Ali Scoots, Mia Loves Mucus and More...

Alice is mobile. Which is GREAT! And not so great-oh the little things on the floor that she finds no matter how well I think I've picked up. She's playing like crazy and when she sees something she wants, she's after it with all her might. Her favorite play things - her sister, Maggie Mae, any ball and any baby. It's good she's not too picky because Mia likes to take whatever she's playing with and swap it for something else. Ali is such an easygoing baby. She is just so sweet and happy and her belly laugh just cracks me up. She eats rice cereal, green beans, squash, carrots and Cheerios. She's got the pinchers going now, so it's much easier eating the Cheerios! Still just the two little front bottom teeth, but we think she's working on some on the top. She's getting so big!
We've been busy but I'm not really sure with what... we've been hanging out at home a lot, staying out of the bitter cold. Dad played in the Pond Hockey tournament this past weekend but we didn't go watch since we all had colds and it was SO cold outside. Today's supposed to be a slight warm up so we're hoping to get outside a little bit! Yesterday we had a special lunch with Dama and BDama at Muffuletta in St. Paul. Mmmm... Amelia is a good little luncher. It's fun to be able to take her out.
She's been going through a little naughty/explorer phase which has unfortunately resluted in lots of time outs-until "you're ready to listen," "you're ready to play nicely-we do NOT throw toys at Ali!" etc., etc... I'll tell her not to do something and she just looks right at me and does it again, or keeps on doing it or whatever. That's no good-time out. I know she's just testing the limits, being curious about consequences and all that good stuff, but man-o-man can a two year old try your patience! She's so sweet, too, though hugging on her sister whenever she's sad or tired, or just for the heck-of-it. Playing with Ali, or me, or both of us, or quite often, just by herself. She's got an amazing imagination and I love her pretend play. She's got "the monster" as her imaginary friend. They hang out, play in her room and jump on her bed. She hides from him, and talks to him on the phone.
She's been wanting to play a lot of games... cards, memory, candyland. She really just likes to play with the "stuff" of the games, but it's still cute. She says, "Mom, wanna play game?" and then she finds a good spot for us to play and that's what we do. When she's trying to avoid doing something (i.e., getting PJs on or getting her dipe changed) she tells me "just a sec." My bad, I know - I say that to her too often.
Amelia has always loved to dance, and now she has her own CD player and her own CDs and she knows how to change discs and turn the player on, and she LOVES to play her "mucus" and dance. Everytime she says music ("mucus") I get the biggest kick out of it. There are a lot of things that she says that make me smile but this word is one of my favorites. I try and get her to listen to some of my mucus, and she will for a little while-maybe a song or two or three, but then she just has to play "HER mucus." And off to the CD player she goes...
For as challenging as she's been, Mia's also been going through a "helpful" phase. She wants to help with EVERYTHING. She particularly likes to help with any food preparation, but practically anything I'm doing... "Mom, need help?" I try and let her help as much as I can. It makes most things I'm doing take 10 times as long, and usually a little messier, but what can you do? She wants to help. She helps cook dinner, she helps feed Ali and change her diaper. She helps me dial the phone, or type out an email, she helps me make Ali's bottles and change the sheets on the bed. You name it pretty much. It's very cute.
So I know I've been a slacker blogger (again) and there are probably many more things I wanted to post about in the past week... but alas, computer time's up for Mommy! I haven't uploaded from my camera yet, either, so once again, pictures will have to post later.