Coconut heads

happy birthday to my little girls!

(in the fort you both had made)

i'm pretty sure you guys are the craziest people i've ever met. congratulations on that.

oh, lucy bea. you are 3 now. please stop growing so fast lately. it's haunting your mommy. it's keeping me up at night. you and me, we're friends. we get eachother. i know that you want to at least try to do everything by yourself once and then cry about how no one is helping you, and then completely forget the prior sequence of events once someone starts to help you, and insist on doing it yourself again.

i am just like that too.

(on a train in the courtyard of a mall in Richmond)

olive, sometimes you are just too beautiful. i have so much hope for you, child. despite what some 4 year old at morning school who called you "hopeless" says. we really do think you're going to be a doctor someday. we believe you. and deep down i see, even on your bad days, that you want so much for me to know that you are good. and you are and you will be. i can see all this. i love how reasonable you are, even on those bad days, if we take the time to explain things to you, your little self will find reason with things that you don't want to make peace with. i can see that you wish you didn't understand. but you can't help that you do. i think you tick yourself off. you and i, we speak different love languages. i don't always understand where you're coming from. but we are both trying. even you, now 5, are now mature enough to try.

(just back from the dollar store)

scarves tied around your necks, whipping around every corner of the house. i hope i don't miss these days too much. i'm trying so hard to appreciate them enough now, so i don't regret that i didn't one day. but i have to admit, most days i catch myself wishing you older and more independent. but i know that i don't really mean that. in fact, it is my new years resolution to be present with the notion that NOW is wonderful and beautiful. even if all we've done all day is yell and pray for self control.

olive: come on, powergirl! we have to save someone.
lucy: oh
olive: we're wasting our time! let's go to the moon!
lucy: oh. (thinking of what to add) SAVE THE MOON!
olive: lucy, your face needs to be mad - like this (hideous mad face)


lucy, i don't even really know how to explain to you how equally ridiculous, fun, cute, and gross you are at this age and all those things at once. not long ago, i went to check on you guys before i went to bed, as i always do. in the dark i could see your face as if it were glowing in the dark. i turned on the light. you had made yourself a full on beard and mustache out of diaper cream. there you were sound asleep, looking like santa claus. par for the course, lucy. par for the course.




on a different night i found you sound asleep in your bed with a hairbrush, a truck, 2 little people,

a doll, an elephant, and a phone. i only remember because i wrote them all down when i left your room. i one by one slowly started taking each thing out of your bed. slow and steady as not to wake you. but you woke up and groggily asked for each one of those things back in the dark, listing every item, as if they each had a purpose there in your bed.




olive, i hope you understand how good you have it, with lucy as your sister. you rock her world in every way. she often times asks you if she can get you a napkin, or your juice... if just she and i go to the store together, she asks me if we can buy you some candy. if she gets to pick out candy for being good at the store, she picks out your favorite so she can share with you. the giddy excitement on her face on the way home as she anticipates how happy she is about to make you. every monday and wednesday, when we're on our way to pick you up from morning school, she waves at the swans on lake susan on the way and tells them we can't stop and talk to them right then, because we have to go get you. you are her world. and her mission is to keep you happy and laughing. you are a child that needs a lot. a lot of attention, a lot of quality interaction, a lot of affection, a lot of affirmation... daddy and i wear ourselves out on giving you what you need in all these areas. but i have to say, that on more than one occasion we note how thankful we are for lucy, who supplements with all the "company" that she offers you. you really have an ally with her.

have i mentioned how obsessed olive is with all things medical. it started with her month long stomach bug that landed her in the hospital. that was over 2 years ago. this phase doesn't seem to be budging. here she is applying address label bandages to lucy's head injury. her new favorite thing, is watching doctors on you tube. her favorites are promos for children's hospitals and personal footage of people filming their babies getting check ups or vaccinations. recently, i put a clip on for her, showed her how to click through to similar videos and then left the room to do some laundry. later, i came passing through the room again to put away clothes and i found her engrossed in some early 90's spanish soap operas. she was instantly hooked on all the emotional women and big jewelry. olive, only you child, only you.

lucy, i love that you call olive's fisher price laptop a "pooter". and i love that you told her it was broken the other day. "your pooter's broken, ollo. maybe somebody fix it for you". i find this very funny. it's nothing but high class humor over here, all around.

lucy, i hope you understand how good you have it, with olive as your sister. you have more questions in your little brain than i ever dreamed possible. we tire quick from just talking around here. but olive has more endurance for your curiosity than anyone in the whole house. she has even begun to anticipate your questions now and just goes ahead and explains everything in full detail. this endurance wears out around 8:30 at night when she comes out of ya'll's room crying at the top of the stairs because she doesn't want to answer any more questions. another reason you are blessed is that you have a sister that completely freaks out if you are going to get a spanking. now don't get me wrong...she gets a total kick out of you going to time out....almost giddy about that. but if you have been bad enough that she can see that we're angry, she gets very protective of you and melts into a heap on the floor, begging us to just give you one more chance. and in addition to all of these things, olive is an adoring sister to you. she'll come and tell me something "cute" you've said. or she'll beg me to come look at this picture she found in an album that she just can't get over how little or sweet you looked. this girl is in your court for life.

olive, can sing an entire verse of rick james' "super freak" only substituting the word "stink" for "freak". this is finn's theme song and he has heard it so many times that at the first stanza he starts bouncing.

"he's a very stinky boy.
the kind you don't take home to mutha'
he will never let your spirits dowwwwwn
once you get him off the street
that boys a super stink
he's alright
he's alright
that boyyyyyyyyysss allllllllllright with me yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
he's a super stink
super stink
he's super stinky yow"

i'm just so very proud.

(with aunt elizabeth at thanksgiving)

have i mentioned that olive almost single handedly potty trained lucy this summer. she really did! she just started to take lucy in the bathroom with her whenever she was going and pulled down her pants, took off her diaper, and sat her down on the training potty. then olive would come ask us for a potty reward treat for lucy, and then precede to con lucy out of half of it. now we are just trying to gear up for no diapers at night or naptimes for lucy. olive had, what she thought was, a great idea on how to do this. "i'll just lay down blankets for her at night for her to potty on! that way we can just wash the blankets every morning!" she was honestly truly pumped about this idea.

and i must note something else that has developed this year, in you olive. you are developing a very compassionate heart. and we're so thankful for this gift God has given you. you raid our mail for letters from charities that help sick kids. it sincerely breaks your heart to see a child that looks poor or that has a cleft palate or is in a hospital. "what can we do to help them?", you ask with worry all over your face. so we pray and talk about some ideas and you decide, after confirming that you would indeed get some presents to open on your birthday, that you would like for mommy and daddy to give some of the money that we would have spent on you, away to these children. you're completely confused and concerned about how the money will get to them and insist we just need to go and find the kids. but i just want to say, that i appreciate you for being burdened for things outside of your blessed little world.

and lastly on the agenda of what to talk about on the year in retrospect is clothes.

lucy
seriously
what is the deal?
why will you not stay dressed, girl?
are you allergic to fibers?
put on some pants
throw on a shirt
add some panties
and then like really go crazy and leave them all on, please
let's make this a new year's resoluction lu-bird.

anyways, ladies. i hope to have painted a picture here of who you guys are at this age or at least who you guys are when you're not fighting with each other! we love you so much. you are teaching us so much about ourselves. we're all growing together.

happy birthday, coconuts!