Once upon a Beebster

Faith has been singing the "Once Upon a Dream" song from "Sleeping Beauty" now for about a week or so. It's adorable. She hums it perfectly, and "sang" it yesterday over the phone to Tia Rosa for her 25th birthday.

She also is obsessed with the "Lilo and Stitch" soundtrack that she checked out of the library, and wants to hear the Hawaiian songs over and over again. Of course, she knows and recognizes almost every other Disney song imaginable and LOVES "Heigh Ho." She wants Maddie and I to set up all of the dwarfs on the couch in a line and pretend that they are coming home from work while singing that.

Another funny thing lately with the Beebster is that she has now put HERSELF in a time-out on three different occasions. It's so weird! On the day that it iced horribly here, I took them out to snow tube (bad, bad, bad idea considering it is ICE and not SNOW and Maddie fell off of the snow tube and of course it hurts to hit ice at that speed! Faith noticed right away while waiting her turn that this wouldn't be a good idea, and high tailed it down from the hill to me as fast as her little legs could carry her!) and she wasn't being too cooperative in putting on her gloves. I only gave her a warning of a time-out and asked her "do you want a time-out because that's where you're going next.." and she responded with a happy "ESS!" and went up the stairs to stand in her corner of her room. Maddie and I were baffled, and I couldn't stop laughing. It didn't stop there though because then yesterday and today, she completely out of the blue would stop what she was doing (and she was playing and not doing anything remotely deserving of a time-out!) and say "Momma, dis.." and point to her room. She would lead me by the hand to her room and stand there in her corner and wave goodbye to me! She had her head down as if she had done something bad, but then would start smiling and winking. Crazy! She's hilarious. She even put her dolls in a time-out today.

Clearly, I will be having to come up with a different form of discipline;) 

Strolling through the zoo

Faith-y walking behind us at the zoo and chatting about a million things!

Beebster

Playing with Disney figures.. I love when she has the bad guys come in and knock out the good guys, and then a prince always comes to the rescue!

Caricature obsessed

My little Floppins loves her drawings of her family. She is ALWAYS wanting me to draw her a picture of "Momma, Da-da, Dee, Dis." The drawings have become more elaborate though. She now usually wants Bop Bop (Grampa), Nene, and then depending on the day either the 7 dwarfs, the swamp creature, Ernie, or all of the above. A picture that I made her the other day of our family with Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Bashful, Happy, and Doc kept her occupied forever. It was so funny. She had it laid out on the carpet and got all of the dwarf figures to place on each caricature of that given dwarf. She's been obsessed lately with them, and I am desperate to borrow my VHS copy of "Snow White" that I have still at Nene's house. That is the one princess movie that we don't have on DVD. She also carries around Anastasia, Drizella, and the Stepmother from "Cinderella" which makes me laugh considering they are all villains. She sets up these girls and all of the dwarfs in the dollhouse and plays forever. She's becoming the elaborate "set-up maker" that Maddie is, and it's adorable to watch.

She is constantly labeling anyone and everyone though as a "Momma, Da-Da, Dee, and Dis." She loves their "Fancy Nancy" books and I HAVE to say that the Mom and Dad are Dan and I, and that Nancy and her little sister are Dee and Dis. It's so funny. She does that with every book she reads. 

She's all of a sudden been saying "Mommy" and "Daddy," and I think she gets a kick out our reactions. We're SO very accustomed to "Momma" and "Da-da" (well "Daddy" from Cran) that it really sounds almost bizarre- at least for me- to answer to 'Mommy!' It makes me laugh how she says it. She then does her cute face, and gives me a leg hug. Speaking of her cute face, she does this all the time to be flirtatious. I wish it would have stuck with the 'stinky eyes' (although she does still do this) so that I could have rested easier knowing that stinky eyes would be her mode of flirting for quite some time. Haha.

Little woman is still continuing to want to, and show quite an interest, in the toilet. I really think it has to do with wanting to be like big sis, because she seems so young to me. But, she definitely understands the correlation between going to the bathroom and the need for the toilet. She always tells me right after she goes and wants to go sit on the toilet, and from time to time, catches herself right before and does poop or pee on the toilet. She's even almost finished her stash of jellybeans. Maddie always knew that she had gone in her diaper, but never felt the need or desire then to sit on the toilet. Until she was good and ready of course. But, Faith I guess does feel the desire to start learning, which is also fine with me. I think she'll learn a lot more gradually than Maddie did, but I am super proud regardless. 

