sisters

Molly Uses the Potty!

Video | | patmcg

Part of Molly’s bedtime routine is to sit on the toilet for a while.  She actually loves her toilet time.  She pulls up a step stool with a stack of books and sits on the toilet and looks at her books.  Normally we have to put an end to her toilet time after a few minutes because she is just relaxing but not getting ready for bed.  But tonight while Molly was browsing books on the toilet, I went off for a minute to check in with Kit.  When I got back to Molly, she was yelling, “I went to the potty!  I made urine!”  Now, Molly has been known to have an active imagination at times, but I did not get the sense she as making this up.  She was grinning ear to ear and super excited.

I congratulated Molly on her fine toilet work.  After wiping and washing hands, we went back to tell Kit and Claire.  Kit screamed really loudly with delight and started jumping around.  Molly got super excited too and started doing the same.  Personally, I was excited too, but my ears were literally ringing from all the noise.  Molly was so proud, though!  She said she wanted underwear now, and she thought Santa would know she used the toilet.

Claire, who was in a grouchy mood, initially tried to be excited but get a little irritated, maybe from the noise and/or maybe a little hint of sibling rivalry.  This was the first small whiff of sibling rivalry we have ever seen from Claire in her 3 and a half years as a big sister.  Claire complained that we were screaming too loud, and we are always asking her and Molly to quiet down if they are anywhere near that loud.  (She had a really good point.  We were really quite loud.)  Claire also said, sourly, “I but you’re going to email everyone in the world!” and then left the room.  Later she could complain about having to go out in the hall with just Muffin and her last remaining fish to get some quiet.  We had a certain amount of recognizing that Claire uses the toilet many times a day, and nobody ever says anything about it, but when she first did it as a toddler, we were really excited for her.  Molly was feeling sympathetic and started a “Claire used the potty!” chant and dance.

Claire and Little Sister Annie

Video | | patmcg

Claire and Molly have a good time in those precious unoccupied times after school or on the weekends.  They often run up to their room and come up with some silliness, which this time, for once, I captured on video.

If you are curious about the sound in the background, it is the audiobook of “How to be a Pirate” by Cressida Cowell.

Sleeping in silly

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This was one of those great Saturday mornings when the kids slept in, and Kit and I were able to just dose until 7:30 or 8:00. Eventually we heard the tell-tale giggling from the girls’ room. The girls were certainly together in Molly’s crib having their weekend-morning wake-up fun. When we finally walked into their room, this is what we found.

Somehow Claire had convinced, or Molly had asked, to be put into the Annie costume. Luckily, Molly looked much more happy in the oversized costume than Claire did when she first got it for her fifth birthday. Another morning the girls followed a similar drill, but that time Molly’s crib was piled high with every stuffed animal in the room. I can’t wait to see what the come up with next.

The Librarian and Mrs. Katrune

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We went over to Pease Park this morning, as we often do on the weekends.  At the park, Claire met another girl of similar age on the playground, and after a certain amount of persistence, Claire got the other girl to play with her.  Whenever we go to the park, there is almost always one other about girl Claire’s age, and they always hit it off, at least after some initial sizing up.  Claire’s technique used to be to simply ask the girl, “Do you want to play with me?”  Now she has refined her approach.  She followed the other girl around the playground, suggesting different play ideas until she finally hooked the other girl into playing.  This one was a tough customer, a being a little shy and wrapped up in her new barbie bike, but eventually Claire snagged her.

As a sample of how this kind of thing goes, here is how it went today…

Claire had brought along some of her books to the park, and the winning idea this time around was to pretend that they had secretly stolen some books from the library.  I, being the nearest adult, was obviously cast as the librarian.  I gave myself the name Mr. Potter.  I explained that they were free to check the books out of the library and didn’t have to sneak them out.  But that was a silly suggestion.  What fun would that be?  That is such crusty adult thinking!  There would be no drama if they simply checked out some books.  That is no kind of game at all.  No, they snuck the books out.

To add to the drama, they had also snuck some books away from a teacher.  I suggested Molly, who was wondering around babbling, could be the teacher.  I asked Claire what the teacher’s name was.  Claire instantly came up with Mrs. Katrune.  So there was poor Mrs. Katrune (Molly) wandering around the playground looking for her missing books.  Claire and her friend got to hide the books and run away when Mrs. Katrune approached, and all other manner of fun.  In truth they were very careful with the books, although they made some dramatic references to the books getting damaged.  I occasionally put up a protest that I needed my books back, or they better at least check them out properly!

Eventually, this game ran its course, and the girls ran around and did swings, etc.  Eventually even that ran its course, and they tried to figure out ways to make each other giggle.  At one point, the other girl briefly pulled her pants down, causing a roar from herself and Claire.  Claire thought this was cool and started to do the same.  I had to step in and stop the madness.  This was technically a new, previously unstated rule: keep your pants on in the park!  The other girl’s dad, who had been absorbed by his own toddler as well, came over at that point and reinforced the keep-you-pants-on rule.  The girls continued to push the limits in less risqué ways, such as running to the edge of the park close to the road.  Molly was also getting especially reckless as this point, and it was clearly time to leave.

