The Sisters

In the last month or so the girls have started playing together more and more. By now they play together the majority of the day. It is so much fun to see them truly enjoy each other as playmates. Of course the play is mainly Morgan led and I hear a lot of "Come Adrienne ..." and "Adrienne don't you want to ..." Don't worry though, Adrienne doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do. She isn't talking much, but she knows what she wants and she knows how to make those wants known. :)

Here are some of the things that have been keeping them busy lately.

Laundry Baskets

... always a good time! They especially love the "rides" I give them in the basket. Unfortunately those have become less common as my belly continues to grow.
As you can see Adrienne isn't too sure about the inevitable tipping that happens as they climb in and out.

Forts
As long as we can keep the blankets from falling down they can be entertained for hours with these. As I am working on this post we have a fort up in the living room, the play room and in the basement.
Although they would rather have one with "hallways" and "doors", sometimes they just like a little place to climb in and cuddle with their mounds of animals.

"Making Beds"
I have a love hate relationship with this game.

I love it because I get to lay down on this extra comfy bed with them and they see it as "playing". This is great as my belly grows and my contractions go crazy.

I hate it because it means they are dragging pillows and blankets and stuffed animals all over the house.

Books

Morgan has always loved being read to. She will often sit down and "read" her favorite books to herself. It always amazes me how close she comes to the actual words. She knows the idea that goes with each page and will often include some of the actual key phrases of the particular page.

So now she has started reading to Adrienne.

It is really too cute!

I'm not sure if Adrienne has ever sat still for a whole book, but I'm sure that time will come. After all, Adrienne is the busybody that will hardly sit still for me to read her a whole book.

Girls' Week

Dave was out of town this week so my mom made the trip out from Iowa to help me out. I always appreciate the way she is willing and wanting to help me out with the girls. This week she ended up being an extra special blessing.

The week before I had started having a lot of contractions followed by a lot of abdominal pain. By the time she came out on Sunday I was not feeling well at all. So having her here with me all day long was wonderful. She totally took care of the girls and I was able to get the rest I needed. I also forced myself into the nesting stage and was able to make it through all the organizing that needed to take place before Baby Chupp arrives.

The girls have both been in to combing my hair lately. So of course Mom was given several appointments at the beauty salon. I remember doing this same thing to Mom when I was little. :)

FROGS

That week we had a crazy amount of rain. I posted before about Morgan catching frogs one morning. Well, it kept raining so she was catching frogs several times that week. When our neighbor Natalie got home from school they would go to the neighborhood pond to release the frogs.

One afternoon they found one lonely frog that had been hiding in the bucket and missed his chance to be released in to the pond. SO the girls had a great time playing with him, letting him swim for short, very short periods, in their pool.

Adrienne proved to be just as brave as her sister. She figured out how to catch him in the pool and loved "playing" with him. Here she is saying "hop ... hop" just like in the video below.

I know it was hard for her, but Morgan really did a good job of letting Adrienne have her time learning about the frog. It's easier to see some days then others, but Morgan really is a great big sister.

PEACHES
We found the best peaches. So we ate A LOT of peaches that week. Mom and I also froze some for us to enjoy later. It turned out to be a pretty easy job. Of course most things are easier with my Mom helping. :)

We made a very tasty peach pie one afternoon. For some reason it seemed to take quite a while to cut up enough peaches to fill the crust. :)

So ... frogs and peaches ... that pretty much sums up the week. The girls had a blast with Grandma. It was so much fun to hear them all giggling together. Whether you're catching frogs or cleaning up your toys, everything is better when Grandma is with you.

Thank you SO much Mom!

I really don't know what I would have done without you!

My Well Rounded Girl

Morgan continues to amaze me with her different interests. She loves playing dress up, wearing spinning dresses and having pink polish on her toenails. There is another side to my girl that I consider to be a big contrast to the things I just listed. Unlike her mother, Morgan is very interested in creepy, crawly, slimy things. Not only does she want to see them. She wants to touch, and when allowed, hold them! I don't want to pass on to her my unreasonable fear of these creatures. So I have been trying to allow her to experience this part of the world as she has the chance. At the fair in Iowa I let her "pet" the nasty snake at one of the displays and even took a picture. What I really wanted to do was turn and run as fast as I could, without looking to crazy.

Ok, so on to the story of the morning. A few days back we got an insane amount of rain. Yesterday while we were at the neighbors' house Morgan got to participate in a frog rescuing operation out of their window well.

This morning my Mom, who is staying with me this week while Dave is away with work, looked out her window and saw our window well had also been invaded with frogs.

We asked Morgan if she wanted to catch some frogs.

She, of course, was all for it!

Once we got there she needed a bit to really assess the situation.

Little by little the bravery overpowered the hesitation, and before long ...


She was in the rocks catching frogs. We lost count after 10. She kept asking my Mom to try to catch one. But as you can guess part of my fear was passed on to me from my Mom, so she never could bring herself to touch one. Funny that she didn't ask me. She knows I'm a wimp when it comes to this. :)

We were so proud of our little frog catcher! By the look on her face I think she was pretty excited about her accomplishments too.