sugar and spice

 ^ Bernadette enjoying the neighbor cat's latest. Who wouldn't love this?

I think I have outlined in greater detail than is actually needed how hard having little girls can be.  I know boys and girls present different challenges, and from what I can tell, girls tend toward the overly emotional and boys the overly physical, again both challenging in their own right. There is a lot of drama, there are tantrums aplenty, and a more advanced emotional state than I am ready for at their ripe little ages. However, today is NOT for complaining! I have been noting several great things about having little girls that I love, here are a few that I was mindful enough to right down for my future self when I'm threatening to run out of the house at the next tearful meltdown:

1) They always want to talk. Sometimes, or maybe a lot of times, this drives me really crazy. Other times, when I'm not the worst mother of all time, I remind myself of how fun it is that I have someone to converse with on a daily basis, because they are always conversing. And I love socializing, even if the conversation consists of this:

Bernadette: Mom, do you know why Briar Rose died?
Ana: No, why?
Bernadette: Because she had to come to the house and eat FOUR FIFTY FIVE cupcakes and then she had a big kiss from her father and then she had to die (goes on for several more minutes while I walk out of the room, do some chore and then come back) and then she was happy!
Ana: Oh, ok

Whatever, it is so nice to have interesting albeit confusing, conversationalists around me all day. It beats constant silence, I say.

2) When things are good they are really good. While this does go hand in hand with "when things are bad they are really bad", having little drama queens afoot means that when they think I look nice they shout it in the more excited way than could possibly be proportionate, and when they are happy, they are the happiest they have ever been in their lives. Just today I hung up this long piece of twine and connected Christmas cards to it with clothes pins so as to keep them from getting mauled and eaten:

And Bernadette's response was this: "OH MAMA!!!!!!!! You have made our home BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!"
It is twine and clothes pins.

3) They will always tell me when something is wrong. All three girls have recently taken to playing in Naomi and Bernadette's room together with the door closed. While this kind of freaks me out because Lucy is still wee and not quite sturdy on her feet, I know that nothing bad will happen that does not drive them immediately out of the room SCREAMING about what happened. I know this because they have run out of the room SCREAMING before and I've come running to find Lucy already over whatever happened by the time I get there.

4) They are hilarious. Right now they are playing the Nutcracker and Naomi is clad in this pull-up crown calling herself maDAM:

While they refer to Lucy only as Princess Perlipat. I find myself laughing out loud all the time from the kitchen while I listen to their pretend play in the other room. They have the craziest, funniest imaginations and it is lovely entertainment.

5) They are motherly. They ask for more babies all the time and they take amazing care of Lucy. There is no roughhousing with her and if they ever accidentally hurt her they are so quick to apologize and give copious kisses to make up for their folly.

I love seeing mothers of lots of children with their grown older girls caring for the littlest of the family and I reeeeeealy hope I can train these girls to be my little nannies when they are grown. I will also teach them to clean my house. It will be GREAT!

So there you have it, although there are surely more, these are a few fun things about having little girls that I can pull out of my mom-brain. Happy Monday!