a flash of my future

Lailah will be walking soon.  She cruises and stretches all of her 27 inches to reach the next piece of furniture- she stands alone when she's not thinking about it, and has *pretty good* control of when and where she sits down.  Lailah is a busy body, who loves to be held, but hates to be held down. She's squirmy and wiggly and willful. Lailah, like her sister has "ape arms" she can reach faster and farther than you would think possible for a baby.

Eowyn is still not happy with Lailah.  Occasionally she is sweet to her baby sister, but most of the time it's "No Lailah! No touch!" or "Lailah hurt my princess!"  Which is translated as "Lailah touched my dress." (Major crime in Eowyn's mind)

Lailah, on the other hand, loves everything about Eowyn. Before she could crawl she would watch her sister and giggle.  Now that she's mobile, Lailah is everywhere Eowyn is.  Lailah wants the eat the same food, drink the same drink, and play with the same toys.  Lailah wants to be next to her all the time.  Eowyn wants Lailah to be anywhere else.

I keep hoping that when Lailah becomes a steady walker Eowyn will learn how fun Lailah can be.

I had a glimpse of what I can expect when by little angels start working together.  I had a full glass of water.  I put it in the middle of the coffee table, which is- for now, one of the few places Lailah still can't reach. I was knitting something, and not looking at the girls when I heard my glass of water spilling onto the floor. I looked up to see Eowyn holding the glass up for Lailah to drink, and the water dripping down the front of Lailah's shirt.  I saw two sets of blue eyes looking at me with this expression of "That's not what we wanted to happen at all- are we in trouble?"

At that moment I knew what my future would look like- those sweet blonde haired, blue eyed angels wreaking all manner of havoc- then giving me those innocent-scarred looks.

What could I say?  It was one of the few times that Eowyn was being sweet to Lailah without any prompting from me or Daniel. I didn't want to scold Eowyn for trying to be nice to her sister- her poor thirsty baby sister who couldn't reach the water.

I didn't say anything- just went to get a towel, and another glass of water.

Monster on the ceiling

Conversations with a two year old:

OE: Mama! I'm scared! (hiding and shaking- she's really good at pretending to be scared)
ME: What are you afraid of?
OE: A dragon!
ME: A dragon? Where?
OE: In the bath room!
ME: What color was it?
OE: (high pitched shaky voice) Pink!

Then she skips away happy as can be, because this a regular conversation.  She's not really scared of dragons, she loves to see dragons on tv, and has toy dragons.  She likes to roar like a dragon, "RARRR!"

I say this to point out that she generally not generally afraid of things other kids find scary at that age.

Last night she stayed at her grandparents house as part of the first ever "cousins sleep over." Everyone had said night-night, the lights were out, they were laying down together- which is quite an accomplishment for two 3 year-olds and one 2 year old.

Suddenly they heard the ceiling fan clicking, and somebody said, "What's that?" and Liam said, "It's a monster!" and calmly got up and left.  His arm was itchy and he wanted more medicine.  That left the two girls in there to think about the monster.  Tia went back in the room to get the medicine for Liam.  She turned on a bathroom light, which cast shadows across the clicking fan.  And Eowyn Lost It. "It's a monster! I want my Mama!" She was I-have-been-playing-hard-and-didn't-get-a-nap-today-and now-it's-way-past-my-bed-time-in-a-strange-place-with-a-monster-two-year-old-Hysterical.

It was pathetic.

ME: What's wrong?
OE: Monster! (sobbing)
ME: Where?
OE: In there (still sobbing and trying to catch her breath)
ME: What color was it?
OE: (starting to calm down) Pink ...
ME: Pink? Pink's a good color. Do you like pink?
OE: yeah ...

Then she stayed up for another hour or more.

Then we left- so I hope the rest of the first ever cousin sleep over went well.