"Fwimming"

 This one is a fearless fish when it comes to "fwimming" (as she calls it).  J takes her to open swim at our local YMCA quite frequently because she asks to go all the time.  She jumps in without the slightest hesitation and if her head goes under, all the better.  When J pulls her up to the surface she just grins and asks to go again.

Little Sister, on the other hand, is a swim lesson drop-out this year.  In her second lesson of the class the instructor (who is one of the best, in our opinion) had the kids doggie paddling on their own.  All it took was for Little Sister to slip under once and although the instructor was right next to her and brought her back up quickly, that was it.  She was done.  The instructor could barely get her to finish the lesson, nevermind getting her anywhere near the water the following lesson.  So now J is taking both of them to open swim.  While he can hardly keep one on the edge, the other won't dare let go.  A tale of two sisters...

Bedtime stories.

My favorite part of any night is this.  Needs no explanation.

Sunday Morning Special

 This morning J and the Big Girls, still clad in their pajamas, ran out to the store to get milk.  He's a sucker and they talked him into getting them donuts.  The Girl debated between the classic maple bar and a chocolate frosted donut.  Her solution, a chocolate covered bar.

Of course Little Sister picked a donut with the most pizazz, with decorative frosting drizzled over the chocolate frosting and a

 generous portion of mini M&M's sprinkled on top.  For Baby Miss they chose a cake donut appropriately adorned with green sprinkles for St. Patrick's Day.

 Love how she's checking to see if there are frosting and sprinkles on the underside of the donut as well.

 Cautiously consuming a few sprinkles first.  Our ever extremely picky eater, she wasn't sure if she wanted to try it or not.

That was all it took to convince her!  Hmmm...wonder if that would work on other things?  A few sprinkles on this, a few sprinkles on that!!

A natural.

 What to do on a cold, wet, windy day?  Why, go to the motorsport store, of course.  When J saw this little bike he just couldn't resist pulling it down for Baby Miss.  Her immediate response

was to disappear down the maze of racks (with me following close behind) until she came out the other side in front of the display of helmets.  I found the smallest size, stuck it on her head and she weaved her way back to J and slung her leg over the bike like she'd done it a million times.  It was a proud moment for both of us, for me - safety first and for J, well...do I really need to tell you why?!

In Utero

Last night Lil Dude experienced his first concert, in utero.  We went to see/hear Maroon 5 compliments of his auntie.  Based on his near constant movement, I'd have to say he was a fan!

Mmmm...eggnog!

 Everyone, including strangers are always commenting on how this one is J's little look-alike.  And it's not just her appearance...

 She has a lot of her Daddy's personality as well.  And this morning we discovered that she shares the same tastes.

 We put a little bit of eggnog in a glass for her.  Knowing that it was something different and unfamiliar, she eyed it with trepidation but tried a tiny sip.

 No sooner had she swallowed then she was lunging for the glass and another taste of the creamy goodness that her Daddy loves so much.

Ah, holiday breakfast of champions!

 And, she couldn't quit licking her lips and cheeks.

Then there was this.  Another shot of Baby Miss, also taken today, side-by-side with a picture of the Girl (which I just happened to stumble upon while going through some old pictures while making a calendar to gift to the grandparents) at almost exactly the same age, a mere 19 days apart with the Girl being older.  They could nearly be identical twins!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving at J's Grandma's house, we call her Super Great Grannie. Super Great Grannie has a lot of great granddaughters, eight to be exact and just two great grandsons. Seven in a row born in the last five years. {Our baby boy will break that streak come spring.} This year the girls got their own special table for Thanksgiving dinner. They thought they were pretty big stuff, in the kitchen all by themselves with their goblets of festive sparkling cider or punch. One in particular had impeccable manners.

Poop!

Baby Miss has shown a limited amount of interest in the potty.  She has her own little wooden potty chair that my Dad made when the Girl was a tot.  She usually likes to "use" it (and I use the term very loosely) when one of her Big Sisters is in the bathroom.  She sometimes follows them in and sits on her seat pants, diaper and all.  This morning she showed her usual amount of interest and I figured I'd take her diaper off and see what happened.  She kept running back and forth into the bathroom.  Each time she came out I'd ask her if she'd gone potty and she'd say, "Yes."  I'd go check and find nothing.  About the sixth time that this scene played out she came and informed me that she'd gone poop.  "Not likely," I thought.  So I finished up with the dishes, thought about starting some laundry and with the laundry room directly outside the bathroom popped my head into the bathroom and low and behold...there it was.  Poop in the potty!  Baby Miss was rewarded with two M&M's (emmy-nems as she pronounces them) and gushing praise from myself and Little Sister.  She was so proud of herself as is evident by that gleeful grin.