Ah, three.

This was going to be a musing post about loving being a mom to a 1 and 3 year old...that is until Elianna hauled off and smacked me in the face.  For no reason.  Three year olds are a challenge; at least ours is.  She's smart and she knows it and she tries to get her way in all things whether it's negotiation or just outright defiance.  Discipline gets hard when she doesn't care about time out and you've already taken away everything you can think of.  She's spending a lot of time in her room lately while we feel like crappy parents who don't know how to outsmart a 3 year old.  Ah me, this too shall pass I'm sure.

Marielle is her own challenge.  She's quite the mama's girl which is very refreshing after Elianna's independence but along with her need for snuggles (which are very nice, I can't lie), she's got a stubborn streak and a voice!  Trying to get things accomplished can be hard while she's hanging on my leg saying, "up, Up, UP!!!!" in increasing volume and tone.

That being said, I do love being their mom.  There are times while Elianna is working her wiles that I just stare at her and marvel at her logic that is surprisingly, well, logical.  And she gets in some snuggles that she didn't used to want and having that head nestled on my shoulder brings this rush of feeling that can't compare to anything.

Marielle changes almost daily.  She used to do this awesome shooting down the stairs on her belly like a Jamaican bobsledder that we never got on video because it only lasted about a week.  She says, "Anna" clear as day now and other words are coming.   And having this little girl want to cuddle me makes me feel like maybe I'm doing okay as a mom.

So, this post started out irritated but is ending, like most days, feeling like I'm the luckiest mom alive because I have 2 absolutely wonderful, smart, funny, beautiful girls.

My sad little blog.

I'm not even going to look and see how long it's been since the last post.  I'm pretty sure it'll be criminal and then I'll feel even worse.  Eh, it (life) happens.  We've been crazy with a move that we're still not unpacked from (and yet, here I am, writing a blog post!), birthday parties, family visits, weddings to plan for (our attendance, that is) and somehow with the use of FaceTime, blogs tend to get pushed to the back of the priority list.

Okay, I lied.  I had to check and see when I last wrote so I wouldn't duplicate anything.  I mean, if you're even still following, the last thing you want to see when a new post pops up is a repeat of information you already knew, right?  So, without further ado, the recap!

We have moved...not far but man have we moved up!  Our old landlords decided to put the house up for sale (good luck with that) so we needed a place to live.  Originally I put my foot down and said I wasn't moving to another rental but it turns out that it was really only a toe and a pinky toe at that.  If I don't want to stay in Spokane, I can't really force us to put down roots so, I had to be content with another rental.  This rental is the bee's knees however.  While it's not perfect, it's closer to what we would want to buy than the other house ever was.  There's an actual backyard, not a splintery deck with rickety stairs to a concrete slab.  There's baseboards, crown molding, actual storage...I'm in heaven.  

The girls have adjusted quite nicely, thank you.  Elianna loves the playroom and the basement.  One of those will mostly likely end up being a workout room unless we use the heated garage (did I mention I'm in heaven?) but for now there are toys galore in pretty much every room of the house.    Even with all this space we still act like we've got the one little family room so we stick to the main room mostly.

More recap later, I better get everyone up to speed on the girls.  Elianna first:  since the last post, she has started preschool in a Spanish immersion school.  She seems to really like it and they rave about her so I think we'll stick with it for awhile.  It's a little concerning that they never have anything but glowing things to say; she's our daughter and while we think she's pretty fabulous, we KNOW she's not perfect.  It kind of makes us wonder if it's a glorified daycare.  We'll see.  It's the only thing like it in Spokane and we really like the exposure to another language.

Elianna loves coloring and is really trying hard to learn how to read.  Sometimes I think she's just got the books memorized but then she'll look at a new book and dang if she doesn't know most of the words and the ones she doesn't are awfully close.  She's also our little negotiator, sometimes to her detriment.  For example, "Elianna we'll read one more story and then it's bedtime."  "What about 2?  Or 3?  Or 10?"  Or another example,  one that says that more is not always better, "Elianna you need to clean up for 5 minutes and then we can do XYZ"  "No, I think I need to clean up for 10 minutes." Okay sweet pea, you got it!

And Marielle.  She's doing so awesome.  She loves Signing Time and has picked up so many signs.   She uses them all the time which is really helpful because she wants to communicate so badly.  She isn't as clear as I remember Elianna being but the signs really help.  She also tries to color and loves 'reading'.  Basically, anything that her big sister does, Marielle wants to do. She climbs all over everything, shaking her hands up and down, asking for help if she needs it.  We're going to start her in a Mommy and me tumbling class and I think she'll love it.  She's still not sleeping through the night but it's better and I have hope that it's in our near future.  She still loves nursing so I think we'll keep on doing it, at least as long as Elianna did (20 months).

Okay, that's totally just the surface scratched but it'll have to do.  Bring on the pictures!


Marielle loves baths and would take one twice a day if we let her.

Cheese!

 Elianna falling asleep despite her best efforts.

Tea party with Miss E.

Marielle trying on her sister's wings.

Enjoying the shopping cart.  She loves the grocery store!