the girls in october

Melody, you will turn three years old in two months. We have been talking about your birthday party almost everyday. The plan is to do a ball theme with a polka dot cake. Your fascination with balls is still at an all time high. A few weeks ago we were at the park taking a walk when community soccer games began. We stopped the stroller to watch through the chain link fence. You sat upright in your side of the stoller and watched with perfect attention. You immediately said, "I want to kick that soccer ball too!" I told you that you'd have to wait until you were older. A few minutes passed and you said, "Mommy, am I older yet?"

Other new discoveries include the stars, moon, ice cream cones and corndogs. You love to go outside at night and looked at the stars while we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to you. You get very excited when you find the faint moon in the sky during the day time. MOMMY! LOOK! THERE'S THE MOON! OVER THERE! LOOK LOOK! While eating your first ice cream cone you were full of giddy joy, probably the most happiness you've ever experienced. It was so much fun for you that I wanted to start giving you ice cream cones everyday. You said, "Look, there is the ice cream in there. It is COLD. And there is the cracker park on the outside. It tastes like a cracker and is CRUNCHY." (You use the word 'park' instead of 'part.')

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Leah, you will turn one in about three weeks. I cannot believe this is about to happen. Yesterday we went to a gift shop in Siloam to buy you a nice Jellycat brand stuffed animal. Melody received one as a newborn from a DaySpring friend. It is a panda and it's her favorite stuffed animal. I realized that you don't have anything that is really "yours" so I thought a nice stuffed animal for your birthday would be a good place to start. Grammie decided it will be from her, but of course I wanted to pick it out for you. We bought the penguin and the clerk took about 20 minutes to wrap it up for you. During that time I told your big sister to not touch anything 1045 times. You are the easy one these days. Except at night. Last week you slept all the way through 5 times in a row. I felt like a new woman! I got up with daddy every morning at 6am and the week was easier and happy for me. You started crawling last Thursday and after that the sleeping through the night ended. Now you're waking up twice a night. Dragging myself from sleep to get up and go to you is so hard. But once I'm up, I enjoy our middle of the night moments together. Maybe you just want more mama time and that's the only way for you to get it.

I worry about you because I don't give you as much attention as I would like. You love your DVDs so much that it is tempting to let you watch too many of them. We play games together on the floor. I stack up a wooden ABC block tower and you shyly knock it over with a grimace on your face. Then I do it again and you knock it over faster. Soon, I can't build the towers fast enough because you are so crazily distructive. You smile and giggle when I say, "Hey!" in response to the downed towers.

You are MUCH LOUDER than your sister. When you get mad and scream it sounds like someone dropped you or broke your leg. I used to rush into the room when I'd hear you screaming like that. I'd say, "What happened?!" to Grammie or daddy as they changed your diaper or dressed you. Now I know that nothing probably happened... that is just you! It makes me wonder what type of two year old you are going to be?! You seem to be more sensitive and more stubborn than Melody. Perhaps you are going to take after your mommy instead of your daddy.