Summer's end

Catherine gets so excited when she does something right, she's so proud of herself. She's starting to get less frustrated counting and is making it past 2. It was always 1, 2, 1, 2, but now she keeps going to 10.  She's making good progress on the potty and often asks to go. Both of them are much better about sitting and going right away.  Catherine is so proud when she's dry and gets to have chocolate raisins.  Catherine recently has ben spending a lot of time making sure she knows where everyone is and that they are OK.  She'll tell us to wait or come back, or will ask where someone went and what they're doing.  She also makes sure when Sam is upset to tell her that it is OK and to 'calm down'.  She even pats her hands in the air like Dave.  We've discovered her hidden talent, too.  She is VERY good at puzzles.  We have wooden 24 piece puzzles and if you do 3 or 4 pieces for her she can finish herself, and we've only had them for 2 days!

Samantha loves to say 'I do it' and we're proud that she can do so many things and wants to be independent, but sometimes she can't do it and she gets mad, sometimes it is something she shouldn't do and she's mad, and sometimes it will take her 5x as long to do than if we did it and we don't have time, and she gets mad. We're working to find common ground.  I'm amazed that she can count to 15 and often all the way up to 20 (though sometimes she skips a few), and she and Catherine are both getting good at identifying what sounds the letters make.  They also have this matching game that they play on the iPod touches they use if they 'tinkle' and I've watched her think about it and make correct matches with upper and lower case letters in a memory card game.  She can also sing the ABC song!

We went to the zoo on an incredibly hot day.  You can see they are already kind of pink and we went to the elephants first.  They were troopers, though, and we couldn't believe Sam insisted on walking the whole time.  Catherine was smart and sat in the shade of the jogging stroller a lot of the time.  I think Samantha just gets so excited at places like that she wants to move from one thing to the next when it suits HER.  The stroller removes control.

I'm so cute!

As the summer finished we made one last trip to the beach to see my cousin Christine, Catherine's godmother.  We had a great time at the pool and playing catch (backwards, look out!) and hanging out and looking pretty. 

Dad also got them a little golf set, but I taught them how to play field hockey instead, which they both preferred and Catherine is pretty good.

What a pair!  This picture frightens me a little, actually.  Catherine always wants to do what the adults are doing.  At least Heidi had fun, we found a squeaky ball for her.

This picture cracks me up.  I can only imagine what their conversation is.  Dad: "Well missy?"  Sam:  "Let me tell you, Grandpa!"

It was an amazing summer full of sun and fun and smiles. The girls got tan, built and destroyed sand castles (the best part, apparently), and grew up in some ways more than I wanted, and less than I wanted in other ways.  They are incredible and keep us on our toes and we love every minute of it!