Simply irresistible

The only song that I can think of right now to fit the Beebster is the classic, "Simply Irresistible." She is absolutely irresistible.

It is now nearly 9:00pm and, as I write, the little Flopper is standing right here next to me hugging my waist. She is so very, very full of beans. Maddie went to bed within 5 minutes of their 7pm bedtime, but Faith is now probably on about her 19th time of sneaking out of her room. Her sneaking out now goes like this:

I sit here in the bedroom and hear some muffled breathing. This is accompanied shortly after by seeing a tuft of hair doing the low army crawl into our room with her head to the ground. She keeps her head low and her eyes transfixed on the carpet so as to avoid eye contact, and thus, avoid being "seen" (or so she believes!). It's absolutely hilarious. I can not stop laughing when she does this. Sometimes she'll also come in with her hands over her eyes and slowly peel each finger away revealing her eyes and her sneaky smile. Other times she has come out with her stuffed penguin, and I only see a penguin waving to me kind of like a white surrender flag. There have also been two other times when I went out with Dan thinking that she had finally gone to sleep, only to notice that her little head is poking out of the cottage door and waving to us... with her eyes closed nonetheless to avoid eye contact yet again.

I had to let her come out and play for a little while because she is too darn irresistible. She was setting up the Momma's and the Da-da's in the big Playmobil dollhouse. Then we decided to call Nene and Grampa (who she now refers to as Bop Bop) because she loves to talk to them in the night. She was hilarious. She wanted to talk to Uncle Schnoogo then too, but once he got on the other end of the phone, she goes "I don't want Dis" (as in, I don't want to talk to 'this'- or Uncle Schnoogo!). Eth thought she had told him she loves him, and he was quite distressed when I laughed and told him what she had really said. She cracks me up!

How am I supposed to send her to bed when she's dancing with her polka dot cozies on and shaking her butt doing the "butt move?!"

******

The little ladies had a blast yesterday with their D.D. and Baby Cuz. Faith was SO excited to see Flup and Ella, and now calls Flupper "Blooby" it sounds like. She was so funny with her Ella who she just adores. She would put out her arms and Ella would walk to her, and they stood there hugging for quite some time on a few occasions. She's always wanting to pat her head and give her hugs.

She got a Road Ripper motorcycle for her birthday yesterday from her cousins. I haven't stopped hearing "It's Ninja Wheelie time" in the past 2 days! She and Cran are hilarious with it because they put their princess dolls on it and then send the motorcycle crashing into the kitchen wall. 

Sweet, sweet girl

I am a firm believer in that the "terrible two's" really don't exist, and it's moreso the 18 months-24 months that can prove to be the test. Although I have come up with this theory on my own, it seems to have held its weight for my two precious ladies. 

I think little Beebster was a prime candidate for my theory, and it has held true. She, however, started testing us quite early at about 9 months of age but I've noticed that she has mellowed out quite a bit since turning over the 2-year old milestone. I guess she has matured. Ha.

I really, truly do believe that it is the 18 months-24 months that is the pickle though. Although Maddie never tested us nearly as much as Faith, she also had her moments that almost all fell into that same age category as well. Faith of course has been our handful from the get-go, and I love that about her. She was making life slightly more difficult though for about a month or so there with her rebelling against the simplest things-- putting on her shoes, socks, getting her coat zipped, etc etc. Of course all of this was always followed up with the ever-so-popular (and ear piercing) teenage girl screech that she is famous for. 

Although the teenage girl screech is still a Beebster trademark, she has reverted back to now using it as a sign of delight again instead of distress. She hasn't had a Beebster time-out in weeks, and I honestly can't even remember the last time. 

She's always been our sweet little Beebster. And, feisty all at the same time. That's what makes up the Beebster personality! Now her sweetness is shining through more than ever. I love this age. She's so much fun. She went through her Da-da period the entire summer and fall, and now is all about her Momma. I love it! She and I went out for a walk yesterday afternoon while Cran stayed to start the ice cream sandwiches with Dan. It's always awesome to get the two of them by themselves, and Faith kept talking to me about Boo's and Baa's and the swamp creature. She's too funny. 

She's my simple little Beebster that requires just a few things in her life to make her happy: her Ernie. her cows and sheep. her Dee. her Da-da. and, her Momma. I couldn't imagine a better little sister for Cran (and, a better big sister to this new baby) or a sweeter little girl to be ours.