Merry Christmas!

Mabel and Stella became more and more excited with anticipation as Christmas drew near. I was a little nervous to put wrapped packages under the tree, because I wasn't sure if they could stop themselves from opening them. I waited until 3 or 4 days before Christmas to put things under. Not a single package was opened early, and they loved looking at the tags to see who each was for.

We saw Santa Claus from a distance when we went shopping in the mall. Both girls were riding in a shopping cart as we walked through the mall with Grammie. We came upon the area where kids could sit on Santa's lap. It wasn't very busy and Santa's lap was empty. He spied the girls riding in their cart and smiled and waved. Mabel instantly ducked and hid behind Stella. Her head was buried as far down as she could get it. Stella just froze and tried to draw her head down like a turtle, but she wouldn't taker her eyes off of him. That was about as close as we got to Santa. Mabel didn't sit back up until we were well past him. Stella just kept her eyes pinned to him as we walked away. Both refused to go talk to him, not even for candy.

A few days before Christmas, Mabel and Stella got to go on a daddy-daughter shopping trip. When they got home in the evening, Mabel just couldn't help herself from telling one little secret. "We got you enim-menims!" That was the only thing that she let slip. I got the best Christmas gift of all, Mabel decided that she wanted to be potty trained. It was like a miracle. Two days before Christmas she just got up from watching tv and ran to the bathroom. She climbed up, peed, wiped, flushed and then came and found me and said "I get an enim-menim". I was just stunned, very happily stunned. I gave her two m&m's, though I felt like she deserved the whole jarful. She's only had one little accident since then, and Maggie was gracious enough to clean that one up. Good doggie. She's even dry during her naps and frequently at night time. Yay, Mabel!

climbing the wall

A new milestone has been reached today by both girls. For the past year, Mabel and Stella have watched longingly as other Hotchkiss faculty kids and students get to climb and sit on the wall between the main building and the front circle drive. The wall is between 3 and 4 feet high and in the interest of safety I decided that I did not want them up there. I figured that when they were capable enough to climb up on their own, then they would be less likely to fall off and get hurt. They are so small that I thought we were another year away from this even being an issue. I underestimated them. Stella looked at the wall and hauled herself right up and was very pleased with herself. She was beaming as she walked across it. Mabel wanted it too, but she had to work a little bit for it. She tried a couple of times with no luck and then pleaded with me to help her up. When that didn't work, Stella came over and tried to give her a boost but it still wasn't working for her. I figured that we'd give it a try some other day, but Mabel does not give up easily. She walked to the end of the wall and tried grabbing both sides of the wall and hooking her ankle up over the corner. She was so excited when she had made it to the top that she gave a little hop and said "I did it!" and then started running (ah!) down the wall to the other side.

nice to meet you

Mabel wanted to sleep in Stella's bed tonight. Only once before have they been able to successfully fall asleep in the same bed together. Things generally start out nice and quiet with their heads at opposite ends of the bed. But after a few minutes that starts to deteriorate into giggling and poking and steamrolling each other until it becomes full blown laugher and there is no hope of sleep in the near future. Tonight we gave it another shot. Mabel was really insistent, so I gave in. They both like to have their backs rubbed in their own ways: Mabel likes to have her back actually rubbed and will say "rub my back" and then turn over on her tummy to make it happen. Stella likes to say "rub my back" but then when I start to rub her back it's too tickley for her so she just says no and pushes my hand away or turns over so her belly is up. After rubbing their backs for a bit I stopped and let them try to fall asleep. They laid quietly for a few seconds and then Mabel stuck her hand out across the bed and told Stella to hold her hand. Stella reached over, grabbed her hand and said "nice to meet you". This prompted Mabel to say "nice to meet you" back, which was followed by lots of giggling and more nice-to-meet-yous back and forth. And I couldn't stop laughing either. Where did they get that from???

To the Beach!

