It's the Little Things

Abby:

• Abby is my singer.  She sings songs all the time, learns new songs quickly, and makes songs up every day.  My favorite new song is, "If you're on a date and can't relate, I'll be thereeeee!"  Love it.
• Abby has been learning to read and it's been so fun to help her learn new words.  She enjoys sounding out new words, following along in the hymn book at church, trying out new books, and impressing people with her ability to spell our last name.  Honestly, the last name spelling is as impressive to me as anything else in the reading world.  It took me a while before it rolled off my tongue!
• Abby has been earning money to buy a new Lego set.  It's been a nice excuse to teach her to wash windows, clean the bathroom, dust, and organize.  It's been a good exercise of teaching for me, especially since it's so much faster to just do it myself.  The other day we cleaned 3 bathrooms, which would take me half the time it took us.  But even Sam got involved and took over scrubbing (or painting, as he calls it) the toilet bowls.  And we sang the whole time. 

Sam:

• I gave Sam a haircut about a week ago.  He despises haircuts and does his best to avoid, delay, and generally make them awful for all parties involved.  Even lollipops and a movie during the haircut is not sufficient to make it an only slightly-awful experience.  So one morning, I told Sam, "Today is haircut day.  Would you like to do it this morning or after quiet time?"  I'm pretty sure he didn't hear the options because he started wailing as soon as the word haircut escaped my lips.  So I made the decision to give him 10 minutes to finish eating and just get the job done.  While I was getting everything set up, he came over and said, "Haircuts don't make people die."  With the way he responds during the process, I'm sure the neighbors are wondering if that is true...
• In case we needed additional proof that we have a male child, here are three things he has said in the last 24 hours:
• When I commented that he was sleeping crooked in his bed, he whispered excitedly, "Where's the cricket?!?"
• When Roy was washing the kids in the bath tonight and commented that the water was warm, Sam asked excitedly, "Where's the worm?"
• When I kissed him goodnight, he wiped off his cheek and said, "Eww, that's gross!"

Lydia:

• Lydia is such a Daddy's girl.  As soon as she is awake, she is rushing to get to him.  He's allowed to shower without much fuss, but she is back in his arms as soon as he is done.  When she sees my phone or the laptop during the day, she pats it and asks for Daddy.  When Roy is travelling, we Google chat daily so she's very hopeful that the computer might mean Daddy time.
• Lydia loves singing too.  She loves to do all the action songs we know, especially "Two Happy Feet, "Roll Your Hands", and "Eensey Weensey Spider".  
• Lydia is developing quite the fun (and funny) personality.  She loves to hide and jump out and scare people, she cracks up when balls bounce off the floors and walls, she teases the whole family, and tries her best to keep up with the antics of Abby and Sam.  I laughed so hard the other day when the kids were running around the house, Lydia following behind, and randomly stopping to fake sleep on the floor.  Lydia would drop as soon as Abby and Sam stopped running.  
• She can really talk now too!  I love how she says please--it's just "pssss".  It actually sounds a lot like when she requests treats.  She surprises us every day with new things she can say.  Today she asked Roy to "open" the play-doh.  Lydia also picks up books and babble reads them to herself.  It's so exciting to hear her talking!