What a mouthful!

Those who have been around Emma may have first-hand experience in how chatty she can be. She is quite a talker, and at 2 her doctor said she has the vocabulary of an almost 3-year-old. As I was looking through my baby book last week, I read that at 14-months, my vocabulary list was pretty extensive as well, so she gets her gabbiness from moi! So John and I have been pretty impressed when lately she has said "mummy, what are you doing?" when I am out of her line of vision. Imagine our total surprise when today she said "I want sit down on couch now please." Holly Hannah! John looked at me and said "did you hear that?" I closed my mouth that was hanging on the floor and said "yeah, did we hear right?" She asked again, so yes, we heard right. That is by far the longest sentence she has ever said. And not only does she say long sentences, but she speaks so clearly too. Maddie is catching up with her vocabulary. She cuts off the first letter of every word. If you ask her what her name is she says "Addison." When she is calling Matt, Sue's boyfriend, she says "At." She can pronounce "m's" as she says Mummy clearly, but sometimes she decides to leave off that first letter. Her speech is a lot more choppy than Emma's, but she is starting to get more of a flow.

Today was their last day at the daycare in my school. Julie is back so they will be going there on Monday. After school I took the girls upstairs to my friend Barb's classroom. She teaches grade 2 and she has baby chicks in her room that hatched just yesterday. The girls ran over to the chicks and said "duckies! Dey cute!" They pet them and then Maddie wanted to hold one. She loves animals and she is so gentle, so she held her two hands out together and Barb put the chick in her hand. She giggled and said "tickles." Emma wanted to hold one as well and she said the same thing. They were so gentle and so interested in the little chicks it was very cute. We got some pictures of them so I will try and post them once I figure out how to do that! Barb also has caterpillars in a terrarium in her room and the girls waved and said hi to the caterpillar. When John got home they told him that they held the baby duckies on own! lol If the weather is nice we will take them to the petting zoo this weekend. They love it there!

First day of "real school!"

Our beloved "Auntie" Julie, who takes care of the girls is in BC watching her youngest son graduate from University. We were lucky enough to get the girls enrolled in the daycare that is in my school for the week. I had to fill out a ton of paperwork, and one of the forms asked me to write how I thought the girls would adjust to daycare. I wrote that Emma would be fine, and that Maddie might take a little longer to adjust to the new setting. Well, just like at every doctor's appointment when I would make a prediction as to how they would fare, they proved me wrong. Emma cried (albeit very briefly) when I left and Madison traipsed right in. They both ended up having a great day. They napped in big girls cots, they drank from big girl cups, did arts and crafts, played outside etc. I could barely wait until the bell rang before I ran downstairs to see them (I deliberately didn't peek in during the day as I didn't want them to see me and want to come with me). When I walked in all the kids were sitting in a circle. Emma and Maddie's backs were to me and they just looked like such big girls sitting there with their hands in their laps listening to the story. I felt such a surge of emotion well up that I had to take a minute or two before going in or I would have for sure broken into tears, but happy ones. I will not soon forget that image in my head of my two daughters participating in circle time at school. On the way home Maddie said "mama, go play place" (play place is what I used to "sell" the daycare to the girls before dropping them off for the first time). I said "you want to go back to the play place?" and Maddie said "yes." I said "tomorrow" and she said "no, now." So she had a slight tantrum in the car, but for a good reason! lol I am glad that they are enjoying it. Now watch, they won't want to go back to their beloved Auntie Julie's! In spite of the success today, they are so well cared for at Julie's that we are not at this time considering keeping them at the center. It's good to know that they adapted well, and hopefully they will do the same when we send them to their summer daycare part time.

Over the weekend we went to Ottawa to visit Dad and Anna and we had a great time. The girls didn't nap on the way up but they were remarkably in good spirits Friday night. Emma didn't want to sleep in the crib, she cried for her own crib, but it didn't last long. Emma got really attached to grandpa this weekend. She followed him around and only wanted him to push her in the swing. When I went to get her out of her crib Sunday morning the first thing she said was "where my grandpa?" She asked about grandpa today (we are back at home)! It's nice to see. At times it seemed they knew the difference between grandpa and grandma, but it could be a fluke. Madison gave grandma her special books, which is a huge compliment as she takes those things everywhere. It's nice that the girls remember them and enjoy going.

It is now starting to rain, with thunder and lightning and I am all in a panic that it will wake the girls up! Let's hope they sleep right through it!

Mama I Need Hug

It seems Miss Emma has discovered the difference between "want" and "need." Until a week ago she would say "I want dis one" when referring to wearing her pyjama top to daycare. Now, it's "I need dis one." It appears that it has nothing to do with a preference for a specific shirt, but she is exercising her right not to "have" to change into a new shirt each morning! So I started to dress her in the top I want her to wear the next day, when we get our jammies on at night. So she wears the top to bed and again to daycare! Saves on laundry at least! Well, every morning at daycare drop off I get a hug and a kiss from Emma and Madison. Today as I pulled out of Julie's driveway, Julie came running out with Emma in her arms. I got out of the car in time to hear Emma say "Mama I need hug!" She was quite distraught and Julie said that I had in fact forgotten to get my Emma hug, (I did get a kiss though)! I caught Maddie before they went to play with Julie's new play kitchen, so as I was saying my goodbyes to Emma, I overlooked the hug (well, she ran off before I could get it)! So, in Julie's driveway Emma and I shared our goodbye hug. Sigh, bliss!

