Favorite Things: 2 Years 4 Months

It is amazing how much Emma and Ella have changed in the past 4 months (since their Bday). Here is a list of their new favorite things:
Thomas the Tank Engine: every morning we watch Thomas on TV while Mommy gets dressed.Thomas and Percy are our favorite engines. We also like Harold the helicopter.
Babies and Puppies: We like to take care of our babies and animals. We feed them, wash their clothes, give them baths, and put them to bed. We especially like to take them for walks in their strollers. Most importantly, we take them everywhere we go, and we have to have our babies and puppies when we go to sleep!
The Pool: we love to play in the baby pool, and we also like swimming in the big pool with Daddy. It is really funny when we fall in the pool and get all wet!
ABC Magnets: we love to play with our fridge magnets. We sign along with the letter songs, and point out letters everywhere we see them.
Songs: we love to sing our favorite songs. We know all the words and motions to: Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ring Around the Rosie, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.
Books: Ella's favorite book is Time for Bed, Biscuit and Emma's is Thomas the Tank Engine. We read them every night before bed. We also both like Goodnight Moon.
Puzzles: we love puzzles. We can do the kind with the little knobs and some wooden puzzles with big pieces.
Art: we love to draw, color and paint. We also love stickers. When we are outside, we like to draw with chalk. Sometimes we draw all over the furniture on the deck. Luckily, chalk washes off in the rain!
Food: we've discovered milkshakes and cookies. MMMmmmm!!!
Outdoor Toys: we like to play outside on the deck. We like the Sit and Spin, the sand table, blowing bubbles, the teeter totter, and the slide. We also love to climb, but we need a bigger play set, and we like our tree swing - it is fun to sit in it together.
TV: we have also discovered TV. Mommy will only let us watch a little bit each day, and we have our favorite shows. We like to watch Sesame Street, Thomas the Train, and Wonder Pets. We still like our Baby Einstein videos - we usually watch them in the car - and now we also like Little Einsteins. We like it when rocket takes off on a mission.
Dress-Up: we like to dress up in our winter hats and mittens in the middle of summer, we like to wear Mommy and Daddy's shoes, and we like to wear our princess/fairy skirts and wings. We also love to wear chunky necklaces.
Jumping: we love to jump! We jump on the ground and on Mommy and Daddy's bed. We jump on the couches, even though we're not supposed to! We even jump in the pool. We also love to jump on Mommy and Daddy!
Bailey: we love to play with Bailey. We like to hug him and give him a kiss, and we like to throw the ball so he will go get it. Bailey is 12 years old, and sometimes we want to play with Bailey, but he doesn't want to play with us! We are learning to be gentle when we play with Bailey so we won't hurt him. We call him "Be".
Planes and Trucks: We are fascinated with planes
and trucks. We point and say "up, plane" every time a plane flies over our house, and we see trucks everywhere when we ride in the car. Emma makes a very good "whoosh" noise when she shows people how a plane takes off.
Buttons: we love to play with Mommy's button collection. We sneak into Mommy's room and line up all the buttons from the button bowl on the bed. Sometimes Mommy gets out the button jar and we sort the buttons in ice cube trays or muffin tins. It is a lot of fun - there are so many ways to sort buttons!
Bugs: Ella is fascinated with bugs and other crawly things (like worms). She picks them up to show them to Mommy, and usually squashes them and then cries because they don't move anymore! Oops!
Boo-Boos - Emma and Ella get a lot of boo-boos, especially Ella. Mommy has to kiss all of our boo-boos to make them better (no matter how small), and sometimes, Ella kisses her own boo-boos!

Some Things We Don't Like:
sand on Ella's feet
sharing our toys (although sometimes we do)
going to bed
stinky diapers
most veggies
shopping
dirty hands or feet
bees (any flying bug) in the house (but they're OK outside)
thunderstorms
vacuum cleaners
Mommy's hair dryer
strangers

Teamwork

Emma and Ella work together as a team. Sometimes, they come up with very creative ideas together. For example, Emma and Ella like to wear Mommy and Daddy's shoes. One day, Emma and Ella took all of the shoes out of Mommy and Daddy's closet and lined them up on the bed. Then they tried all of the shoes on and walked around in them. Daddy's shoes are hard to walk in because they are so big. Another time, Emma and Ella came downstairs for breakfast, but on the way they stopped on the landing to examine the old cookie cutters in the basket on the stairs. They decided to take all of the cookie cutters out and piled them all on the bottom step. Then they put them all back in the basket. They were very proud, and had a great time making animal noises for all of the different cookie cutters. Teamwork comes in handy at naptime when the girls do not want to go to sleep. Instead, they work together to get into all kinds of trouble. One day they took all of the books off of their bookshelves and put them in a huge pile on the floor. Another day they took all of their clothes out of their dresser. Another time, they filled up the shopping cart and baby buggy with toys from the playroom, then filled their cribs with the toys. There was no room to go to sleep! The girls dump and fill all kinds of things. They have even used little buckets and watering cans to empty all of the water from the baby pool - they watered the driveway, the sidewalk, the plants, the grass, Mommy and Daddy, themselves, the water table - until all of the water was gone! Then, of course, they wanted Mommy to fill it up so they could do it again!
Emma and Ella also like to draw. They have Color Wonder markers that (supposedly) only mark on special paper. One day, Daddy was reading the paper in the living room while the girls played in the kitchen. They were very quiet. That is always a sign that trouble is brewing. Mommy walked out to the kitchen to find that the girls decorated the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. Even though they used the Color Wonder markers, you could see the marks on the wall. What a great example of teamwork in action! They were very proud of their picture, and then they helped Mommy clean it off. Luckily, when Emma and Ella make a mess, they are good cleaners, and help to clean it up. Emma and Ella also work together during playtime. They will often work together to finish a puzzle or a stacking toy. Sometimes Ella or Emma will point out where a piece goes. When they work together to accomplish something, they clap when they are done. The amazing thing about teamwork for Emma and Ella is the fact that they don't have to talk about what they are going to do. It's as if they know exactly what the other one is thinking. It is fun to watch them in action, even when they work together to make a mess!