Short People, Long Post

Finally! Time for some little people. I took a couple pictures with my phone last week (or the week before?) so here they are. Dinner time at the Beaver house:









I haven't written about them in a while--I'm sorry. We've been keeping busy. Once school started back in January, we hit the ground running. Elsie was pretty much potty-trained for overnight within a week of our 3-day boot camp. Two months later, she's only had a handful of accidents. In the mornings, sometimes she refuses to go and I take her to daycare, where all K has to do is tell her to go and she goes. Oh, little girls. We've tried to have a routine where she goes potty when Oscar goes to bed to avoid bedtime drama for her. It works pretty well. She tells me when she has to go, usually, and she goes. I go in there at the end to remind her to wipe, flush, and wash her hands.

Speaking of bedtime, at 18 months, Oscar is a great sleeper. He pretty much goes to sleep when his head hits the pillow--a Big Al Pillow Pet (an elephant, for those of you not versed University of Alabama paraphernalia). He's ready by 7 p.m. almost without fail. Elsie, at 2 3/4-years is ready a little while later, starting to unwind (in more ways than one) by 8 p.m. Sometimes she falls asleep immediately. Other times she stays up singing and talking until after 9. Yikes.

This semester, we have our church small group on Wednesday nights. We are not hosting this semester, but instead travel a few miles to our friends' house where we have an amazing group, and Elsie and Oscar get to play with some little friends. We're out past bedtime on this night, and I feel sorry for K on Thursday mornings (and hopefully am appropriately apologetic). But it so refreshing to be with our church community.

Speaking of K, morning drop off at her house has been going soooooo much better since after Christmas. Elsie stopped crying and screaming, but insisted that I carry her, so I would carry the two toddlers into the house in the mornings because it was just easier. Then, one day two weeks ago, Elsie announced that she wanted to run. So, she got out of the car and ran toward the door. The next day I asked her if she was going to run, and she told me that no, she was going to walk. And she walked. And has walked ever since. So, this last week, I decided to put Oscar down and let him walk, too, since he follows Elsie everywhere. And so, he's walking into the house also. It's such a relief to have two big kids (relatively speaking), and not having to worry about bending from the knees and not from the back as I try to carry 50+ pounds of toddlers into the house.

Now, I'm just going to list things that I think of to share. Some are update-quality, some are just memories I don't want to forget:

1. Elsie is obsessed with Charlie Brown. She saw a Charlie Brown movie at our fall festival last November while I was in Arizona (Eli took the kids) and she hasn't stopped talking about him. Frequently she will come in and announce, "I'm Chawie. You're Sawwy." She's never identified with Snoopy or even acknowledged that he exists until today: From the back seat I hear, "Mama, what's Chawy's puppy?" It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. We practice saying "snoo pee" until she got it. Then, we're eating dinner, and she cocks her head, rests it on her hand, furrows her eyebrows in seriousness and concentration, and asks, "What's Chawy's puppy name again?" I tell her, she repeats me, and she files it away in her sponge-like brain with a smile.

2. She hasn't mastered the sound of the letter L.

3. In February, Miss J gave Oscar a gift bag of toys that had a pirate on the outside. Elsie put her chin up and tried to close just one eye (but still squinting the other eye since she hasn't mastered it), sneered her lip as best she could, and said in a gravelly voice, "I'm a pirate! Arrrrgh! Merry Christmas!" Another time, she was trying to put on a pair of toddler sunglasses that has the strap all the way around, and she had it on crooked so only one of the lenses covered one of her eyes, and she looked at me and said, "Look! I'm a pirate!"

4. I had a sweet moment with Oscar a few weeks ago. I was putting him to bed, rocking him in the rocking chair, and I told him that I loved him. I said, "Can you say 'I love you?'" He lifted his head up and looked right at me and said, "Love. You." Then he put his head down again. Melt this mama's heart.

