To remember

 I want to remember Emmeline's puddle jumping days at the tail end of a winter that wouldn't go away. I want to remember the sheer joy of that first trip back to the park in between snow. I want to remember  Lena's exploration into the fridge, planting daisies and strawberries inside in the hopes that we can move them outside soon. I want to remember trips to Ikea to see dear friends, messy messy faces, Lena's new favorite phrase "uh oh", cat's wistful looks out the window, of sister love, long inside days full of happy memories.

Ten Months

Sweet Lena,

You are ten months old today! Can that possibly be? Wee lady- you are so very busy! You are a fast crawler and have taken a few steps. You get into everything and want to taste it all.  You are a spit fire and love people, motion and excitement. You say "Momma, Papa, cat, bye bye, uh oh, no no and bah". You love to shake your fists when you are mad. You are very detail oriented and notice the steam from the tea kettle, the sound of a truck outside or a bird singing. You love the cats, baths, zippers, socks. You have five teeth and must put everything in your mouth. You like to bite yet you are starting to cuddle. You eat so much food! You eat more then your 2 year old sister and sometimes as much as Momma. Yet you're still so tiny- 17 pounds. People think you are 6 months old. You love most foods except bananas, applesauce and avocado. You suck two fingers to soothe. You are so smart and if something is hard you find a way to do it or get around it. You are courageous and loving, goofy and chatty.  You like to dance to music and you tilt your head to one side when being sweet. Your eyes are blue green and your hair is light brown. You wear 6-9 month clothes. Darling girl how you love your sister Emmie. You ask for "squeezers" from her when you wake up by reaching for her and you kiss and cuddle her face. You make each other laugh and play together. You are still struggling a bit with your hip but it doesn't stop you from getting around and into the cat food. How we love you little Lena Sue.  

March Happenings

It has been busy around here!! In spite of more snow last week we've had lots of visitors: Aunt Bec and the boys, Granddad freshly returned from Haiti and our friends the Soucys whom we have not seen in four years! We had special times together with all the kiddos.  We also took the girls to the Lenape Chamber Ensemble's Children's Concert. Since then we've had fork's bowing imaginary cellos, straw flutes and envelope violins.  Emmie's choice instrument changes from day to day, but my goodness, how much fun she had!  Little Lena continues to work on her crawling and exploring and has started to say "cat" and sign "all done".  Add teaching three days a week and Momma's thesis editing and whew our life is a whirl. But it's all good and keeps us busy until we can get outside!

Little Gil (6 months) and Lena (9 months)!!!

And there she goes.

Lena is on the move and with that we enter a new stage of parenthood- two: two and under plus four cats underfoot! It seems there is always someone in the cat dish or about to pull the table cloth (and our supper) off the table. But my, what a precious time! These two sisters are discovering they are playmates and though there are some necessary adjustments happening as we learn to share and play gently it is really sweet.  Lena took four steps last night (much to our great surprise) and Emmie thought it was amazing. Then she told us that she too can walk!  We're deep into art projects, coloring lines and connecting dots, identifying instruments on the radio, cultivating an understanding of the Fruits of the Spirit, memorizing Psalm 23 and learning our catechism, going on dates with either Momma or Papa and waiting for spring. Every day Emmie gets up, looks outside and says "Hmmm- still snow".  She also gets out her bathing suit and asks if we can swim.  In the meantime, February has gone by like it usually does and the days get longer, the birds sing louder and we search for buds and flowers.