obsessions

Olivia and Violet are both currently obsessed with Dora the Explorer. Whenever we let them watch TV, that is the show they want to watch. They can sing every word of the theme song and they respond to Dora when she asks questions during the show. They even implement stuff from the show into their daily lives. When we were eating breakfast yesterday morning, Olivia grabbed Violet's cereal bowl and slid it across the table, hiding it behind a box of cereal. She proceeded to say, "You'll never find your cereal NOW!" to which Violet stuck her arm out and replied, "Swiper, NO SWIPING!" (If you have never watched the show, I won't even bother trying to explain.)

Violet is also obsessed with stuffed animals and babies. No matter where she goes, she drags along about four or five stuffed animals and her blanket. When she gets up in the morning, she usually walks out into the hallway with her arms overflowing and says, "Mommy, can you help me? These are heavy." There is no room for her in her bed because her animals have taken over. She also loves to be a "mommy" to her baby dolls. I walked downstairs yesterday, and she was laying on her back on our dining room floor with a baby doll on her chest, and they were both covered up cozily with her blanket. I started chuckling and Violet just looked at me and said, "My baby is tired."

Olivia has been a very good big sister lately. When Violet needs something, Olivia will get it for her and then announce, "I am a nice sister." Her latest prize posession is a sticker book that she got from her cousin Emma. She wants to carry it with her wherever she goes. She loves to color and decorate pages with stickers. She also LOVES eating cereal. Every morning, she says she wants cereal for breakfast and then proclaims, "I want to pick." She prances over to the closet and picks her flavor of cereal for the day. She's had everything from Special K to Shredded Wheat to Raisin Bran, and she likes it all.

I am relieved that we no longer have to drag a bag of extra pants and underwear with us every place we go. We finally drew the line and said that if they have an accident, we have to go home no matter what it is that we are doing. I think this was one of the best decisions we ever made because, after the first few times of heading home after an accident, it forced them to learn how to use the potty correctly. Some days they are like camels and can hold their pee for hours and other days it still feels like we are in the bathroom with them every 15 minutes, but they have very few accidents anymore.

By the way, their new favorite saying (which they learned from a boy at daycare) is: "What the heck?"

Can't you just hear that phrase coming out of the mouths of two sassy, giggly two-year-old girls?