pregnik

Here's a pic of the girls wearing my "pregnik" shirts as dresses. For some reason Larkin has a hard time saying "pregnant" and always says "pregnik." I must admit that I haven't worked too hard to teach her the correct pronunciation--pregnik sounds way cuter than pregnant.

Here's some funny things the girls have said since they found out that I'm pregnik.

Willa:
-"I really hope it's a girl. If it's a boy, I won't teach it anything!!"
-(terrified) "Mommy, don't go swimming!! You'll get the new baby all wet!!"
-"Slug bug blue! Punch the baby, Mom!"

For the first few weeks after Willa found out about the baby she always referred to it as hers. If anyone said something like, "Oh wow, your mom is having a baby!" then Willa would say, "No, it's my baby."
She then talked constantly about all the things she was going to do with HER baby.
-"I can't wait to sleep with my new baby. She can sleep right here in my bed and I'll hold her tight. Don't worry, she won't fall off my bed."

Eventually she finally grasped that we were not going to let her take this baby to her room and raise it herself. Then she started saying things like,
"Are you sure you don't have two babies in there? One for me? Why not?"
And when talking to adults about the baby, she often says in a disappointed voice, "There's only one baby in there, you know."

Larkin
-"I can't wait to have my own baby. But where do you find a husband?"
-"Where is the baby in there? Do you have a pouch like a kangaroo?"
"I think we should name the baby Pearl. Who cares if Papa thinks that sounds like a waitress?"
and my favorite:
-"How many kids are you going to have, anyway? I think three is plenty."

swimming, biking, and playing

We took the girls to Marble Falls this weekend for some swimming. It's getting close to 100 degrees now almost everyday, so swimming is a must! We swam in the lake and then found this great city pool that has a diving board. The deep end was closed for cleaning when we first arrived, but once it opened Larkin and Willa were one of the first ones in line to use the board. It was their first time (you hardly ever see pools with diving boards anymore!) and they LOVED it! Willa went maybe 5 times and then quit because she kept getting water up her nose. Larkin easily jumped over 20 times and was diving and doing cannonballs in no time.

Willa

Larkin

Larkin has learned how to ride Willa's bike without training wheels! True to her personality (stubborn as all hell), she refused any help from anyone and figured it out on her own. We took the training wheels and pedals off the bike first so that she could learn how to balance. She rode it for a few hours each day in the house. Then after about a week or two she finally agreed to try it with the pedals back on. I told her that we'd probably need to hold the back of her bike to help her balance, but she wouldn't let us and refused to even try if we came anywhere near her. She figured it out though and within a matter of minutes was biking all around our house!

Willa wanted her bike back and Larkin's bike is still a bit big for her to ride safely without training wheels, so we're back to training wheels for now.

Here's a cute pic of them biking around our neighborhood. They're just now big enough to follow directions enough to ride in the neighborhood instead of just in empty parking lots or biking trails. The first time they biked around the 'hood they said, "That was the best bike ride EVER!! Let's do that everyday!" And since then, we pretty much have!
The girls love to bake--here they are making yeast bread and homemade butter. The small glass jar is the butter. They had to shake-shake-shake the cream for close to 20 minutes before it turned into butter. After about 2 minutes ("This takes forever!") they thought for sure they were done! They stuck with it though and were so shocked when suddenly the cream started thickening and then turned into a huge clump of butter!


Bathtime
I've been meaning to take/post a picture about bathtime for quite a while now. Aunt Jaime gave the girls these little Disney dolls last summer, and the girls use them in the bath and play with them EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. There's not many toys you can say that about. It's so funny to just sit back and listen to them play (they usually do not want us to listen at all and tell us to get out while they play dolls-the bathtub they use is connected to our master bedroom, so usually I just sit in bed and watch/listen to them from a distance.)
Everyday there's a new storyline. Sometimes dolls are swimming in the ocean and trying to avoid the sharks, or lining up to dance with the prince, or talking endlessly to each other about little things like birthday parties or balls. They almost always play together and have their dolls interact with each other, and usually play for at least 15 minutes straight. The only thing they disagree on though is who gets the prince! We only have one of him and he is always fought over. He had to be packed away for a few weeks due to all the arguing!

canoeing

A few weeks ago we took the girls canoeing. They loved seeing all the wildlife--we spotted tons of different birds, an alligator gar, turtles, swans, ducks, and even a few water moccasins in a tree! Joel steered our boat just a little too close to these snakes--I almost jumped overboard--my part of the boat was right next to them. They didn't move at all though and left us alone! If you look closely, you can see them in the middle of the picture.


Here's a pic of the girls using their field guides to identify birds. Willa kept insisting that everything she saw was a road runner. We tried to explain to her that road runners live near roads, but she wouldn't have any of it. "No! It says right here that it's a road runner so I know that it's a road runner. My book says so."