Never lettin' em' grow up

 I have a confession. At our house, age 3 was....H-E-double hockey sticks. Reese was more often than not pitching a fit in one form or another. I loathed bedtime because it was a major fight to get her to settle down and go to sleep. Plus she got a new baby sis that year. I don't think that had anything to do with her behavior, but I'll tell you without hesitation that their momma was exhausted and exhausted isn't my best look.

But y'all she turned 4 and I could literally squeeze her to pieces. 4 is beautiful. 4 is sweet. 4 is perfect. If I could freeze time, this would be when I chose to do it.

 Elynn is the calm and laid back to Reese's high strung and silly. Basically Elynn is Adam and Reese is me. She says the sweetest things like, "tank chu", "milt tup" (milk cup), "uve oo" (love you), and while pulling at her diaper "I tink" (I stink). And sometimes when Reese gets lucky, Elynn will let Reese hold her like a baby.

Last night Adam brought the movie Paddington home. It is such a cute movie! Paddington has to find  new family... So at bedtime Reese started crying, and it wasn't the whinny cry. It was a real cry. When I asked her what was wrong, she said "I don't want to grow up and leave you." I guess she thought she would have to find a new family like Paddington, and let me tell you it literally hurt my soul. They are both so precious and they can stay with us FOR-EV-ER! Of course I assured her of that, but I know these days are too short. I'm sure she will be tapping her toe when she's a senior in high school just waiting for the day she gets to move out on her own. Lord knows I will need a pill of some kind to get me through it.

 And that's exactly why I want to freeze time. Elynn gets so excited when her daddy pulls up every afternoon, and Reese never wants to grow up. They are perfect. But the best part is that bedtime is no longer a fight. One of us rock Elynn, and the other lays down with Reese and within minutes she is sound asleep. They both end up in our bed, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Having them in our bed is my favorite, and I wish I hadn't been so against it when Reese was a wee babe. (Actually Adam was the one against it, but I'm not one to point fingers;))

Fishin'

 I have this theory (which is backed by at least 4 years of highly scientific research on my part) that if you want to teach a little girl to hate fishing then take her a few times when the fish aren't biting and she will never want to go again. That's basically what was happening with Reese. I had told Adam to do what my daddy did when I was little. Throw some fish food out and either scoop them up with a net, or give her that princess fishing pole and watch that little face light up.

So we went to Adam's cousin's Kim and Jimmy's (or sometimes if I say it too fast it comes out Kimmy and Jim) Sunday afternoon. This was all after we had gotten home from church and Adam had literally laid Reese over his lap and whipped her rear end for not being quiet in church. He had laid down the law discussed with her all the way home what was going to happen. She had a 20 minute meltdown and was good to go after that. I'd be willing to bet she straightens up next Sunday.

She forgot she was mad at him here... 

Reese took Big Daddy's fishing pole and declared, "Big Daddy don't know how to fish." And she must have been right because about 30 seconds later she reeled in a fish.

Elynn took claim to Reese's princess pole and screamed when we tried to touch it.(Later on last night she was standing on the arm of the couch, slipped, and her little cheek caught the end table. I gasped in horror and almost let out an expletive because people, I am not who you want with you in a moment of crisis.Her face was blue this morning, but not nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be.)

She watched her daddy kneel down like this to fish and she "repeated" him as Reese says.

Neither one of them wanted any part of touching the fish. They are their mother's children. Reese also did a little squealing when we dug up worms in the yard. I told her she had it made because when I was a wee lad we had to dig under cow patties for worms to fish with.

Elynn caught her very own fish. I'm not making that up either. She was holding her little pole with her bobber on it, and when it went under Adam stepped in and helped her before it took the pole and her in the water.

Adam and Big Daddy could see this "huge" fish swimming around. They were guessing how big it was. One minute it was 4 pounds. The next it was 5 pounds. All along I was thinking to myself that it was probably 3 pounds...at best. We all know how men and their opinions of the size of fish are..... 10 years later when the fish finally took the bait it was an impressive 5lbs 13oz. 

Pretty Ears: Round 2

 Reese has been wanting to go see Cinderella, so I had planned to take her during spring break. Adam was off on Good Friday, so we went Friday afternoon. I hate to point fingers and play the blame game, but I KNEW GOOD AND WELL that Elynn would not sit through a movie but Adam felt bad to leave her behind. Soooo off we all went.

 Somewhere around the FIRST scene of the movie Elynn started jabbering and wanting to walk around. I ended up taking her out (Like I knew would happen!). I spent the next hour and a half wisely and stopped in at Claire's to see if they could pierce both ears at one time. It all started out so well. She walked around pulling everything she could get her chubby little hands on off of the shelves. She found this headband. I laughed louder and long than I should have while she walked around wear it.

 I eased her over to the piercing station. When they came at her with the Sharpie marker to make the dot on her ear, she started FREAKING out. She had just gotten a shot the day before and I think she was still traumatized a little by that. While we waited for them to get everything ready, she cried and pointed out in the mall saying "walk!" She wanted to get far away from these crazy people trying to mess with her ears.

 After it was all said and done she got a sucker and all was well. She cried the most about me having to hold her arms down while they pierced them. While Daddy and Sissy finished out what I bet was a GREAT movie, we walked around the mall and rode the little airplane.

 When Reese came out of the movie, she told me, "my favorwite part was the kissin' part." Sigh.

 We left there and went to Mellow Mushroom where we waited over an hour to get our food, but there was live music and pretty weather so the girls didn't seem to mind. Reese took time out of her busy afternoon to boss her daddy around teach him his letters.

Round 1 of ear piercing looked like this and seemed like it was only last week. Tear.