Some random cuteness

I've decided that it's finally time for the girls (especially Kate) to face their fears and start vacuuming the house again.  They've been terrified of the vacuum cleaner for about a year.  While it's nice to have an excuse for our dirty floors, I am getting a little tired of having to pay a babysitter so I can vacuum the house.  True to form, Kate freaked out when she saw the vacuum cleaner yesterday and started crying and yelling "no! no! no!".  The cuteness started when Maya walked over to Kate, gave her a hug, a pat on the back and then sat down next to her and played with her while I vacuumed.  This calmed Kate down and she stopped crying and seemed reasonably happy during the whole vacuuming process.  She even went over to the vacuum cleaner afterwards and touched it - something she's been too scared to do before.  It was so cute and heartwarming - I think the girls are finally discovering that beautiful human characteristic - empathy.  Here's to hoping they discover that their mama deserves a little empathy once in a while, too - maybe that will stop Kate from screaming "MAMAMAMAMAMA" for as long as it takes me to cook dinner.  

Oh - another cool and excited thing happened today.  After lunch Kate was driving me crazy trying to climb up onto the kitchen table via Maya's chair - while Maya was still in it trying to enjoy her strawberries.  I yelled at Kate to stop it and she looked at me and then actually stopped!  Wow - normally she'd look at me, laugh and then keep doing whatever she was doing.  Don't get me wrong, I don't expect her to suddenly be a little, non climbing angel (that'd be boring anyways), but it is nice for her to listen to me once in a while.  

It's good to have an older (2nd) cousin to hold your hand...

Potty Humor

Josh and I were feeling a little depressed and irritable this evening after picking up our 11 year old dog from the doggie hospital where she was being treated for a really bad stomach flu (I didn't even know dogs could get the stomach flu...).  The vet had assured me when I dropped her off a few days earlier that the treatment would cost about $500 which seemed like a lot to pay for an old dog, but not totally unreasonable. Well, the bill when I picked her up was for $1,000 - twice what we were  expecting.  $1,000 for a case of dog diarrhea - ugh - the thought of it upsets my own stomach.

Anyways, we had just picked up the dog, paid the huge bill and I was getting the girls dressed after their baths.  I was putting lotion on Kate and getting her diaper on when Josh walked in and sat down next to us.   I noticed a naked Maya streaking by in the hallway and mentioned to Josh that Maya still didn't have a diaper on.  Not 15 seconds later I heard Maya exclaim "I poo-ed!".  I was about to ask Josh "did she just say 'I poo-ed'?" when Maya came running in and again said "I poo-ed" and then held out her hand to proudly show us her "accomplishment".  This just sent Josh and I over the edge and - after we disposed of the evidence and did a thorough hand washing - we just collapsed in laughter.  Maya was just so proud of herself and it was so startling to see our sweet little girl holding a load of poop in her little fist.  Ah, parenthood...

If at first you don't succeed

Kate is kind of at an interesting developmental stage right now in that she is pretty obsessed with figuring things out on her own and will spend 30-45 minutes doing something like trying to thread the velcro strap through an opening on her shoe or pulling on a pair of shorts.  It's interesting to me because normally Kate is a non-stop walking tornado of activity, so it's refreshing to see her sit down and focus on something so intently for such a long time.  Once she succeeds at whatever she's practicing, she'll undo it and try it again.  Maya will focus on books, toys and such but doesn't have such an intense desire to do things on her own and she's perfectly happy still letting me dress her, put her shoes on her, etc.

Maya painting.  I think she got more paint on her face and hands than on the paper...

Every time I bring the camera out now, Kate puts on a cheesy smile.

Kate is trying to figure out how to open the paint container.

Pics

Summer!

Well, not really exactly summer just yet as there is still a bit of a chill in the air. We figured, though, that we can't wait for it to be totally warm and balmy to hit the pool and since we live at 6,000 so our girls are just going to have to be tough.  So, yesterday, despite a rather brisk wind, we spent an hour at the baby pool close to our house and the girls just loved it.  Maya would yell "SWIMMING!" and then throw herself face down into the water - which was both cute and a little scary.  She didn't seem to mind dunking under the water, but always seemed surprised that she had to be rescued.  I think it may be time for some swim lessons. 

This morning we headed back to another pool for a party and had a spectacular time playing in the water, eating nachos poolside and trying to keep Kate from flinging herself in the deep end.  Kate just can't be still - she is constantly moving, squirming, running, climbing and wants to do everything by herself.  It doesn't make for a relaxing time at the pool, but it was still fun.  

Speaking of doing everything herself, Kate is determined to dress herself these days and spent an hour quietly trying to pull on a "skort" (skirt with shorts build in) by herself.  She did actually partly succeed, too.  She ended up pulling her diaper off and got the skort almost all the way on except for her little butt hanging out.  She seemed to think it was an acceptable look, but unfortunately I had to fix it before we went out in public.  She didn't like this too much and I guess I don't blame her.  She worked so hard to get that skort on and had to have her handiwork corrected by mama.  Life is so unfair when you're 19 months old.