What I can I say – Eleanore & Claire are 2.5 years old! I always want to write these post separately because I feel like they each deserve their own post (weird – I know), but it is too hard for me to separate some of the things they are doing – because so many things they both do and together.
I will say that I am LOVING the 2.5 year old stage. Oh – it’s not easy, but it is a JOY to watch E&C really interact, carry on conversations, pretend play together, fight and make up, find them in the same bed together playing, hearing “no care. no care” or “no eyee. no eyee” and the giggles – oh my – those will make your heart sing. Usually when I hear giggling I know something is up. Someone is doing something they probably shouldn’t be. Despite the spitting water, teasing each other with food, tearing up paper, or some other mess they are making the giggles are worth it. They find each other (and charlie) hysterical! Something I have always been impressed with is for how much they play together when we are out and about they don’t NEED each other. I am thankful that they seem to be developing their own individuality while still embracing their twinness. It is something I pray for daily. I see them developing such a beautiful bond. Claire will sometimes come up to me at the park and ask “mom. where’s eyee?” if she can’t find her. Or ellie the same. But for the most part they know where each other are and are fine to run around and do their own thing. I am utterly exhausted by them sometimes, but continue to be amazed that God saw us fit to raise these two, wild, crazy, sweet, precious girls. Here are some things that stand out about Ellie & Claire at this stage.
Ellie:
*calls charlie “dauder” (can actually say charlie when asked – but seems to prefer dauder)
*does a little naked “wiggie wiggie” dance where she moves her hips side to side and fake walks her legs before she gets into the bath. she has also added a hip sway move where she puts her hands on her hips and wiggies them back and forth before she gets in. I love it – cracks me up every time.
*”me color mom!” – Ellie loves to color or doodle on her doodler. She is very focused and holds her pencil or doodle pen perfectly and very intently draws “bugs”.
*swings and climbs like a 6 year old. I will hear gasps from across the playground – then I look and see ellie climbing to the top of the big hexagon climbing structure. She does fine getting up and can hold herself by her arms when she starts to fall so I usually get to her before something happens. her swinging literally looks like a perfected art. she points her toes and keeps her legs perfectly glued together then pumps at just the right time to get her to go higher. charlie honestly doesn’t pump as well as she does. I can’t wait to get her (and Claire) into gymnastics or ballet (I’m waiting until they are 3 and can go without me– just read my post about when I participated with them in a gymnastics class when they were 18 months and you will see why). They will LOVE doing gymnastics!
*Eleanore is business time. She is a “get er done” kind of girl. She is not overly sensitive and can be quite stubborn when she wants to be. Overall, if I explain to her what we are doing or what the consequences are she is pretty good to pull it together. If she had been crying and I was ignoring her until she stopped crying she will stop a bit later and say “I stopped crying mom”.
*Knows Proverbs 3:5-7
*Can be surprisingly cautious. I have written about this before – but for as brave as she is when she is climbing up ladders, structures and more she can be cautious in funny situations – like on the ferry boat. She was really excited to get on and was looking out the window and ready for it to go and then once the engine started up and it started moving she dropped to her seat and sat perfectly until she figured out everything was safe again. Once she assessed that it was safe she was moving the rest of the trip.
*Ellie really loves animal pictures and books. The other day at our little St Heliers library I couldn’t find her and was searching around for her and found her in the adult area in a big chair reading a “monkey book”. It was actually a national geographic wildlife book with amazing photos. We checked it out and it was the most read book over the last week. She always searches out animal books at the library and points out all animals while driving. She loves petting any dogs near the parks (makes me a bit nervous – Bill has too many facial trauma stories).
*Ellie always puts her shoes on herself, which I am VERY thankful for. However, they are almost always on the wrong feet. When I see this I often tell her “Ellie, great job getting your shoes on. How do they feel? Do you want me to switch them around?”. She usually says no so we go on with our day. What I find interesting is how other people react to it. I often get 2 different reactions. 1. They tell me that she has her shoes on the wrong feet and I should switch them around. 2. They pay her a compliment about how it looks like she must have put her shoes on by herself. I always love when people give me/Ellie the second response.
Eleanore – we LOVE you so very much. I love watching you learn new things and explore the world. You have brought our family such JOY and we can’t wait to see what the rest of your second year has in store!
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Claire:
*calls charlie “chatchie” (can actually say charlie when asked)
*Claire likes to draw more freely. She will be looking around while drawing and will draw bigger loops. She loves to color and doodle on her doodler, but burns out more quickly or gets interested in something else and moves on (like coloring on her belly!).
*In the morning, claire always wakes up first. I will hear her yelling loudly “ellie! ellie! ellie!” over and over until Ellie must wake up and then they go into one of their beds and giggle and hang out until I come in to get them. I love that they get that special time together.
*Claire loves to “go really high!” on the swing. And has also picked up on her pumping. She hasn’t perfected it quite like Ellie has, but she can get herself going higher!
*Knows Proverbs 3:5-7 - has a delightful way of saying it and makes everyone who hears her say it smile. “Tust in the LOYD with ah lo heiyt…” with a lot of emphasis on LOYD and HEIYT.
*Claire talks more clearly than ellie.
*Claire puts her shoes on herself nearly every time and on the correct feet!
*Claire is oh so sensitive and sweet. She will cry easier, but she also notices if other people are sad and is always VERY concerned. If I make a sad face or look like I might cry she walks over and grabs my face with her little hands and says “mommy cry?”. I know what you might be thinking – I must cry a lot, but I honestly don’t cry that much. I have broke down in tears here in NZ more than any other time, but she is just concerned overall with how I feel.
*plays really well with her babies. she will have her baby in their carseat with a blanket draped over for privacy. then she will feed her baby and burp them. what a caregiver Claire is!
