sing along

In order for Esme to go to sleep now, she needs me to sing her songs. She sings along to "Twinkle Twinkle," and does all the accompanying animal noises to "Hush Little Baby." Calla hums along in her crib, thumb in mouth, while Esme nestles into my neck, little monkey legs and arms wrapped around me. Then she insists on 3 blankets, and Mommy's "Fa-Fa", which is my moth-eaten cashmere sweater.

The kids have been spending a lot of time at the community center across the street. They eat lunch with Myrna and all the other nanny's and kids, then run around like maniacs while Myrna tries to herd them up. I don't know why they like it so much there, but they really do. There's a 4-year old boy with glasses named Davis that Esme really likes, and a little girl named named Sienna that Calls lights up to. I'm looking forward to spring arriving so they can spend more time outside. New York winters kind of suck when you have young kids.

Some current favorites:

The Knuffle Bunny books, particularly the third one.

Snow White. Everything Snow White. They made us change the words to the Elmo Song to the Snow White Song. I'm convinced it's giving both of them nightmares, but I think they'd hatch a plan to have us killed if we denied them their "White", as they say.

Mashed-up grapefruit drizzled with honey.

Peanut bars.

Esme can drink a gallon of milk. In between gulps she gasps "More!"

Pancakes, butter, jam. Maple syrup. Any kind of ice cream.

Removing the fuzzy rug from their room to play dodgeball with stuffed frog. I like hitting them and seeing them fall over, laughing. They also like "flying" on Mommy's feet.

The still rarely nap. Sometimes for Myrna, hardly ever with me and A.

Giving the cat yummies, then sampling some themselves if I'm not fast enough. They still enjoy hugging the cat and licking him.