Today the girls were all having snack around the living room play table. Often Elsie and Delia have two separate bowls but eat out of them interchangeably -- they kind of share both (unless I am really lazy and only make them one to share between them, ha ha). Today Delia headed over to Elsie's bowl and Elsie yelled MINE! And moved to block Delia from her bowl (a move totally stolen from Emma, hee). I fear a new dawn has come, and it's name is Possessiveness. Oh joy.
I guess I have seen it coming with toys, though. Lately we've had many (generally mild) skirmishes over toys, which believe it or not is a somewhat new occurrence. I was surprised how long we made it without more arguments (I am not talking about Emma here -- we often have major sharing/toy issues with her and the babies, which is pretty normal I think). Hot items for the littles these days: dress up hats, necklaces, or ropes and cords to dangle around ones neck, books, especially The Current Favorite, Where Is the Green Sheep, high chairs when its anywhere close to meal time, Emma's booster seat when it is on the floor, stools, play grocery carts, and bikes.
Speaking of high chairs, we just got a new one and we LOVE it. It was high time, as the booster that we have been using up until now is just NOT comfortable for older kids (Emma hated it too around this age) and mealtime was becoming increasingly difficult because of it. I've been eyeing the Stokke Tripp Trapp for ages, but the price tag on that one was just too much. This one is spendy, too, but still 100 smackers less, and worth it, as it will be used for years to come. Now Emma wishes she had one too!
Holy moly Delia is talking up a storm these days. TONS of new words, every day. Current funny/new ones: hole (in the wall near the changing table, and also the drain of the sink), broom, pumpkin, okay!, rain (also does the sign for this), bye bye (had for awhile but using it a TON for all sorts of things now), Elsie (!), and tons of others that she echos me on all day long. Elsie is also saying lots of things (including her own name for the first time yesterday, woohoo!), but its just not as noticable or understandable than Delia's current explosion.
Another thing happening a lot these days: tackling. These girls are so physical! Any time someone is lying on the floor they seem to be fair game for jumping on or tackling. They both do it to each other, and to Emma if she is on the ground. Climb On Mama has been a favorite game for a long, long, long time, but now it has evolved to leaping/jumping on Mama, which is a fair bit less pleasant, especially when its two (or three!) of them at once. Ooooof! I think we will have to come up with some rules for this soon, but its hard to ban it altogether since they can have such fun with it a lot of the time. Currently whoever is underneath starts hollering if they are not happy and I pry whoever is on top off and put her somewhere else (while explaining that that hurts, interpreting for them what the other one is "saying" ). Sometimes this is effective, sometimes not. Here is a picture of a recent three kid pileup. They were all enjoying it but very soon after this Elsie (at the bottom) decided she had had enough.
