Pippa Says

While I was doing her hair:
Pippa: I'm cute!
Me: Yes, but what's more important than looking cute? (I wanted her to say being kind.)
Pippa: Looking gorgeous!

Roxy was opening birthday presents.
Pippa: Ok now pull here... Now pull here... Then pull here...
T: She has a future in management.

Pippa's favorite Primary song these days is "Praise to the Man." She really knows all the words, but she always sings "...Traitors and tyrants now fight him in Maine." (It's supposed to be "fight him in vain." Here's a video clip. T was singing softly so you could hear Pippa better, but as he started singing softer Pippa followed his lead and started singing softer, too!

A few hours after Pippa went to bed we heard her softly crying in her room.
T: Why are you crying?
Pippa: I'm crying because ... (pause)... I think you're wonderful.

Pippa was playing around at dinner and T had had enough.
T: Sit up and eat dinner.
Pippa: Why?
T: Why do you think?
Pippa: I don't think.
T: Touché.

Randomly while we were eating dinner:
Pippa: Daddy, you're getting a little bit old. But it's ok. You can still live with us.

This one is just sweet. My grandpa had hip replacement surgery so we told Pippa about it and that we should be sure to include him in our prayers. After we told her, she said very much as a statement and not a question "Jesus will heal Grandpa Pratt."

At dinner:
Me: Pippa can you give Roxy a slice of your orange?
Pippa: No. Make your own orange.

The rest of these Pippa quotes come from Jan - March of this year. I got behind!

Pippa: Mom said I can eat lots of candy.
Me: I didn't say that.
Pippa: Pretend mom did.


While eating dinner
Pippa: I like this.
Me: Good.
Pippa: You know what I like? I like cookies all the time. And brown cookies.
(I think brown cookies = brownies.)


While out playing in the rain:
Pippa: Some moms say you can't jump in puddles. But not OUR mom!
A bit later:
Pippa: Can Roxy make screams?
Me: (nods)
Pippa: Yeah! Because we're outside!


Pippa: I want to tell you a story. One day I went to the park. And a baby squished me. And I died. (All said with a straight face.)

Roxy Says

Roxy likes to sing and knows many songs. A favorite is "I Love to See the Temple." She knows all the words because this is the song we've been singing to her for every nap and bedtime since she was born. This is how she does the last line of the song: "This is my sacred duty good night." She thinks "good night" is part of the song :)

The girls brought the chairs from the playroom into the kitchen and I wanted them to put the chairs away.
Me: Pippa is being responsible and putting away the chairs. Can you be responsible, too?
Roxy: No. Pippa be 'sponsible.

And two from this week:
After dropping Pippa off at a thing:
Roxy: I want my Pippa. I want my Pippa, PLEASE. (They aren't apart from each other very often as you can tell.)


We are not a "finish all the food on your plate" house. We tell the girls to listen to their tummy - eat when tummy says hungry and stop when tummy says all done.
Me: Want some kiwi?
Roxy: My tummy says no kiwi, please. My tummy says go play!

Pippa at 4

Here's what Pippa is like at age 4:

• Likes to pretend to be a cat.
• Is a rule follower and often tries to be the rule enforcer for Roxy. (Sometimes this is helpful. Other times not so much.)
• Says "Actually..." quite a bit.
• Likes to play in the dirt in our backyard
• Has quiet time while Roxy and Gemma (and mom) nap. Pippa ends up napping during this time about half the time. 
• Goes to bed around 8 (falls asleep around 8:40) and wakes around 7:20.
• Her favorite color is pink. She reminds us of this all the time.
• Is saving her money for "Happy Hollow, a new car, and visiting Grandma." 
• Is so helpful in the car giving Gemma her binky, holding her hand, and singing to her. (Roxy does this, too. Gemma's carseat is in the middle.)
• Loves going to Primary.
• Likes to wear her sequin crown a lot. People often ask if she's a princess and Pippa replies, "No, I'm better than a princess." People think she means she's a queen, but she really means being Pippa is better than a princess. And it's true! But it is frustrating to her that people don't get it.
• Can buckle and un-buckle her top buckle of her carseat.
• Is proud of her curlies. (Mom is too!)
• Loves to wear skirts and dresses. Especially dresses that poof out when she twirls.
• Is getting slightly sassy - like muttering things under her breath or huffy sighs. 
• Along those same lines Pippa would be a great soccer player. She flops like no other. If Roxy give her a little push to try to get around her Pippa falls to the ground and lies there for several minutes crying and writhing in "pain." Same thing with little trips, nudges, or pats (sometimes even if they are obviously friendly touches!).
• Loves meeting and playing with new kids - older and younger.
• Wants to be an astronaut / mom / engineer when she grows up. Well, I don't think she really has the concept of what a career is (and good for her - why should she even be thinking about that!), but she says things like "When I'm big I can be an astronaut if I want."
• Favorite toys are legos, the marble run, and baby dolls / stuffed animals.
• Is taking a gymnastics class and loves it.
• Wants to help whenever I'm doing anything in the kitchen. I let her do a lot of stuff too, including cutting with her cutter, a butter knife, and sometimes a real sharp knife. (Of course under very close supervision.)
• Still calls ice "icek."
• Took swimming lessons for the first time this summer and had a huge improvement. Pippa went from not wanting to put her face in the water to swimming with swimmer arms about 10 yards. I do think watching Olympic swimmers influenced her (we watched about 30 minutes of Olympics during lunch every day and almost everyday it seemed like swimming was on!)
• Wants to go to school. (We're not doing formal pre-school. Maybe I'll do a post about this later)
• When playing with Roxy they often pretend to be Eloise, Emmy, or Ann. Not quite sure why they picked those names. We do know two girls named Emmy, and our next door neighbor (an adult) is Ann, but I don't know where Pippa even heard the name Eloise.