So there is it, the ups and downs of a day at the park with the girls.  It was a fun, delightful, perplexing day at the park which really needed to end about 20 minutes ago.

Help From a Little Friend

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Molly has shown a very sweet, empathetic side lately.  Her sister is still having some occasional jitters from kindergarten, coming hope grumpy and sometimes very sad.  Tonight, Claire had an especially hard time and was standing in the living room sobbing about something we didn’t understand.  Kit and I were trying to comfort her, without much success, when Molly decided to give it a try too.  Molly patted Claire on the back a bit, and then she ran into the play room to grab a teddy bear.  She handed the bear to Claire, and in fact sort of insisted that she take it.  Then Molly clapped her hands and ran off to get some more stuffed animals to deliver to her poor sister.  Eventually Claire was completely covered by stuffed animals, compliments of Molly.  And right about then, Claire finally cracked a tiny smile, also compliments of Molly.  Not long after, the two girls were off playing together.  Kit and I could never cheer Claire up like that!

Molly’s teacher tells us that she has done this routine before for one of her classmates, Lexi, who was sad after being dropped off at school.  Molly patted her on the back until she stopped crying, brought her a toy, and eventually led to her into the room to play.  Molly has this down pat!

Party at the Park

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Yesterday was Molly’s actual birthday, but today being a Saturday, we were able to really celebrate.

We kept the celebration small, just family this year.  Noni and grandpa Phil were in town for the occasion, so they and Molly had a lot of great face time together.  Kit wanted to do something that Molly would really like, so we decided on going to Pease Park and just letting her go nuts.  We brought some Sesame-Street-themed party supplies to make it festive.  Molly and Claire both got identical party favors, which were completely mixed up together by the afternoon.

One of Molly’s classmates had her second birthday party today at a local kid-oriented gym (and indoor play area) in the afternoon.  It was nice to celebrate with one of Molly’s friends as well.  Claire was the biggest kid at the party and seemed to enjoy helping the little ones out (especially Molly), and just going nuts herself.

We managed to open a couple of presents today but still have some left over for tomorrow.  Some highlights include an Elmer the Patchwork Elephant stuffed animal to go with Molly’s Elmer book, an interactive electronic toddler purse, and a hand-made book from Claire (and Noni).

A Book About Molly, For Molly

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As her present for Molly’s second birthday, Claire made a book for about Molly for Molly.  This was done with inspiration and the help of gramma Noni, who assembled the book, while Claire came up with all the words and pictures.  There is one thing about Molly per page, with an illustration for each.  The book reads:

    Molly likes vanilla yogurt.
    Molly likes her snuggy bear.
    Molly is giggling.
    Molly is funny.  She is having a crazy hair day.
    Molly is cute.
    I love Molly.

Here are a few sample illustrations.

Molly is funny.
She is having a crazy hair day.

Molly is cute.

I love Molly.

Talking Up a Storm

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Molly continues to talk up storm.  Now she knows way more words than can be listed.  She will often point at things and name them: a picture of a butterfly (“bu-fly”), her diaper (which she sometimes calls a “BM”), or a stuffed bear, crocodile, etc.  Sometimes she points at something in a way to sort of ask what it is called.  Usually this involves repeatedly tapping the object.  She’ll tap a hair brush until someone says, “brush”, and then she will repeat “brush”. One time Molly was tapping a sort of stamp thing for one of the girls’ art projects, and being distracted and not entirely sure what to call it, I said, “That’s a, uh… thing”.  Molly repeated very carefully, “thing”.  She’ll have to sort that one out over time, I guess.

Molly has finally figured out what to call her sister.  She is “Care Bear”.  Molly is probably trying to say, “Claire Bear”, which we sometimes call Claire.  When Claire was feeling grumpy the other day, she said she does not like being called Claire Bear because a bear is “boyish”.  She would rather be called “Claire Bear with flowers and bows in her hair”.  Molly has not adopted this idea yet.  I was trying to get Molly to call her sister just plain ol’ “Claire” but that hasn’t taken either.  There is always a “Bear” stuck on the end, much to her sister’s chagrin.

Molly is also combining words with great acuity.  She will describe what belongs to who, as in “Molly’s bottle” versus “Care Bear’s bottle” and “Mommy’s shoe” versus “Daddy’s shoe”.  In panic or frustration, “Molly’s bottle” sometimes still turns into “mine!”.  We sometimes have a real, practical conversation, for instance when Molly did not want to carry her stuffed bear in from the car but she wanted me to bring it in, which came out as the pretty clear “Daddy do it”.