So, I realize I've done 2 posts in the last six months or so, and they have both been about Sally. Poor, neglected second child. But, no more- this one is all Alice!
I love the above picture for a few reasons. One, is her awesome hair. As it got more humid here,(currently, it is a steam room- we drink our air) her hair curled up. And it grew, lots and lots. Now, she has a the cutest little lion's mane you could imagine. I also love her smile, and that you can see her gap- it's adorable, right? This is also the view I get very often when she's climbing on me. It's fantastic to be climbed on by such a sweetie.
Here she is looking a bit like a beach diva- in all the right ways. In her every day, she isn't a super diva, though. She's pretty laid back about some things, she's content to play by herself much of the time. She does have a very frustrated "mommy!" with a growl in it that I hear from time to time, especially if she wants food. She'll say in her angry voice, "Mommy!! Eat. Eat!" Sometimes, though it's "How 'bout eat." I prefer the latter. And when she wants to eat, she wants to eat. She'll eat most anything, but she is especially into meat. Our little carnivore will eat meat like a mouse eats cheese. The other day, we were at a friends house eating some delicious pulled pork. After we were finished, the cook was shredding the rest. Alice kept going back to him and getting mouthful after mouthful, this was after she ate as much as I did. We love a healthy appetite! She usually eats Sally's leftovers at dinner too. When she sees Sally get up, it's immediately "down! Down!" so she can climb up in Sally's chair and finish her plate off.
Alice is in the midst of a language explosion. She says new words every day. I'm understanding her more too. She often will have a string of words in the language of Alice, and throw in an English one at the end. It's obvious she understands a lot and is getting a lot better at making her desires known through words. She's getting less frustrated at my lack of understanding, because, well, I understand more. It is so fun to hear all the new words she says. Some of my favorites are "Peew", which she tells me whenever she has a stinky diaper, "Sally"- there's just something special about hearing one child call the other, "mess", which she tells me whenever she spills or has dirty hands, and "yes", which when she says it, it sounds like yesh, and it's adorable.
Here is a moment of sister fun. Our two girls, Salice, as they sometimes get called, have lots of fun together. Alice likes to play with Sally and be a part of what she's doing. Sally is okay with this. On occasion. Sally likes to play with whatever Alice has. Only because she has it. Alice is okay with this. Never. They really do love each other and have fun, but big sister is a bit of a "teaser weaser", (as she says). This has been an ongoing situation since Alice's birth, but now Alice can do something about it. Unfortunately, sometimes that means pulled hair or bonks on the head with whatever happens to be in her hand. We're working on it, though when I discipline her, she just looks at me and smiles. Lately, Sally loves to get Alice to repeat after her. Alice is happy to oblige, sometimes it's just random words, but sometimes she'll say things like, "Alice, say I" "I" "Want" "want" etc, until she says something like I want to watch a show. Then Sally runs to me saying, "Alice wants to watch a show! She just asked!" Sometimes She even gets Alice to say please. Pretty clever, but I'm onto you, little ones.
Alice is a pretty happy little girl. Sure, she gets upset, but is usually very easily consoled or distracted. She also doesn't seem too upset by little bumps, and bonks. She really has to be hurting for real to even make a sound. Otherwise, I just ask her if she's alright, and she says "yeah", and goes on with her playing.
This was the first time since she was tiny that she fell asleep outside of her crib/carseat. I love it that she's wearing one stripey sock. When I do put her down in her crib, she goes down like a dream. I really only have to make sure she has a binky and her blanky, and she's good. She's been like that for a long time too. She is our little Linus around her. She is VERY attached to her blanky (me too- it was the last one my Grandma Barnes made), and she takes it EVERYWHERE. It's hard to get it washed, but in a pinch, she will do okay if Sally will let Alice use hers, but Alice knows which is which and much prefers her own. She is often seen dragging it around anywhere we go. We get a lot of Linus comments.
This is just because she's so pretty. Seriously, I think my girls are gorgeous. Both Alice and Sally get comments on how beautiful they are nearly every time we go out. I don't even mind that they look nothing like me. I just like looking at them.
Alice loves to make you laugh. She has several funny faces that she does often just to get some giggles. She also loves putting on clothes- especially shoes and socks. Here, she requested last year's swimsuit- over the jammies of course. She usually succeeds at getting some laughs out of me- she really is funny.
Alice has lots of energy, and especially loves to use it outside. She always wants to go out, even if it's raining or 1000 degrees. Running is a specialty of hers, especially if I'm trying to put a diaper on her little bottom. She tries very hard to jump, but it is more of a chest pump. She likes to dance and has some good moves. When we'd get to go into Sally's dance class, it was always a struggle to get her to stay with me- she just wanted to move. At Sally's dress rehearsal, Alice was spinning in the aisles with arms above her head in true ballerina style.
Alice- is she a cool gal, or what?
Here are 2 videos showcasing her awesomeness. The first, she is singing the ABC's. She does this a lot. The most amazing part to me, is that she has pretty good pitch. She is often singing little melodies- and I can tell what they are, even without words. I think she's a musical one.
In this one, I was trying to get Alice to count. She never does 1 or 2, but after that she can go to 12, but usually stops at 9. Here, however, she had her own idea.
