The Kids

Ok, I felt my last post was just getting longer and longer with nowhere specific to go. And I figured I better start a new one to tell you about the kids.

May I just mention right and now how cute they both are. I love my girls, and I'm really excited to think of another one joining the club. In fact, some days when I watch the girls, I just think how fun it would be to have a big family full of girls or something. I'm sure boys are fun, too, but for now, all I know is girls. And I love it.

Sophia is getting so big and smart. She says funny things all the time, but usually while being all serious. She emphasizes all the time how big she is already, and is not pleased if we call her "our little _______". Henry called her "his little bean" the other day, and she insisted that he calls her a big bean. She also talks a lot. It seems like there is always something to tell and ideally tell the whole world. She'll chat with random people at the store, on the street, playground, wherever. Everyone is her friend.

Her desire for connections with other people/kids seems insatiable, and oftentimes she just wants to go 'find friends'. It's not been that easy to make friends here, but we've met a few kids at the pool and she'll also be starting pre-school in a week. She's super-excited to FINALLY be going to school. It makes me wonder if homeschooling will be the right choice for her in the long run. I'll have to ponder that one a lot more. Anyway, so the other day we were at the play ground, and Sophia tried to get a girl there to play with her. She kept telling the girl that she's "usually very nice" to convince her to play with her. It just made me laugh. Another favorite thing for Sophia right now is to wear dresses, ideally the ones that twirl. Then, she'll go and show everyone her twirly dress and how she can twirl.

Also, a while ago Alba and Sophia wanted to talk to their sister in the belly. So, Sophia leaned in and started talking to the belly. Then Alba leaned in and yelled something in her baby gibberish. And then they took turns doing that. It made me really happy.

Sophia also took swim lessons this year. Since there isn't a whole lot going on in Burney, we basically have been at the pool every day. It's been great seeing Sophia progress in her water confidence. She was one of the few kids in her swim class who actually dared to jump off the diving board (into the deep water - I almost had a heart attack, because they don't have the kids wear any floating devices for that!) and also down the slide. She's diving around a lot now, jumping off the edge, and what not. She can also swim a few stretches. I'm feeling pretty sure that she will figure out swimming by next summer.

Another fun thing this summer was to just discover cool spots in the area. We noticed a nice spot to go swimming the lake near by, a cool, very clean river you can float down on in tubes, and also some hot springs in the area...it's nice to discover what nature has to offer out here.

Alba is enjoying the outdoors for sure. While Sophia gets all sensitive walking around barefoot on anything not perfectly smooth, Alba will usually not even make a sound, unless something seriously hurts. That's how I also figured out the other day that she was stung by a wasp. Henry brought her back from a spot where she suddenly started crying, saying there were a whole bunch of wasps flying around there. However, he figured she was probably fine, because he couldn't see anything wrong. I could tell though by her crying that something must really hurt her. Within a few minutes I noticed her lip getting fat, and figured out that she got stung there. Poor kid. I'm just glad she wasn't allergic. She also got pretty sick a month ago or so. Again, I figured something was really wrong because she basically quit drinking and eating, and would just cry all day. For our little sunshine, the kid who's full of dancing, giggling, singing and happiness that was really odd. When I finally took her in her ear and tonsils were inflammed. No wonder she didn't want any food.

I love watching Alba and Sophia play. Sometimes they fight, and we've had a few issues with Sophia trying to build something/organize something and Alba being the little tornado that destroys everything. Recently we've started calling her 'destructo', and we've child-proofed our house, for the first time ever. But often, they play together nicely, and Sophia will share toys or bring Alba something to distract her. Alba often is very patient when Sophia takes something from her, and will find something else. Just recently she's gotten more vocal. She still only says a few words, but she's not lacking initiative when necessary. The other day I tried to make her say "bitte" when she was standing in front of me with outstretched hands and an open mouth, trying to get more cherry tomatoes. When she refused to speak, I just put the tomatoes on the counter and didn't give them to her. Once she noticed what was goin on, she left to get a stool, pushed it to the counter and got the tomatoes.

At times I may also find her on our dining table, helping herself to whatever fruit is in our bowl at the time. Or she may just get into the cereal cabinet to help herself to cereal. It usually makes me laugh, and luckily she rarely makes a mess. In fact, even though she makes a lot of messes, she also often helps me clean up. She's just a real gem.

Did I mention her love for sugar? She loves ice cream, and fruit snacks, and she often gets this hysterical laughter when we pull out either one of the two. Once, when Henry was going to ask who wanted some ice cream, he hadn't even finished the sentence yet, but Alba was already screaming "me, me!". Haha.

Interestingly, while Alba is our courageous climber, explorer, and destroyer, she's still very shy with other people. She doesn't warm up to strangers easily, and she usually just wants to be with me. As much as I love cuddling and playing with my wild-maned little girl, it's getting a little tiring. Luckily, she still is pretty independent, and already does some things for herself that Sophia still kind of doesn't want to do (ie. trying to put on her own clothes/shoes, or brushing her own teeth etc.) Obviously, she still needs help, but it's interesting to see the contrast.

What else can I tell you about our girls. Sophia is now  finally 40lbs heavy. I think she is about 44 inches tall. The perk is that she can sit in a booster seat if she wants to. Alba came in at a whopping 33 inches at her 16 months check-up. That put her in the 100th percentile for growth. It's really hard to keep up with the clothes and shoes with these two girls. I bought Sophia some shoes a few months ago, which already don't fit her. Alba's chubby little feet don't fit into any of Sophia's shoes, because Sophia had skinny little feet, and Alba is just more chunky. I can't wait for the day when I don't have to buy more clothes every few months.

Recently, we've also tried to start speaking more French with Sophia. She's expressed interest, and why not make the kids tri-lingual if you can, right? My French sucks, so there isn't anything coming from me. But I'm hoping Henry will speak more with them, and then we can build it up with having her watch some movies in French, and maybe get some books that are in French. She always seems interested in learning more. I love Sophia's curiosity for things.

Alba always seems interested in figuring out how things operate. She's spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to buckle a life-vest, and similar stuff. And she still seems to love music. It's like the moment she hears a beat, or people sing, she has to dance or sing as well. She's also picked up on what we do during prayers. Sophia had no interest at that age to fold her hands or show any sign of reference for prayers, but Alba always folds her arms when she sees us getting ready to pray.

I love my girls. I actually want to write more, because I feel like I've not captured as much in the last months of all the cute things they say and do. And I really want to document it somewhere. So many times, I look at them and just love being around them, marveling at who they are, the things they do, what they say, create etc.

My favorite moments are usually in the morning, when they come crawling into our bed (our new KING-SIZE bed!!!!) and we all cuddle, or then have a tickle fight, followed by more cuddling and reading books in bed. If we're lucky, Henry has time, and he'll make crepes for us, while we're all enjoying a slow start into the day. I love those moments. I love when we're all together and just enjoying it.