some dance moves

Here's my attempt to re-create Whitney's dance performance since our video didn't turn out. At the end when she smiles it's like the smile from the real performance, except she did that the whole time!

a good 3 weeks

The last couple of weeks seemed busy, but they were really good. Yes I felt sick most of the time. But I have had very few exhausting conflicts with the girls. They have been very good lately! Maybe we're just in between crazy phases, but I'm so grateful for the pause in constant parenting crises. I'm grateful that I have spent less time each day thinking "what can I do to prevent this from happening?" and more time listening to happy voices playing.

Two things we have done deliberately have contributed to this I believe. First, I have been praying for patience and help to pause before responding to my girls. Those 2 seconds of peace that I have been blessed with before I say something have helped me so much to be calm. As I have stayed calm, ideas and solutions have presented themselves. Also Katelyn and Whitney, especially Whitney, have stayed calmer and -surprise!- more rational. And we have had less conflicts- which proves my unfortunate theory that I was the one causing problems with my attitude. Yes, they would start it, but I needed to chill. And it has helped.

Next, Katelyn and Whitney have been physically challenged the last couple of weeks with swim lessons, and they both responded favorably. I think that success and confidence has affected their overall behavior. Oh, and also they both earned enough stickers from doing chores to go on dates with Dad.

So here's the pictures. This one's randomly unrelated to the rest, but it was so cool! We went to the parade of homes in Salt Lake, and this was the UP house, just like in the movie of the same name. SO COOL! The girls loved all the details of the movie in it. Then at a later house, a guy was handing out "Ellie Club" badges, you know, the grape soda cap on a pin, and the girls were amazed to get one! So cute.

Here's Whitney with her swim class. In the 3-year-old class she learned how to blow bubbles, dunk her head under, jump to her teacher, and worked on floating and stroking and kicking. They played a lot too, and she had lots of fun.

Katelyn's on the right, about to push off the wall and swim. I am SO impressed with her progress! She went from maybe being able to dunk her head under and refusing to even try to float or do anything remotely like swimming, to almost real swimming! She tried everything her teachers asked her to do, and was never afraid but talked about how much fun she was having. If only she had an ounce of body fat, she might be able to float better! As it is, she can front float okay, but back float she sinks like a rock. She can swim probably one body length though, and then she comes up for air. She loves jumping into the shallow end, doing cannon balls or belly flops. And she went down the big water slide all by herself and loved it! I'm just so excited for her to be able to enjoy the water!

Of course we had to go with Eric a couple of times so they could show him what they learned. Whitney's favorite thing to do is put on these floaties and "swim" in the lazy river.

The girls have gotten SO TAN from all this swimming! And Kate's hair is a little lighter too. Not so much Whitney's.

This drinking fountain is at the pool, and on the first day Whitney discovered this way to reach it, so funny.

The other thing that's helped Whitney I think is we put her in a little dance class with the City and she loved it! They had their end-of-the-summer performance on Saturday and she was SO cute! Sadly it was outside in a pavilion and the lighting was terrible, so our video turned out too dark. And the camera decided to run out of battery so I only got one lame picture. Here's the before picture:

And here she is during the performance. The BEST part was that the whole time she had this SUPER cute, somewhat forced "performance smile" on her face. You can kind of see it in this picture. It was SO adorable. She just lit up and did all the little moves, and seemed pretty proud of herself when they were done.

And now we'll finish up our summer with a little more boating, swimming, the fair, snowcones, and occasionally doing 5 chores to earn a movie. :)

girl play

Have I mentioned that I am so grateful every day that Whitney and Katelyn have each other? Two years apart is so perfect. The last year has been full of constant imaginative play for them. All day. Every day. Yes they do fight, a lot. But sometimes they play so nicely for so long that I just have to stop and watch (or secretly listen) for a while.

They spend more time with each other then anyone else, so they are the biggest influence on each other too. It's interesting to think how they are shaping each other's personalities and views of the world. For the most part they are good for each other- they know how to annoy each other the best, so if they can work it out and get along with each other, I guess it will teach them how to get along with other people!

It makes me think of how much my siblings, especially Allison, must have shaped me. She's the one I played with the most, and I can see how, even though we are very different, I just understand her and the way she thinks. I didn't play with Katrina as much, or she says we would make her be the dog or something, (sorry!) but still I think you gain this basic commonality or understanding with someone by spending SO much time with them in your formative years. I'm so happy my girls will have that with each other.

ANYWAY, Katelyn and Whitney's pretend play usually falls into one of the following categories:

Brothers: In this game they assume the roles of their alter-egos, named John (Whitney) and Sam (Katelyn). They have all kinds of adventures and occasionally do more boyish things than they would in real life, like hunt.

Family: Katelyn's usually the mom, and Whitney's the son, named John (surprise, surprise) ( I sometimes wonder if it's healthy for Whitney to pretend to be a boy for a few hours a day??) and they have a baby sister too, which is usually played by Whitney's pig. The dad is normally at work, and sometimes I volunteer to be the dad and then I go to work (aka do whatever I was doing before). This game is usually true to real life, with eating and sleeping and the occasional tragedy or excitement.

John and Maddie: This game is about a boy and girl and usually spans a large portion of their life- they play John and Maddie as little kids meeting and being friends, being teenagers and "dating" ( this part is usually short because they don't know much about this phase obviously) and then getting married (they hold hands and turn around in circles singing "marry, marry" and then hug and they're "married") and having kids. I'm sure you can guess who plays John and who plays Maddie. Oh and their last name is Benson for some reason. Sometimes in this game they also play church or school.

Friends: occasionally they play friends and they are both girls, named Mitten and Maddie for some reason. Obviously they never play sisters! Because that wouldn't be playing!

Sometimes they play versions of these games with dolls, barbies, cars, trains, or stuffed animals. I have also seen variations that involve pirates or other bad guys, princes and princesses, forts, boats, or playing in water(or snow).

They love any kind of art, and puzzles and games, but those usually involve me and they are them selves, not any of their alter-egos.

I love my funny, sweet little girls. I can't wait to see how our new baby will fit into the mix. I guess I still have a couple of years until the child will be able to participate in any of their games! And it will be fun to see Whitney get to be the big sister when Katelyn's at school, because right now Katelyn's definitely in charge!

And those are my thoughts today on playtime, as I sit here feeling sick and so glad they are playing happily with out any help from me. Probably I just jinxed it by writing that and I'll be breaking up a fight in 30 seconds. :)