Supergirls

We all made kringle to learn about our
Norwegian roots, thanks to Grandpa
Les's kringle-rolling expertise and
 Grandma's ability to track down the
family recipe!

Childhood seems to jump from one trend to the next. Kalina's "animal phase," while at its most intense during her twos and threes when she wouldn't wear a shirt if it didn't have an animal on it, has continued in one form or another, while Elise has officially pronounced herself "not into" dinosaurs anymore, even though they were a really big thing a year ago and were resurrected briefly in February. Phases come and go, and you never know which ones are going to last. Will Elise purchase an ocean and hang out with clownfish as a grownup as she intends? The jury is out--but I will say that if anyone could do it, she could. She has only to learn to put her face in the water...

Am I cute enough yet? How
about now?

Sometimes the girls' trends are very inconvenient. Like beads. You'd think beading would be a fun, easy, developmentally appropriate activity, but then, since you can't keep an eye on them at all times because you have a wild lemur toddler to keep track of, you start noticing that the beads have made their way into every room of the house. Soon there are more, and more, and then there are special ones that we have to go
looking for ("But Mommy, I needed the bumpy purple sparkly bead--this is the bumpy purple not sparkly one!") and then it's gotten Way Out of Hand and Daddy hides them all, even from me presumably so that I can innocently say, "Sorry, Sweetie, I don't know where your beads have gone." Or possibly so that I can't pull them out again in a moment of weakness. And six months later, Mommy is still sucking up the occasional bead in the vacuum. It's not that the girls were reckless--they were actually very deliberate about making their bead families and bead groups and carrying them from room to room as they played and gave the beads names and tours and then never managed to put them away, either because they were too special or because something else happened that was even more special that drew their attention immediately elsewhere (like an empty tissue box they could make into a cage for something--probably beads).

That was a bad trend, but it ended pretty quickly, thanks to Daddy, only to be discovered and pulled out again about a week ago. This time, though, as we're all six months older (with the exception of Mommy, who has aged approximately 2 and a half years), the main activity is sorting beads based on various characteristics into "rooms" in a tackle box. The white ones are marshmallows, the un-fancy colorful ones are medicine, and most of the rest are off limits to anyone actually wanting to do anything with them. And the marbles are a family that gets to play in the beads. This is much better, as I can at least justify all this sorting as pre-math, plus it's been humbling to see that order can come from near-chaos. I reflect on a daily, if not hourly, basis that it's really a good thing that Naomi never puts anything into her mouth--including most food.

Partners in crime: don't they know
Mommy doesn't let them play with
the rug? In their defense, Mommy sends
mixed messages by photographing
before reprimanding.

Other not-so-helpful trends include:
Knock-knock jokes. They could/can tell terrible knock-knock jokes for hours on end.
Very loud mooing (Kalina, followed by Elise, followed by Naomi)
Jumping out from around corners and shouting "boo!" I know I have commented on this before, but it was a doozy.
Hating carseats (Kalina, Naomi)
Hating the high chair (All three at various times)
The 15-minute diaper change (Naomi, and probably Elise)
Clipping hair accessories all around the house (Elise? Kalina? Not sure who our "phantom clipper")
Being scared of everything, or pretending to.
Needing to be the first one into the van every single time and crumpling into a pile of tears if it didn't happen.
Singing the same line of songs a million times in a row (make it stop!!!)

Elise is all set for her
Peppermint Twist ballet/tap
recital!

Then there are the trends that can actually be helpful, like Supergirl. Just who is Supergirl? The strongest, bravest, most capable girl in the world: E-l-i-s-e! Supergirl can do anything! she'll announce while punching the air and probably getting into some sort of offensive stance with her feet (which she must have learned from the boys at preschool).

Supergirl is super enough to shrug it off even when she doesn't get the purple bowl she wanted for her breakfast cereal (it's in the dishwasher), and also if she pinches her finger a little or has to clean up all her sea animals from the bathroom sink. When you're four, this is the stuff of super-powers.

It's...Supergirl! She can carry library bags (for a few minutes, anyway), rescue a little sister in need of a half-grape, buckle her own carseat in under 10 minutes (usually) and memo-read whole Princess Sofia books!

This was a good phase, but it hasn't lasted: not getting the coveted purple bowl nowadays crumbles our sweet 4-year-old, and more so if her 6-year-old sister has snatched it ahead of her. The horror! I miss supergirl sometimes.

What other phases do we run across as we travel this life together, always in the same room and experiencing the same emotions because we just love each other so much?

Angles, all of them.

There's a numbers phase ("Mommy, can I have a googol Goldfish for snack? How about just a billion, then?") and a tying phase, when all kinds of stringy things around the house end up in knots. Also, the "what does 'aghjfkozyu' spell" phase, when it's interesting to hear Mommy try to educate through goofiness. Kalina had a huge "what do you get when you mix blue and orange?" phase, during which she eventually seemed to actually memorize all the color combinations and come out on the other side with decent color sense.

Lately, we've all been greatly enjoying a certain park that has a lake with baby snails. We're there all the time, and no one gets tired of it except for Mommy, who becomes physically exhausted after an hour or two of restraining the toddler from taking a big step in. We also do lots of gymnastics and tricks, frequently hurting each other physically or emotionally in the process (usually on accident, thank goodness, but it needs to stop).

