Caroland: January 2020

Yikes, it’s been a while since I’ve written an update! I’ll try to remember what’s been happening.

Hattie and Tille are getting better and better at talking. I feel like they know how to talk, they’re just really shy about it and maybe lack confidence in themselves to try. The first week or so of trying any new word, they’ll always whisper it. They won’t say any word out loud until they’re sure they’re doing it right. So they whisper a lot. We really have to listen closely to catch their words. But we keep catching them with a lot of words. A few weeks ago, Hattie and Tille were looking at the grocery store mailers and Hattie pointed to some pictures she saw. She very clearly whispered, while pointing at the correct pictures, ‘Apple, Blueberry, Raspberry’. I was stunned! I had no idea she knew those words! Since then I’ve heard both girls say all those words, plus pumpkin (the tags on their favorite pajamas have a picture of a pumpkin), teacher (they love their nursery teacher), church, Elmo, Anna, Elsa, Barbie, and lots more. For Christmas they got the book ‘Go, Dogs, Go’. One of the pages has a bird saying ‘Stop dogs stop!’. Now the girls like to tell us Go and Stop! And they hold their hands up when they say stop.

For months the girls have liked pretending to be puppies. They crawl around and pant and think it’s so funny. But lately they’ve added licking to the game. They’ll crawl up to us and lick our shoulders or legs or whatever they can reach. It’s so weird. But also pretty cute.

A few weeks ago I was giving the girls their nightly bath and just randomly they started saying ‘Bob’ and laughing. I have no idea who Bob is or where they heard of him. But apparently he’s really funny. Ever since, Tille will say ‘Bob’ and just laugh and laugh, or put her hand over her mouth and snicker. If we ask her to tell us a joke, she’ll say Bob and laugh. None of their tv shows or books have a bob in them. We really don’t know who bob is. It’s become a really funny joke in our house though.

Leading up to Christmas, we were delivering treats to our neighbors, one or two houses a night. At our next door neighbors’ house, we were standing in the living room chatting for maybe 10 minutes. Matt was holding Hattie and I was holding Tille. The entire time we were there, Tille kept grabbing my face and turning it towards the door, letting me know with no uncertainty that she was done. So funny!

A couple weeks ago we dropped by Matt’s sister’s house for a few minutes. They have a huge garage (makes the Bodens’ garage mahal look small). They’ve hung a long rope from the middle rafter and can clip different types of swings to it. While we were there, they clipped a baby swing to it and let the girls each take a turn. Because the roof is so high, the swing goes far! The girls loved it! I’m kicking myself for not getting a video of it. I’ve never seen the girls have that much fun! We’ll definitely be going back for more of that fun.

For Christmas, with the help of Grandma and Grandpa, Santa built a dollhouse in our basement. It ended up being too big to get up the stairs on Christmas Eve, so he had to take it outside and up on the deck to get it into the living room. But when we brought Hattie and Tille out to the living room Christmas morning, they couldn’t believe their eyes! They kept saying ‘ho, ho, ho’ (their way of saying Santa), and rubbing their eyes to make sure they were seeing it. They got a few barbies and a barbie helicopter and car to go with the house, and they’ve been busy ever since. It’s great. They love arranging all the furniture and putting things in just the right spots. And it’s big enough that they won’t even be able to see the top floor for another year or so, so it’ll be fun for years!

For New Year’s Eve, the girls got to have a party with their cousins (and they got to go on the big swing again), while Matt and I went to a fancy restaurant. We talked about it before hand and Hattie was nervous about being left at her cousins’ house, but once we got there, she went right in and never looked back. She and Tille love this one particular cousin. He’s 10 or 11 and they think he’s hilarious. We just have to say his name and they bust out laughing. He’s really good at playing with them. And their other cousins, closer to their age, came to play and make cookies so they had a great party without us. We should make that a yearly tradition.

Oh, I almost forgot! Tille has intentionally peed in the Elmo toilet twice! It's only about one a week, but I think she's getting the concept! It kind of feels like the more Tille does it, the more Hattie doesn't want to. But i have a feeling that once we really try, they'll figure it out pretty quickly.