Wow, I haven't posted since the girls' birthday; I am becoming such a slacker. For what it's worth, it is a lot easier to use Facebook, and I do put up new stuff there from time to time. I'll try to be more diligent here.
So a summary of the last few months is needed. The girls finished their preschool in late May. I think it was a great year for them. Each made a lot of friends, separately and together. Swimming lessons have been going great, and our dance recital is this weekend. They agreed recently to give up one baby thing, and chose to stop using sippy cups entirely. Yes, as a result, I have had to clean the carpet a bit more frequently, but they've moved on fine. They are becoming more "mature" in their pretend games, and definitely have favorites, such as playing pirate or monster. Monster, a game involving making weird sounds and chasing people, sometimes scares them, though, so we don't play that one as often!
Some funny moments recently: The girls moved their car seats to the third row in the van. The bonus is that now they can't kick the front seats, which is really, really nice. The drawback is that I can't hand them stuff or help them when they need it without pulling over. They seem to think it's really cool to be all the way back there. I miss my munchkins! The other day, Cassidy whispered a secret to Taylor while in the car and neither of them would share it with me. I felt sooo excluded! Eh, it's happened kind of frequently recently, and I guess I am over not being part of their gang. Or at least trying to be over it. Yesterday, while looking at her favorite bug book, Taylor screamed at me that her tongue was like a chameleon because it changes colors when she eats candy. I thought that was pretty impressive. Cassidy's favorite book is Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends" these days. She loves all the poems and could read it daily if I let her. Similarly, we found a "Where the Wild Things Are" book on CD, and both girls just LOVE listening to it in the car. This was our second book on CD, the first being a recent purchase of "Peter and the Wolf," which is an absolute hit. They love being able to pick out the instruments and telling us what they sound like for all classical music now. Taylor's favorite is an oboe and I think Cassidy loves the "strings."
Cassidy has decided that she wants to be a "beautiful lady singer" when she grows up. She has 3 toy microphones. She also wants to be a cheerleader, but doesn't really understand that she can be both, so she chooses the former, as it will make her more famous. She constantly asks to play with her make-up, and can put on quite a pink clown face all by herself. She loves looking gorgeous, and will go through several ensemble changes in a day if I let her. She has also entered a phase (let's hope) of quitting when she doesn't get her way. Yes, it's just lovely. She pouts and cries and will even stomp her feet. She's loud enough that other kids tend to give things up to her, which drives me nuts! Oh well, again, hopefully it's just a phase. Last thing about Cassidy - she just loves her dad right now. It's tremendously sweet. Generally he is the first thing she asks about when she wakes up. She wants to be with him constantly, and is pretty sad - momentarily - when she can't. Daddy's girl for sure.
Taylor has chosen to become an animal doctor when she grows up. She is eagerly awaiting firefly season so she can trap them and keep them until they die. She loves playing with her zillion stuffed animals; generally she has me tie a slip knot around their necks and she takes them on "walks" through the house. She does have a calm about her though, that is very compelling. She will sit and watch a bug endlessly - until she traps it and keeps it prisioner for life. She's into music and the books on CD, and has become a pretty good dancer. I am still amazed that she is able to pick up and keep a beat to music. Her art is also coming along. She likes to paint beach scenes, which are comprised of sandy brown beaches, water, a palm tree and some birds flying in the sky. She still loves to paint rainbows too. Over and over and over! Thankfully, Taylor is not going through the pouting-if-she-doesn't-get-her-way phase, and she's pretty cooperative overall. She can be grumpy, but generally she'll just opt to sit down by herself and pick at her blankey. She likes to pick the fuzz out of her blanket and make little fuzz balls. She has a collection in a box of all the fuzzies she's made. I don't think she'll ever fill it up, and if she ever does, I wonder what will come next....
All in all, we've had a great spring. It would be nice to have some consistently warm weather and a little less rain, but hey, at least it's not snowing right now. Sorry that this post is all over the place. It's hard to summarize almost 3 months of activity while Taylor is singing 2 feet away from me and Cassidy is calling me to come sit and watch Tom and Jerry with her!
Wish us luck for our recital tomorrow! I will definitely post pictures from that!
