Like weeds, I tell ya!

Margot is two, Theo is four. We have a family with a couple of full-on children!

Margot at two is probably one of the most enjoyable things I have experienced. She is the bittiest, talkiest, sassiest, snuggliest and sweetest little girl. All notions of her calmness and extreme ease has been forgotten. She loves to sing (Let it Go of course, with all other Frozen songs mixed in by memory, lots of church songs, ABC's, you name it) and I have noticed she is awake from her nap more than once by hearing an extremely loud, shrill, high pitched voice launch into whatever song is her favorite at the moment. She will still have moments of shyness with strangers (and she has yet to sing a word in nursery), but today a guy asked her about her name, and while Theo has always answered for her, today she said "umm... umm.... I Margot." While the term "ear piercing" is a common term, it honestly describes Margot's scream the best. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to black out when I'm getting blasted by her siren. She loves telling you what she wants, when she wants it, and who it belongs to (always, MINE!! and "I had it, FIRST!!"). While this can cause some tension during her playtime with Theo, they have been playing very well together. They love to play hide and seek, or push each other in a car or their Thomas push toy, and play "What you having?"--where Theo and Margot ask each other the question, the answer is food of some kind, and they run off and come back and pretend to deliver what they wanted. It's very cute. Margot is very interested in Theo's Legos, although at first she would chew on them a bit and even stuck a tiny cone-shaped one up her nose that we had to shoot out. Using the method we learned during the great pinto bean episode, of course. She takes great pride in doing things herself lately, like putting on a dress, buckling her car seat, climbing into her carseat (sooo slowly!), and carrying around Theo's backpack. She only likes the frosting off of cupcakes and cookies. She eats well generally but has been skittish around trying new fruits and vegetables. Well, she doesn't eat a lot of different vegetables right now actually. She only drinks milk in a bowl with granola in it. String cheese might be her favorite food. Her curly hair makes me so happy, as well as her excited cries of "Mommy! It's MEE!!" when I get her out of her crib. She still uses a pacifier to sleep with, but after she wakes up quickly says "night night, pop" and drops it in her crib.

Theo right now is very vibrant and imaginative. Imaginary play takes up almost all of his time, and while he loves his Cranky crane and Matchbox cars, he got a small Lego set for his birthday and they are played with more than anything in the house. He's learned how to follow the instructions and make cars and helicopters by himself, which for me as the initial main builder is a relief. Although I secretly love to put them together. It might be strange to hear but while growing up around my brother's Legos I had no idea they had instructions to make certain things! I thought they were just random blocks that my brother magically made into jets. I made them into large stable rectangles and houses of varying sizes. I think they might be his next new "thing" and will probably be around for a long time. Theo loves playing with his friends. His best friend Elli recently moved away, which has been sad but we still have been able to see her a couple times in Hood River. He has a couple other friends from preschool and church that he gets along really well with, and they all cause their teachers some frustration together sometimes with their rowdiness. Theo is fairly confident, even on a playground with older kids he hasn't met. His favorite color is still pink, and I let him pick out some pink flip flops the other day. I'm not sure how long his pink obsession will last (although it's been a long time) and I really enjoy watching him derive a lot of pleasure from liking the things he does based solely on his own thoughts and feelings. I get worried about the peer pressure of others and dread the day he comes home telling me pink is a "girl" color (it's not!). He is very aware of "boy" and "girl" differences, things I don't tell him but he somehow picks up from other kids or shows or something. He's starting three day preschool soon and I know he's going to love it. He is in a gymnastics class now with just boys, and they have started working on more advanced exercises. He loves his teacher "Coach Dale"--he's a middle aged guy with the energy of the six 4-year-olds he teaches. Making him proud and earning a high five really makes Theo's day. Theo loves to snuggle in the morning still and will often tell me, "Mommy, I love you so much." He's so sweet and has the cutest little freckles on his nose that match his boyishness exactly. His long hair is gone--a few months ago after struggling to keep it out of his face for gymnastics, he refused any sweatband or hair tie ("it's for mommies and Margots!") and asked to get his hair cut. He became more aware the most boys didn't have hair like him and so we took him to get it cut. He looked so different it was like his first hair cut all over again! I loved his long hair so much but I also love being able to see more of his beautiful face. Theo loves babies lately and will always want to lightly touch them and remarks on their cuteness. He keeps asking me for a baby!

Before

After!

Preschool at teacher Missy McConkie's-- From left Jacob, Theo, Truman, Rueben, Gabe 

Margot's birthday at the farmer's market

Mini Olympics with Teacher Jane

Made Margot a birthday dress

We have had a lot of warm days to swim in our pool this summer.

Theo's birthday party at a splash pad park, I got hardly any pictures but it was a bunch of friends squirting water at each other and eating pink cupcakes. 

  

Seriously, this was about they only blurry picture I took during the party. It was too much fun!