Sissys reading, and projects

Maddie wanted Abrie to sit on her lap the other day so that she could read her a book. Faith plopped herself down right next to them, and opened up a Pillsbury cookbook and said she was also reading to 'ShowCase.' Haha.

Their art 'project' for the other day was gluing and decorating cut-outs of people onto their construction paper. They loved it, and I found some left over tiny beads and ribbon from Faith's bake-it bracelet pack that they used for the girls. Maddie was upset that there were only 4 people holding hands in the cut-out, and said "no, this won't do. We need the Bay Breeze" (aka Abrielle.. the girl answers to a variety of names!). The little cockroach looking thing in Maddie's drawing is Abrie in my arms. Ha! And, Faith is getting quite good at coloring eyes and hair on people.

Funny

Faith cracked me up today with the following:

During Abrie's afternoon nap, I always do school work and 'activities' with my 2 big girls. They had helped me make dinner this afternoon, and then we were playing Old Maid (which is quite interesting when you've got Maddie who hates to pick cards in games that she knows are detrimental to her chances of winning, and you've got Faith who thinks these cards are wonderful!) and doing puzzles.

Maddie is a whiz at puzzles. This girl was making me time her as to how quickly she could get a puzzle done. And, it was quite super-fast. Faith is getting pretty good at them too, and insists on doing Maddie's puzzles instead of hers. There was one piece though that was giving her problems, and she turns to me and goes, "Help me, class Mom!" (as in, 'Classroom Mom' aka Teacher Mom). Haha.

Christmas trees and new favorites

Just as I had suspected, miss Abrielle absolutely loves the Christmas tree! She seems mesmerized by it, and it gives her something new to drool over in excitement;) Luckily she is not pulling herself up or anything like that yet, so I think it should be fairly safe for her as long as we're always there to make sure she doesn't pull ornaments down and into her mouth!

Considering Abrie is already mesmerized by the Christmas tree, it means that- yep!- Dan and my big girls put it up yesterday afternoon. I knew they were thinking about it and that Dan had mentioned it to Maddie and Faith yesterday morning. And, I should have definitely known something was up when Abrie and I got back from the library yesterday afternoon and all was quiet with the lights dimmed in the living room. They were hiding behind couch pillows and snickering quietly, and yelled "Ta Da!" as Abrie and I reached the top of the stairs. They were very proud, and this was Dan's first undertaking of putting up the Christmas tree alone. It was such an ugly day out yesterday anyway, that it was a good project for them!

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Totally unrelated, but our Maddie has gotten us all hooked on Honeycrisp apples. I thought I had tasted every single type of apple in my life, until Aunt Lisi brought over some Honeycrips about 3 weeks ago and Maddie tasted them for the first time. The girl (who loves apples-- she always wants them whole, and wants them washed the way Gepetto does in 'Pinocchio' which would means she wants to wipe it clean with her sleeve!) has now snubbed all other apples for the most part, and insists on only Honeycrisps. The apples are too darn good. It's like drinking apple cider straight from an apple! I just picked up some Jonagald's this morning (since the Honeycrisp were not on sale), and what would have otherwise been a huge treat for Maddie turned into "but, but, but, but... they're NOT HONEYCRISP!!"

Another new obsession of the big girls is "The Sound of Music." They just love that movie! I was finally able to get it through the interlibrary loan, and we have it for a week. They've been watching it non-stop, but not the whole movie of course. They love all the parts where the kids are singing, and even Faith has the "So Long, Farewell" song memorized. It's cute when she says "Cuckoo, Cuckoo" all the time!

Comediennes and Christmas

These little girls of ours crack me up constantly.

Maddie and Faith were "married" this afternoon. Apparently Faith was the groom (although she called herself the 'broom') and Maddie was the bride. They even kissed on the lips since "that is how you are supposed to kiss when you are married." They literally find the fun in everything, and are each other's best friend. I was doing some cleaning today, and they were pretending that the Pledge and the Windex were two characters from a 'Barbie' movie. It will be so funny to see the three of them playing like this when Abrie is a bit older. I am in no way wanting to rush that though, and I love the way they are so gentle with her right now while she's their baby. They have even tried to learn 'Riqui Ran' with the sole purpose of wanting to make her laugh. It's quite funny listening to them try to say all of the little riddle in Spanish!

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Dan and I are huge suckers for Christmas. It's so darn hard to not get sucked up into wanting to get this, this, and that for our three lovely ladies and try to stick to a budget. We've picked up a few things here and there that we've seen on clearance racks, and now we're waiting to get other 'bigger' things. But, we went to Target this afternoon just to look at the decorations. Maddie and Faith started belting out the Disney Princess Christmas songs that were playing from the section that showcases their selection of Christmas music. They have been borrowing that CD from the library now since last spring! It's so fun though to look at all the Christmas decorations, and Abrielle just loves all of the lights. I think she'll get such a kick out of the tree when we put it up this year.

Toilet-learning lingo

I can't help but laugh when Faith tells us she needs to go the toilet, and then goes on to tell us that she is going to make "plenty of poop."

"Are you sure it's not going to be just a little bit, Faith?"

"Nope. Plenty!"

Beeba Show

My girl is such a content baby these days.

I'm thinking that when teething rears it's ugly head, our Show will go through another 'fussy' stage, but boy is she mostly pleasant lately.

Our 4-year-old princess

Cran really wishes she were a "real" princess.

I tell her all the time that she IS a princess. She's OUR princess. And, I think she loves to hear that!

She makes up the funniest names for princesses and princes. The other night she was 'Princess Annabelle' and Dan was her prince, 'Prince Arnie.'

She is all about fairytales, and told me the other day that I shouldn't be married to Dan: "Daddy is just a man. He's just a father. A prince is supposed to have a sword!" Her expectations are seriously quite high. And, we like it this way. She also told me in another conversation that she wants to marry Faith, and that you can't ever kiss until after you are married. I love it.

She is very into the Barbie movie, "Barbie the Island Princess" right now. She found it the other day at the library, and I reluctantly checked it out for her. I am not too fond of Barbies and all, but Maddie just loves anything full of fantasy and enchantment. Of course, the movie is full of catchy songs that Maddie has already learned. This girl picks up on songs, rhymes, stories, etc within 1-2 listenings and then repeats everything almost word-for-word. It's crazy!