Monday, 18 March, 2002

There is an opening in the upstairs hallway where you can look down in to the living room.  The other morning I was getting the girls dressed for the day and had already finished Amy and was working on Alicia.  As I finished dressing Alicia and came out into the hallway to go downstairs, Amy was watching tv upstairs with her little forehead pressed against the banister.

Alicia is becoming more mobile all of the time.   Yesterday she started pushing up into a crawling position and also pushing herself backward.  Right now, she rolls all over the floor to get places, but it is not always in the desired direction.  She can cause the most damage in her walker if you aren’t careful with your toes.  Like Amy, she likes to be in the middle of things, and if she happens to be in her walker and you open the dishwasher, she is there in seconds.

I tried putting her to sleep in her crib at the opposite end and in the opposite direction thinking that if I came in to check on her, she wouldn’t see me.  Now, if she isn’t quite asleep and she sees you, her little head comes popping up as fast as can be. When I came back to check on her after she fell asleep, she had turned herself around and scooted back to the other end of the crib.  One night I walked into Alicia’s room, thinking she was fast asleep, to put some clothes away.  All of a sudden, her head popped up and she started looking around.  I immediately dropped to my knees but could still see her straining hard to see over the bumper pads.  I crawled out of her room but not before she spied me and started crying.

Alicia is gaining a lot of skill and dexterity with fine motor skills.  She now claps her hands, all while grinning from ear to ear.  She is also quite adept at picking up cheerios with her thumb and finger AND successfully gets them into her mouth.  She loves to eat and likes most foods so far.  She wasn’t too keen on fruit for awhile but sucks it off the spoon as fast as I can give it to her.  She, as well as Amy, love Yoplait yogurt.  If I don’t feed her as fast as she thinks I should, she reminds me by banging on her high-chair table.  BUT, if you try feeding her something she does not care for, she is quick to show her disapproval with a raspberry.  Amy thinks it is funny and likes to join in.  I started getting after her but that just spurred Amy on to do it more, so now I just ignore her and she quits for lack of attention.  If Alicia does it though, Amy will often say, “no spit!” to her.  Guess she has heard it often enough.

 Amy’s prayers have taken on a whole new length.  She knows to say “Heavenly Father, thanks nice day...” and then proceeds to be grateful for Mommy, Daddy, Isha, Amy, pillows, covers, sun, stars, her baby, grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and on and on and on.

Alicia’s first word will be “da da”.  She doesn’t know that it relates to anyone, but says it lots just the same.

Amy has become quite good at disobedience and being naughty.  For her punishment she now has to sit in “time out” for two or three minutes.  She doesn’t like doing it, but she stays put until the kitchen timer dings.  When it does, she usually says, rather loudly, “It dinged!”