We are 2 and 1/2

The girls turned 2 and 1/2 on Saturday! I don't know where time is going but I do know it is going by too quickly! A quick update on what has been going on...photos to follow hopefully this weekend....if I can get caught up on my work!

The 4th of July was fun. We went to Coach and Candy's house. The girls got to do sparklers and watch the fireworks. They weren't scared of them which surprised me. Taylor is usually scared of everything. She is now scared of the dark. I got a nightlight for her room but she still says it is dark. I was terrified of the dark when I was little. I remember not wanting to spend the night at my friend's house because it was dark because she kept her bedroom door shut.

The girls can sing the alphabet and count to ten. They can sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "The Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "You Are My Sunshine", etc. They love to sing. They love to dance. They know "M" is for "Mom", "A" is for "Apple", and a bunch of letters and a word that begins with that letter. They can identify about 10 of the letters, They know their colors. This morning Kaylie told me she wanted a yellow hair bow. She has been asking for yellow a lot lately so I asked her if that is her favorite color and she said yes. I asked Taylor what her favorite color is and she said "Orange". That made me cringe because of the Clemson Tigers and then what she said next made it even worse. She said "and purple". Oh no, I will have to work on that!

Kaylie got dressed yesterday and then said matter of factly,"I pretty, mama." Taylor but on a dress this morning and said in her baby voice "Nana likes this dress. It is beautiful." Nana and Granddad just came to visit while Neale was in Virginia taking classes for his Masters in Special Education. They were a huge help and the girls loved seeing them. They enjoyed putting Granddad in time out.

The girls often pretend to go shopping and to go to work. When you ask them what they are shopping for it is always "shoes". When you ask them what they do at work they always say "I take pictures of babies." They even pretend to type on their toy laptop. Kaylie sat with me the other day when I was editing photos. She caught on pretty quickly. She would say "His eyes are closed" and point to a person on the screen because she knew I would delete that photo.

On occasion when I tell the girls to do something they will say "No". My response was, "Don't tell me 'no'." So now when I tell them "No." They say "No, you don't tell me 'No'." They say it like I am doing something wrong. Oops. I forget them mimick me ....often. Taylor will say "Mama, Kaylie told me No." and then she will tell Kaylie, "You no tell me no". Taylor likes to tell on Kaylie when she does something she isn't supposed to. Taylor is very talkative and very inquisitive. She is constantly asking questions. "Mom, what's that, mom?"

Kaylie is a happy girl. She gets excited easily and when she is excited she runs around and squeals. She always tells me, "I'm a good girl mama." She likes to take pictures with her camera and likes for me to take pictures of her. She will let me take one or two and then say "I'm all done mama." She loves to play with my hair and give me "piggy tails". She is very sensitive and gets her feelings hurt easily. When she gets upset the only thing that will calm her down is for you to hug her or for her to hug a stuffed animal. Minnie Mouse is her favorite right now. She tries hard to be good and listen and to make me proud.

Taylor is sweet, independent, and stubborn. She wants to do what she wants to do and she will pitch a fit if you don't let her. She has to have things a certain way. She has to turn on the lights, flush the toilet, shut the door, feed the dogs, etc. She has to do EVERYTHING by herself. She is very inquisitive and talks a lot. She loves to tumble and do front flips out of her bed. She has the silliest face when I take photos of her. I will post some soon. She smiles as big as she can and closes her eyes.

At night when they girls go to bed we usually read some books. The other night I was reading this book about construction on a street called "Easy Street". The girls had every word memorized and sang it with me and danced and jumped up and down on their beds. I wish I had it on video. After I give them multiple hugs and kisses and flip their blankets to the "other side" Taylor always says "Have good dreams Mom."

Gee-boo!

The girls have started taking swimming lessons. Neale and I both go because so we can each hold one of them in the water. They seem to really enjoy it. They have learned to blow bubbles, go underwater, float on their backs, kick on the kickboard, and jump off the side into the pool. Since we go to the beach on the weekends I want to make sure the girls learn to swim as soon as possible. We also got the girls a new plastic little pool so they can play in the water in the backyard. We would really like to move to a new neighborhood with a pool but until the market turns around a little bit we are staying put.

We have started separating the girls at nap time. One will sleep in their bedroom and the other one will sleep on a cot in the hall. Usually whoever is in the hall will nap and whoever is in the bedroom will play the whole time. The girls are doing great going potty. The good thing about the pull ups is that the girls can go to the bathroom by themselves. The bad thing is that they can take them off by themselves. The other day Taylor was sleeping in the hall and I guess she woke up with a dirty diaper. Next thing I know a dirty diaper comes flying over the stair railing down to the bottom of the steps. Nice....

The girls came home from school with some artwork. It had sparkles on it which ended up everywhere. The girls told me they had "farkles" on their faces. Kaylie says "Gee-Boo" for "Thank You". Taylor laughs and tells me "Kaylie said Gee-Boo."