Regular Life

Watching the pre-State of the Union show. Gloria napped that day so she got to stay up and watch the Clap-a-thon.
About Gloria's nap-you do the math, when she takes an hour nap she is up until about 10:30 or 11 and sleeps until 8:30ish. When she doesn't take a nap she goes to sleep at 7:15 and wakes up around 8:15. So we really aren't offering a nap anymore, but it sure makes the day long!
Playing in mud on a warm day, first it was their hands, then their feet, then they wanted to put their tummies in the mud, I drew the line at taking off panties! Then the buckets went on their heads and they became witches who were killing bad guys. At least it is better than playing Rapunzel with Lydia saying over and over to me-talk like the Bad Mother!
Daddy got a turn on the swing!
Lydia had been continually asking for us to move Gloria's bed into her room so they could have a bedroom and a playroom. On Friday we said Okay because it was a slow Saturday. Gloria would have fallen asleep around 7 in her bed, but around 8:15 after they had been giggling for an hour, I moved Gloria back to her bed, lots of tears but they were both asleep in less than 10 minutes. Sorry but I love night time sleep too much for them to share a room if they don't have to!

Well the months of holidays, special events and birthday parties are over (though the girls are still singing Happy Birthday to (random) you and Gloria says Jingle Bells is her favorite song) and we are back to normal life. Every morning I say Daddy is at work and share what our day is going to look like. Gloria has roaringly entered into the 'terrible' twos, always wanting to do things herself, throwing fits and not obeying. Lydia has hit a terrible whiny stage and I feel like a loss at how to teach her perseverance (we got out her bike and she wouldn't keep pushing the petals, once it got hard she would stop) and how to stay calm when something is upsetting. They are fighting a ton, interrupting and I also don't know a good way to teach them to keep up with their cups and shoes. But in spite of it all, life is good: we are healthy and well provided for, we have wonderful friends and families and activities to be a part of. They are learning to obey, think for themselves and grow into fun loving healthy girls. God is good to us and its amazing to see so many answered prayers this year.
The other day was the first day of Friendship. After a nice morning with internationals, we had a picnic in the beautiful sunny Texas winter. Caleb was working late and Gloria doesn't nap any more so we went to Central Park, played on the playground, walked around the pond and looked at ducks (I felt like I was back in London), played some more, picked a treat at Central Market and played some more. No fighting, only a little melt-down in transition, I didn't have a camera so I wanted to record the wonderful day here.