A few of my favorite words

As the girls grow, they start to drop their funny little expressions and personalized pronunciations. I know it's important to encourage the correct words and tenses and what not, but there are just some things too cute to hurry out of their vocabulary. A few of my favorites, for posterity's sake.

Anna:
"I'm so exciting to go! I'm so EXCITING!". This was Anna's until just a few months ago, and now she corrects me when I try and encourage her to say it anymore.

Jamammies instead of pajamas.

"That's disgusty!". She's particularly fond of this one right now, especially when referring to Silvia's drool phenomenon.

"What's all the drama going on, Mama!". I think she picked this up at school and she says it constantly- on the potty, in the middle of dinner, at bedtime, etc. This makes me wonder, of course, what is all the drama going on?

"That's MIND!". Sadly, this passed into history about a year ago, but it still makes me laugh. Everything on God's green earth was "MIND!".

Silvia:
Dimosaur. She loves her dimosaurs. Anna keeps correcting her on this, but I'm trying to be as bad an influence as I can to keep it around.

"What's wrong with your face?". She hasn't been doing this lately, but for a long time she'd reach up at you during her diaper change and say it, looking all concerned. Very, ummm... sweet.

"ABC... twinkle star... rock-a-baby... lullaby... ABC". When we'd put Silvia to sleep, up until just a few months ago, she'd request all her favorite songs while we rocked. She'd request them so quickly, in fact, that we'd get the first two or three syllables in on one song and then she'd be asking for the next.

"Mama, make love!". I didn't even think about this one when she first said it, I just drew her a heart. Eventually the double-meaning sunk in, too.

I'm drawing a blank now on a lot of little quirky turns of phrase, but there are lots more. I love that they are so articulate and well-spoken, but I still miss the cute baby talk as it fades away. Proof that they're growing up... think I'll miss the last diaper, too?

Princesses

I fought it, I railed against it, I bemoaned the stereotyping and ubiquitous copyrighted characters... but the princesses won.

Disney princesses live in my house. They are in every room. The costumes are strewn across my floors, the books fill our baskets. Cinderella has taken up permanent residence in our DVD player. Every coloring book, sticker and pretend play scenario is princess-centric. We thought at first we'd lucked out with Silvia, who seemed to lean towards tomboy and would never let Anna put crowns on her head, but that's all changed.

"Mama? Cinderella's crying!", is one of the constant phrases I hear all day, those blue eyes shining in shared distress, regardless of if we've watched the movie that day or a week ago.

"Mama! Cinderella fairy gaa-mother! She go to the ball!" And then, of course, then it starts.

"I wanna be a blue princess!" And then, 10 seconds after I arrange the dress on her small frame, "I wanna be a pink princess!"

Anna, ever helpful, goads her on. "Silvia, don't you want to be Sleeping Beauty now? Then I can be Cinderella and we can dance!"

It's all very cute except for two things. One, Silvia cannot get into the dresses on her own and two, they are too long for her to walk in, so she invariably gets caught up, tangled in a princess pile on the floor having a princess tantrum.

Royalty is a heavy burden to bear.

Dust

Overheard this morning, as rays from the morning sun slanted into the room and highlighted dust motes floating in the air:

"Those are my fluffs! MOM! Cici touched my fluffs!"

Thief

Here's Anna in her nightly bed-stealing. Notice the center positioning and wide-spread arms covering the ENTIRE sleeping surface.