These Two

 Oh, these girls. Where do I start?

I'll start with this one.

And by the way, where did my baby go? When did she turn into this little girl?

Claire is so creative and is really into making pictures and other things with paper lately. She is currently working on a monster costume made out of paper and various scraps of cardboard (as well as a very impressive set of "Bubba teeth" from the dollar store), which she plans on using to scare Nan and Popple at Christmas. (???)

Oh, and two weeks ago Claire came to me and said, "I'm ready to learn how to read." And I sort of shrugged it off, and said, "Oh, well that's great. That's what we're really going to work on this year." But she would not be put off, and so I did about 2 reading lessons with her and now she is decoding 3 letter (consonant-vowel-consonant) words on her own.

Have I mentioned how much I love her? And how she delights me with her sweet and sleepy morning smiles, and how she challenges me with her deep questions and curiosity about everything under (and over) the sun, and how she makes me laugh with her silly made-up songs, and how she inspires me with her way-beyond-her-years intuition and sensitivity toward what other people are thinking?

Well I do. I love you my sweet 4 year old.

And then there's this one.

My 2 year old free spirit.

AK is definitely a hands-on learner. She compulsively spills, disassembles, or tears things on a regular basis. But the weirdest thing that she does these days is to lick things, especially chairs. And on that note, the other day I asked her to please put all the bath toys back in the bucket before she got out of the tub, and she proceeded to pick up every toy with her mouth and spit it into the bucket.

The other night, right before bed, AK out the blue came to me and said, "Can I have a hamburger?" I said, "I'm so sorry, baby, I don't have any hamburgers...but I can read you some books..." AK thought about it, then said brightly, "Okay!" and ran away to get some books. I wish everyone was so easy to please!

 The other day, I heard these words come out of my mouth: "Averi Kate, we have to go right now. You can cook your Barbie when we get back."

Have I mentioned how much love her? And how she cracks me up with her funny faces, and how she intrigues me with her carefree way of marching to the beat of her own drum, and how she melts my heart with her cuddles, and how she amazes me with her understanding of life and God?

Well, I do. I love you, my sweet 2 year old.

And then there are these two together.

While Claire and Averi Kate were supposed to be sleeping the other night, I discovered that they were actually wide awake and discussing what to name their little brother. The verdict: "Johab."

(We'll see.)

The girls have been playing and replaying a kind of mixed-up scene from "Frozen." AK sings, "Do you want to build a snowman?" to which Claire replies, "Go away, Elsa!" AK sings, "Okay, bye" and runs away, and then Claire cries out "Elsa! Sister! Come back!" Then they hug and then do it all over again. I CANNOT tell you how many times this scene has occurred in the past days at our house.

There are times when Averi Kate falls down or gets hurt or gets in trouble or whatever, and instead of running to me she will run to Claire. In fact, this morning she dropped something on her toe and Claire had her feelings hurt when AK didn't want a hug from her sister, but wanted me to hold her instead. I had to explain the normalcy of this situation to Claire, which says something about the affection between them.

 Not that it's all fun and games. Many clashes occur between these two throughout each day.

But at the end of the day, they have this.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Have I mentioned how much I love these two together? Because I do. And my heart is full of gratitude toward our Creator for allowing me to be a part of them.