Small Triumphs

January has been very dull.  At least in terms of major events.  But I'm finding more and more that it's the little things that make a successful (or not so much) day.  So since it's been over a week (I know, I know -- you're suffering withdrawal and I apologize PROFUSELY!) here's a recap of our little successes:

MEGAN

I feel that in general she is doing so much better!  Maybe it's her age (turning 5 next week!) and maybe it's the lack of TV and the increase in quality mommy time (a struggle for me, I admit).  She is happier I think.  She's also become quite the fashionista lately.  Our weather in Texas is so random -- 40 degrees one day and 70 the next -- that she has a variety of clothes in her drawers and I usually need to specify what she can wear.  She still LOVES skirts so this week we had 2 notable choices to keep her legs warm:

On the left: her favorite owl shirt, a fun spring skirt, MY very fuzzy hot pink socks pulled all the way up, and her sandals (which she's pretty much grown out of).  On the right: her favorite owl shirt is under there, a fun fall skirt, tiger pants, purple socks, sparkly shoes.  Makes me laugh every time.

ABBY

We've put the girls in the same room for the 2nd time (last time failed miserably) and things are going a lot better.  Surprisingly (or not, you decide) Abby is the problem.  The girl appears to not need sleep.  Or she sleeps and wakes up to be wide-awake, hyper, and very very loud.  Side note, I no longer listen to any music, etc. because the amount of noise that comes from this little girl fills my quota for the day.  Anyway, Megan gets very upset with her at night because she wants to sleep and Abby literally will not shut up.  That sounds harsh but even with no response she continues to talk, sing, bark (she plays the puppy dog CONSTANTLY) until she literally falls asleep.  And then she's up at 6 a.m.  It's kind've driving me bonkers but I don't know that I can really do anything about it . . . except majorly get her back when she's a teenager and the sleeping patterns drastically change!   Anyway, good example of this: the other night I was in their room trying to get them to go to sleep and Megan started asking me questions about dying and expressing fear of dying, etc.  It was hard not to laugh while I answered those questions, not at Megan but at Abby who is in the other bed saying this -- "I see an owl.  Hoo-hoo hoo-hoo.  It's not a scary owl.  It's Darth Vader.  And there's a little owl in my hair.  He's just a pretend owl."  Rambling on and on.  She's very much into Darth Vader though even though she has NO idea who he is.  Our GPS has a Darth Vader voice (courtesy of Chopper) and she must like it or something . . . .

Oh one more thing about Abby -- we've been potty-training very VERY casually and yesterday I forgot she was wearing underwear and took the kids to the library.  Now you know that that is an event that takes us at least 2 hours.  She stayed dry -- but not by choice I think since she later came running to me to declare that she was wet.  So not really a triumph -- more like dodging a bullet there!

WILLIAM 

This little turkey is still not eating.  Ok small success -- he will condescend to have some avocado.  But it is still an act of war to get it into his mouth and he doesn't really want more.  He just doesn't hate it.  Chopper says he's a milk addict.  If it weren't every two hours I probably wouldn't mind so much.  But he sits for long periods of time (unless Abby pushes him over) and is starting to really go for toys, including folding himself over in a taco to reach them.  But no consistent rolling and definitely no crawling.  And honestly?  I could stand for that triumph to happen soon.