Almost

I've got an "almost" four year old and an "almost" two year old - I am amazed at them every day - still. 

My almost four year old will wake up from a three hour nap (yes, she takes three hour naps, crazy!) and with sleepy eyes and bed head, she will immediately start talking about something with real value.  She might say "Easter is coming in a few days and we are going to have an Easter egg hunt!".  She has thoughts and ideas running through her head and she verbalizes them so well.  Her most recent favorite thing is to ask me to tell her a story.  I tell her thirty second "stories" about when I was a little girl or when her or her sister were babies.  She gets so excited that she will ask for a story over and over again.  Sometimes she asks for new stories and sometimes she wants to hear a specific story that I have already told her.  The best part is when she tells me a "story".  It always begins with "When I was a grown up . . . . "

My almost two year old is at the point where she can speak in full sentences but you can't always figure out what she is saying.  Her enunciation isn't great, but proununciation is pretty good.  Her vocabulary is excellent.  And yet, that doesn't keep her from throwing temper tantrums.  Those darn two year olds.  I don't know what it is about that age. I always thought it had to do with not being able to verbalize your wants and needs, but that clearly isn't the case with Gwen.  Most of the time she is a wonderful, happy, ball full of energy, but occassionally she will completely breakdown without giving me any clue of what set her off or how to get her to stop.  These tantrums don't happen often, but they definitely increase when she is sick.  Sadly, she has been sick quite a bit.  It is awesome that the first year of her life she didn't get sick at all, but since then, she has been sick many times.  A few weeks ago she got the flu, then she had a random virus which gave her a 24 hour fever, and now she has a sinus infection.  My poor baby.

It is amazing how both girls can act like such big girls most of the time and then flip the switch whenever they want to go back to being a baby.  They have grown up so much in the last year.  I love being able to remember when CC was the age Gwen is now.  It is hard to believe that a year ago, Gwen wasn't even WALKING!  And yet now, she has the mobility of her almost four year old sister.  Now, she climbs up onto the kitchen chairs (or table, yikes!!).  I remember when we moved into this house, when CC was almost the same age as Gwen is now.  I was so afraid of letting Christina sit on those chairs.  I thought that she would surely fall off and break something.  I kept her in a booster seat for a long time.  Now, Gwen is actually slightly younger than CC was at that time, and I can't keep her feet on the ground.  She climbs on chairs, tables, couches, anywhere/everywhere.  The stairs, which were once practically banned by CC at two years old, are familiar ground for Gwen.  She goes up the stairs on her own without a problem and I am only slightly paronoid when she goes down them on her own.

It is also so entertaining to see the things the girls have in common as well as the ways they are different.  They both love to dance.  I know I've mentioned it before, but it is too cute how Christina asks to have dance parties and how Gwen will just stop what she is doing and boogie down whenever she hears music.  At two, CC use to hate being stuck inside and Gwen is now the same way. She will actually go and put her shoes on, then come over asking to go outside.  CC doesn't do that anymore, but she is obsessed with knowing what we are going to do.  She has to have plans.  When it is nap time, she'll ask "what are we going to do after our nap" or if it is lunch time, "what are we going to do after lunch?" "and then what are we going to do after that?" . . . While CC is perfectly happy playing either indoors or outdoors, she also loves to watch her favorite TV shows - Dora the Explorer and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Her new favorite show is Strawberry Shortcake which is actually more for big girls.  This is the first show she has watched that has commercials and a decent storyline which actually keeps even me interested.  Gwen on the other hand normally prefers books.  She gets seriously p.o'ed if someone takes a book from her.  She tries to sneak them off to bed with her each night, but I always have to fight her for them.  If she could, she would stay up all night flipping through the pages.  She loves TV as well, but is too active to want to just watch for long.  She'll ask for "Dora" or "Pirates" when she wants to watch though, which is really cute.  It is especially cute how she asks to watch one of her shows whenever anyone is watching TV, as if she should get to pick what we watch at all times.

I might have mentioned before how my girls seem to have been blessed with some athletic abilities.  CC has an arm on her and has had a great throw since she was practically a baby.  Hopefully she'll use that skill for tennis or softball when she is a little older.  Gwen on the other hand seems made for football.  She is small, but strong and sturdy, she knows how to tackle and she absolutely knows how to run.  She often runs away from me, zigging and zagging, trying to throw me off her trail.  She also will often grab something from CC (like a toy or book) and then run away with full speed ahead.  She even knows how to block to keep her item safe, lol.  I love watching them discover their abilities and talents.  Like CC with negotiating.  That girl knows not to take a first offer when she hears it.  You want to give me five minutes of play time, how about ten?  Three pieces of candy, nope, I'll take five. lol  And she never shys away from asking for what she wants, even if it is a piece of cake for breakfast (not that she is ever going to win that one).