A Note About The Sisters

I still see Big and Little Sister. They've moved far too far away now, but I am lucky enough to see them once a month when they come down, usually for a sleep over, and we chat on the phone or over the iPad when we can. I am still Mama to them. As I hope I will always be.

What's Big Sister up to?
She's in kindergarten and is about to turn six. She can read "can, me, my, I and and" if I write it on a drawing board and hold it up while we visit over Face Time.
She already has me pegged for being a clueless person regarding all things trendy, as would be evidenced by this conversation a while back:
"Mama, I want to be a Monsters High girl for Halloween."
--Oooh, that will be fun. Which one?
"You wouldn't know since you don't watch TV."

Big Sister is a tall giant suddenly. As she has since she was two, she broadens then stretches, then broadens, then stretches. She's still petite compared to her peers, but a giant around the current three.
She will still occasionally give the appropriate response to "Do I love you?" "Yes, My OH My!" and is still the gracious "Oh Thank you for thinking to...." girl she was when she moved out.

What's Little Sister up to?
Little Sister likes to sing me songs and show me 'nastics. She is particularly long-legged and can jump off the 4th step and land on her feet, which she thinks is the coolest thing.
Little Sister can still "read" most of Pout Pout Fish by heart.
According to Big Sister, Little Sister gets into EVERYTHING. Which may be true given the state of my chapstick after a recent visit.
She can spell her name, read 2 sight words and claims to be able to count to 50, though I haven't heard that yet.
When Little Sister comes, she gets a pile, and I mean PILE, of books, sits down on the playroom floor and asks me to read them all. Each time we talk on the iPad, I have to read a book or two, give a tour of the house, and put Stubby on camera for her to see.

Little Sister misses her Mama something fierce when we are not together, I am told. When she is sick or hurt or in trouble, ESPECIALLY in trouble, I am the one she wants. Her dad and I recently talked about how sad she gets at times and I wondered out loud if I should stop calling/Face Timing. If the distance was too hard on her. The answer I got was: "No. Call more. She is happy when she knows you are around."

So this is where we'll stay for now. Visits when we can, calls when we can, and a continually supportive bio family of this crazy arrangement.

Bits of Christmas

A few things I'd like to remember about this Christmas:

From Speed, who has been particularly crabby lately, on the Sunday before Christmas: "I not like Santa Claus."
--Ok, I'll ask him not to come.
Silence.

The next day, also a crabby one.
"I like Santa. Not him horsies though."
--Ok, I'll ask the horsies to stay outside.
"Ok."

*******

From Sunshine, after we rushrushrushed to get ready for church. She was wearing a smocked red dress and tights ("These like PANTS! Funny PANTS!"). Chickadee was dressed in Little Sister's old Christmas dress and Speed was wearing a tie. I ran upstairs and threw on the same thing I wear everysingletime I dress for Christmas. Black pants. Red sweater.

"Oooooh Mommy! You look so COOT!" (cute)

*******

"Chickadee, what does Santa say?"
"Ho ho ho. Mehmeh TihTih!"

*******

What Sunshine says every single time we see Christmas lights:
"Look Mommy! Halloween lights!"

*******

What Santa was fed as a snack that night:
1 cookie
1 cereal bar
a few chips
1 cup of milk
1 cup of juice

What the "horsies" were fed:
1 bowl of water (outside)
1 stalk of brocolli
1 large carrot

*******

What Christmas morning looked like:
8:30 am: Me going in the room to wake up two bigs
8:45 (since we get dressed EVERY morning before coming downstairs, we have no pictures in Christmas jammies): Kids played with the toys Santa left unwrapped.
9:30: finally opened some presents
10:30: After opening about four presents each, kids were disinterested in more, so we stopped for the day and played.

The rest of the presents just got opened last night.

*******

I struggled a bit with this Christmas. I don't think any of the kids I've had have had a Christmas like the one they have here. Thanks to friends, agencies and me, Christmas is excessive and full of events, gifts, routines. But these guys? These guys had NO idea anything about Christmas. My struggle was with how much they got and how much they did. Will they ever have an experience like this again? And if the answer to that is "no," then is it fair to have given it to them this once?

*******

Sunshine's retelling of the Christmas story includes something like this:
"Angel come say 'Jesus come! Jesus teach us be good and kind and...what else, Mommy?"
--to love....
"Yeh, to love EVERYBODY!"

Truth.

Seven Months

...and no end in sight.

Somehow yesterday slipped by. Our 7 month anniversary as a foursome (minus the mini vacation in August). Maybe it slipped by because the cold has everyone going CRAZY, not to mention coughing and sneezing their brains out.

Yet, we're still trucking along. Here are some of our small celebrations of recent weeks:

Speed:
Can pedal a trike.
Recognizes D, S, M and the names they represent.
Transitions to school without crying. Often now, without even saying goodbye.
With my permission and only one set of directions, without me even in the room tonight, pulled a chair over to the counter, opened a tupperware of cookies, gave one to Sunshine and one to himself, and put the chair back while I put Chickadee down for the night. When I came downstairs, there was one on my placemat too.

Sunshine:
Can buckle the top buckle and one bottom part of her car seat (this is huge at 7:15am, folks!)
Can sing ABCs and Jingle Bells word for word with no help.
Waves hi and bye to random people as we leave Speed at school.
Played with some friends the other day with me across the (very large) room. She didn't even need me around.
Told me today that "I think Miss Amanda (teacher) be at (daycare name) 'day. You think so, Mommy?" From the kid who didn't talk 7 months ago.

Chickadee:
Can run.
Fast.
Away from us.
Walks, rather than being carried, into daycare.
Has elaborate routines with her babies, including trying to change diapers, wipe them, wipe noses, pat them down and then walks away from them saying "bye bye."
Has many, many, many words now. But her favorite is still "NO!"

Still enjoying watching them grow...

Unconditional Love

"Mommy, you say "Go sit stairs. Not nice!", still love me, right?"
-Yup.
"You say Sunshine "Go sit stairs. Not nice!", still love Sunshine, right?"
-Yes.
"Cuz I still love you."