It's Destructive

Putting Eleanor to bed tonight. Sometimes her cd player skips and the music sounds strange. As I leave the room tonight she asks me to turn the music off because, "It's destructive". After turning off the music, Eleanor asks me, "Did you turn the music off?" I said that I had and she continues, "Why?"

Little Miss Director

Eleanor likes tries to take control when she can. We had a long bedtime stretch tonight. After teeth, stories, a drink of water, changing Gemma's pj's to match Elly's, and two trips to the potty, I was leaving to put Gemma to bed. Eleanor asked for just one more drink of water. When I said no and started to say she had already had plenty of opportunities, she interrupted with, "Momma, no talking! This is not a talking room, this is a drinking room."

Here is a picture of the two in the bath - very decent with all parts covered. Gemma is on my lap smiling at herself and her sister in the picture as I write.

Your Momma

Eleanor is way into familial relationships. She is frequently asking "Momma, who is your momma?" and so on and so forth to the nth degree. She has these relationsips pretty well figured out. For Thanksgiving today, we went over to Nana's for an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. When we later decided to go bowling with the kids, Nana volunteered to stay home with Gemma. As we are leaving in the van, Eleanor comments that, "Dadda, Gemma is staying home with your momma."

We had a great time eating, bowling, and playing today. Both girls adore their cousins, Boo and Tris.


Famili

Mush Veil

Eleanor calls Gemma's baby food "mush". She can't stand the stuff and will gag and at times throw up at the site of the baby food. Pleasant, I know. Makes it tough to feed both girls at once. We were trying to speed up the process today and asked Eleanor, "Do you think you'll throw up if we feed Gemma mush?" She said yes, so I proposed we needed a "mush veil". She instantly exclaimed, "I DON'T NEED A MUSH VEIL! What is a mush veil?"

Gemma now has a little tooth emerging on her top jaw. So, with just these two little tooth buds, she has learned to grind her teeth. Yikes. It is quite a sound!

Quote of the Day

Eleanor says the funniest things and does so with such frequency, that I can never recall what she has said. So, over the next week, I will post an Eleanor quote for each day. I wasn't home most of today, but listening over the monitor tonight while Jud was trying to get her back into bed after she got up to use the bathroom for at least fourth time I heard:

"Dad, I don't need help. I'm a big girl. I need my privacy".

Poor Gemma has been up nights coughing and "horking". But, Dad to the rescue - Here you see her rocked soundly asleep. What an angel.

When I grow Up

Last night it was, "what do you want to be when you grow up, Eleanor?"
"I want to have five jobs."
"Five!"
"Doctor, Princess, Mermaid, Pirate..."
She pauses to think. Knows that she's only listed four.
"Arista."
(Anoter mermaid.)

Swinging

The girls are as much fun as ever, but have been particularly busy lately. I've overheard Nana referring to Eleanor as "Hurricane Eleanor" and this is an apt name. Her language and thinking processes are just taking off. She is so entertaining. It would take me more than every waking minute to properly write down all the funny things this girl says. And meanwhile, she would be wrestling Ms. Gemma to the ground and fighting over a toy she truly didn't care about until Gemma started playing with it.

El always goes to sleep with a pile of books in her bed. She reads them, and then throws them over the side when she's done. She's very opinionated about what books she does or does not want each night. I know she's still awake when I am still hearing them clunk to the floor every couple of minutes. We bought some books at a library book sale. One was a Golden Book version of the Christmas Story. I guess the illustrations were not interesting enough to her. Tonight, when I was handing her books, she threw the book over the side saying, "I don't like Jesus".

Gemma is still just a joyful little girl. Several nights ago, she discovered they joys of sleeping on her tummy. I'm hoping this will revolutionize our sleeping schedule. It is desperately in need of a makeover. Tonight, she fell asleep cuddling with me positioned literally cheek to cheek. You gotta love these moments.

Lately, Gems has been having a lot of fun imitating others. She plays peekaboo using a curtain, gives razzes when you ask, and will even clap. Today, I realized she was imitating me chewing bubble gum. I kept opening her mouth to see what was there, but nothing was. I realized that she was mimicking my chewing motion as I chewed my gum.

Here are some pictures of the girls doing one thing they can have fun doing together.

"Evil" for short...

I was just putting Eleanor up to bed for quiet time. We were lying on the floor, having just read the tale of Two Bad Mice, which she very much appreciated. I said, “well, I'd better go downstairs and get to work.” “Can we make believe this is your work?” she asked. “Sure” I said. “Do you sleep at work?” “No.” “Why?” “You can't sleep and work at the same time.” She thought about it and I guess she must've said she was going to make believe it was HER work. So I said, “What do you do for work?” “I work at evil Wal-Mart. For Dresses. We call it 'Evil' for short.”

Halloween and more...

So much going on with the two little ones. Halloween was such fun with our little Beauty and the Beast.

Gemma's first tooth broke through the day before Halloween. Since then, she has been sleeping much better - thank goodness. This little girl is a mover! She loves to stand and dance - her whole body shaking up and down. Today, she did her crazy little dance for five seconds without holding on to anything today.

Eleanor's language brings humor to everyday life. Jud and I overheard her talking to her cousin, Tris. He was talking about Halloween parties and Eleanor's voice chimes in clearly, "Speaking of which" and segues into her typical talk about planning her birthday party (in March). Today, when I turned off the music in the van before "her" song was done, she shouts out, "Momma, your broke my heart".