Madison's vocabulary has really taken off in the last week. I think she has grown a lot too. She looks like a little girl now. She loves to spot airplaines and has a great ear for them when they fly over the house. She also talks to the birds and the big trucks when we drive to school each day. They are growing up so fast!

Mother's Day 2008

We enjoyed great family outings for Mother's Day. We went to Lionel's Petting Zoo, which the girls love and Ontario Place. Ontario Place has this great toddler area where the girls climbed foam pieces and went through tunnels to slide down the slides. They also had a gravity thingy where you put a ball on top of an opening, and then you would try to catch it. Maddie wasn't really interested in it (she preferred organizing the crayons into different sections) but Emma actually caught the ball a few times! We went with Kaitlyn, Jenn and Jeff, and the girls had a great time.

The Petting Zoo was equally fun. The girls were both so brave, feeding celery stalks to all the animals (donkeys, goats, llamas, deer, bunnies etc). A small crowd gathered around to watch the girls feed them as they would squeal and giggle with delight every time. Emma even made sure all the animals got their fair share. She would say "how bout dat one?" and we would go over to feed "dat one." So cute. Maddie was a bit apprehensive at times, and we noticed that she puts her hands to her cheeks, the same way she holds her books at night when she is nervous. It must be her way to soothe herself. So sweet!

I got beautiful homemade cards from the girls for Mother's Day. They had cut out outlines of their little hands and glued them on. The cards were decorated by them, with pompoms glued on, sparkles and their special marker decorations. I also got two puzzle-piece frames with a black and white picture of each of my sweethearts. They both greeted me in the morning by saying "Happy Mother's Day" and they said "Happy Birthday" a few times too(even though my birthday is in September - they associate gift-giving with birthdays). I found this poem and I thought it was appropriate for the cards that they made:

Sometimes I might upset you
Just because I am so small
By leaving finger prints of mine
On a table, chair or wall.
But everyday I grow a bit
and I'll be big one day
When all my tiny fingerprints
Have long been cleaned away
So keep these prints of my two hands
To help you to recall
Just how big my fingers were
that time when I was small.

I hope I always remember this time when they are small. They are such wonderful girls!

They know our "real" names!

Julie taught the girls our real names! When you ask them what Daddy's real name is they both say his first and last name. When you ask what is mummy's last name they just say my last name. Apparently Maddie can say my first name too, but she hasn't said it in front of me. So cute! It sounds so adorable in their little voices. They are learning so much and speaking so well. After school yesterday Maddie said "mummy, saw 5 airplanes. Gone now." Wow!

Emma got her first time-out at daycare yesterday. She threw the buckets at Maddie when it was time to go inside (protesting that she didn't want to go inside, she wanted to play outside). Julie warned her not to do it, and she did it again. She sat on the time-out step the entire time and then went and said sorry to Maddie. Same as at home, so hopefully the consistency will pay off.

Emma is also on this new kick where she wants to wear her pyjama tops to school. She won't let us change her top. Her jammies have frogs on them and she is obsessed with frogs these days. When we were walking in the mall the other day she said "mummy, can I ribbit?" Which means "can I do leapfrog across the mall floor while saying ribbit?" Go for it Emma! So, I have 2 sets of pyjama tops, luckily, so I don't have to wash these shirts every day. I sort of cringed the other day because the top totally didn't match her pants, and I tried to coax her into wearing the matching top, but she said "no, want wear dis one." I have learned to pick my battles with these kids, so off she went in her pj top, wearing a completely mis-matched outfit! Sigh!

Aunt Yenny's Baby Shower

Yenny and Steve are having a baby in 5 weeks and today was their baby shower. The girls wore the adorable outfits that they got from their grandparents on their birthday. The bottoms are jean skirts with built in rainbow leggings. Emma loves them and every time she wears them she flips up her skirt to show the leggings and says "look at me! The shower was great and the girls were wonderful. Maddie helped with all the cleaning up (the guests told me how impressed they were. They thought I had trained her well, little do they know that she just likes to do it)! They helped Yenny and Steve open all the presents. One of them was a book that we already have. They say down to read it together and Emma started with "one time" meaning once upon a time. There was an infant there, and of course Maddie paid special attention to the baby. Making sure she was tucked in the blanket and safe in her infant carrier. When the baby cried she said "uh-oh baby crying." Maddie is so maternal and loves babies, but I asked her if mummy should have another baby. She didn't hesitate and immediately said "no." I said "you don't want a brother or a sister?" and she said "no, Emma sister." Awwww, she already has her sister Emma and that's all she needs! Neither of the girls like it when other kids come near me. This one 10-month old girl was pulling up on me and they both went over and said "no, my mummy!" Too funny!