February 14-21

There's a story Mom and Justine like to tell about some social readiness (or was it school readiness?) quiz that was given to me when I was four.  As an experiment, the same quiz was given to two-year-old Justine.  The questions posed different problems and challenged us to provide a solution for each one.  Justine's answers were varied and thought out: "I'd give it to Mom, she can fix anything!", "I would crawl around the tree to get the ball.", etc.  Having had two two-year-olds now, I do wonder if her answers were as complete and understandable as we've been led to believe.  Regardless, the gist is clear.  My answers for each question were all identical: "I would cry."  There has been some debate about whether those answers were more due to my personality or my age.  I tell you all of this to reflect on the current behavior of my own four-year-old.  I'm not sure Olivia would admit that her solution to every problem in her life would be to cry (do I get retroactive points for honesty?), but she does burst into tears an alarming number of times each day over seemingly insignificant obstacles.  Gretchen closed the door (Olivia was already out and besides, she knows how to open it).  Kaitlyn took a toy (that Olivia was not playing with at the time).  Mom told her to eat another bite of carrot even though she already ate three bites (okay, maybe that's worth crying about).  You get the point.  My one consolation is that I grew out of this stage, so presumably my daughter will do the same.

Kaitlyn is our messiest baby.  This is discouraging because it means that they've been getting messier as we progress, which does not fit at all with my idea that each baby should be an improvement on the one that came before.  Every meal ends up in her hair and she's constantly dripping with slobber and/or snot.  The problem has been exacerbated by the fact that she recently discovered that her finger fits perfectly inside her nose.

The girls got Twister for Christmas and we played it for the first time on Thursday night.  They're actually pretty good at it.  Bryan declared himself the official spinner and said I had to hold Kaitlyn as a handicap.  He did allow me to use a wrap, but the only one I had available wasn't fabulous, so he rescued her when she began to look uncomfortable.  The new and improved Twister game has two new options on the spinner: Air and Caller's Choice.  What sadistic person puts "air" on a Twister spinner?

Our friends the Creightons brought over a couple of little boy dress up outfits so that all the little boys who visit can wear something other than fancy dresses.  The girls also think it's great to dress up as Captain Hook and Peter Pan.

Pictures:
Me, modeling a fabulous Captain Hook hat:

Olivia and Gretchen, wearing their Oma blankets.  I think Olivia's is a dress and Gretchen's is a cape.

The Twister game:

Playing outside with no coats in February:

Peter Pan and Captain Hook: