I’m not sure what’s come over Lex lately,
but I’m not complaining! He is overcome with pure love lately!
He pretty much put himself to bed tonight. We did an early bath
today (playing out in the mud this afternoon) and then had
dinner. I was going to let them play until 7:00pm then start
stories, but at 6:30 he cleaned up his toys and asked me to
read him stories. After the usual two stories he said it was
time for teeth. We brushed and read one more story and then he
said it was time for bed. Just barely 7:00pm! So he and I went
up and he asked me to lay with him for two songs (he still
falls asleep to Barenaked Ladies). I laid down and he grabbed
me and hugged me and grabbed my face (note to self: time to
clip his nails!) and kissed me over and over and over. I
couldn’t stop laughing. Sooo adorable :) Then he asked if I’d
hold his hand, so I did. Who can resist that! Back in the days
of bedtime battles, we went through a phase where he always
wanted me to lay down with him. I did, for a long time, but
usually hated it because after the battle I just wanted to go
downstairs and have “me” time. Now that he goes to bed so
sweetly, on the occaisions that he asks Alan or I to lay down
with him we’re both happy to oblige! It’s nice to spend a few
more minutes with the super sweet boy before he falls asleep.
I’m sure this too is just a phase, but I am loving
it!!!

Kids can drive you insane, but
at the same time they can be the most amazing little creatures.
Both kids seemed to have entered a new phase in life. Lex has
quite suddenly become a very friendly, polite, lovey, and
helpful little kid. He’s always been that, I guess, but now
it’s so much more consistent. He is full of hugs and kisses and
“I love yous” to everyone. He hugs and kisses Eve all the time,
tells me he loves me, gives Alan great big hugs, and frequently
checks in to make sure I’m happy. Yesterday I hurt my toe (it’s
all swollen and lovely shades of purple, black and blue!) and
Lex ran right over to see if he could kiss it and make it
better :) Later in the day I commented that my toe really hurts
and Lex looked all confused and said “but I kissed it to make
it better. Do you want me to kiss it again?” I love the love!!
He goes to bed easily, both at night and at quiet time. Most
nights he asks to say good night to Eve and so I put her in his
bed. He wraps his arms around her and hugs her and kisses her
and sings her a song. That melts my heart. They lay in his bed,
arms around each other, singing the alphabet together. Sooooo
sweet!!!

Eve, on the other hand, has
entered a feisty phase. She’s still adorable and silly and
sweet, of course, but now we can add stubborn, feisty, and
temperamental to the list as well. It all seemed to start after
the stomach virus thing and I have a feeling she’s not quite
right still. I thought maybe she had a UTI, but I spoke with
the doc and he said the symptoms don’t necessarily agree (it
was a Sunday so we didn’t bring her in). He didn’t have any
other theories though, so we’ll just wait and talk to her
regular doc at her 2yr check up. But she’s been very fussy
lately, crying often for little or no reason, she cries a few
times each night (doesn’t really wake up, but cries for a few
minutes in her sleep), and it takes her forever to fall asleep
and she wakes up much earlier than usual — earlier than Lex
most mornings! She used to be my prize sleeper and now she’s
not! She also lost all interest in potty training. She likes to
tell me when she’s peeing and pooping (though I think she is
now confused about which is which, perhaps because of the
diarrhea a few weeks ago or just toddler senile?), but when I
ask if she wants to move to the potty she says “No, just pee in
diaper.” On the bright side, she loves Lex’s hugs and often
hugs him back. And she’s almost 2!!! Just one more week of my
baby and then she’s officially a toddler and I’ll have no more
babies in the house. Sigh.

Eve finally gets to enjoy the
cupcakes we made for a friend’s birthday party
today.

We have a cute book called “My Friend and
I” by Lisa Jahn-Clough. It’s about a little girl who befriends
her neighbor and they have fun until a toy breaks. It’s cute.
Sometimes when I’m reading it to one of the kids I’ll ask if
they have a friend. Without fail they say the other one. I say,
“Eve, do you have a friend?” She says, “Lex!” Or I’ll say,
“Lex, who is your friend?” and he immediately says Eve :) So
cute! Eve has started “reading” the book to herself a lot and
she always labels the kids “Eve” and “Lex”. I like that they
are friends :)

As you all know, Lex is an
awesome speller! Right? :) Sometimes he surprises me with his
spelling abilities, like knowing which words need a “silent e”
at the end, and other times he surprises me with his creatively
misspelled words. He built a train station with blocks the
other day and asked me to write a sign for it. I grabbed the
DoodlePro and asked him how to spell “Train Station?” He got
“train” right and confidently spelled “station” as “Stashne”
Sta-sh-ne. I can see where he coming from with that spelling.
Yesterday I made stencils for him and using the circle stencil
he drew a pizza. The top word in the picture is his spelling of
“pizza.” Pete-sae. I showed him the proper spelling and tried
to explain how words aren’t always prounced as they are
spelled. The learning process is amazing.