2 – 2 year olds. wowsers! I would say I can’t believe it – but I actually can believe that we are celebrating Claire & Eleanore’s 2nd birthday because they are acting like two year olds daily. they both want to do things independently and are extra loud about voicing their preferences.
I love looking at this picture to remind me of what delicate little babies they were 2 years ago. my how far we have come.
now I have two giggling little girls who love each other and think each other are hysterical. especially when it involves spit.
ellie was laughing so hard at claire (who was eating snow and spitting).
eleanore. claire.
Claire is growing into such a sweet, independent “me shef”, artsy girl. She LOVES to color – especially with markers. She is talking like crazy and really stringing words together. I love the pride on her face when she communicates to you what she wants or when she points out things she knows or when she is tattling on Ellie or Charlie for doing something they shouldn’t. Claire loves to sing and even though you can’t always tell exactly what tune she is trying to imitate she will continue on and clap when she is finished. Claire usually wakes up a bit ahead of Ellie from naps or bedtime and when she does she will yell “Eyee! Eyee! Eyee!” over and over until Ellie wakes up (which can sometimes take a bit when Ellie is really tired). When asked to share her toys she will do it more often than not. She will apologize when she does something wrong – she’ll walk up to ellie or charlie and say “sorry chatchu” and she stands in timeouts great. Claire loves to be a goofer and cracks us up daily. Socially she is initially a bit more outgoing than Ellie, but gets nervous is very new situations like the doctors office. She weighed just over 23 lbs (10th percentile) and was in the 48% for height and 75% for head circumference.
here claire is focusing on what her daddy was doing. she loves to observe him.
love seeing these two in mirrors because it makes it harder for me to tell who is who. claire is on the right here.
now I can easily tell – claire is goofin!
sweet claire looking a bit like ellie here.
one afternoon charlie was still sleeping in his room and I overheard the girls saying “mine” “mine” “mine” “mine” back and forth while they were each taking different cars out of the box and lining them up like charlie does. yes they are definitely two year olds.
claire’s classic smile.
seriously love this girl.
Eleanore is one determined, particular sweet little girl. She definitely knows what she wants – her socks have to be on a certain way, if her jeans get caught funny she tells me, she points out when things are too tight. One day she laid down on the ground and kept picking at her diaper and trying to tell me something. I checked it out and found a little tiny miniscule piece of cracker. That solved her issue and she was happy. Hmmm – I think we might have a princess and the pea situation here. Ellie is working on her communication and is often a silent dictator. She definitely can manipulate and direct Claire (sometimes Charlie) without using many words. She says things when asked, but doesn’t like to initiate as many new words herself. I think a bit of it is from laziness. She would prefer to go with what she knows and she usually gets what she wants so I am working on remembering to ask her for the words. She can follow every instruction and likes to help me out - if she sees a spill she will get a rag out of the drawer and clean it up. If she sees a fleck of dust or fuzz on the ground she will pick it up and show it to me and then throw it away. Maybe a bit type A? She also likes to color and doodle and build duplos. She is persistent if she is building a tower with blocks and it falls over she will just start over if it falls. She love to run back and forth with charlie and work on her down dogs with 1 leg in the air. Ellie also has a sense of humor and will crack us up. Ellie likes to gather a bunch of items and walk around with them. It is a hoot to watch. At the doctors office for their 2 year appointment, Ellie was so brave and was willing to do everything the NP said (Claire waited for Ellie do to it first before she would do it). Ellie weighed in at a bit under 23 lbs (10th percentile), 50% for height, and 75% for head circumference.
here she is focusing on lining up her cars.
she takes her dress up very seriously.
Some sweet things I would like to remember from this stage:
*How sweet it is when Ellie or Claire run up to me with their blankets and just want me to “howd” them. When they want to they will just lay on my chest and I will hold them. I could sit with just one of them like this forever. When they both want to be held like this it is a bit harder to enjoy because they do get heavy and there is a lot of little pushing and shoving between them as they defend their “side” of me.
*After picking them up from the RAC or any childcare they will nuzzle their heads near my neck and give me a hug. love that!
*when I put them down for naps and bedtimes they arrange their pillows like they want them (currently they are choosing their fuzzy pillows), then they lay their heads down and stick their tiny butts in the air and I set their giraffes next to one ear and their bear (claire) and polar bear (ellie) next to the other and then lay their blanket over them and tuck them in. if you don’t do this they freak out! or if the blanket isn’t just right they will stand up and you start all over. sometimes it can get tedious, but I love seeing them settle down for the night. the funny thing is when I (or bill or nana/bubba, etc) leaves the room they go on squealing, chatting, giggling forever so I never know why they care so much about how I leave them.
*How cute their little legs look when they stand in timeout. Most of the timeouts for the day happen during the dinnertime hour. By this time of the day they have stripped down to their onesie so when they serve their time in timeout I can see their little muscular calves and thighs. such cuteness!
*how they sweep the hair from their eyes. Ellie sweeps hers to the right and claire to the left, but they both do it pretty much the same. so glad to have girls!
*how independent these two little girls are becoming. sometimes it is frustrating when they tell me their demands - "me walk!” or “me self” or today claire “me down walk hands” (telling me that if I let her walk by herself instead of in the stroller she would hold my hand). If I had just one kid I would be able to let them do all those things alone, but sometimes out of safety and necessity (my sanity) I need to strap them into the stroller and get to our destination in one piece. I pray I am allowing them enough freedom to feel more independent all while keeping them all alive.
*how they are starting to have clothing and hair clip preferences/demands. every morning if they had it their way both ellie and claire would be in the closet “shopping” (ie: pulling clothes off the hangers) and then they would try on a bunch of things. that doesn’t really work in my real world so I always pick out two outfits and then whoever is out of their cribs first gets to chose which shirt she wants to wear. then they pick out which hair clip they want to wear. I’m a little anxious about what this will look like in the years to come.
*hearing the kids apologize to each other and then forgive each other and hug and make up. fighting between the kids is hard to handle sometimes, I know it is part of having siblings, but seeing them learn to apologize and extend forgiveness and hug each other is a sweet thing to witness (sometimes I see it more times in a day than I would like).
*I love how great of eaters the girls are. they both love to eat and will basically eat anything I put in front of them (which is welcomed relief from what charlie is doing right now). Ellie particularly loves green foods – broccoli and brussel sprouts are her favs.
the girls love when I let them into the bathroom to watch me get ready.
ellie was neatly stacking her books the other day.
this was claire’s stack. perfectly captures their different personalities. you can see ellie’s high stack on the right.
ellie driving her car on the deck for the first time this year.
claire helping push her.
the fight over whose turn it is to drive.
claire frustrated about pushing again, but willing to give ellie another turn driving.
ok she had enough – claire wants in. I did help claire get a turn here.
the girls playing with their Busy Bibles at the counter.
claire.
surprisingly ellie will do this the longest. claire will color longer.
Oh and I should add that these two little honey badgers have been able to jump out of their cribs and pack and plays for awhile now. they can even do it with sleep sacks on. they have been really good about not jumping out when they are supposed to be sleeping. however, today in hudson after consuming too many jelly beans from Easter eggs they didn’t nap and jumped out. I sure hope this doesn’t become a new thing.
We love you Eleanore! We love you Claire! So thankful that God has blessed us with you two!
