three word sentences

Mabel has graduated to genuine three word sentences. She says "more apple juice please" and then graciously says "thanks" after I fill her cup.

bless you mommy

I sneezed and that's what Mabel said. It melted my heart. And made me want to sneeze again.

Ba-Ba-Bobby-Cake

The girls love Strawberry Shortcake! Aunt Kelly gave them a Strawberry Shortcake dvd before we left Utah last summer and they have recently developed a strong fondness for it. Stella started singing a STrawberry shortcake song a few months ago. It went something like this:

"ba-ba-ba-bee-shee...hmm-hmm-hmm...ba-bee-shee". And now it sounds a little more developed:

"ba-ba-ba-bee-keek...ba-ba-ba-bee-keek" with plenty of head bobbing and nodding.

And if you've never had the pleasure of watching a STrawberry shortcake movie, then you should know that the opening title song sounds a little like this:

"Straw-ba-ba...ba-ba-ba-berry...Shortcake"

Similarities and Differences

Some differences:

Mabel loves stuffed animals, Stella loves babies. Stella loves her binkie, Mabel doesn't really care about it but likes to chew on it sometimes so she can be like Stella. Mabel likes to copy Stella's pronunciation of some words. Mabel used to say "wa-wa" for water but now she says it Stella's way: "yo-yo". Stella knows how to pee in the toilet (but only when she feels like it) and Mabel doesn't seem to be able to make herself go. Stella is very shy around people that she doesn't know. She puts her chin to her chest and looks up at a person through the top of her eyes. When Mabel meets a new person she just kind of freezes and stares at them while they talk at her.

Some Similarities:

They both love to climb. Anything. Stella recently managed to climb up onto the bathroom counter using the cabinet handle as a foothold. They love fish. They love to pet the fish. (Sorry Speckles, I hope you don't hold it against them.) Finding Nemo is their favorite movie. We turn it on daily, usually in the kitchen when they're strapped into their highchairs having breakfast. They love Grammie. Their faces light up and they get all excited when I tell them that we're going to get Grammie on our way to dance class.

potty training and dancing

We started on Monday. No more diapers when they are awake. That was my original plan anyway. I guess it's still evolving. After five days of running pantsless or naked in the kitchen for most of the day, Stella gets it. She's doing really great and doesn't like to put a diaper on anymore. She can control when she pees and gets a really worried look on her face when she has to do #2. Today she had only two accidents. She caught herself on the first one and finished in her little potty. The second one was a number two and I was getting the tub ready for their bath so I didn't catch it. But she did come running in to the bathroom saying "po-po! po-po!" over and over again. Stella wouldn't allow me to put a diaper on her for bed tonight so I put on her panties and laid her down for bed. I checked her at midnight and she was still dry. I'm so impressed!

Mabel isn't too interested in going potty. She won't sit for very long and she doesn't worry too much if her undies get wet. She does, however, point to the puddle and tell me that she went "pobby". I gave up temporarily and put her back in diapers yesterday. It seems easier to concentrate on one at a time. I tried to get her to go again this morning and learned that she will pee for m&m's. This is a promising discovery.

Yesterday was their first dance lesson at Nutmeg's. When we arrived at the studio, both girls were asleep in the car. It was a 90 minute drive and Stella was in underpants, so I rushed the girls into the studio and ran straight for the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet. It was all just a little too confusing for her and she refused to sit on the potty. They were not ready to be social so soon after being rudely woken up so they didn't participate in the dance class until it was nearly over. Just as they started to warm up to the whole thing, Stella peed on the dance floor. Oops. They really liked wearing the fairy wings and shaking the maracas. After dance class they had lots of fun playing in the waiting room and watching the 3 year olds dance.

what's the latest?

Among other things, this summer was the summer of teeth. Stella started the summer with six teeth, four on the top and two on the bottom. Mabel started with seven - the same six that Stella had plus one back molar. At the end of the summer they had both gotten all four of their back molars in and Mabel got one of her bottom front teeth in. I think it was the teething that caused all of the unexplained fevers and multiple bouts of diarrhea and diaper rash that we dealt with while we were away in Utah.

Mabel and Stella are both working very diligently on their vocabulary. They are both willing to take a stab at saying any word you ask them to...with one exception. Much to Grammie's dismay, Mabel refuses to say "Grammie". She will say alligator, but not grammie. Every time Grammie asks her to say it, Mabel gets a coy little grin on her face and looks away. Sometimes she downright smiles and looks her straight in the eye while refusing to say it. I know Mabel is just playing Grammie. She is a witty little girl.

Last week Mabel made her first sentence. She used to just say "more" if she wanted more milk at breakfast. But she took it up a notch and said "more milk" while she held her cup out to me. It sounded like "mo me". She's very advanced.

We are starting to get serious about the potty training. They are both ready for it. When it's time to change their diapers I've been having them sit down to try and go potty before the new diaper goes on. Stella really likes to sit on her potty. This last week she has been pretty consistent about sitting on her potty and peeing in it. She hasn't peed on the floor once in the past week and she's peed in her potty about six times. I think she gets it. It's just about time for big girl panties. Mabel will still pee on the floor, but she'll tell me that she did it and point to the puddle. They both kind of fight over who gets to sit on the bigger blue potty that we have only one of. They don't like the little pink ones so much anymore. There is a lot of screaming and pushing when they both have their diapers off. I think it would be worth getting another blue one.

They are down to one nap per day now. They wake up around 7 am and get sleepy around 10:30 or 11 and nap for around two hours. Then they go to bed around 7:30 or 8. It's a pretty good schedule for them.

They love to play on the swings and slide. Thanks to Uncle Rob and Aunt Jen for passing on their great playground set! They will swing and slide for a very long time. Stella fell asleep in her swing a couple of weeks ago. They are both pretty good at climbing up the ladder to the slide. They've only had one or two spills in the past week.

actual recognizable words

I've missed writing about lots of really great things that we've done. We drove to California and went to Sea World, we went to Hogle Zoo, camped for two nights in Capitol Reef. I'll try to go back and fill in the blanks.

Last weekend during our camping trip in Capitol Reef, Mabel decided it was time to make some real words. She was just bursting with vocabulary! She started naming everything we pointed out to her. Here's a list of what she says:

tree (dee)

car (cah)

deer (deh)

rice (ice)

apple (ap-po)

water (wa-wa)

uh-oh (uh-oh)

more (mo)

bye-bye (ba-ba)

baby (bay-bee)

daddy (da-da)

mamma (ma-ma)

stella (da-ya)

penguin (de-de - i don't get it either, but she's consistent)

cow (coh)

cracker ('ca-coh)

cheese (shhhh)

sticker (de-'kah)

shoe (shhhh - not to be confused with cheese, of course)

sock (sssss)

no (no! - with vigorous head shaking)

Stella is not one to be left out. Within a couple of days she began her own quest for words. Here's her vocabulary list:

cheese (shhhh)

shoe (shhhh - they sure sound the same, don't they...)

yes (yeh)

no (no - with gentle head shaking)

bye (ba)

dad (da)

mom (ma)

mabel (may)

baby (beh-beh)

car (cah)

cow (coh)

They have both learned a few more words in sign language during the past few weeks. We taught them the signs for eat, drink, and more in addition to the sign for all-done that they've been doing for months. They're really good at doing the signs and it is so nice to not have to guess at those things anymore.