Grace has begun drawing people! She now draws faces everywhere she can, holds dialogues with them, and tries to feed them, etc. She gets upset if we don't know who they are - like it is so obvious we must be dense not to know!

Jasmin also has picked up on the play and does her own drawing (scribbling) and play. But she soon gives up and goes back to her beloved animal toys! Mommy has often gotten confused as she plays with them, making them call out "Mommy! Mommy!" "What's this?" etc and the real Mommy isn't so sure who she is talking to! Grace and Jasmin will play this with each other too. Their favorite scenario is bedtime... "Go to sleep now." "Mommy! Drink...!" "There. now sleep. Lie down." Fun to watch, and a good check to make sure Mommy's doing a good job - they are copying our real bedtime!

...with childlike faith...

We started Lent early this year. I wanted to go "Creation to Christ" and it worked out to more weeks than traditional Lent because I wanted two days per story to make sure something stuck with Grace and Jasmin! When Grace is trying to grasp something, she asks for it over and over, sometimes from the same question/angle, sometimes from different ones. We have heard a lot about these circles' meanings over the last week or two... It is something quite precious to hear them acting it out with their animal friends or explaining things to Daddy in the evenings.

We went to a public swim today, invited by a family from church. (I forgot about it being March Break - it was SO loud and busy!) Grace and Jasmin were so excited to go but when we actually got there, they were afraid of the water and all the people. We left very proud though. Grace turned her over-and-over technique onto her fear and insisted in jumping into the pool (into our arms) and getting behind the roaring waterfall in the kiddy pool (!? more scary than the enclosed shallow pool, in our opinion) over and over until by the end of the hour she didn't want to leave! So we all came home quite pleased - but not exactly refreshed!

Jasmin is is in the spooning things around stage. We tried with the traditional beans and rice, but Mommy can't quite get away from the fact that they are food, so she doesn't get the freedom in play with them as Mommy'd like her to have. So we found a substitute in a bag of fluff pompoms... A win-win because Mommy doesn't mind the mess and Jasmin is more easily successful :o)

Oh, and we are having wonderful spring weather! So we have been out in the back yard... Even Mommy couldn't resist and the three of us spent a happy hour or so spreading the leftover snow from from the colder corners of our yard into the snow to melt faster :o) Mommy checked the soil in the garden bed, but it is still too frozen to work it yet. Daddy bought Mommy some trowels, knowing her eagerness; all three of his girls are barely waiting till that ground is soft enough to put them to use! Thankfully there is three utensils in the packet he bought :o) Geese were continually flying in honking V's above us... joyful reminders that it truly is Spring!

It took us a long time to finally be bug free at our house... even as recently as Saturday, the girls were displaying the signs of still being unwell. 5 pm after an easy at home day they couldn't stay awake any longer! They fell asleep, and then I changed them into pajamas - and they didn't wake. Now that is solidly asleep!



But this week has begun with more normal amounts of energy... and finally some good interest in what Mommy does around their play! Jasmin learning about mopping... with a running commentary of "wet!" and "whaaamess!"Jasmin decided she wants to be in panties like big sister Grace this week. Conveniently we had just run out of diapers :) She isn't doing all that badly considering she isn't yet 2. Today we had two pees in the potty with evidence that she had begun and stopped to make it to the potty! She was so delighted, dancing with joy and pleased as punch under everyone's praise.
I've been so nervous to try with her, despite her obvious interest because she is still struggling with irregular bowel movements that are more often than not explosive diarrhea... but so far, so good. We have take her off all juice and are curbing her fruit intake, which seems to be working - most of the time! I do wish we had a doctor who would help us sort out what is going on with her digestive system, but I guess we're not doing too badly with our own trial and error style :o)