the girls lately

estelle

• 13.5 months walking all the time
• 14 months using fork solo and eating by herself
• estelle is really getting into reading, bringing books up to us and plopping down on our lap, noticing specific things on each page and trying to repeat what we say, gets giddy when asked if she wants to read a book :) 
• loves to roar like a lion, tiger, bear...
• hides behind your back when sitting on ground and peeks at you from side to side, bending her knees and putting her little face near you.... her version of hide and seek.  it is adorable.  always smiling.
• kisses frames of lela 
• serious hugger, lover, cuddler, kisser

lela

• opened the back of estelle's diaper and put the hose in it.... ON!  estelle looked at her and kept playing at the water table!

• loves playing with neighborhood friends, gymnastics, ponies, unicorns, wading in the surf, and playing in the sand

• lela was telling me that the big red ball outside target was a circle, but actually called a ball when it is that large.  i agreed, but told her we could also call it a “sphere”, which is a three-dimensional circle.  she said, “oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s just the word for ‘ball’ in hawaiian”

• we were driving and lela was saying how wherever we go, estelle poops.  we go to the doctor, she poops.  we go to preschool, she poops.  we go to the store, she poops.  and then she proceeded to say, “when i was little, we went to paris, ‘pfft!’, we went to france, ‘pfft!’, we went to england, ‘pfft!’, we went to a church, ‘pfft!’, we went to a city, ‘pfft!””

• lela writes constantly.  she went through an anne frank stage where during “quiet time” she would write letter after letter and seal them in envelopes and leave them outside her door.  we have close to 40 lying around.  last week, she wrote this… “today is wednesday 2014, lela"

• ponies are IT around here.  pony parties all the time.  lela even beds them all down at night.  (there’s even one sleeping under estelle’s swim hat!)  

• I hear lela in our bathroom sounding a word out..."tttt....aaa....mmm..."  thinking she's trying to sound out the word toilet paper from the package, i don't think anything of it.  later on when i am going to the bathroom, i look and she was sounding out Tampax!

they both are loving leahi swim school….. we go every thursday and it is a highlight.  estelle is the class clown of her group and is the best babe at going underwater without a qualm.  lela was freestyling to her teacher last week!  i don’t know how they do it, but the teachers are amazing.  she’d never do that for us!

snarky little girl

just moved to hawaii and lela and i went to the playground.... some girls were trying to talk and play with her, but lela wouldn't respond.  the girls would not give up, but lela, would not tell them her name or answer any of their questions (although, she knew darn well she wanted to play with them!). after awhile the girls looked at me and said, "um, excuse me, but do we need to use sign language for her?"  !!!  this was months ago and we STILL haven't stopped laughing about it.  :)

trouble!

lela went over to play at reillys' neighbors house.... she was spelling her name with the girl, piper, and playing in their playroom. when she came home, terry asked her how to spell her name. lela said, "s, h, i, t!" i walked to the other end of the house to put some laundry away and when i came back lela was nowhere to be found. frantic, i ran outside and she was ACROSS THE STREET looking to see if the artwork she taped on the neighbors' door was still there! oh my... she got in trouble.