Why Can't Every Day be Saturday?

[Geneva's new thing...when you ask her to smile she squints her eyes & cheeses it up]

[Lexa ran back to her puzzles again after bath time. Notice her pjs, yes we know they are on backwards. They love to take off their diapers when they are in bed, so we have had to go back to pjs that snap or zip, otherwise their pants are off within seconds. So these are winter pjs that we cut the sleeves off, cut the feet out, cut a "v" for the front & turned it backwards so the zipper is in the back. Patrick calls it her straightjacket].

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I don't know if it was returning from our 11-day vacation that did it, but I have been having a really hard time going to work lately. I feel so guilty leaving the girls. As they stand at the window waving good-bye, my heart aches. When I come home, they seem extremely happy to see me. Geneva even says "Missed you Mommy!" It seems like I just have more and more to do & less time to do it. When they were smaller, I could leave them in a swing or bouncy while I cooked/cleaned. But now they are just soaking up everything & want to be with me every second. So today we had a great day just hanging out & spending quality time together. Pop (my dad) was here for a short visit & left around 10:00 a.m. The girls woke up a little too early at 6:30. Well I should say Lexa woke up at 6:30. She is still our early bird, although usually not quite that early. Geneva unfortunately is awakened by Lexa (Geneva is still not a morning person). To keep the girls from waking Pop, we carried them to our bed for awhile but keeping two active two-year olds on our tall bed is hard so by 7:00 we were in the living room. The girls had their usual "oatmilk" with cinnamon. Pop entertained & read to the girls while I did some cleaning & Patrick mowed the yard. Geneva helped me clean as well, pushing her pink vacuum around. The rest of the morning (and part of the afternoon), we worked on puzzles. Lexa has really gotten into puzzles the last few days & can successfully complete them all. Geneva is very easily frustrated if she doesn't get something instantly & will still say "mommy help you" when she needs assistance with the puzzles. I have never seen Lexa sit still for so long but she literally played with her puzzles for over 2 hours today. She is so methodical--places her pieces so precisely, once she gets them all in, she takes them out one at a time, & starts again. We read lots of books today, too. They are OBSESSED with Sesame Street so they love all of their books with Elmo & Grover. They also love their potty books. Lexa's favorite sentence is "Read it Please" as she hands you the book. They took a long nap this afternoon after a lunch of peanut butter & jelly. After they woke up, we headed to Wal-Mart for some shopping which they love & then to Dixie Cafe for vegetable plates. When we got home, it was finally cooler & we were off for a family walk. The girls think they are too big for strollers now so they walk holding our hands around the neighborhood with a detour to the park. When we come home we aren't to the mailbox yet before they are asking for popsicles. So of course we ended our day with popsicles outside & then a bath. While in the bathtub, Lexa again so precise & methodical, removed every bath toy from the net one at a time, put them all back, again & again while naming them...dolphin, duck, sailboat, etc. Patrick & I were commenting on how focused she is. Patrick said something to the effect of "I bet she will be a scientist one day." And I said "Yeah, I can see her in a laboratory." Just at this time, Geneva stands up & spanks Lexa's bare bottom over & over again "sister's butt" while giggling. What can we say? Typical Geneva. We agree Geneva won't be the one in the science lab, she is definitely going to be on stage. We had a wonderful day!