Check out these cuties at gan!

One last thing

We have to work on their girls' pronunciation. Specifically with the letter S. Sometimes they just skip it, sometimes they replace it with a C.

They do the latter when getting dressed in the morning.

You know what you put on before your shoes?

Yeah...

Marvelous, marvelous girls

My daughters are incredible. Not that I am biased or anything. but each and every day I am blown away by their awesomeness.

Last night after gan Bracha came home with Shawn and Eli and I walked, hand in hand, to the supermarket. She was an absolute pleasure to be with. She helped me remember the shopping list, asked questions about what we were buying, helped me load the shopping cart and carry the groceries home. On the way upstairs she said we should pretend to be Barney characters.

E: Eli be Baby Bop, ima be Barney, Bracha be BJ.
Me: What about abba?
E: Oh, what about abba?
Me: Abba can be Barney.
E: But what about ima?
Me: I can just be your friend.
E: Ima be Baby Bop with Eli. We be Baby Bop together!

Today after gan I took the girls to the gymboree where they played so very nicely, I was so proud of them. They were happy and friendly and shared and cleaned up after themselves. Eli loves baseball so one of our favorite games is she takes a small plastic bat they have there and I pitch and she hits quite well. The girls ate tons of macaroni and cheese (baby Bop's favorite food!) and afterwards we went to run errands and they were such good listeners.

When we got home they played with their kitchen for a bit (they play with it every morning and evening! Best toy ever! Again no bias of course) and had a snack of peanuts (halved, of course). They were so well behaved and were having so much fun playing I pushed bedtime off an hour but when Shawn finally got them into PJs and I asked Eli what time it was she calmly answered bed time but when I said I would take them to bed she told me no! I can't believe it but the girls put themselves to bed tonight! They kissed me good night in the living room, where we said Shema together, then they took themselves off to their room, got into their beds, and went to sleep all by themselves!

Where did my babies go!?!

My daughter the cook

I was wrong, Eli's cooked bananas were delicious!

My daughter the artist

Bracha just drew a bunch on vertical lines on a paper, I mean a bunch, which is very unlike her because usually she tried to draw butterflies which involves lots of round lines, and showed it to me: "Look, Ima! It's raining and pouring!"

Now Eli is singing the nursery rhyme of the same name.

They are in such great moods this morning! They both woke up and played with each other while I stayed in bed until Bracha came to tell me she was poopy. Both were very cooperative during diaper changes, each had two bowls of breakfast (cornflakes and milk for Bracha, bran flakes and yogurt for Eliana) and they're now drawing and sharing markers. Oh, nope, now they're playing with the kitchen to, according to Eli, cook bananas and tomatoes for lunch. Mmmm, I'm glad they're not the cooks!

New kitchen, part 2 (the story)

I've wanted to get a play kitchen for the girls for a very long time. But they're expensive and cost precious space in a small apartment. So, me being the creative person that I am, I decided to make one, instead of buying one, and to save space I decided to take a piece of furniture we already had (a tv stand) but didn't need (since we have no tv), so I wouldn't be addiing anything extra to our space.

I looked online for ideas and inspirations, and to Ikea and the hardware store for everything else. I decided to paint it blue since a: that way Shawn wouldn't object since he has an issue with the girls having too many "girlie" things and b: that was the color of my own childhood kitchen. Thanks to a friend's borrowed jig saw, my father's borrowed sander, and my own cordless drill, I was able to do the construction aspect fairly easily. The problem is I started on that then got carried away with other projects and this one was left on the porch for a couple of months, until the rainy season began and I realized I had better get crackin. So I finished the construction (which consisted of removing the upper shelf, cutting it down and turning it into an internal shelf, reinforcing the base and the various brackets, and creating the oven door by filling in the door handle hole, making new holes, cutting the square for the window and affixing the plexiglass plate, a cutting holes for the sink and faucet), put on a base coat then three cans worth of blue spray paint, plus some black for the burners. I then attached the faucet, sink, burner knobs, and doors, and finally, today, added the toys I've been hiding in the back room.

After I pick the girls up from gan today I'll bring them home and show them their brand new toy. Yes, I'll take pictures and videos. I'm so excited!!

New kitchen, part 1 (the pictures)