I mean, really! Where do I start. I started motherhood off--and went two or three years like this--thinking I needed to take a picture of everything cute, or write every single thing down. But I'd stress about missing the perfect picture moment, or I wouldn't have my phone (or wouldn't want my phone on my all the time!), or wonder when I'd get the chance to look back at it all. Anyway. I now think there's a balance between documenting things and soaking them up. Sometimes for the latter one, I just say a little prayer and try to tattoo the moment on my brain. And if I think about it too much, it's heartbreaking to think of the times that I've forgotten already, or the moments that passed by without me soaking them up. But alas, It's life. And I'm just a mortal.
Anyway, here are some amazing things the babies have been doing.
Eloise loves singing. I say this a lot, but I mean it to its fullest every time: she MELTS me when she sings. Her little singing voice is so beautiful and purposeful (and her talking voice is so adorable). Today in church a sister missionary sang a solo, and Eloise stood on the pew and watcher her and looked around and looked up at the ceiling where the sound was coming from, and then she sang a little bit too. Then, this is the best, on the way home, we were listening to primary songs, and I told her to sing me a song and she totally did. She just started singing to me from her car seat: "Laaaadoo meee ddoo aaaaa weeeee." It was so magical.
Conley described magic as magical this week (though I think he's figured out the correct usage, sadly). So he'd see something that looked like magic (Beth showed him some magic tricks from this random cheesy magic trick book she has, and that's how he knows about it) and say, "Wow, that's magical!" Or, "Mom, come look at this magical thing I did!" Tonight it was a plastic knife stick in random places in his room: between the mirror suck to his door and the door, behind some slat of wood coming away from the wall, in some piece of Eloise's crib. Haha it was so funny and cute.
I've realized how imperative it is to get out to a place where Conley can really run around. Last week we went to the rec center, and he literally came home a changed boy. He was so sweet and obedient the rest of the day. Winter has been hard! So cold and icy and snowy outside, Just terrible. So tomorrow we are going to go to the chruch, and I'm so so excited. Without those opportunities to exert his energy, he jumps around and won't pee and won't listen and he yells a lot and doesn't go down well at night (that's the worst part). It sucks so bad. I lost my patience a lot with him these last two weeks, and I don't want to do that anymore. So we are making cahnges and changing our negative scripts! If it's not working, fix it! Do something different. So we are.
On that afternoon after the rec center, Conley wanted to read all these words in books we'd just gotten. It was so perfect and precious. I'd point to a word and help him and read to him. He is so cool. He wrote "Happy Birthday Perri" all by himself (I told him what letters to write). It is so fun to do letter stuff with him. Really just games in general are so fun. He's so cute beacuse he can read alone and he can play alone, but he just LOVES and lights up when I do it with him. He's my boy. And I adore him. He's into saying silly and funny words/phrases lately. He gave Perri a "nickname": "Perri harp table" and "nose." Haha what the heck. He also asks to do family home evening and extended reverent scripture time together.
Eloise still loves me. She loves Joseph too. But I do think she prefers me. 100% she prefers me at night. It (here it is again) melts me. Just melts me. She slept through the night in her crib once last week, but usually she wakes up in the middle of the night and whines/cries until I come get her. And I just love it. And I miss her when she's not in there with me. She will snuggle most of the time, tight snuggles for a minute, and then she needs a little bit of space, but not a lot. It's so cute. The other night when I put her down, she fell asleep as the baby spoon. it was to die for. And tonight she kept saying "boooook boooook" so I read her some books and she'd say "gin! gin!" for again. It was so sweet. We read two books three times each and she would have done even more. She loves reading. But when I give her her binky and snuggle her standing up, she usually falls asleep. I just adore that baby. I smell her and kiss her cheeks all day. I love carrying her around because she is small and cute and light, and literally just like melts into me (and everyone who holds her). She doesn't really like nursery, which breaks my heart. But she adjusts after a while. She is so ticklish and just loves being tickled. For one whole week, she said "no" to everything, in such a funny and sweet way. This last week she has started to say "yeah" too, and it's also adorable. She jabbers a lot, and it's so funny and cute. Conley and she play together pretty well, with a few run-ins here and there if she takes a toy away. If C is on his game, they get along. But bless is heart sometimes he acts his age too and wants things a certain way.
Conley loves Perri. Tonight was her birhtday party and it was so hard for him to stay away from her. Haha I'm laughing about it. He would put his face right next to hers and stuff like that, like even when they were taking pictures and stuff. They do this little head snuggle thing that just kills me and Beth. He even jumped in to their family picture hahahahahaha. Like he thinks he is in their family and totally belongs in the picture. And he just wanted to play with her with her new toys and stuff. He's so cute.
Conley really loves to cook with me, and I can even convince him sometimes to clean stuff too. His favorite activities are still jumping and reading. But he likes playing games and sometimes doing puzzles. He likes Curious George and Daniel Tiger and PJ Masks and Kratt Brothers.