The outtakes:

Roxy at 2

Roxy at 2. I'm bummed that the best photo is blurry. But people, taking photos while holding a two week old is not easy!

Roxy at 2:

• Favorite food is cheddar cheese (a girl after her mom's heart (and stomach))
• Sings whole songs mostly on tune. Current Roxy hits are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "I Love to See the Temple," "Hush Little Baby," and "Let's Go Fly a Kite."
• Counts to 10
• Knows all her colors (she's had these down for quite some time now)
• Goes to sleep ridiculously easily. She doesn't fight bedtime and if she's not ready to sleep, she will just chill in her crib.
• Sometimes she likes to hang out in her crib alone even when it's not bedtime. It's not a punishment, she asks for it! Usually when she's upset but sometimes just because. She'll stay in the crib just talking / singing / playing with her snuggle blankets anywhere from 5-20 minutes. I'm actually really glad that she recognizes when she needs some alone time and then she makes it happen. 
• Copies everything Pippa does and says.
• Loves "Baby Bin" (that's how Roxy pronounces baby's real name) and is SO gentle with her. I was so scared that Roxy would be insanely jealous of baby, but she hasn't been at all! It's been a wonderful surprise!
• When I'm getting ready to nurse baby Gemma, Roxy will open her mouth super wide to show Gemma what she should do to eat. Roxy also likes to "help" nurse Gemma by putting her hand on my breast.
• Only likes to go slow and low on the swing in our backyard and at the park. Like moving only 6 inches to the front and back slow. But this is progress because she wouldn't even get in the swing the first 3 months we had it. Then for a month she would only sit in it and didn't want to be pushed at all. 
• Always wants to be first to get her hair done. Requests either a ponytail or clips. If she chooses clips, she wants four or five in her hair at one time. I've taken to hiding the clips and only putting two on the counter. The top of her hair is still straight, but she is getting a few curls around the edges of the straight portion. People stop us all the time to compliment her curls.
• LOVES playing in the dirt in our backyard.
• Recently started calling Pippa "AZ" or "Ace-E" instead of just "A."
• Usually naps from 1:30 to 3 or 3:30. Goes to bed around 8 and wakes around 7:45. Often I'm not sure how long she's been awake because she will just happily chill in her crib. 
• Still sucks her thumb.
• Not anymore, but for a while she would say "pie" meaning "up high."
• Carries her two blankets with her ALL THE TIME around the house (we don't let her take them outside, because who wants to look for lost blankets in the yard, garage, laundry, car, neighbor's, etc?). This leads to many episodes of "where my snuggle blankey go?" She occasionally wakes us up crying in the night asking this. Usually she's sitting on it.
• Says "pick up me" instead of pick me up. Just since Gemma was born Roxy has started saying it the right way "pick me up" and I miss her saying it the other way.
• Likes to stretch her arms across a doorway or across the hall and pretend to be a gate, opening and closing for people going by.
• Has the best hip swing when she jogs / runs. T has a great video of it - I'll try to add it here. 
• Is currently cautious and doesn't like strangers. You should see the stink eye and pouty lip she gives strangers who talk to her.
• Loves pockets in her clothes and loves putting her hands in the pockets.
• Might be losing her curlies? Or maybe not. Roxy still doesn't have curls on the top of her head / bangs area and I feel like her hair is straightening out at the nape of her neck. 
• Had her first x-rays (right knee and hip). Roxy has been complaining since the first week of June that the back of her knee hurt (and still is complaining). She would complain about it 3-5 days a week multiple times a day - at odd times, too, like after nap or during snack or while playing. After two pediatrician appointments, x-rays, and a specialist visit. The official diagnosis was tight hamstrings and tendonitis. AKA growing pains. I'm glad we got it checked out though. 
• Finally likes doing slides at the playground again. For about nine months she wouldn't go down slides sitting up or on her tummy even though before this started she did like going down slides on her tummy. Not sure what made her change her mind. 
• Can put on her own shoes - her (sort of) slip on natives, white sandals, and pink velcro sneakers. 
• Will blow kisses and catch kisses if you blow them to her.
• Never falls asleep in the same position. She's all over the place in the crib and position.
• Says "why?" all the time. Pretty sure she picked it up from Pippa and that Roxy has no idea what it really means.
• Loves her fire truck shirt.

Right now Roxy is kind of all or nothing. If you ask her to do something and she wants to cooperate she will cheerfully do it right away. If you ask her to do something and she says "no," nothing you will do or say will make her do it. And she says "no" so nonchalantly and just turns and walks away. The things that she says yes or no to are completely arbitrary. I tried to get Roxy to say "I'm two!" But she wouldn't cooperate.

The outtakes:

We love this girl!