My cute girls

Chloe has just been a wealth of humor lately. My favorite moments include:

• While watching "Kit Kitteridge, an American Girl," the main character had to say goodbe to her dad. We looked down to find Chloe misty eyed, wiping away tears. When the dad returned at the end, she had the exact same reaction.



• Everything relates to movies lately. Today she was describing the opening of Finding Nemo to me. "The shark comes, and he's mad, and he hits Nemo's dad, and his dad falls into the french fries." In thinking about it, the anemone really does look like fries.



• She was picking up blocks and stacked them right up under chin, and said, "Look Mom, I do it like GusGus," referencing the part in Cinderella where Gus is trying to pick up corn in the yard. She repeated the performance with pillows and books.



• I turned off the TV, her least favorite part of the day. Today for the first time I heard her say, "Mom, it's not fair!" I'm sure that will soon become the anthem of my life.



• It's never enough to just eat her food. Everything that goes her mouth gets a, "Mom, it doesn't taste really, really bad, Bleh (with tongue out and curled). It tastes really, really good," or the opposite.



• Bracken and I were cuddling for a few minutes on the couch before he went back to work, and watched as Chloe went back and forth from her room to the kitchen. Each time she went by, she had a blanket, or a backpack, or something covering her face. I think she thought it made her invisible. When Bracken called out Chloe, her immediate response was, "Nothing!"



• My proudest moment came tonight as she was writing letters on her blackboard. I asked her to write her name, and wrote it on the board for her to copy. Independent little thing, she immediately erased it and then wrote C O L E on the board from memory. I think it totally counts as the first time she's written her name, even though she went back and started adding extra lines to the E since she thought it looked a little bare.

Addie has been equally entertaining. She is such a little sweetheart despite being sick, and she really does just have a fun personality.

• Addie is walking! I just love watching her toddle everywhere. I'm even more impressed with her efforts now that I know she's been struggling with an ear infection which can't have helped her balance.



• Addie is talking! She keeps parroting words and Bracken and I turn to each other shocked, "Did she really just say that?" Recent words include Baby, side (outside), and popsicle. She's nowhere near conversational yet, but I love to hear her.



• She really likes to try to do things. She tries to help get dressed, tries to dress dolls, tries to feed herself, and even tries to put things away.



• She just loves to smile, and has the most impish grin. Her eyes light up, her nose wrinkles, and her lips curl up at the corners. On America's Next Top Model, Tyra Banks is always telling the girls to smile with their eyes, and Addie definitely has that down.