Day 2 of 2010

We've had a great holiday this year. NYE we had some people over. We decided the girls could stay up until they started to crash. They lasted until 11! I was amazed. When they are overtired they start to get crazy and wild! Once that happened we put them to bed. They only slept in until 8, which is not much later than normal. They lasted until about noon on New Years Day and then told me they were too tired to do anything so they had a nap. Woke up 3 hours later! I couldn't believe it as they don't tend to nap anymore these days, but they obviously needed a catch up. They keep wishing John and I a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday! It seems like it's been one celebration after another! My cousin's daughter, Katie, also had her birthday party today at a play gym and the girls had a great time.

Behaviour wise they are still very good. Emma is trying at times as she is quite bossy and gets upset when things don't go her way (sound familiar)? She can grab toys out of people's hands and we have to nip that in the bud. She actually bit Maddie a few weeks ago and Maddie had a bruise on her cheek for a week. Emma has never been a biter, but Maddie grabbed her barbie and she just sort of snapped. She has not done anything like that since and she was very embarassed and remorseful after. They do swat at each other now and then (always over a fight about a toy) and they come and tell me right away and almost always apologize to each other right away, so that's good. They still stall at bedtime, but I don't mind, as it isn't as bad as it has been for some of my friends and their kids. They like it when I tell them stories. Emma says "tell us a story, not out of a book, from your mouth." They like it because the heroines are Princess Emma and Princess Maddie and I link it to the events of the day. They think it's funny when I put on voices and when I mimic them fighting about something. It reminds me of when I was little, my dad would tell stories about Alemap (my name backwards). After that story, they want to be tucked in and then we go through a routine of telling each other secrets. It starts with what we are doing tomorrow (ie. tomorrow we are going to a birthday party or we are going to do a puzzle or whatever it may be) then it turns into a silly secret (ie. dad's feet smell like poop-poop). They think the silly ones are hilarious. We never say them about the girls, only about John and I. Then we have to shoo the monsters, caterpillars, pirates, ghosts and spirits out of their closet (this has to be done by mum most of the time) and then another hug and kiss followed by lot's of I love you's and good nights. It's hard to stand firm with the stalls when it's such a cute time of night.

Emma had a balloon from Katie's birthday to day and she put it between her legs and said "look at my big peanut mummy!" Yeesh, that kid is a hoot! Maddie was super cute at the play gym, she hung from the bar and walked across the balance beam and was beaming herself that she was able to do it. She can be so stubborn at times and yet so sweet and caring. I measured her today outside of our bathroom (there is a mark from last Jan so I wanted to compare) and I said "you are so much taller this year" and she said "and Emma too? What about my sister?"

We have explained to the girls that they will be in different swimming classes this season. Emma is in Salamander which is Tuesdays at 6 and Madison is in Sea Turtles again which is at 7:00. I couldn't get them in at the same time (the 6 slot for Maddie's was all full). It's a real pain to have them at those times, but John and I are so busy ourselves during the week that we decided we had to keep it on the same night. Monday and Fri John has hockey, Wed and Thursday are my running nights, Saturday they have music and Sunday I run again, so Tues is the only night. Oh well, it's only a few weeks. I am curious to see how they do in separate classes and at separate times. So one will watch the other and it will give us one on one time with each daughter.