Always Something New

With the girls newly four and newly two, we’ve been seeing a lot of sudden changes. Lucia, all of a sudden, has learned to undress and dress herself entirely, whereas for the past few months she’s been able to do only socks, underwear, and pants. She’d been having problems with getting shirts on and off—and then two weeks ago, it just clicked.

Greta can now officially jump, with both feet off the ground. She’s also learned what it means to “pout,” which she does a great deal, stomping off and crossing her arms and lowering her chin, looking up only enough to make sure we’re watching her. Now, if I say, “Greta, are you pouting?” she’ll cross her arms in a mock-pout, then grin and giggle.

The sisterly silliness in our house knows no bounds these days. There was a long and frustrating spell of stealing and grabbing, but we’re back to happy playing now. Lucia often falls into hysterics at Greta’s wild dancing, which erupts at any hint of music at all, whether it’s music from a CD or a tinny "Old MacDonald" from a toy. Both of them spend much of each day suddenly breaking into “crying,” and then running to retrieve whatever animal or princess toy is “crying for their mommy.” Today they were focused on large plush jack-o-lanterns we bought at Target half-off after Halloween and haven’t yet put into the attic. They wrapped their frequently-crying pumpkins in blankets, rocked and shushed them, put them to sleep on chairs in the darkened kitchen, fed them pieces of wooden pizza. 

Greta likes to take a variety of things into her crib now at naptime and bedtime. These include: a comb, her water bottle, various bath toys, and a princess bag full of Magiclip princesses. Lucia has also returned to her habit of waiting till Greta is asleep then sneaking into her room and tossing things in her crib. This week, when I checked on Greta, I was horrified to find her snuggled up against a plastic Hello Kitty bag and covered in Styrofoam peanuts from a rather large “artwork” (peanuts-and-pom-poms-on-cardboard) that Lucia apparently decided needed to be in Greta’s crib as well. It’s unclear whether it was Lucia or Greta who methodically picked off all the peanuts and then tore them into small pieces. Greta slept while I gathered handfuls of peanuts from her sheet and pulled them from her hair. I think I’ll be checking in on the girls a bit more frequently now.