Sisterhood

I just wanted to take a minute to write about my two beautiful, precious, lovely girls. I won't have time to add pictures to this post, which I am sad about, but I am at least glad to finally get some text on paper. Maddie and Sarah are both dolls and both trouble! They love each other so much (I catch them hugging several times a day, unprompted), but they both get very frustrated with one another, too.  They are struggling with sharing toys right now, but we are working through it, and sometimes Maddie gets overly excited and doesn’t realize how rough she is playing with Sarah.  This has led to a few tackles, chest-pump-fall-downs, bumped noggins and smaller-child-being-thrown-to-the-ground-mid-ring-around-the-rosy.  They are a joy to watch and I am so glad we had them so close together in age so they can grow up and play with each other.

Sarah has learned so much from her big sister and is such a smarty! She had a 20 month check-up recently and the doctor commented on her verbal skills.  She already talks in full sentences and knows probably over 100 words, so I was shocked that by the age of 2, toddlers are only expected to be starting to put 2 words together and know up to 15.  She also knows almost all of her ABC’s and can count above 10 (maybe to 13 or 14, then she mumbles and excitedly says, “20!”).  She follows Maddie (or as Sarah calls her, “Mannie”) around, climbing over all types of terrain, resulting in many “boo-boos” but she is really good at keeping up. She is a respectful little girl, graciously saying, “thank you, mama” when I put a bow on her Minnie’s head for her, and asks for things with an unprompted “please.” Her favorite response to every things we say is, “why?” especially when we are telling her she can’t go outside in the backyard.  She loves loves loves Luka-boy and every morning gives him a hug and says, “Luka Boy! He’s soft.” Then, “He tickles me,” when his tail hits her during a wag.   One trait I wish I could alter is her desire to lick EVERYTHING.  The carts at the grocery stores, windows, table tops and, my favorite, the car tire.  As I was loading Maddie into her car seat, I glanced over and caught her in the act and I said, “No, Sarah! Don’t lick the tire! That’s yuck-yuck.”  Maddie responded, as she has been recently pointing out all of the things that she DIDN’T do wrong, by stating, “Mom, I didn’t lick the tire.” I know, Mannie.  I know.  I actually found myself responding with words I never thought I would speak, “Thank you, Maddie, for not licking the tire.” 

 Maddie, my smart cookie, as I call her, is a little daredevil.  She is constantly climbing on everything she can find and jumping off of it as high as she can.  She says she wants to jump high and touch the ceiling: her current goal in life.  She is continually talking about growing up and becoming a grown up and says with excitement, “I’ll grow up and be a grown up and touch the ceiling.”  Yesterday, while sitting on the toilet, she was over-the-top- happy when telling me, “look mama! I’m not falling in! I don’t need the princess seat anymore.  I’m growing up right on this potty.  I’m going to be a grown up and touch the ceiling!” That’s wonderful, Maddie.  Can you please pee now? When she is not balancing on toilet seats and jumping off of tree stumps, she is perfecting her summersaults and pedaling her bike.  Her favorite outdoor activity, though, is riding in her red car, affectionately known as the beep-beep.  She parks the car by the house and then backs out of the spot, announces that she’s going to target, and drives the car about 15 feet to our rock pit.  Upon arriving at the “store” she gets out and shops for rocks, putting them in the back of the car, before driving back home and re-parking the car.  This happens over and over again and I just love watching it.  It doesn’t get old.  Maddie has memorized several books and loves to read to us, but it’s the most endearing when I catch her reciting the pages to Sarah.  So so sweet.  The memory on this girl is unbelievable.  I was amazed by how many bible verses she memorized during the year in Cubbies, but the verses were always short.  One evening, at dinner, Maddie said she wanted to say the “our Father” prayer.  I had said the Lord’s prayer with her a few times before bed the previous week, but maybe only a total of 5 times.  So, I was shocked when she proceeded to recite the entire prayer on her own.  Amazing. I teared up, of course, listening to my baby recite so many verses of scripture. I am one proud mama!

 

Let’s see: other events in the life: We are in the midst of trying to sell our house.  We had an offer on it after only a week on the market, but it all fell through because of a bad appraisal.  We were so sad, but looking forward to what God has in store for us going forward.  We are currently negotiating another offer, so we are prayerful that the Lord will bring this one to completion. 

 Sarah is healing from a bought of Hand, foot, and mouth disease.  The poor thing had a rough week, but she is on the mend and doing much better.  I felt like I was raising a drug addict, at one point, though. I had been giving her ibuprofen for pain management for a couple of days and, one morning, she woke up with a raspy voice due to the blisters in her throat. I set her down on the kitchen floor to get her some milk when, in what sounded like a miniature smoker’s voice, she requested, “ medicine please.”  I about died of laughter. 

These girls are so fun! They love to dress-up as princesses, role-play Minie-rella, dance, SING!!!!!, have pretend birthday parties, and are always together. Always.  And I know they always will be.