Games and Fetishes

Ahhh, Toddlerhood or Topplerhood as my friend Ted calls it. The girl cubs are now getting so long and thin. I look at them wistfully wondering how it all went so fast when I distinctly remember wishing that first year would hurry up and be over with. Now they run around the house as if they've been parading around like that forever. I grab at their still semi fat baby thighs, but I can see the change. Just their big bellies remain leading them around the house.

The have such amazing new expressions and ways of communicating now, sly smiles, sideways glances. Freya loves Foxy...LOVES her and wants to poke and prod her at any given moment. Poor Foxy is beside herself with worry. You can see it on her little pointy rat terrier face. Freya runs toward her hands out feeling for Foxy. Foxy retreats. Freya laughs more and runs faster following Foxy around the house. Foxy get skittish and turns to yap and snap at Frey a warning. This makes Frey laugh harder and run faster. It is a viscious cycle. Pablo on the other hand seems to have mellowed tot he girl cubs quite a bit. I think it started when the girls began eating solid food and dropping on the floor for the pups to snack on. The girls now just hold out their crackers and Os for the dogs and then cry when the dogs dare to eat them. To the pups' credit, however, they are both really gentle while taking food from babes. Back to Pablo. He now lets Frey and Ursa crawl all over him. They drape themselves over his body, scratch at his muzzle, grab at his paws and he just lies there. Sometimes he even has a big ol' Pablo grin on his face. I've even seen the girl cubs crawl on him to sit and he barely lifts an eyebrow. Sweet Pablo, you are a good dog. I knew you would take to the girls.

Ursa is still in her habit of taking items from Freya. She has always done that more than Frey. I try to let them figure it all out for themselves. They have started sort of hitting each other when mad, the only thing is, it just makes the other one laugh. Hmmm, wouldn't it be nice if that stayed the reaction? They are both in big fetish mode...these girls love their accessories. Hats....ooh yeah, they love to put stuff on their head. Ursa put her hat on her own head and parades around the house like the cheshire cat, belly sticking out before her. Sometimes she'll even put two hats on her head. The other day she did the cutest thing....She put on her hat as always and then walked around the corner into the dining room. I assumed she was just wandering proudly round the house as always. She returned just a few seconds later carrying the other hat. As she rounded the corner she held the hat out to me. I was on the couch holding Freya. I assumed Ursa wanted me to help her put this other hat on her head too, but instead I decided to put the hat on Frey's head thinking this would probably piss Ursa off. But, no, Ursa smiled the biggest smile and I knew immediately that she brought the hat specifically for Freya so that Sister could wear one too. Ahhh, my smart darlings.

They also LOVE shoes, they always have loved shoes, any kind of shoes, big, small, thong, boot doesn't matter they love it. Only now they try to wear all the shoes, big, small, thong, boot and get angry if the shoe won't stay on their foot. This drives me crazy as I try to show Freya how to hold the thong on by placing its divider between her toes. She always tries to just lift her foot marching milatary style instead of sliding the foot forward and so, of course, the thong flips right off. This makes her yell and hit the air with her hands. They also love to wrap things around their necks. I know, strangulation hazzard, but I let them as long as I'm in the room and it is loose and kind of draped over a shoulder too. And their newest accessory is the toddler sunglasses we bought them to protect their eyes from the TExas sun. They, of course, refuse to really wear them in the sun, but love to wander around the house like Ray Charles on 'shrooms. Speaking of the sun. Today during our morning walk with Daddy and the pups the girls would shreak whenever we passed out of the shade into direct sunlight. Well, I guess they should just wear those sunglasses outside, shouldn't they.

They are both saying more words now. To date Freya has said Daddy (of course), Mama, Up, Stinky, Duck, Ball (while holding a ball without me telling her it was a ball), All Done while signing the All Done sign, Stop and some variation on Pablo. Ursa isn't as verbal as Freya because she is busy developing larger motor skills. Ursa is a our climber supreme. She climbed before she could walk and actually took time off from practicing walking to learn to climb up her highchair. Ursa has said a few words too, though: Daddy (of course), Mama, Up, and Freya mimicking the same sing songy voice in which I was calling Freya. I'm excited about them learing words as my attempts at sign language with them are going slowly. I've been signing to them since they were about nine months. For awhile they would do the milkies sign when they wanted milk, but that stopped. They learned the "All Done" sign too and used that for awhile, then stopped. And then sort of refused to use them even though I know they know them. I guess they found screaming to be a more effective way of communicating. Actually the past couple weeks the signs have returned somewhat. Occasionally "milkies" most the time "All Done" and most recently Freya has been doing her rendition of the sign for "Water", which thankfully they are drinking more of these days. For awhile there they really only liked dairy or soy milk and I would rather reduce their intake of those.

So the girl cubs are spending more Daddy Time these days as I'm now teaching three yoga classes in the evenings. I know it is tiring for Chris, but I also think he enjoys his alone time with the girls. Besides the girls always seem a little better behaved when there is one parent around who is giving them undivided attention. Today he greeted me home from teaching with a smile on his face and that lovely Daddy glint in his eye. He and the girl cubs had played most of the time on the bed. They would pretend to try to escape the bed and he would grab them and toss them down on the mattress making them squeal with glee. They have a game they like to play with him. They sort of hide around a corner or act like they are going toward a room they arent' supposed to be in and when he goes to get them they run from him laughing maniacally. We have speakers in the living room that the girls mess with. We don't know what to do with the speakers or how to get the girls to leave them along. Mostly when the girls test us by starting to do something they aren't supposed to, like stick their hand in the dirty diaper pail, we try to ignore it so as not to make a game out of it. Well this evening, Freya was creeping around the woofer trying to get her Dad's attention. Chris pretended not to notice in hopes she would lose interest. Instead of losing interest she stood in front of it saying "Stop" and shaking her head "No" at herself. Ok, I'm sure she gets that from me, but I think it is pretty cute that she was telling herself to Stop. I wish I had seen that one. This is one of the reasons I can't imagine going to work full-time and sending the girls to daycare. I go away for a couple hours and I feel like I've missed the world.

And the girl cubs are my world. Sometimes I see them or even think abou them and I think my heart is going to break. It breaks open and I can feel it oozing out just getting bigger and bigger creating more space to love them with. Hmmm, speaking of girl cubs, there is one crying now. It is 1:00am. and they have started waking around this time to cry and then put themselves back to sleep. Sigh. Ahhh, sleep, that hasn't gotten any easier but that is a whole other bean burrito. I better get my tired Mommy butt to bed too if I'm going to get any ZZZZ's sans girls at my breast.