Cha-Cha-Changes

Lately I cannot believe how big the kids are getting. Ellie seems especially long and leggy now that she's in underwear and no longer has a big poofy diaper butt. She is so tall and grown up. I'm constantly amazed by the things she comes up with, the words and phrases she knows. She can be like talking to a tiny adult, and then sometimes she says the funniest little kid things, like when I served her a plate of tortellinis and she said "these are called jewels." My other favorite thing is when she tells me I look "so fancy." Our new fun challenge is the fact that she tries to request specific songs in the car, but she has no idea what the titles are, and her descriptions of the songs leave something to be desired. Occasionally I will get her to sing part of the song to me, and then I can sometimes figure it out. She is really loving the bluegrass songs off the new Steve Martin and Edie Brickell album, though last night she told us that a song about a woman drowning herself in the river was "a fun song" and the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling" was a "sleepytime song."

Last week I painted my toenails during her nap, and she noticed them straight away when she woke up. She was so excited that I told her I could paint her toenails too if she wanted, and she was off to the bathroom like a shot, waiting for me.

She was so thrilled that we had matching pink toenails AND matching jean skirts.  She loves that jean skirt.

She also loves her stripey rainbow shirt, which is rapidly becoming too small for her. Friday she had pigtails AND a sparkly headband. Very Olivia Newton John, I think.

Yesterday after nap time she asked that Tim and Adam curl up with her "in a big cozy pile." She loves to tell us that things are cozy. Towels, blankets, pig-piles. All so cozy!

Meanwhile, Adam is bigger every minute. His legs are really starting to chunk out (hooray for fat babies!) He reaches for a lot of things now and knows what he wants. Mostly he wants to be in the same room as us at all times, be held so he can stand, and be allowed to drool on everything. He is also starting to eye us while we have dinner - it's hard to believe that it's almost time to start solids. Who authorized him getting so big? When he lays on my chest at night time, before I go put him in his crib, I am amazed at how much space he takes up now. What happened to the little tinykins tucked under my chin? Sometimes it's hard to believe he will ever be big enough to walk and talk like Beans, and it's hard for me to believe that she was ever so small.