The best things in life start with "B"......

Seriously, I never realized (but now do, thanks to Kate and Julia) how many of my favorite things start with the letter "b". The list includes, but of course isn't limited to, beaches, babies, bubbles, baths, bubbles in the bath, brownies, butterflies, books....well, you get the point. And to be fair--a lot of those aforementioned favorite aren't really my favorites, rather, they're the girls'. We were outside yesterday, and the girls were freaking out b/c they wanted to go back to the beach. Julia also wanted the bubbaflies to go to the beach, along with Lovey and bubbles. I clearly have too much time on my hands, as my mind started to wander and I had the epiphany that the girls and I really dig things that start with the letter "b". Anyway, I don't know why I felt the need to share, but there you go.

We spent all of last week at the shore with Scott's parents. So. Much. Fun. Seriously, it was a blast--not many people are lucky enough to have in-laws that they can spend a week with and then be disappointed that that week flew by! We didn't have the best of weather, but it didn't even matter. The girls were beyond thrilled to be hang out with their grandparents, and it's been a rough adjustment for all of us to be back in the real world.

Bama (aka, Scott's mom) introduced Julia to sponge rollers, or "roaders", in Julia-speak. Julia was so enthralled with the roaders, that she insisted on wearing them. In public. To the zoo. To say we received some strange looks would be an understatement. Luckily, all the women we encountered were generous with the knowing smiles, and the "been there, done that" comments. Some battles just aren't worth fighting, especially when your opponent is a willful and headstrong two and a half year old. And, as Pat/Bama/Scott's mom, pointed out, Julia's hair put a lot of smiles on the faces of strangers.

The girls loved the zoo. Julia loved it so much that as soon as we saw the bears, she started screaming. Our little fearless wonder wanted to "go play yard with bear"--she was literally trying to jump the fence to get to the caged area. Crazy monkey!

Kate wasn't as interested in watching the animals--mainly b/c a lot of the zoo is in this heavily wooded area, and to see the animals, you walk on this never-ending (and wide) wooden bridge. Kate likes to run and was enjoying spazzing out in all that open space. She surprised us on the way to the zoo by asking if we would see flamingoes. Umm, I didn't even know that she knew what a flamingo was. Since I had no idea whether or not the 'mingoes would be there, I told her that they wouldn't. Boy was she psyched to find out Mommy was wrong--I'm not sure I've ever seen her so happy.

There were so many precious moments (barf, can't believe I just said that as I HATE the Hallmark figurines that go by the same name) during the week. It's hard to know which ones to write down here, or which ones to store away.

The one that sticks out the most in my mind, though, happened one night at dinner. The adults were eating while the girls played and Scott's parents were making a toast to vacation. Scott piped in with a toast to Kate and Julia, and was quickly interrupted by Kate yelling "yay, Bama Grandpa, yay, Grandpa David!" Her timing was impeccable, and what was particularly sweet was that prior to her contribution, she had never called Scott's dad anything other than "Grandpa." She obviously picked up on Pat calling Dave by his first name, and it was soooo sweet.

The girls loved the beach--the water was almost warm, still a bit chilly, but warm enough that you did eventually get used to it without feeling like your extremities were going numb. Kate was fascinated and disgusted by the seaweed, and the first time she saw it, thought it was cat puke and asked me to clean it up. By the end of the trip, she decided she liked seaweed and would run up and down the water's edge looking for seaweed to talk to. Did I mention she never stops talking :) ?

Our travels are coming to a halt for now, but Mimi (my mom) will be out here in 2.5 weeks--yay! She managed to time her visit to coincide with the girls' first week of school which will be perfect--I may need the emotional support!

Heart hug, off to clean.

TIDBITS........

I have to rush through this post as I'm supposed to be getting ready to go out of town......but there are some things I need to write down so my already horrid memory doesn't forget just how sweet life can be. When I return from vacay, perhaps I'll try and organize these "thoughts" in a more mannerly fashion, but, eh....I doubt it!

*The girls are definitely digging being sisters these days....that's not to say they don't fight, but there has been a lot of positive play time going on. This leads to some really cute moments that make me get that melty-gushy feeling. For instance, we were swimming the other day, and Julia was talking about her purple finger (which Kate slammed the door on about 3 wks. ago). She loves to talk about her boo-boo, and mentions it to me at least 100x a day. Besides wanting the world to know her fingernail is, indeed, purple, she also wants to talk about how "door shut my finger", and how much it hurt. During this conversation in the pool, Julia looked up at me and said "kiss it all better." I assumed she wanted, me, the irreplacable Mommy, to kiss it all better (hell, we even have a song about kissing it all better). Nope, I got the toddler look of death from her as I tried to lean in for a smooch. At the top of her surprisingly mighty lungs, she yelled, "NO MOMMY KISS!! I want KAAAATE kiss better!" Luckily, Kate was in an obliging mood and all ended well.

*The same day, Kate decided that she needed a hug from Julia. Now Julia isn't as forthcoming with the cuddles as Kate, so I was a bit worried when Kate started bothering Julia with her non-stop, "Gia, hug Kate? Gia, hug Kate." Julia gave Kate a very sweet, and quite long hug, and then the shit hit the fan. Kate decided that since that first hug was so great, she needed another. And another. And....yeah, you get the drift. All hell broke loose as Kate chased Julia around the yard screaming for more hugs, and Julia screamed "leave Gia lone Kate" over, and over, and over. Kate would not be distracted and I seriously couldn't even find any words as she proceeded to have one of the most colossal meltdowns I have ever seen her have. Yikes.

*The following is a conversation that I had with the girls this week while driving home from the sitter.

Me: So, Julia, I heard you were crying a lot for Michelle this morning.

Julia: Yes. Buggy B crynin.

M: Why were you crying, Bug?

J: I sad.

M: But why were you sad sweetie?

Kate: Mommy, Gia crynin she miss Karen. Mommy Karen. Mommy, YOU be Karen. Yes?

*I'm so bad about keeping up with the girls' baby books (&, ahem, this blog), but I am so entertained by some of the words Julia uses--mainly b/c of her super-sweet girly voice, but also because of the typical mispronunciations that occur as she tries to figure it all out. Some of my current faves include: leakybug (ladybug), bubbafly (butterfly), cool (pool, as in "go simmin in new cool, mommy"), fider (spider), oppodots (opposites), and helipocter (self-explanatory, no?). My all-time fave, which actually isn't that new is "I carry you", which clearly translates to "pick me up".

*Time outs continue to be a success although there are still plenty of tantrums going on. Julia has gotten much better about apologizing, which she never used to do. Kate still spends a heck of a lot more time in time-out than Julia, but Julia will typically keep her sister company while she's serving her sentence.

I know there's so much more, but these are some of my faves. We're off to the shore for a week w/Scott's folks, so I won't be near a computer......hoping to get loads of good pics of our sugars to share when we return.

Heart hug.