Exercise for the Heart

Addie: Mommy, did you know that I can give rea-yee rea-yee big squeezes (a.k.a hugs)?
Mommy: Yes I know. It's one of the things I love most about you.
Addie: Dey make me super strong!
Mommy: Oh really?
Addie: Yes. Dey are exercise for my heart. Dey keep me helfy!

Perfection

Story Telling

Some evenings we eat dinner outside and tell stories by the fire, and some times Mommy gets lucky with a particularly magical story... like the one where we are all looking at the tiny dragons flying in the sky. Priceless.

Stylin'

Two mismatched socks (not shown), shorts, long sleeves, winter boots, winter hat, a single winter glove and a butterfly on her nose... this girl was stylin' all day long.

Ellie's Solar System

She feels bad for Pluto and decided to include him so as not to hurt his feelings.

I will miss you!

Today is Ellie's last day at Sunset Academy, the preschool/kindergarten that she has been going to for nearly 4 years now. This morning, while snuggling in bed with the girls, I asked her how she felt about it, expecting her to be a bit anxious and sad. She is super excited. Instead, it was Addie who broke down with the biggest tears I've seen in a long time.

Addie: But I'm going to miss her when she is gone! I yike to give my sissie a hug pretween kasses.
Ellie: Well I'm not gone yet! And today I am going to ask my teachers if I can go to your classroom lots of times to give you extra hugs. Would you like that?
Addie: Yeah! That would make me happy for today but I will miss you.
Ellie: I'm going to miss you too.
Addie: I love my sissie and I want to go to the same school as her because I will miss her.
Ellie: The good news is that we will still see each other at home and you will always be in my heart when we are at school.

.... and so on and so on... Poor Addie. Today is going to be a difficult day for her, but next Tuesday is going to be even more so.

Wordless Wednesday

Gramma

I would have to say that one of the best surprises about parenthood is watching my children grow their relationships with their grandparents. Maybe it's because she's my own mother, but their relationship with Gramma strikes me as an amazing bond. I knew that she would love being a Gramma, but I had no idea how much they would love her in return. And boy do they!

Gramma loves spending time with the girls and they are always anxious to spend more time with her. She calls them on the phone and has conversations with them. They often think to call her in return if they have a special announcement to make. It feels like Gramma is always volunteering to spend more and more time with the girls and they would go in a heart beat if it weren't for the fact that Mommy and Daddy miss them so much when they're gone.

Gramma's time with the girls is filled with just "being together" time. As long as they're together, they're happy. Whether it be planting flowers and strawberries in the garden or cooking in the kitchen, as long as they're spending time together they are happy. Very happy.

I love watching the girls' faces light up when Gramma walks into the room. I love how they think their full names include "Gabble Gobble" at the end - a Gramma's inclusion. I love that they come back singing songs like Annie's Song (aka "Gramma's song").

All in all, the girls are quite lucky to have as many grandparents as they do. They are so loved, which is good because they have so much love to give in return. It makes my heart sing to watch them grow their relationships with their grandparents - each slightly different than another, and each special in their own way.

Nana & Grampa

Oh Grampa and Nana... can the girls love you any more than they do? I don't think so.

We've always said how pleasently surprised we've been with Grampa's relationship with the girls. He is a top-notch grandpa, and loves to spend time with his girls. Nana too. The girls get to see them a lot and I love that they are a constant in our lives. I can't imagine their childhood without their Grampa and Nana.

One thing that I love dearly about these two is that they're always coming up with educational and fun activities to do with the girls. Whether it be a trip to the zoo or counting butterflies for a preservation group, there is always something new to learn. Heck, even if they're stuck at home the time the girls spend with them is filled with learning activities. Grampa taught Ellie how to add and subtract numbers using his magic rocks. He taught Ellie how the values of different coins and how to add them up. Even Addie knows the names of the coins. Nana has a set of musical instruments in her home and the girls love to pull them out and have a good old fashioned jamming session.

How they can turn even a quiet afternoon play time into amazing educational fun time is beyond me. Don't they ever run out of ideas? Apparently not. The girls love how whenever they spend time with Nana and Grampa, it's always something different. We love it too.

Grandpa Lou & Grandmommy Jeanne

Grandpa Lou and Grandmommy Jeanne get to visit with the girls only a couple times a year, but we try to make the most of our limited time. This year they came out for Uncle David's wedding and so our time was even more limited with them because we had to share their attention with new family members, but that didn't stop the girls from enjoying their visit.

Grandpa Lou's relationship with the girls is unlike any other grandparent. He has a way that is a bit stand-off-ish, though I don't say that as a bad thing at all. In a time when the girls are so accustomed to people making a fuss over them, it's refreshing for everyone (the girls included) to just be relaxed around Grandpa Lou. He doesn't go to the girls. Instead they come to him. The girls are always on the lookout for ways to act more mature, and Grandpa Lou seems to give them another opportunity to do so. I can tell that they love him for it.

Grandmommy Jeanne also interacts with the girls on a more mature level. She doesn't change her tone of voice when she speaks to them, which gives them a feeling of being respected like any other adult. That may sound strange, but when you're so accustomed to hearing people's voices change when they speak to children, it's quite noticeable when you are around someone who does not do that. This trip Grandmommy Jeanne spent hours upon hours upon hours playing one-on-one with Addie, doing what Addie loves the most - playing with Strawberry Shortcake.

We are going to visit Grandpa Lou and Grandmommy Jeanne for the 4th of July this year, which we're very excited about. The girls have told us that they're so excited to see the fireworks with them. They're also excited to go swimming and to show Grandpa Lou and Grandmommy Jeanne their new-found talents in the water.

We may not see these two often enough, but when we do, it's always an opportunity for the girls to shine and be as big as they possibly can be.