We made it to the beach in Misquamicut, RI on Saturday. Packing and leaving is always a challenge, but it's all worth it when we finally arrive. We are staying in one half of a duplex which has a deck overlooking the water. Meg and Tyler are staying in the other half. There is a Tim Horton's restaurant right below us on the first floor of the building. They are not open yet, but they are close. I'm hoping they open while we are still here.

Our first two days were rainy and overcast, but the sun has come out and we are loving it! Mabel loves to be in the water. She squeals and screams in delight when the waves wash over her feet. She likes to walk down as far as she can into the surf and let the waves roll around her tummy. Stella loves playing in the sand. She digs and fills buckets and collects sticks. She even let Nutmeg bury her in the sand. She laid down and was covered up to her neck in it and had a big smile on her face. Yesterday we took the girls on their very first bike ride. Bill strapped bike seats on the back of our bikes and baby girl helmets on the baby girls' heads and we were off to explore town. We rode past the beach house that we stayed at two years ago when the girls were barely six months old. And we stopped and played for a while at the playground area that's just down the beach a little way.

Today was another fun day down by the water, which happens to be right below our deck. Mabel and daddy played with the beach ball, kicking and throwing it to each other. Stella and I sat on the blanket and played in the sand and rocks.

The hello birds

Walking along a strip mall this afternoon we came to a store front with a window full of sleepy little puppies. Of course, we had to stop and take in the cuteness. Most were sleeping but there were a couple of cute fluffy ones that would look up at us and take a step or two before nestling back into their bed of paper shreds. We went into the pet store to try and get a better view of the fuzz balls and found something even better.

In a large black cage right up next to the puppy window sat two very large green parrots. They took one look at Mabel and Stella and said, "Hi". Mabel and Stella said "hi" right back and added a little wave along with it. And then girls and birds continued to greet each other for about five minutes.

The birds were way more interesting than those sleepy little puppies. When we came home Mabel climbed up into her daddy's arms and just started talking about the "hello-birds" that said "heh-wo" (complete with the sing-song voice) and they were "grin boods" (green birds)

groovy dentist appointment

The girls had their first dentist appointment today. I tried to prep them a little to let them know that we were going to see a dentist who was going to look at their teeth and brush them. Stella was the most apprehensive about it. "No dentist", she kept saying. We picked up Grammie on the way there. That always makes them happy.

The dentist saw each girl one at a time. Mabel was quiet, but very very tense. The dental assistant who was trying to clean her teeth kept saying how strong that she was when she would clench her jaw. Mabel would hold my hand sometimes during the procedure and she would squeeze as hard as she could. I was surprised at how hard she could mash my fingers. The dentist said that her teeth looked very clean, were "groovy" (bumpy surface, i think) and a little crowded.

And then it was Stella's turn. She was the exact opposite from Mabel. It would be inaccurate to say that Stella was relaxed. She was more unclenched and a bit loud. Loud enough for the dentist to close the door. The dental assistant took a positive spin on it. She said that it was a whole lot easier to clean Stella's teeth because her mouth would open wide when she cried. Stella managed to keep it closed when the assistant was trying to put fluoride paste on her teeth. Afterward she kept spitting and saying, "yucky". Then she started licking my shirt to try to take the taste away. Stella's teeth are a little less crowded than Mabel's but are very clean and groovy.

bee sting

Mabel learned a little more about bees today than she would have liked. One was inside the house on the window behind the couch where the girls like to play. It was really scary because both girls started screaming at nearly the same time. I thought that maybe they had gotten burned by the heater, but they both kept talking about bees and Mabel was holding her wrist and trying to scratch at it. Sure enough, after a few minutes a little welt started developing on her wrist with a tiny red spot in the middle. I found the bee on the window, captured it in a cup and let it go outside. We talked about how the bee was scared because it just wanted to go home and couldn't get out of our house. We also talked about not touching bees anymore, but I think they already figured that out. The welt went away really quickly. There were no traces of it after about a half hour. I was thinking that maybe she didn't get a full-blown sting, because the bee still had it's stinger attached afterward.