Today Delia fell off something (a foam climbing block? Her bike?) and was flat on her back in the living room, crying. I was talking to her and expressing sympathy but not actually moving from my pile of laundry, heh. Elsie was eyeing the scene and jumped off her bike and went over and gave her several big hugs and kisses, and patted her head. SO CUTE! They do this a fair bit but its usually somewhat prompted, as in NO TACKLING YOUR SISTER, give her a hug (hug follows), or WE DON'T PULL EACH OTHERS CLOTHES AND HAIR, gentle touches only, give your sister a hug and a kiss (hug and kiss follow). Etc, etc, etc. Up until recently Delia would always oblige with the kisses and hugs, even if she was the victim (which seems frequently to be the case) so its nice to see Elsie initiating the loves as well.
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Awhile ago I posted to my multiples club forum asking for experience on older siblings being able to distinguish identical siblings. Because at 3 years old and 1 year for the little ones, that was still not happening around here. For more than a year Emma generally referred to Elsie and Delia as "baby" or "this baby/that baby" or "other baby". She knew their names, and was proud to tell them to folks, she just could not tell them apart and did not try. I was starting to worry about her bonding to them individually, or having memories of each one versus the two (thats still a stretch, I know) but low and behold....she's figured it out! And corrects me sometimes, ha ha! I am still not sure what clicked, or if she is using one of the tricks I taught her, but I don't thinks so. They both have grown into their own looks that is very easy for us to distinguish, and Emma has caught on as well. Whew!
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Sleep is still generally going poorly, with sleeping through the night (by Delia in particular) juuuuuuuust enough to keep me stringing along and not doing the sleep work stuff. Gotta do it though. Procrastinate procrastinate procrastinate. They had a week or so of awesomeness starting the day I was about to start the new regime, and so I dropped it before even starting. Bah.
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After an amazing amazing early fall, the rains have begun in Seattle! Ah, familiar grey wet skies! And drat, what the heck am I going to do with all this toddler energy? Man these girls are CRAZY sometimes and really need to get out and do stuff. They are climbers, runners, sliders and swingers. They love balls and bikes and water and fun. I think we will be heading to the community center toddler gyms a LOT in the coming weeks, but geesh, it is such a chore to get us all ready and out of the house, not to mention chasing/mediating/keeping track of three speedy busy kids when we are out in the world. The park is now both really fun and really stressful for me, now that they Will Not Sit in the stroller. I sometimes have to literally run after one while leaving the other in semi-precarious places. Luckily total strangers will often look after one while I am chasing the others...
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I know some of you have seen this but here is a recent and extremely rare shot of all three girls in one picture, all looking happy at the same time! Wow! I literally only have 5-6 of these total, and most of them look so so, with one or the other looking the wrong way, crying, etc. They are sitting in my awesome and beloved glider, that we still use daily. Here are the out-takes and other pictures from October...
Delia, Emma, Elsie
I feel you on the sleep stuff. My boy sleeps through the night just often enough to get my hopes up that we're finally in a good sleep pattern, and then it's night after night of 3am wakings and crying.
We're going on vacation tomorrow, starting with a 12 hour car ride... that should be great for his sleep habits, right? :p
Posted by Rachel on October 14, 2009 at 01:14 AM PDT #
Posted by Kimberlee Staking on October 16, 2009 at 03:05 PM PDT #