*Claire tends to either be EXTREMELY stubborn or really easy going – it is one or the other. For the most part she is easy going. When she is adamant about something she almost goes crazy over it, which can sometimes be so hysterical! Last night she was frustrated about not being able to hold the Bible while we were reading Bible stories before bed so she got off the couch and just ran in circles while whining trying to figure out what to do. I was cracking up!
Claire – we LOVE you sooo much! You are such a delight in our lives and so kindhearted! I love watching you grow up!
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Watching these two become friends has been delightful. They are really playing together and here they were reading the Bible before bed. You will hear “no care – read this.” or “no eyee. no eyee. me hold.”
claire was saying “splish splash” since she remembered that from the story. They talk quickly and mumble their words a lot still.
our NZ babysitter Mel brought her nail polish with her the other day and painted the girls’ nails. They LOVED it and I thought it looked so cute – I painted my nails later that day. Mel is great and the girls really love her. They told me later in the day that “Mel said – no touch nails” which is why they looked so good and weren’t all smudged.
more seestor playing. claire was the baby here. ha!
drawing together. claire would draw something and ellie would either approve or disapprove and then they would start over.
Some things to remember about both E&C:
* both girls are potty trained. Ellie for almost 6 months now and Claire for a few days. I should really give her more credit. She was using the toilet daily for both #1 & 2 since May/June. But we officially switched to undies all the time the second week of September.
* this might be TMI, but often the girls have the same toilet cycles. They go #2 about the same time and usually have to pee about the same time – makes sense since they mostly eat and drink the same things. Sometimes it adds to the craziness as I have two girls who need to use the toilet at the same time and NEED me.
*about a week after we arrived in NZ Bill was driving the car in the evening with all of us and there was a dog that suddenly showed up in the road. He slammed on his breaks and honked and it made a SERIOUS impact on the kids. After the incident, we had to talk through over and over what happened. Dad honked at the dog and saved its life. OVER and OVER and OVER. I don’t remember if the girls started bringing up the incident right away or if it was about a week or so later, but ever so often one of them would say “daddy. daddy. daddy. ‘Mahmber? daddy honk doggie?”. The first time this happened I had NO idea what they were saying or talking about. After a lot of repeating and asking questions, we finally figured out it was about when Bill honked at that dog a few weeks before. Ever since it was randomly brought up – Ellie or Claire talk about this dog AT LEAST once a day! We have MANY MANY conversations about how dad saved the dogs life. How dog’s shouldn’t be on the road. How Bill had to honk. So now when we hear “daddy, ‘Mahmber?” we know EXACTLY what is coming next.
*discipline – I know with Charlie I was doing timeouts like crazy. With E&C, not so much. I am not sure if I have changed my discipline techniques or if I need to respond differently to them, but I really only use timeouts when they are REALLY disobeying me (If I have asked them once or twice to stop and they do it blatantly again). Timeouts aren’t really that effective with them. Both girls seem to respond better if I talk with them about why I want them to do something and then give them a choice. For example, at the library when it is time to go and they don’t want to go I will say “Ellie, we need to check out now. If you don’t get into the stroller yourself then I will put you in and strap you in. Do you want to do it yourself and not be strapped or me to do it and be strapped?” Ellie (and claire) will almost always go in themselves. They LOVE to do things themselves and HATE being strapped. The only kicker is if i don’t have anything to strap them into. So I almost always have an ergo on me or my cheap umbrella stroller or the BOB. Saves me every time. I’m not sure if this is just their personalities or a twin thing…hmm.
*Naps/sleeping – the girls go to bed about 7:30 (fall asleep a bit later) and wake up about 7 (get out of their room about 7:30am) and take naps in separate rooms from about 1-3:30-4. before they fall asleep they always lay on my chest (or at bed time bill and I each have one of them on our chests) while we sing “St Judy’s Comet” (oh my little sleepy girls I have changed it to). Then they demand butterfly kisses and then i/we flee from the room while they protest because they want one more! so thankful they are still cuddly, but sometimes it is hard to escape their little grasps as they wrap their arms tightly around my neck!
* both E&C are still cuddly. They love to lay their heads on mine or Bill’s chest and just rest on us. I love that they are still so little that they still fit on my chest easily. I usually carry both girls in each arm still when getting in and out of busy places. It helps that they grab on so well with their legs!
*both girls are EXTREMELY opinionated about what they wear. I will pull out some pants and they will instantly grab the ones they like (sometimes erupting into a fight over one pair). I have now started quickly grabbing two pair of pants out and having those be the only option. Then I also grab the shirts and try to use distraction to keep us moving forward. I am sure there will be MUCH bigger discussions about what to wear in the years to come. I do, however, look forward to our shopping dates.
CHARLIE! Ellie & Claire have such sweet relationships with their brother. It is incredible to really watch them play when they get in their groove. Mostly Charlie is driving the play, which is awesome. He will dress up and then get them going in his little world and they LOVE it. Ellie and Charlie play really easily together because Ellie will be a bit quieter and play easily. When Claire and Charlie click they have a blast. Sometimes Claire’s adamant personality gets to be frustrating for Charlie and they get in a tif. Charlie does a great job balancing having two sisters who are into his every move.
charlie was organizing a fort in the “cold room”. love watching these three play together happily – key word – happily.
Eleanore & Claire. 2.5 years ago you girls rocked my world. I went from a mom of 1 to a mom of 3 in 23 months. God has blessed me way beyond what I could have asked or imagined. I pray each day that I am able to be patient, loving and VERY present in your lives. I know I mess up often and am so thankful for God’s grace and all of your forgiveness. I am proud of you all and feel so honored to be your mom or more appropriately for NZ mum.
