My Brown Eyed Kids

There is so much I have wanted to say lately.  I really have been starting all these blog posts when I can't blog.  Like while I am at school teaching.  Or while I am laying in bed ready to sleep.  Or nursing the baby.  Because I am at my most brilliant and witty when I can't sit down and write it down.  But there has been so much going on around here that I wanted to write down and to share.  Because they are only going to be this age, this little, and this sweet for so long.  

First, some major highlights.  Mia is almost crawling.  She will be sitting up, reach over as far as she possibly can to grab something off the floor and be up on one knee looking for sure like she will just get up and crawl.  And then she flops on her belly and gets stuck.  But she is scooting, and somehow moving, and I'm afraid our days of leaving her alone on the bed, or sitting her in one spot and expecting her to be there when you return are over.  What a milestone.  What a big girl.  

Well, not too big.  At her 9 month appointment, she weighed in at 14 lbs, 5 ounces.  I went back and looked and that was exactly one ounce smaller than Maggie was at 9 months and 1/4 of an inch longer.  Crazy to imagine I have a peanut again like Maggie, and she was so much heavier to start.  The doctor isn't concerned with her growth, since she is growing, and I'm pleased once again to say that I'm growing that baby on Mommy's milk and homemade baby food.  Well, and now puffs, cheerios, chicken, french fries, and anything else she can get her little pincher fingers on.  

Maggie and Ben are both sleeping in underpants at naptime.  They are no longer in diapers at all, they are just wearing Pull Ups at bedtime.  I am down from three in cloth to one in cloth, and I am still doing a lot of cloth diaper laundry, but it is so much easier!  There is still a rare accident, but they are both doing such a great job, and I am one proud Mama.  

They can count to 20, are doing one-to-one counting up to about 10, and love to point out M and B when they see them.  Maggie especially loves the Big M's we see at the local McDonald's.  Ben can't understand why we don't have any big B's around on signs like that.  

They can blow bubbles, ride tricycles and play pretend.  

Where did my babies go?  They will be three in a couple of weeks.  Three.  Three is old, three is preschool, three is independent.  

Ben has been such a Mama's boy.  I kind of love it.  He is all about Mommy, he loves me (lufs me) and only me most days, I am his best friend.  He is such a stinker, but has had some of the sweetest moments lately.  Yesterday we had gone to Chik-Fil-A for dinner, and they got balloons.  Somehow, Maggie's ended up popping on the ceiling and she was wailing.  Absolutely wailing.  I tried to comfort her as best I could, my little peanut girl clutching her broken pink balloon, and I was trying to reassure her that it was okay to be sad, but it was okay.  Ben came over and said to her "It's okay Maggie, don't be sad.  You can share my balloon."  I could have cried.  It was the sweetest thing, and just so Ben.  He can be so mean, and get so mad, and be such a booger sometimes, but he just is the sweetest boy.  He loves us, he worries about us, and really takes things to heart.  He has been making deals with us lately that sound perfectly logical.  He will announce at dinner, "If we eat all of our noodles, we can have a cookie!" and it sounds so much like someone made that deal with him.  It's like he has already figured out how to sneak things by Mommy and Daddy. 

Maggie is very into pretending and has very specific rules.  You better believe if she gives you a pretend ice cream cone, you better not pretend to eat it before she tells you it is okay.  We played a very detailed game of hair salon the other day, I was amazed at how much she remembered from our appointment a couple of weeks ago.  You can't slip anything past her either.  She remembers everything, she talks like a little Mommy.  She loves her baby sister.  Every morning that I am home, as babies wake up, they pile into bed with me.  We had started with the necessity of keeping them busy while I was feeding Mia in the morning, but it has kind of evolved into morning snuggles, even if Mia isn't eating.  The other morning, Ben wasn't up yet, and Maggie was asking for milk.  She said "Here, Mommy, I will take Mia." so I handed Mia over who laid across her, grinning.  I heard Maggie say "Mommy will be right back, she is going to get my milk." while she was giving her a kiss on her head.  She rubs her hair, tickles her feet and has agreed with me that Mia is going to be her best friend forever.  

Most days, I still like my kids more than any other kids that I know.  Most of the time, when we go places, they are well behaved and helpful and polite and I am proud to be their Mom.  They use their manners, share, say please and thank you.  They are pretty good about staying with me.  Last week we went to the zoo with some friends.  After they had to go home, we stayed for another hour or so on our own.  We went to see the Elephants, went to the Rain Forest, and just enjoyed talking about everything we saw.  I saw a couple people give me the side eye, as I had the double stroller and the baby in the Beco, and without knowing I had been on a playdate, I must have looked like a supermom taking all three to the zoo alone.  The day before in fact, Andy had been questioning how I was even going to do it.  

There is more I would like to talk about, but for tonight, I want to leave it with this.  I am a lucky Mommy, and I can't even believe they are all mine.  

My Project 52 Updates (I am giving up the color bands I think) for the past couple of weeks.  

L is for Little Legs on a Little Man.  Those little legs run, jump, kick, climb, get bruised and banged up, and are getting longer and longer.  

M is for Maggie loves Mia.  A morning snuggle, rubbing her head and giving her smooches.  Same little mouth, same brown eyes.  Quite a pair they will be.