Aside from beading, Elise is currently enjoying her ponies and being nice to her little sister (just a phase?). Kalina can't get enough of her fairy books, of which there are probably a hundred, so it might be a long phase. Fortunately, she's generally happy to read them aloud to Elise, a day I have been looking forward to for about 4 1/2 years. She's also enjoying making things out of dandelions ("Ooh, look! A dandelion!" in the voice that would normally be reserved for fairy spottings).  Kalina, however, is not as "phasey" as she used to be, probably because she's older than she used to be. Her favorite activities are playing with her sisters, flipping through books, ballet and staring off into space thinking deep thoughts.

Naomi is so excited to help
sweep that it's hard to catch
her in a photo!

And since Naomi's whole life is pretty much a phase, here's a run-down of what she's up to:
Naomi now sleeps in until about 6:00, give or take, and loves to engage anyone in chase and other games. We play "boo!" in a much cuter and less antagonistic way than her big sisters do, we play mixed-up animal sounds, we make little jokes and we fill pretend cups at the pretend kitchen in addition to fixing a host of pretend food, such as pizza and toast with honey.

Her favorite book is "Goose," a big book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes with amazing illustrations that she can't get enough of. She's sat through all 50 in one sitting before, and we read through it several times a day, including during diaper changes (anything to get her to sit still, plus I like the illustrations as much as she does). Naomi also briefly enjoyed Pattycake, before preferring Itsy Bitsy Spider, which faded as Little Bunny Foo Foo grew in popularity. She asks for them via hand motion, and occasionally tries to sing along.

Matt caught this giant 65-lb. catfish on
4-lb. line over the course of 3 1/2 hours.
So I suppose he deserves a spot on the
blog. :)

The 20-month-old has been saying her sisters' names for a couple months ("Nina," and "Lees" are her current pronounciations) as well as her own, which is a bit of a mouthful to get out and sounds more accidental than intentional, except I hear it dozens of times a day.

Naomi adores drawing, gluing, cutting and taping like her big sisters (especially Elise, who for a solid month did nothing but craft), and begs to be allowed to stand next to them on one of our craft stools to make her own mini-masterpiece (supervised, of course). She has an awesome grip, already holding writing instruments the right way. Possibly partly from all of her coloring, she has learned a color or two, specifically blue and purple and occasionally red and pink. And she likes drawing pictures of her family that look more like snakes than anything else. Will she take after her daddy in this way?

Grandpa Les spent 6 hours a
day doing this, and Naomi
spent the next week (and
counting!) utterly spoiled.

She also follows in her sisters' footsteps, literally, as they run and dance around the family room and practice gymnastics. And she's adept at taking care of various animal critters and dolls, giving them baths, naps and feedings and regular enough intervals for stuffed friends. On her sunshiney days she's a happy little girl who contentedly and intently plays by herself, but likes to join in other activities as well. On her not-as-sunshiney days she knows how to set her own boundaries (i.e., whine enough to get her way if it's not out of the questions--smart girl!), but generally doesn't fuss for long when some of those boundaries get crossed ("But I LIKED the current state of my diaper!").

Naomi's also become quite a daddy's girl, which is super-sweet, especially on the days she chooses to wake up before any human should be awake. "Daddy!" she cries, and Daddy is officially outvoted, since Mommy is still sleeping off Naomi's first year of life. Annoyed that Daddy has to attend work every day in his "vroom-vroom," she asks about him all day long and toddles as fast as her cute little legs can carry her to the front door when he walks through it.

Naomi will suffer through a
painting shirt for the privilege
of painting. Fortunately, once
she loses herself in her art she
forgets about the shirt.

The girl is pretty amazing at everything, in fact, except eating. We have made progress: she can now tolerate veggies and meats on her plate (she recently graduated to a booster seat), as long as they're not the only thing. She eats tacos with gusto, and still some pureed veggies, but has even started turning down fruits lately. Or, more likely, chewing them up, spitting them out, and insisting that I eat them. Fortunately, she had actually moved up to the 9th percentile at her last doctor visit, at about 19 1/2 lbs.

A few quotes from the past couple months that have cracked me up (yes, they're mostly from Elise: at 4 and in a good mood, she keeps us laughing all day long, and for that we are all grateful!):

Elise: Can I be an eagle, but say "whoo, whoo, whoo?" Then that's what I want to be. So if you hear "whoo, whoo, whoo," you know it's me being an eagle!

Kalina: I thought wars were when people on opposite sides of the country sent mean notes to each other.

Elise: I thought wars were when two sides fought each other inside a fence.

Easter eggs with Uncle Tom!

Naomi: Daddy: Cute! ("Gu!") Mommy: Cute! Kalina: Cute! Elise: Cute! Naomi: Cute!

Elise: Mommy, would you like a cookie, and then you could share some with me?

Elise: Mommy, can Kalina and I split this candy (a Starburst)? We would cut it in half and each get half. And Kalina said that I could have her half. Me: Whose Easter candy did it come from? Elise: Mine. Me: Didn't you already have your Easter treat for the day? Elise: Yes, but we'd split it. And she said I could have hers.

Elise: Mom, it's not too bad being a servant. (While setting the table.)

Uncle Tom: Elise, what kind of bird is on your shirt? Elise: A flamingo, but I don't really consider it a bird. Uncle Tom: Then what is it? Elise: Oh, it's just an animal. Me: Why isn't it a bird, Elise? Elise: Because it's in water, and birds don't really go in water. Me: Is a penguin a bird? Elise: No. Me: How about a duck? Elise: No. Me: Then what are they? Elise: A penguin is just a penguin, and a duck is just a duck.

Kalina and her group examine
the Easter basket in a very
orderly way.

Candy to love, bunny to love,
candy to love...

Poor Naomi in one of her last happy
moments on Easter. And then there
was an ER visit...she is fine, but the
matching dresses will have to wait
until Mother's Day.