Have a great weekend, y’all. We’re excited about 2012!

As you can see, Quinny wasn’t impressed with the ride this particular day. At all.

Sure was cold yesterday! Move to keep warm!

We’re posting a few videos tonight to round out the year. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

What an amazing year it has been! Nora turned two, Quinny arrived, and now we have two girls that are starting to realize they are sisters. I love how they can crack each other up. It’s usually on a level that Josh and I don’t really understand.

Which is where I’ll start with the latest little things they are up to —

• Making each other laugh. The other night, Nora was making random, rather loud nonsense exclamations at dinner. “Aaaaaaannnnnnnnaaaaaa….Dadddddddddddddaaaaaaa…” Right when I was inhaling the air for a declaration that she was being too loud and a little silly, Quinn looked right at her and started giggling. Which egged Nora on more and then it all ended up being pretty funny in the end. Who knew?

• Nora made up a saying — “Uncle Beau-coo” that will consistently, and I mean has a 100% success rate, make Quinny laugh. We don’t get it, have no idea how she came up with adding a coo to Uncle Beau’s name, or what about it is so hi lar i ous to Quinn, but it’s become totally normal for me to say, “Quick, Nora, make Quinn laugh.” “Quinn! Uncle Beau-Coo! Uncle Beau-coo!” And Quinn’s cries turn to giggles. Just like that. Why didn’t we think of it?

• We are up to our necks in Princess dress up, figurines, and dolls. Nora’s favorites are Belle and Cinderella, mainly because those are the only movies we think she’s ready to watch. (I didn’t remember so many of them being so scary at times. I mean, Snow White has a stepmother Queen who sends someone to kill her and then the trees grow claws and eyes and then the Queen becomes a super ugly old lady who is struck by lightning and then falls to her death?!? Calm down, Disney.) Cinderella, by contrast, is such a cute little story with the mice and whatnot. Although she hasn’t asked about the missing mom yet and sorta thinks the dad is “sick” throughout the whole movie. I didn’t want to tell her that the story killed him off.

Anyway, some of Nora’s favorite princess things to do:

• Wear a fancy dress and walk down the stairs to see it trailing behind her.
• Dropping a shoe on purpose. I could NOT find the matching shoe I wanted to wear to Josh’s Google party and finally found it at the bottom of the stairs. Of course.
• Randomly yell, “You can go ahead and STARVE!” like the Beast yells at Belle. It’s one of her all time favorite lines. Such great writing.
• Sing along to the songs. The one that always gets me is when she sings along to the reprise of Beauty and the Beast when a choir joins in with an “Ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhh, AHHHHHHH!” She’s right there with them. (I don’t know how to write music or choir singing parts, so I hope that “AHH” translates. It’s probably supposed to be an extended b flat or tenor or something. But I’m going with Ahh.)
• Say, “Mommy, I’m going to LOCK YOU IN HERE!” then closing the door and running away as fast as she can.

If you aren’t into those movies, all references are lost and I’m sorry. But Nora will be happy to give you a full rundown of both stories.

Meanwhile, Quinny has experienced a renaissance era of learning little tricks.

• After she learned crawling, she focused on that for about, oh, two months. And she has crawled everywhere. And has dismantled everything she can. All very, very quietly. When I go back and look at Nora’s videos at this age, she was all about the babble but didn’t crawl until much later. Quinn has been the quiet type who’s more interested in being on the move. But it seems she’s suddenly decided that she’s officially mastered crawling/exploring and is ready to branch out into other areas. Which now include clapping, waving, and high fiving. I think Nora is as proud as we are.
• Quinn also LOVES her new baby dolls. Give her anything with a face and she lights up like a little Christmas tree.
• Quinn is starting to tune in to what Nora is doing and the toys she’s playing with. She’s been doing her own thing with her own toys but now she starting to crawl towards Nora to play with whatever she has. It’s not exactly Nora’s favorite development. “Mommy, can you move her?” All those times Nora has taken Quinn’s toys away…we thought Quinny had forgotten…but she’s ready to even the score…(I’ve seen too many movie trailers lately….)
• And one thing that Quinn has definitely moved into is the Separation Anxiety Stage. By “Separation Anxiety,” I mean she cries so hard she hyperventilates when I drop her off at the church nursery. And it takes her a while to warm up when we go somewhere or have people over. It’s so sad because up until now she’s been in the stage where anyone could hold her and she didn’t seem to notice or care. So everyone expects that same laid back attitude but are instead greeted with a quivering lip warning that will quickly dissolve to tears and a red face if she isn’t returned to Mommy ASAP. But I’d be totally lying if I said it didn’t make me feel a teeny bit special. I feel sad for everyone else but it’s still touching in a very selfish way. I know she’ll grow out of it soon. Probably before I’m ready for her to.
• Somewhere along the line, Nora decided Quinn is her best friend. Josh pointed out that Quinn hasn’t really done anything to earn that status. They haven’t really played together and Quinn doesn’t even talk yet. But for reasons only she knows, Nora consistently says her best friend is Quinny. “Quinny, you my beeeeeest friend.”
• And lastly, it seems that Quinn is suddenly aware that she can get Nora to react to her if she does something to her. She’s started to tug on Nora’s clothes or hair. Sometimes Nora laughs and plays along.
  “Quinny, are you teasing Nora?”
  “I want her to tease me, Mommy!”
  Sometimes I have to intervene. But it’s fun because they’re starting to experience that special sister relationship. You live in quarters that sometimes seem too close, you have to share your toys and parents’ attention, and sometimes your hair gets pulled. But there’s someone who is always there who knows how to make you laugh. A best friend.

We are so, so, so thankful for the blessings God has given us this year and that we have our own set of little best friends running/crawling around our home.

In Nora’s hands is the Baby Jesus figurine. (she’s presenting him to all the guests at the stable)

Clearly inspired by her sister…