my amazing girls

I may be a little bit biased, but I think that my little girls are both brilliant and gorgeous and the sweetest little girls ever. They are surprising me daily with the new things they pick up and I wanted to share some of them here.

We went to the pool yesterday and then to the commissary. I love taking Anika to the commissary. She asks for broccoli and cauliflower and bell peppers and when I ask what color pepper she says, "red, and yellow, and green" and I buy them all even if they weren't on the list. After the commissary she wanted a pink drink (berry smoothie at McDonald's). There is construction going on so the road between the commissary and McDonald's is closed. I told her I couldn't get there and she told me otherwise. She said "go right" and I went right. Then she said "now go that way" and I did. A few more turns later with her directing me we made it to McDonald's and she got her pink drink :)

Anika wanted to play Mickey Mouse Clubhouse this morning so she sat in front of the laptop and started clicking. We have a folder of games and videos for her in our bookmarks so she manipulated the cursor to "bookmarks", then to "Anika", and then over to "Mickey Mouse" and just started playing.

While Eric was getting ready to go to work Anika told him, "Papa, you go to work and they give you money and you give the money to Mama so she can go shopping". I guess she is listening when I answer all her why questions lately.

Just this week she buttoned her first button and learned to hop on one foot. I can't wait to see what she learns next. She is getting better and better at taking photos too. Here is her latest shot.

Little Emily is 18 months old now and is using a new word almost every day now. Her latest is "Topper", the neighbor's dog. Here is the list off the top of my head, there may be more.

Mama
Papa
Anika
Sissy
Alara (cousin)
mehr (more in German)
go
choo choo
no
nein (no in German)
off
hi
hello
bye
woof woof
hot
up
mine
my
wow

night night
uh oh
ow
pop
bubbles
boo

The only time she strings words together is when she fights with her sister. Anika will say, "my mama" and Emmy retorts, "no, mama mine". I guess that counts as her first sentence.

She is sleeping in a twin bed, eating in a regular chair, drinking from a regular cup, using a fork and spoon, using the potty occasionally, and loves to dress herself in other people's clothes.