Our life is too busy.

Last week I got a card for my 32nd birthday and in the card was one simple phrase: “Enjoy every moment.”  I don’t think she meant the very fleeting moments of my 32nd year of life.

So, I am reminded, to enjoy these moments:

Tessa says, “Chuz”.  For “shoes”.  When I get home from work, both girls run frantically to the drawer where we keep their shoes.  I don’t know what this means.  But I do know they love their shoes and urgently want to put on mismatched variations of shoes and socks.

Both girls say, “down”.  They don’t say “no” yet but “down” is more like, “Let me down, lady, I’m outta here.”

When asked what sound does a kitty cat make, Nora says, “Mmmm…ow”.  There’s no long “e” sound.  Just a long, closed mouth “mmm” followed by “ow”.  Nora loves kitty cats.

We have the “oo oo oo” sound down for monkey, and it easily translates in the the sound also made by owls and ghosts.

“Mum mum mum” still comes in triplicate.  “Da da” for dad.  “Pa pa” or “poppie” sometimes for poppie Jerry.

We can point to everything.  We can point to specific people when named, our ears, our eyes (ouch!), mouth, sometimes to the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” our feet, where our hats go…our head, and we can point to my personal favorite, our bellybuttons.  Very cute.  We’re trying for “elbow” but that’s difficult to reach.

We can play “Ring around the rosy.” And if we can’t find a partner to make a circle, we just turn around and around by ourselves.  Falling randomly to the ground.

We can dance and sing.

When we go downstairs (feet first, facing forward–’cause the girls refused to turn arond and go down on their bellys), we say “schooch, schooch, schooch, DOWN” and drop to the next step.  The girls imitate us saying, “chu chu chu, DOWN”.   Cute.  They are very good at the schooch.

Tessa says, “All done” for everything and consistently gives the sign for it. 

“All dun. All dun.”

The most reliable, and universally applicable, word we use is “ball.”  Everything is a ball–particularly during the season of pumpkins.  “Ball. Ball. Ball.” Everywhere we go.  There are balls. 

And giggles.  Lots of giggles.