Little Growin's

These posts seem to be getting longer and longer apart, don't they? Largely it's because it's that time of year when stress levels are superceded only by levels of tiredness. Moving seems to take more effort. Minds and bodies seem slooooower than before. Add to that a series of small illnesses that have taken the family by mini-storm (first mommy, then Amalia, then Irini and now daddy) and you've got a few weeks straight of somebody being "off" in the house. But that doesn't mean that things haven't been happening. 

Take, for instance, Irini's first back flip. Much more by accident than calculation she was preparing to raise her legs to the wall behind her for Capoeira class when she flipped around and, being too far from the wall, kept on going. She was delighted later to share this with daddy, who was, of course delighted to hear about it!

Amalia can count to a lot. Irini can spell all the names of the "Frozen" characters. They can both sing practically the entire soundtrack on demand or from spontaneous enthusiasm. Amalia has also begun Capoeira after saying no time and time again, only to sit in the corner and emulate everyone what was in the class anyway. Just recently Amalia also announced that she'd like to start the little league soccer program for teeny weeny kids. What persuaded her?  Irini's old uniform, of course!  She put on those long soccer socks and the baby shin guards and decided this was for her!  

The two girls woke up today and sat and played beautifully for a couple hours. They had some new books, but Irini's book had stickers in it when Amalia's did not. Daddy braced for some sort of resource war, but it never came. At one point Irini was heard saying, "I don't even give these stickers to my buddies, but you're my sister so I'll give some to you". They are growing. 

Conservations are getting longer and more detailed. Amalia can go on a monologue for 5 minutes on what happened in the bus when she was waiting to get off. Irini's front two top teeth are moving, and so are a couple bottom ones (remember that the two middle bottom ones have already changed over). She happily wiggles them all. Daddy asks her to wait until they come off naturally. She smiles. 

That's the kind of stuff going on on this end of the world. Similar to the goings on in Greece and in Colombia and in Sweden and most homes where little children are-a-growin'.  There are fights and shouting. There are hugs and kissing. There are cuddles and hugging. All sorts of things that make life worth living and moments so special. We love it, even when we're sick.