The Cuteness Never Ends

Everyone here is asleep - as I should be but am not. Hubby will be home Friday morning and I could not wait another moment if I had too, I think. I am restless in this house of mine, where I see clutter everywhere and an overwhelming need for organization. When Hubby does get home and I have a chance to show him everything that we need to do, he may just leave again out of fear of the Work to Be Done.

Aside from that, Mary Leona is quickly becoming the cutest, most enchanting little toddler EVER seen by human eyes. She is surpassing Emma mostly because Emma Grace is now 2 1/2 and is trying every method possible to get me riled up and to want to skin her alive. So Mary, who has quite a temper and is very impatient about things, does do the SWEETEST little baby things right now. We had a picnic today in the yard and she thought the little plastic plate with a quartered cheese sandwich was a seat cushion. Every time I moved the plate, Mary leaned forward onto her hands, with her bum cantilevered out, and swung around to firmly place her back end right on the flat, unsuspecting sandwich. HONESTLY. The funny thing was, she would then look at me and smile, as if to say, "I did it!!!". She did not tire of this the entire time there was a sandwich on which to sit. She was dancing a little later in the day, as was Emma, and she decided that she wanted to twirl - just like Emma. Well, little Mary did her baby best and walked in a tight circle, which she thought was the same thing, and then collapsed with excitement and joy with her new accomplishment. That was the cutest thing ever. When I went out to pick up some Chinese food for dinner, I took her along with me (Emma stayed back with Mum, since she was not quite up from a nap yet - Emma, that is). I let her walk from the car to the door instead of carrying her, because she had grabbed a little purse and was carrying it on her arm with an air of authority. This was so incredibly cute that EVERY person that saw her stopped, stepped aside to let the lady pass, and smiled from ear to ear. Mary even greeted them with a little squawk, which was her version of, 'Thank you, my people, you are too kind'. It was too cute to be imagined. I am sad to think she will be in the middle of her terrible two's this time next year.

Emma Grace has had her sweet moments, too - hers just come with a price. I always sing to her - poor thing. And I have always sung Brahms Lullaby to get her to be sleepy. Lately, she has asked me for "Rock bye baby", which is the other lullaby EVERY person knows. She loves to pretend she is a little baby while I sing this and close her eyes ever so gently as she hugs her blankie. So yesterday, when I HATED her because she would not take a nap, I tried laying down on the guest room bed with her until she fell asleep. She watched me intently for a minute, and I watched her back. She told me "Close EYES", and so I did. Then she sang to me.

"rock bye baby, trEEEE-top"

My eyes popped open and I could not help but laugh with tears at my first baby, singing a lullaby to me. This made her smile and tell me to close my eyes again. Then she sang to me again. Well, she never did nap yesterday until she fell asleep at the dinner table around 5:30 pm. But for the afternoon, she spent it rocking her blankie (a blanket/elephant stuffed animal) in her arms and singing to him. It was IMMENSELY adorable. The day would have been better if she had gone down for a nap and also gone to bed before 1 AM.

Well, I will be on my own again tomorrow, so I'd better go and get some semblance of sleep. I would like to take the girls to the library tomorrow and pick up a video or two that I think Emma would like. Also to see if there are any good videos on South America for the girls to learn something from.