The Engaged Couple

Calleigh was in the bathtub on Wednesday morning and she called me in to announce, "I'm engaged."  Of course, I had to ask to whom and she promptly responded, "Jonathan."  Duncan was surprised that she knew the word and possibly what it meant but kids take in everything that goes on and obviously she's noticed all the cousins getting engaged.  As far as the engagement goes, I think they'll need to speed up the wedding because this morning on our way to our yard sales, Calleigh told me she had a "baby in her belly and did I want to feel it's head" as she pressed her belly this way and that.  She's too young for me to tell her to wait for marriage, right??

I'm sure Jonathan was on her mind because we met them at the playground later that morning.  It's been awhile since we've had an outing with them because it's been tough getting our schedules to jive.  They eat lunch a little earlier than we do so it's caused a scheduling conflict.  But fortunately we were able to make a play date work this time.  Calleigh spent some of the time with Jonathan but also a good portion of the time just wandering around by herself and talking to whomever she came across.  I'm glad she isn't shy!

This morning, as I already mentioned, we did our yard sales.  The most interesting stop was when I started to chit chat about nursing our kids with a lady running one of the sales.  I'm not sure how we got on the topic but she had asked me how I had gotten Calleigh to stop nursing.  I explained that it just sort of winded down on it's own to where it was only once a day and for just like a minute or two so it was pretty easy to just stop from there. She said she had the worst time.  Her daughter was two and still nursing like crazy.  The lady decided to stop (I don't know why) but it was so hard on the kid that she literally had to wrap herself in saran wrap so the kid couldn't nurse.  Isn't that crazy??  I'm VERY glad I didn't have that experience.

Let's see...what's new with the girls?  Well, for about the past week or two, Calleigh has been waking up during the night and asking to have the hallway light put back on or to ask for her binky.  It hasn't been every night but more frequently than not.  When I put her to bed, I leave her door wide open and the hall light on.  When we go to bed, we turn it off and close her door most of the way.  For some reason, she's either waking up and noticing it's off or she's always been waking up during the night but it's just now bothering her.  So I've been getting up and turning it back on.  And then sometimes she'll start yelling "MOMMY, I NEED A BINKY."  Usually she has like six of them in her crib but maybe she can't find them in the dark.  Thankfully in each of these situations, she usually goes right back to sleep and it's not a problem.  As for Aubree, I can't say anything about her sleeping except to say that we are so fortunate to have what I would consider, one of the best sleepers out there.  Disregarding sleeping away from home, which she's had a few problems with in the past, she NEVER wakes up during the night.  I think it's been months since I've had to go in her room after I've put her to bed for the night.  I probably don't even need a baby monitor other than to hear that she's woken up in the morning.  And even then, she just lies in her crib and "talks."

But back to the topic of nursing for a moment.  The last two days Aubree has gotten more challenging in this department.  She's getting very distracted or something.  It's the thing that Calleigh used to do.  She gets on there and then 30 seconds later, she's trying to get away (not that she can actually crawl anywhere or anything!).  You put her back on and she's good for 45 seconds and then she's off again, trying to get off your lap and onto the couch.  It's very frustrating!  I'm hoping this is just a passing thing.

         She can't get herself into this position but once you put her there, she enjoys it!

As any parent can relate, one of the big challenges of a toddler is trying to get them to pick up after themselves.  Actually, I suppose that can go well beyond the toddler years.  Darn.  Anyway, it's been a work in progress and this week we seemed to have made significant progress.  There have been a few times that she has started to pick up her things without even being asked.  One such time was last night.  I was upstairs nursing Aubree before bed and Calleigh was downstairs with Duncan to do her stories as she usually does.  All of a sudden I heard Calleigh start having a major meltdown and I was baffled as to what caused it.  Duncan later told me that she had picked up all her toys without asking and when Duncan tried to give her an M&M as a reward (which we haven't been doing for cleaning up...Duncan just thought it was a nice treat this once), she went crazy telling him that she only supposed to get M&M's for going poo poo and pee pee on the potty.  You'd think she'd just take it but nope!  And by the way, we still have a whole bag of M&M's because she has no interest in going on the potty.  They'll probably be expired by the time she gets around to it.

In closing, I thought I'd share a few things that I love about Calleigh.

• That she calls her cereal "Honey Bunches of Boats"
• How when she gets out of the tub, she stands in on spot for a little while so that when she moves, she can see how all the water dripped down to make an outline of her feet.
• How she tells me at least twenty times a day that she loves me.
• That her favorite two words are "I'm okay."  She falls down on the pavement, picks herself up, and says her phrase, "I'm okay."
• She calls every meal supper.
• When Aubree wakes up from her morning nap, Calleigh opens the door, runs in and says "Well hello Aubree" in a cute sing song voice. 
• I've mentioned this one before....when she asks for fruit, I'll ask her what she wants and she says "Can you show me the options?"  I don't know if she thinks we're on a cruise and I'm suppose to bring out a tray with all the different choices for her to peruse.
• That she asks me nearly every day whether Papa likes watermelon.  She knows the answer is no which is why I think she asks.  I don't think she can believe that someone doesn't like watermelon.  
• That she's compassionate.  If I say I have a headache, she'll immediately come over to me and start to comfort me.  

Of course, there are many more things but those are the ones that pop into my brain right now.

With that, I will close off on this Friday evening.  Have a great weekend and happy Sabbath.