Play Time

One of the cool things about having two kids is it gives you a whole new perspective on how children behave at certain ages.  The stages are the same, but how the child acts within those stages can be very different.  Ela skipped crawling, for example, but crawled up and down stairs for a long time.  Lily, on the other hand, crawled until she figured out that walking meant she could hold things.  Now, she only wants to walk up and down steps, too.
The girls are very much alike in many ways, but their differences stand out more to me because I see them all the time.  The place I see these differences the best is when they are playing.  I learn so much about the girls from play time in general, but especially when they play pretend.  I have been reveling for awhile now in the joy of hearing Ela tell me what she is playing when she pretends.  Lily has just entered the phase where I can tell she is playing pretend, but dont always know the story.  It's a very exciting step for her. 
Ela's pretend games focus almost exclusively on animals.  The monkey is hurt, the dog is hungry, the elephant is scared, and she is there to save the day.  She is sweet and caring to her animal friends.  Lily is similarly sweet and caring, but her friends are babies.  She holds them, covers them with blankets, plays peekaboo with them, and takes them endlessly in and out of the stroller she got for Christmas.  She says good night to them when she goes to bed.  It is something of a relief to me that they differ in this way because it means that they don't have one favorite toy that they fight over.  Lily's favorites are all babies, and Ela wants the animals.  Only rarely do they fight over one of them, and it usually doesn't last. 
The other thing I've noticed about the girls is that Lily's play seems much more realistic than Ela's ever was.  When Lily plays in their kitchen, a spoon is always a spoon.  With Ela, the spoon was almost never a spoon.  Instead it was a worm, or a wand, or medicine.  Lily plays with the things as they are, Ela assigns roles to toys depending on what is going on in her mind.  It's very interesting to me. 
Another exciting step for the girls is watching them start to play together.  Lily has been interested in playing with Ela for awhile, but Ela has generally opposed this idea.  She has actually become convinced that whatever she wants to play with, Lily is trying to steal from her, even when Lily is halfway across the room completely engrossed in something else.  Lately, though, she has opened to the idea that they could have fun together.  So far, this is only true in the car, but it's a start.  I enlisted her help one afternoon to try to keep Lily awake until we got home so she could have a good nap.  Once Ela understood how to do it, she made it her priority in the car during almost every trip.  She asks Lily what animals say or where her nose is, she plays peekaboo, and the giggling is priceless. 
Some of this pleasantness has transfered to how they interact in the house.  Now when Lily gets a bonk and is crying, Ela tries making funny faces at her to cheer her up.   Sometimes it even works!  Similarly, Lily will pat Ela's back when she's sad, or give her a kiss, though that usually doesn't make her feel much better.  I am so excited to see them at least try to get along.  We should have a lot of fun as they get to know each other. 

Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm back.  Sorry about the long silence.  The end of last year was busy to say the least.  October began with a family reunion in Ohio, followed immediately by Zack's visit home.  I spent my time during those two weeks trying to enjoy every minute with him, with a great deal of success.  When he left, it was suddenly Halloween.  Then I think I blinked and missed most of November.  Suddenly it was Thanksgiving and I was running an 8K and then eating delicious food.  Then there was Christmas to prepare for, which was complicated by trying to send something Zack would appreciate (mission accomplished) and the process of trying to make things both special and even for two little girls who don't really need anything.  By the time I got all that sorted, it really was Christmas, and I was playing bells and enjoying family and eating even MORE good food.  So now it's a new year, and we're counting down the weeks until we get to see Zack again.  And to distract ourselves in the mean time, I've got a few things planned to keep us busy.
First up is the somewhat ambitious New Year's Resolution I've set for myself.  My goal is to run 500 miles before the end of the year.  I figure now that I've started running, I need a solid goal to keep me going.  That, combined with the occasional 5k or something that looks interesting, should do the trick.  I have attempted to talk Zack into joining me, and while he readily agreed that 9ish miles a week was nothing for the moment, he's not sure that he can keep it up once he moves to the ship, so time will tell. It may or may not be the year of 1000 miles for us.  So far, we're both on schedule.
At the moment, my folks are off having fun, so Ela, Lily and I are house sitting.  I'm also helping out at the church where Mom works, covering for her a little bit.  It's my good deed for the month.  Ela is becoming a pretty decent dog letter outer.  Since Mom has a tendency to cook for me when she's home, I find myself suddenly much busier than usual.  :-)
Once Mom and Dad get back, my room mommy duties will be heating up for a little while.  There's teacher appreciation, followed by a Valentine's party I agreed to help with, and then the biggest fundraiser of the year for preschool.  Before we know it, there will be birthdays to plan and homecomings (don't know yet exactly which order, but we'll sort it out).
So things will still be going awfully fast, but I am going to try to get back into the habit of writing.   I hope to post some pictures of my girls before they become unrecognizable.  Happy New Year everyone!