spot where she ordered chicken nuggets for the 37th straight time while I had fish and chips and a pint of Manny's.

And we took a few pictures:

But what was especially enjoyable about this "date" afternoon was how much K seemed to want it and need it. I had been concerned that she would feel really badly about not being included in the birthday party (from a classmate's of L), but she hunkered down with me to watch Saddle Club and then chattered and held my hand during the entire walk to dinner and back. As we were walking up she said "You have to promise to talk to me Daddy!" and during dinner she said "You know what I like about not having L here? I don't have to fight her for crayons. But it's fun to do things with Mommy and L too." (The restaurant provides crayons and a color-able children's menu). I told her that what I liked about spending time just with her was that I got to talk to her without any interruptions.

The experience reminded me of how important it is for us to take time to focus on each girl individually. They love to play together, but they also like to have our undivided attention. Circumstances conspired to provide K that yesterday. And it was good.

definitions: glide

it's another Tuesday and here's another definition. We don't get them often enough anymore to do doubles, but I'm still attached to the Tuesday publish day, so there you go. Enjoy....

glide - verb, to direct or supervise.

usage:

(it's early morning and Miss L has yelled out that she's ready to get up (for a different post - why is it she is not able to get up on her own?!?) so I go and get her. This is always a delicate process, especially if she's yelling for her mother, which she often is, and I have to use gentle humor to make sure she's in the right frame of mind to be helped up by someone not her mom. But I manage in this case and we brush her hair and then it's time to head downstairs because M is exercising and I'm partway through making breakfast)

L: It's dark, Dada.

me: Yeah, but it's getting lighter!

L: What?

me: It's getting lighter.

L: What?

me: It's almost spring, so the sun is coming up earlier these days.

L: I meant on the stairs.

me: Oh, yeah, it'd dark. But it's getting lighter.

L: Daddy!

me: Let's go. I'm making a dutch baby and I want to put it in the oven.

L: I'll glide you Daddy!

me: What?

L: I'll glide you. Down the stairs.

me (understanding and taking her hand): Oh. Ok, good.

And I was glided down the dark stairs.

just another manic...

.... monday monthly american girl doll update: February Edition!

I'm running behind, but here's the photographic evidence of how things went last month:

Which, as you can see, was fairly well. There's a rough bit at 21-23, but there's an explanation for that, which I'm partway through writing up for a separate post, but the short story is that this was the end of the girls' week of winter break and we took them to spend an overnight at the Weston Hotel.

There's also a one-two punch on 9-10, during which a neighbor accidentally left a chunk of his birthday cake on his porch instead of taking it down to Tacoma, and he left us a message to go and "rescue" it, which we did, and K ate some on 2/9 but L resisted, and L ate a piece the following day (but we didn't let K have any more). Still, over all I'd say things continued to go swimmingly, and we're that much closer to getting an AGD each!

I have to say that I've been impressed by their great jobs. More to come, no doubt!