Sweethearts in Strawberries

Just an itty bitty little Valentine post from me to you.

This year Lucy and Polly and I were able to wear our three special vintage dresses again. These dresses belonged to my mom, my sister and I when I was a baby and there is a framed picture from probably 1977 or 78 of us together wearing ours. Now, sitting next to it, is another framed picture of the girls and I wearing these dresses last year. I'm so glad we got to squeeze in another chance to wear them now, as my baby is two and my big girl is three and a half and they're growing out of clothes like little wild weeds!

I don't know why I think of them as Valentine's Day dresses; they didn't necessarily serve that exact purpose when I was little and I think my mom dressed us in these for many occasions. Addie and I have passed the grown up one back and forth and worn it regularly since the 90s. But taken all together...well, matching this precisely with one's toddler daughters is not something that one does every day here in 2016. I mean, I'm tempted but....it's a lot. It's reserved for special occasions!

We also painted all our toenails pink.

Tidbits about my Valentines right now:

Polly is working hard on pronouns: "Let's go in we van." (Oh yeah, we bought a used mini van!)

Lucy has demonstrated that she has wanderlust this time of year just like her old mom. She brings up our trip to Stinson Beach, our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and our trip to visit Matt and Amy in Utah all the time. She loves to discuss plans for upcoming trips and daydream about flying or taking a boat or a raft to Hawaii. 

Polly officially likes her first television show (she's quite opposite of Lucy and up to this point has paid absolutely no attention to anything on the screen). It's Peppa Pig, and I can get her to watch about twenty minutes worth, which means: quick dinner prep!

Lucy's favorite things are: volcanoes, space, dragons, monsters, books, poetry (The Highwayman, The Jabberwocky), Octonauts, spooky stuff, silly song lyrics, and make believe. She's still into dinosaurs too. Makes arts and crafts, can cut with scissors pretty well now, uses glue and glitter and puts giant eyelashes all they way around the eyes of most of her drawings so they look really Tim Burtonesque. 

Polly loves to read aloud to herself and makes up stories as she reads books endlessly. She particularly loves the My First Little House series and you can hear her reading under her breath, "And Laura and Mary and they was swinging. And baby Carrie, and she was walking and ooooeeee. And the horses Pet and Patty getting tired and they was hungry and they mama made them dinner and Pa and the Wagon.." 

Polly is also still really into babies, whether in books or in real life or in the toyworld of our playroom. She carries "babies" in "ergos" constantly (buttoned into her clothing usually) and nurses them, comforts them, gives them rides through the air and makes them laugh: "I swinging her! Now she's laughing. She all better now!"  

Lucy loves to roam the yard and find edible plants to nibble: mint, miner's lettuce, chickweed and violets.

Both girls are naturally interested in expressions, word choice, and memories. Polly will surprise me sometimes by saying something like: "Nana brought this for me YESTERday," or "DARN it, this not working anymore." Today I saw Lucy gently getting something out of Polly's mouth and I asked, "What was in her mouth?" And Lucy replied, "Oh just some RANDOM thing." I laughed and commented on her use of that word and she looked at me and said, "That's not the first time I've said random Mom!"

Their favorite activities to do together: drawing, hiding, pretending the vacuum is a terrible swamp crocodile, riding the teeter totter (Lucy spins it by pushing off with her right leg, in incredibly, kind of scary, fast circles while Polly just holds on for dear life), and playing in "forts," "caves" or "boats" they make out of pillows, old suitcases, boxes, chairs, and blankets. They fight wildly, primitively, physically: pulling hair, pushing, sometimes biting. They also kiss messily, stare into each other's eyes, and sit almost on top of each other to read together or share.

I recently overheard Tootie say to her sister, "Polly, when I grow up I think I want to be married with you."

I think I want to be married to all of them.

In case you're wondering why this post fails to mention my true sweetheart, my actual Valentine, well by the time Darin got home from work the girls were more noticeably fighting some flu-like illness, tired and  fussy and belligerent, and we barely had time to connect. We never even got to watch the movie we had planned to watch together, and thus began a series of restless nights and we didn't sleep for a week. You'll have to just believe me when I tell you, I love him too!

I hope you have all had a sweet month of February. As my teaching life settles into some sense of routine I hope to post here a little more often.

Love to you all.