Happy things

All right, enough of this grouching and grousing. I feel like all I've done on here is complain lately, and actually life is quite good right now, so that seems a mistake. It must be because I was feeling sick and then lying about it.

On to happier things!

The girls have both been so much fun lately, of course in their own ways. Jellybean has been making friends everywhere we go, and I just love watching her go up to other kids and say "hi" and ask them to play. She has always been much more reserved, and now at 3, she really seems to be coming out of her shell. I don't know if it's preschool or her age or both, but it's a joy to watch her personality unfold every day. We were at storytime at the library today, and she found some preschool and former music class buddies, and had a grand time.

My favorite thing lately with Jellybean are the mornings. I relish our special time together every morning (especially now that she's sleeping until a normal time!). Either she climbs into our bed or I snuggle into hers, and she asks me to tell her stories. I make up stories -- it helps that I'm not fully conscious yet and my head is still full of dream imagery -- and she lays there next to me and listens quietly. At the end of each story, she is silent for a moment then says, "Can you please tell me another story?" It's the sweetest thing and a wonderful start to the day.

Jellybean also got her hair cut yesterday (see before and after pictures), so we went to the salon together. She watched herself in the mirror the whole time and mugged and made faces to amuse herself. I loved it.

Peanut is talking and talking so much lately. It's like someone left the barn door open, and the words are just falling out of her mouth. She puts two words together regularly, and she's also started communicating in gibberish sentences as she pretends to play and read books to herself.

Peanut recognizes when you're asking a question, in particular a yes or no question. Her response is always a very confident "yeah," and I'll appreciate that for as long as I can because I know it will soon be "no." L and I like to have fun with the affirmative responses.

The practical: "Are you hungry?" "Yeah."
The mushy: "Will you be my sweet baby forever?" "Yeah."
The hypothetical: "Will Obama win the election?" "Yeah."

Peanut is very outgoing and always initiates talking to other kids and even adults. Today at library storytime, she kept going up to Jellybean and her buddies. She would pat Jellybean on the back and say (quite loudly), "Hi Jellybean!" It was clear she wanted to be one of the gang.

Her favorite two-word combination these days always involves the word "silly." There is "silly Daddy" and "silly Jellybean" and whatever else she deems to be such. (It does seem like she gets the meaning of silly.) Today, we all spent about 20 minutes watching a squirrel catwalk between our evergreen trees in the backyard and gather twigs for his nest. After a few minutes of watching him, Peanut inevitably popped out with "silly squirrel!"