Happy half-birthday to Estella and Cordelia!

January 17th marked Estella and Cordelia's fist half-birthday! They are growing up so fast and are such happy, beautiful little girls. See how they have grown! (Cordelia is on the left and Estella is on the right.)


At six months old, Estella is so precious. She watches everything around her and loves to "talk" to her toys. Her favorite toys are soft, plush toys because they have tags. She is fascinated by tags and is making it her personal goal to taste every tag in our house! Estella has a beautiful smile and pure blue eyes. Her body is a very odd combination of very limp and completely stiff -- when we first pick her up, she is so limp that we have to hold her head in line with her body, but when we try to carry her, she sticks her arms straight out behind her and arches her back. It will be really nice when she learns to hold on to us when we carry her!


Estella at four months:


Estella at two months:


newborn Estella:


At six months old, Cordelia is a happy, happy child. She laughs when she see something funny (hilarious things like Adelaida walking across the room, for example), and when she smiles, her whole face lights up! She likes to taste all of her toys, whether they are plush or hard, but the toys have a tendency to jump out of her hands after just a few minutes. Cordelia started rolling over at the beginning of January, so now she can roll to get a toy that she has dropped. She sleeps on her stomach now, too, which has been a surprisingly good change for her and she does a lot better now about sleeping through the night.


Cordelia at four months:


Cordelia at two months:


newborn Cordelia:

All by herself

Adelaida is independent. I don't know how many times a day I hear "I want to do it by myself!" coming out of her little mouth.



She has always wanted to do things herself, and whenever reasonable, we encourage her to. So, she cuts her pancakes by herself, she turns lights on by herself, and she even uses the toilet by herself. Lately, she has been asking to do things that really require a second person by herself. For example, Adelaida has homework for school, and she has to print her name at the top of the paper. If Adelaida were to write her name by herself, it would look like eight little circles and no one would ever be able to decipher it, so I tell her that she can write her name and I will help her by holding the marker with her and guiding her hand to write her name. Naturally, she tells me that she wants to help herself, then grasps the marker with her right hand, places her left hand on top of her right hand, and proceeds to write her name quite illegibly. Another example is holding hands in the parking lot. One of our rules for safety is that Adelaida must hold my or Dale's hand in the parking lot, and if she doesn't agree to hold our hands, then we will pick her up and carry her in the parking lot. She is generally good about holding our hands, but sometimes she insists that she will hold her own hand. She holds her left hand out, grasps it with her right hand, and leads herself carefully through the parking lot. Not acceptable parking lot behavior, but it is quite funny to see!



Tonight, we heard another new "I want to do it by myself" incident.

We are constantly telling Adelaida that she needs to be a happy girl. Unfortunately, she has a tendency to whine when she wants something and to yell and scream when she is upset. This might just be a function of her being three years old, but we don't like it and encourage her to be happy instead of whiny or upset.

Today, Adelaida had a great day. She was happy, playing by herself and with her sisters all day long ... until Dale tried to get her ready for her bath and she wanted to continue playing. She started to get just a little bit upset, and Dale picked her up, sat her on his lap, and told her that she needed to be happy. This is what I heard:

Dale: "Adelaida, it's OK, stop squirming, I just want to talk to you."
Adelaida: "No! Don't talk to me! I just want to talk to myself!"
Dale: "OK, you can talk to yourself in a minute, but I need you to be a happy girl tonight."
Adelaida: "Don't talk to me! I want to talk to myself in the hallway!"
Dale: "OK, you can talk to yourself in the hallway. What are you going to say to yourself?"
Adelaida: "No Daddy! Don't talk!"

She squirmed out of Dale's lap and ran to the hallway. There, we heard her say sternly, "Adelaida! You need to be a happy girl! Don't be upset. Now go back to the bonus room and be happy to Daddy."

The next thing we knew, she was running into the room, toward Dale, giggling and laughing, and jumped into his lap. She said to him, "I'm ready for my bath now! I'm going to be happy!"

Dale and I looked at each other and laughed, and I realized that even a three-year-old can decide to have a good attitude and make it happen.