My cute kids

I really do have cute kids, even though I feel like they are driving me bonkers all day. Here's a few things that we've been up to lately.

Emily had been counting down the days until a show called, "Dora saves the Mermaid" was aired. It finally aired Monday night so we let her stay up late to watch it. I think she's probably watched it 10 times since then. She has it memorized. I haven't even watched it, but I practically have it memorized because she is constantly reciting it. And because we've reenacted it about 10 times everyday. At one point Dora puts on a mermaid crown and turns into a mermaid. I got out Emily's princess camp crown and now every time she puts it on, she sits down and puts her legs in her pillow case (mermaid fin). Emily's really into girly things lately. I got out her fairy paperdolls that grandma gave her and she'll dress and undress them for hours. (Unfortunately, grandma - she can't do it herself so I'm forever poking tiny tabs into tiny slits!!) She absolutely adores Ariel and anything to do with mermaids. She loves princesses! She plays with our little princess dolls all the time. And another favorite game of hers and Ella is to wrap a blanket around themselves, come up to me (the evil stepsister) and ask me if I like her pink dress. Then I have to meanly tear it off of them, saying, "That's my dress and my beads." Then they come back redressed in another blanket announcing that it is their blue dress. At this point I am not allowed to rip the dress off. It amazes me how many times we can reenact the same story with no variations. I like to be silly and change things, but Emily won't hear of it. She likes things just so.

Ella is just really talking so much more clearly lately. She loves the show Super Why and will run around with a blanket cape on singing, "SupaWhy, SupaWhy!" She still loves babies and lately has really been working hard on dressing them. She works so intently until she gets the job done. She diapered a baby yesterday and got another dressed with a shirt and pants. Which reminds me, her favorite thing to say is, "I do it MYSELF!" She won't let me help her do much anymore. She is so independent. I love that Emily and Ella are starting to be able to play better together. FINALLY! I've been waiting for this for 4 years! Today Emily fell on the stairs and I wasn't going to check on her (ever heard of the story called, The Boy who Cried Wolf?) - besides her daddy was nearby. Ella came to find me and said, "Emily sad - come on, mom!" She motioned for me to come. She can be very tender hearted. She always notices when babies are crying. Today when I was pretend crying during another endless make-believe session, Ella kept coming over to give me hugs saying, "Mama, happy, kay?"

Both of them are really working on their metal Christmas lists. Telling them to ask Santa has saved me from lots of tears over store toys. Today we walked around the toy section trying to find a birthday present. Oh there are so many things I want to buy Emily for Christmas!! Unfortunately I think it's more fun to shop for her because she keeps getting older and changing her interests. I feel like Ella can just have all the things Emily's grown out of. Isn't that awful! I'll have to come up with some good ideas for Ella as well.

Well, time to actually publish this post. I've saved it as a draft waiting more more ideas to come! But we'll have to save that for another day!