OCTOBER 1-7 | PHOTO-A-DAY 2014

October 1, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

October is here!  I live in a house full of October birthdays.  Verity’s is on the 2nd, Greg’s is on the 22nd, and Amity’s is on the 30th.  Mine?  The lone January birthday.  I’ve been taking a Photo-A-Day of the girls each October.  This will be our third year.  In the above photo we had about finished our dinner of veggie potstickers, broccoli, and rice.  Rice is always a sticky mess with Verity.  She gets it everywhere.  Our new go-to method for handling cleanup of such mess?  Leave it.  Leave it until it’s all dried up and then just sweep it the next morning.  Soooo much easier ; )  Or maybe lazy?  Anyhow, I was playing peak-a-boo with Ver from behind the camera and apparently I was pretty hilarious.

 

October 1, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

When you are age 3+ you are eligible for all kinds of cool activities.  This fall Amity started going to Awana each Wednesday evening at Salem First Baptist Church.  She is in the 3&4 year old Cubbies group.  My cousin’s daughter, Emily, is also in the same group, and so far she is loving it.  And I have new leverage for good behavior after picking up from day school!  “Uh! Oh!  I hear a bad attitude.  If you can’t change that around then you won’t be able to go to Awana tonight after dinner…”  Instantaneously she rights her ‘tude.  I took this on her way out the door.  This is her, “Oh mom.  Please…not another picture.  Oh, fine.  Just take it…”  But secretly she’s super proud to show off her book and vest.

 

October 2, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

I love this photo so much.  Amity pretty routinely wakes up about an hour before Verity does.  Verity Looooves her sleep.  Amity…not so much.  She could survive on just a smidge.  We were waiting for Verity to wake up so I could sit both girls down for breakfast at the same time (because Verity can’t bear to be at the table without Amity) I had her on the couch reading books.  When Verity woke up Amity invited Verity to lay next to her and read books.  That is kinda a big deal.  Verity was more than happy to oblige.  So there they were, cozied up and Amity was “reading” to little sis.  My heart aches with pride over this moment.  And then of course there is Amity’s face.

 

October 2, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

Oh my sweet girl.  She turned TWO on this day.  At 2:34am 2 years ago, her beautiful birth-mother, Kellie, bravely and with such strength birthed this girl into our world.  At two years old she is bright, feisty, fiercely independent, so loving and caring of others, observant, and simply has a heart of gold.  She made our family so complete.  We went out for ice cream after dinner to celebrate her birthday.  She very much enjoyed her chocolate ice cream with sprinkles…can’t you tell?  Her face actually got even messier after this photo was taken : )  Happy Birthday to our Ver Bear!!

 

October 3, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

Amity’s drawing skills are getting more and more advanced; it’s so cool to watch.  She can draw people now and has gotten very inventive with drawing random stuff (to us) and then explaining what it is that she has drawn.  These personal sized Doodle Sketch boards are our go-to car toy.  The girls each have one, and it really does keep them busy for a good bit!

 

October 3, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

She used to be extremely timid when it came to the slide on playgrounds.  Lately, though, she has been going down unprompted.  Getting so big and confident!

October 4, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

You know, because a dress, sandals, and mittens are totally legit gardening attire.  I came home from grocery shopping and found these two little gardeners working away.  Actually what they were really doing was flinging dirt around willy nilly.  And then there is Ver’s get-up.  I mean…she’s two.  And she has her own sense of style that is very special : )

October 4, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

October 5, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

Amity often gets a bee in her bonnet to “pack her bag” for whatever outing we happen to be headed out for.  In this case, church.  We had a little time left before needing to leave so I said, “sure…go pack your bag.”  I went in to collect her from their room and she was ready so show me all the things she had crammed into that little owl back pack.  It’s always a very interesting assortment.  For example: a ton of little toys plus 15 pairs of undies.  None of this actually went into church with us.  Thankfully, she is usually fine with the bag staying in the car.

October 5, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

Her fierce independence caught on camera!  Oh the car seat buckles!!  She will not even allow us NEAR her when buckling into the car.  I find it so obnoxious and infuriating because I just want to get them buckled in and be on our way!  But oh, no.  She must do it herself, but she can Barely do it herself.  I know all the mothers of two year olds know this awful tension.  Face the wrath and tantrum of two year old and do it yourself or let her do it and stand there helplessly yet so encouraging for a good 5 minutes until everything is snapped and you are allowed to give her a “safety check.”  This will last for about a year until she is actually efficient at it.  Lord give me patience.

October 6, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

I was combing her hair in the bath and she grabbed the comb from me and announced, “I brushing!”

 

October 6, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

Greg is so patient and good about reading to the girls.  Amity will now listen to longer books without too many pictures.  It’s a new concept to her, and on this evening Greg was reading the Velveteen Rabbit to her and she jumped up and said, “Oh!!  Oh!  Let me see that picture!”  Greg told her there wasn’t a picture to look at.  The picture had been in her imagination  : )

 

October 7, 2014 | 0:00pm | Verity

Look at those chubby arms, fingers and toes.  Here she is waiting patiently while big sis has her 30 minute ballet class.  It is very challenging to keep Verity occupied during this time, but I think she is starting to accept the fact that she just isn’t going to get to go into the class with the big girls and she simply must wait it out.  Today I brought an iPad for her and that kept her busy for a little bit.  She loves anything with animals, and this is her favorite game on the iPad.  She requested this one when I pulled it out of my purse,  “Animos!  Animos!”  When the monkeys came on she looked up at me and smiled while imitating their little dance.

 

October 7, 2014 | 0:00pm | Amity

Each Tuesday morning I take Amity to the Creative Movements ballet class for 3&4 year olds.  To be honest, I probably signed her up more for me than for her.  Because I thought it would be just so darn cute.  Well, she has actually really loved going.  Even more than I had anticipated.  She is such a lively, loud, energetic little person that I figured ballet just might not be her jam.  But she loves getting dressed for it, she follows the instructions with intensity, and I believe her favorite part of the class is the free dance.  During the free dance the teacher puts on a new soft song each week and they get these colored scarves and then run and twirl around.  I say that I believe it is her favorite, because after the classes I always ask her, “What was your favorite part about today’s class” and she always answers, “All of the parts!!”