Friday, June 20, 2014

The girls - an update

I wanted to post a brief update on the girls.

They continue to grow up. They are definitely little girls, not babies anymore. It is hard to believe that Esther will be 4 next month, and Clara is 2.5. It is fun to watch them play together. They have great imaginations. When we are inside they do lots of cooking, picnics, and eating with their play food, kitchen, and dishes. They also play with their babies a lot. Lately I've heard them playing school, pretending to be their teachers and doing things that they do at school. In typical big sister fashion, Esther spends lots of her time bossing Clara around. They play great together, but they also fight a lot too!

Now that it is summer time, we spend a lot of time outside. They help me gather eggs everyday. They really love it when I catch a chicken for them to pet! They like to ride their bikes and color with sidewalk chalk. Josh recently finished their new playhouse/swingset (a post about the pontoon playhouse will be coming soon) so they spend a lot of time playing on that. It is close to the garden, so they play while we work in the garden. They are definitely little farm girls. They like to help us do things, ride on the tractor and mower, play with all of the animals, dig in the dirt, play in whatever water or mud they can find, and get as dirty as possible. Needless to say, they get a bath almost every night.

Esther continues to amaze us with the things she knows, learns, and remembers. She likes to practice writing letters and spelling words. We haven't really worked with her too much with reading words or spelling, but she has picked up quite a few words that she can write and recognize. Clara can recognize most all of the letters, but she isn't writing letters yet. Both of them love to draw and color. We go through lots of paper, and they are always drawing us things. They like to fold up their papers and give us "presents".

Esther is getting really big and independent. She can open the doors to our vehicles, get in her carseat and buckle herself in. She can get her own water out of the dispenser on the refrigerator and will get water for Clara too. She picks out her clothes, dresses herself and gets her shoes on without any help. She has become really good at swinging and pumping her legs to go high on her own. It is nice that she can do most things for herself, but bittersweet that she is growing up so fast.

Clara continues to be such a funny kid. She does funny voices, silly faces, and crazy dance moves all the time. She hardly ever just walks anywhere, she usually runs or dances to get somewhere. She often will be in her own little world, but will then randomly talk in a funny voice or do something crazy that catches you off guard. She keeps us entertained for sure. It makes up for all of the tantrums. I had forgotten the completely illogical and unprompted meltdowns of a two year old. Clara has always had extreme emotions, when she is happy she is super happy, but when she is upset it is the end of the world.

We had some family pictures taken last week and got some cute ones of the girls. You can see their personalities, Esther being more serious and harder to get a smile out of and Clara being a ham.






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