My daughter

Eva will be 8 years old in about two and a half months. EIGHT YEARS OLD!! I can hardly believe it! I very clearly remember the day she was born and the very difficult transition time that I had for a couple of months after that (wow, now I am sounding REALLY old...'I remember the day she was born'.... I guess that when everyone says that the time flies by, they are right. Because she is in 2nd grade and going to be baptized soon, and she doesn't really want me to kiss her anymore, but she does (thank goodness!) still like hugs and cuddling and "Eva and Momma time", and she is just a sweet, sensitive girl who is turning out so lovely! And, apparently, who likes to participate in the same kinds of teasing that all boys and girls do to each other at this age. She showed me what she had written down this evening (in cursive, because it's so COOL!)"Girls go to college to get more knowledge; boys go to Jupiter to get stupider!" She did, however, preface it with, "It's not really a kind thing to say, though". But, she does love her family, and especially her brother (well, most of the time) and little sister. Tonight, since Jared is not home, I am letting the kids rotate who sleeps in my bed with me for the night. Tonight is Oliver's turn, and so she offered to sleep with Lucy in her bed. I could hear her reading books to Lucy and then telling her stories (Little red riding hood AND the 3 Little Pigs!), and then, of course, giggles. She is a very nurturing girl, and is very supportive of her brother and sister as they are learning new things. She helps Oliver sound out words as he is learning to read, and she helps Lucy will all things doll-related. And the three of them play SO WELL together! I love this age and time now where they all make little houses out of Legos and play restaurant, and Star Wars (of course, Eva is the one who makes most of the decisions, just in case you were wondering...). She seems to have a love-hate relationship with taking violin lessons. She absolutely loves to learn new songs and to practice them over and over, but dislikes doing scales and note-reading exercises. I love to see her face light up when she learns something that she didn't think she could. I hope she never loses that joy. And I hope I can always help her to find it.



Here is Eva at a recent violin recital playing "Go tell Aunt Rhody"




And here are the kids spending quality time for a family movie night. Love it.

Little Lucy-Lu

I'm WAY overdue writing about the newest accomplishments (and other cute-isms) of Lucy. I've actually been jotting down cute things she says and does for several months now for the day that I would finally write this. And since then she has gone and grown up! No fair! I think she is exiting the cute toddler stage and is on to the little girl stage. Sigh. Time marches onward, doesn't it?

Last fall, she really starting exploding with her language skills (which of course is always interesting to me), and I was amazed at what she was saying at 2 1/2. Compared with her older sister and brother, she was talking A LOT more than they were at her age. Probably comes from being the third child in the family. She has her word order down now, but for a while, she would ask questions in the wrong order, or with incorrect pronouns: "Where he is?" or "Where's me?" (while playing peek-a-boo). A particularly cute-ism was when she'd hear something particularly loud, she'd say, "That scared my ears!", or when she couldn't pronounce something: "I can't say that." And, living right across from the local Coop, she frequently reminds me that we can just buy something that we're out of: "Maybe you can buy ketchup at the Coop?" She doesn't have all of her sounds yet; she is still missing her /th/, /r/, /y/, and many of her blends, which I find rather adorable: "I want to sit on yours wap (lap)". Interestingly, she makes plural many pronouns that shouldn't be. Her favorite things to do include dressing up, playing kitchen, and brushing and playing with her stuffed cats and dogs. She also LOVES coloring, play-do, and looking at books, which I love. Her favorite TV friends are Dora, Diego, and the SuperWhy clan, but she'll watch just about anything with her brother and sister. I do think she's a TV junkie, and is fairly vicious on Wii's Sword Play game. And, she LOVES chocolate, too, just like her mother. I'm sure that's an inherited gene...



Here she is, still basking in the glow of being kissed by Snow White at Disney World (she wouldn't let us wash that off for quite some time!)

But, her biggest accomplishments lately include weaning herself off her pacifier in December AND getting potty-trained in January over the course of maybe 2-3 days (REALLY! Including bedtime!!!). What a big girl. I was a bit concerned about the pacifier, but after she left behind her last pacifier at the grocery store (in order to eat some Oreos--again, I say she's definitely my daughter!!), she knew that was it! I told her all day long she was going to have to be a BIG GIRL and not have it at bedtime. So instead I told her a story or two (Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood are current favorites, and a must EVERY night), and couldn't believe my ears when I heard that regular heavy breathing next to me! What?? NO CRYING?? No "I want my packy!"? for endless minutes? She fell asleep JUST LIKE THAT?? I was amazed. And it was easier and easier after the first night. And, after we got back from Disney World (some posts to follow), I realized that she was the same age as Eva and Oliver when they were potty trained. All we had to do was talk about what cute panties she could wear if she went on the potty, and did she want to be a BIG girl like her friend Sophia? (who I think she idolizes), and she got the hang of it pretty quickly. And of course praising every potty effort like a cheerleadler (and having brother, sister, and daddy all do the same) helped quite a bit, too.

At this rate, little Lucy-Lu might be riding a bike without training wheels before her brother and sister do (that's another story, of course...)