16 & 44

Our babies are 16 and 44 months.  The combination of the two makes for quite a busy, hectic, silly, exhausting, and funny life.  We are blessed beyond measure!  My favorite change over the last two months has to do with their little budding friendship.  These two truly adore each other.  David has pushed through the urge to claim that every toy belongs to him and he is great about including Evie Marelle in his play now.  They are a great match.  Policman Dave is still keeping his risk taking Sister alive and well.  And I really think that Evie Marelle's inherent bravery allows for them to play together much sooner then if their temperaments were reversed.  Their favorite thing to do as a pair is ride on the see-saw.  EM could ride that thing for hours!! 

I cannot believe our boy will be FOUR in September.  He is a hoot to be around. He gets sillier by the day running around in various super hero costumes, speaking some made-up language, and doing funny dance moves to get the attention from his baby sister.  He loves to read, could watch Toy Story 2 all day long, and spends most of his afternoons creating some new adventure in the backyard.  He has his Daddy's toy rifle and throws it over his shoulder and runs off into the land of boyhood.  David has gotten really great at riding his balance bike and I feel sure will be coasting down hills with no feet come Fall.  He also has inherited his Daddy's childhood baseball glove and just kind of wears it all the time whether we are playing catch or not.  We are still working on the idea of closing the glove to catch a baseball, but he has fun nonetheless.  The one quality that I feel marks his 3 year old year has to do with how detail and schedule oriented he is.  His compass-like abilities make for an interesting car ride.  I often feel like we have a GPS in the back seat repeating the phrase, "Mommy, you are going the wrong way.  Turn around."  He knows his way everywhere!!  On top of that, he loves to have a schedule for the day and protests big time if there is a unannounced pit stop.  He is very independent and basically handles all his personal needs without much assistance.  We have graduated to the big boy cup and it is quite nice to be down to one set of sippy cups.  David's latest obsession is Go Diego Go.  He has created a rescue bag and loves to run around the house trying to save all kinds of imaginary animals.  After we left the zoo, he said his favorite animal was a pygmy marmaset.  He also loves the cotton-top tamarins.  It cracks me up even knows animal names like this! 

Evie Marelle is a teenage woman in a squishy baby body.  She is opinionated, not easily pushed around, and a little on the dramatic side.  With that said, she really is the easiest toddler!!  Other than being a bit on the busy side, she just kind of piddles around and plays on her own all day long.  She loves to read and is currently obsessed with her newest library book--The Mud Fairy.  I had to renew it the other day because she grabbed it and ran off, refusing to let me put it in the book return slot.  We read it over and over, all day long.  She loves a ball, can climb up on just about anything, has great balance, and is fearless.  However, all her bravery melts away in the face of a large human in an animal costume.  Aubie and the Easter Bunny have just about made her tremble to death!!  She understands EVERYTHING we say and I love that we can have conversations with no words.  The words EM can say are--ball, car, backpack, baby, bow, Mama, Dada, Day-Day, Gaga, Papa, Nanny, milk, and more.  However, she really only says ball, more, milk, Mama/Dada/DayDay voluntarily.  She calls her paci "nah-nah" and I think she is trying to call her lamb "mamby."  Her newest obsession are bubbles and I actually did hear her say the word "bubble" the other day weirdly enough.  Her favorite animal noise is a bear growl and now every animal growls--whether its a duck, bee, or kitty cat.  However, she does seem to have down the lamb, puppy, tiger/lion/bear down.  She loves to play in the backyard, slide, swing, ride a see-saw, and is dying to be big enough to ride David's old tricycle.  Her favorite song is that bringing home a baby bumblebee one--and she has a love affair with bumble bees.  Anytime she sees one, she stings herself with her little chubby finger, then giggles.  EM also loves jewelry and could spend an hour putting bracelets on and off her little arm.  It is the only way I can get a shower while she is awake--I just pull out a box of my old costume jewelry and she goes through it for 20 minutes.  She still loves Dora, Tinkerbell, and loves to dance, snuggle, and give kisses.  She is a nut and we love her to death!!!

So sorry for the crazy long detailed post, but I had to get it all this down for future reference :).  Enjoy the pics and skip the words if you need to!!