3 months worth of catch-up

I can't believe I haven't posted in 3 months.

I've been so busy with work - preparing to (student) teach my first Lamaze class in 11 short days, and to take the test in April. And busy with the kids, who are blossoming.

Eliana just started her second session of swimming - now in the big kid class. She got so confident and capable in the previous class with Daddy, now she is way ahead of all the other kids. It is a far cry from the last time we tried the big kid class, when she did nothing but screamy crying the whole time til we gave in and got her out. I am so glad we put her in the baby class.

She's still in gymnastics, just one day a week now. Loves it and is just awesome at it. She runs circles around the other kids, if I do say so myself. She is the only one who can do seat-drops back up to standing on the trampoline, and one of two who can do a handstand with her feet up on the wall (and the other one is an older boy). She is fearless and loves going over the "high" bar and doing somersaults on the balance beam (not the real one but not the one on the ground, either... it's a few feet off the ground - of course the teacher is spotting the kids).

She's not so much in a mommy phase right now as she was before but she is still very lovey. She tells me all the time that she loves me and wants to cuddle me. We've entered a very harmonious phase - somewhere in between the total disequilibrium where she is asserting her independence and the intense neediness where she wants me next to her 24/7. Man, I like the middle ground.

Kessa, on the other hand, is experiencing both at once. She goes from being an appendage to asserting herself and back multiple times a day. It's very 18-24 months, she's just doing it a little early I guess.

She is pee potty trained (with reminding) and mostly pooping in it too. The major hurdle on both is when she's having so much fun she doesn't want to interrupt playing to go potty. Pretty typical I guess, again, just early. She has even been doing a great job out in public - peeing in public restrooms and/or holding it while we're out - though I still diaper her for most outings. And she's often in dipes at home, simply b/c I need more tiny underwear.

Tuesday she got her first major booboo. And it's not that major, it just freaked me out. She fell while holding one of their plastic golf clubs and it hit her in the mouth. It cut her outside lip and pushed her lip into her tooth so that the inside got totally gashed by her tooth. When I first looked at it and saw it bleeding on both the inside and outside I thought she'd pierced through her whole lip and it totally freaked me out. Then I figured out what had happened but called the dr and they said if the outside wasn't bad she would be fine b/c the inside heals very fast. Two days later it still looks bad, but better than before, so I suppose it's healing. Scott keeps calling her a boxer.

That's all I can think of right now. Amazing how fast 3 months goes.