Little Girls, Little Girls, Everywhere I turn I Can See Them

Now I am channeling Miss Hannigan.  Not good.  The reason I can't stop singing that song is that I realized I have little girls.  Not babies.  I was checking out some pictures from our Sunday afternoon in The Grove and this realization hit me.

Lethal Combination

Thanks to Jack, I finally understand why our conversations about where to pick up dinner (which is most nights) go around and around in circles.  Apparently, I am both indecisive AND opinionated.  So true.  Poor guy.

On a completely unrelated note, why don't people tell you that the terrible two's start around 18-20 months?  It's like not knowing about that stupid pressing on your stomach thing they do after you give birth.  I'm still mad about that.   

The girls are so fun yet so challenging right now.  After going through a relatively "easy" stage from 12-16 months, the last few have introduced many new hurdles and have proved quite trying at times.  On the cute side - they are completely hilarious and really sweet.  Favorite things  are saying "I don't know" when you ask where things are, pretend talking on the phone, saying the blessing/prayers with a loud "AMEN" at the end (or in the middle), reading books, giving hugs and kisses, pretending to sleep, surprising you with a "haaayyyy", and singing and dancing.  On the challenging side - they are not great eaters (and by not great I mean that two of them only have about three items they will touch), they are starting to get in little tiffs with each other, they climb and jump on furniture, they throwing things, they hit each other, etc.  Normal two year old things....just multiplied times three.  They tend to feed off of each other and so once some bad behavior starts you know its about to get real.   We've been exploring different tactics for dealing with all of this, and are starting to find our groove.  Different things work with each one.... while one can be easily distracted into doing something different (Anna), another is totally focused on whatever she is doing and distraction does you no good (Brooks).   Just when I think I have no control and I am raising juvenile delinquents, they start singing and hugging and kissing and "amen"-ing and acting irresistibly cute.  I don't know the best concoction for dealing with behavior issues, but I do know that consistency and patience are in the mix.  I'm working on that.

Anna Ruth took some photos recently that are a great depiction of life these days.

And a few other pics.