5. For Christmas, Eli's parents got the tots the Melissa & Doug Pound and Roll Tower. Oscar is crazy about this thing. Sometime in January the balls disappeared under various and sundry pieces of furniture, but the tower did not lose its appeal. One day I heard Oscar playing with it and couldn't figure out what was going on. He had found a plastic Easter egg and was dropping it in the holes, over and over and over and over. Then Elsie brought over a handful of change and they both got a kick out of dropping dimes and nickels, pennies and quarters down the tower. They've tried Mardi Gras beads and toy cars. I'm just so amazed at their creative minds.

6. I may have already mentioned this, but Elsie still does it, so it's worth mentioning again. She'll get a ribbon from my craft ribbons and give Oscar one end. Then she'll lead him around the house, calling him Alex. He has no idea, but that's the name of Miss J's dog.

7. Favorite pasttime in the backyard: playing in the "garden"...that is, the ash from the Weber charcoal grill.

8. Singing. Elsie loves to sing. She remembers tons of songs. She just started belting out "I've got peace like a river in my soul" the other night while playing in front of the refrigerator. Another night, she started singing, "I love you, Lord, and I lift my soul.." They sing a lot at K's house. Elsie is a sponge and remembers most of them.

9. I've gotten into the habit of correcting "yeah" and "nah" to "Yes, ma'am" and "No, ma'am" respectively, even with Oscar, even though he's still pretty much a one-syllable guy. Imagine my surprise when he started saying "Ma'am" when I would correct him. Every once in a while he'll say both words, but not often. And he still likes to grunt or say "uh-uh" or "uh-huh". But if I press further he'll say "Yesh" or a very clear "No".

10. In the last week or so he's been saying Elsie's name at various times. Sounds like "Eh. See." He threw his pacifier out of his crib and then called, "Eh. See!!" for her to come get it and give it to him.

11. Sharing is getting better. Still running hot and cold with this concept and the nearly three-year-old.

12. I love to hear them giggling together. It's usually followed by screaming and crying, but I'll take what I can get, you know?

13. Oscar loves to steal socks. After 5 p.m. he seems morally opposed to the wearing of socks by anyone around him, so he'll forcefully remove them from me, Eli, sometimes Elsie, though hers usually don't make it all the way home from K's house. The backseat of the Saturn is a sock depository. When it's time to do their laundry once a week, I go to the Saturn and get all the little rejected white balls of cotton. Usually there are at least 12 socks. Sometimes there's an odd number, and that's confusing. Oscar also gets a kick out of wearing my novelty socks. The sock thing lets me know that they were not switched at birth.

14. It's softball season, and I really love to watch softball, even if it's middle school softball. One night, Oscar wasn't feeling well, so I left him with Eli and took Elsie out to the ballpark. We got out of the car and she told me that I needed to get Oscar out of the car. I told her that he wasn't in the car, and that blew her mind. How did we go somewhere and not take Oscar?!? We got out there and even though she had a jacket on, she was cold (it was windy) so she sat in my lap for about 5-10 minutes before she started climbing around on the bleachers, and then announcing that she was going home. She climbed down the bleachers, and headed toward the parking lot and asked, "Where's Daddy's car?" (the car we were driving). She was not a bit interested in the game.
Two days later, I left Elsie at home with Eli, and I took Oscar out to the ballpark, and he sat on my lap and very intently watched the game for 45 minutes (there was some fruit-snackage involved) before he got distracted by the field lights, which are seemingly everywhere. Pointing in the air, "Weiss! Weiss!" Took me a minute to figure out that it was the lights that were exciting him. And then he wasn't interested in the game and we went home.
Moral: Elsie is a doer. Oscar is a watcher. Neither of those is a bad thing.

15. Elsie is frequently heard singing on the potty. In the mornings, it's usually "Yea, Alabama!" Yesterday she was singing and informed me that it was the Backyardigans theme song. Not surprisingly, I already knew that, because this girl has an ear for tunes. And an uncanny memory for lyrics--even when she doesn't know the words, she is able to replace them with similar sounds. She is a sponge for media (scary!) and has often been known to sing her replies to questions. Silly goose.

16. Oscar was 23 pounds and 23 inches at his 18 month checkup.

I can't even think of what else I need to put down before I forget. I'm sure I'll think of more soon. Hope you enjoyed this little window into our lives of late.

Cheers.