My little Skyler is incredible.  Where Sydney is sparkly, loud, funny, and outgoing; Skyler is kind of quiet, observant, helpful, nurturing, and independent.  She needs lots of affection all the time, but she isn’t going to just jump on you like Sydney will.  I think she thinks that’s a little bit too easy.  Sort of like, “If I ask for it, it’s not as good as if you just do it on your own.”  She doesn’t want any second-rate attention!  In a way, I think she understands things that are kind of heartbreaking for a little two year old to understand.  The waters just run a lot deeper with her.  But, it’s that vulnerability that makes me want to protect her so much more.  I just always want to be hugging her for some reason.

I love that she thinks her stuffed animals are so special.  Yesterday she climbed on the couch to cuddle with her stuffed elephant and monkey and said, “These are my friends!”  Lately her favorite game is to make a baby crib out of her animal basket and curl up in there to where you can’t even hardly see her.

I love that she cooks me a fake dinner every night with her toy pots and pans.  I love that she likes to put away the dishes and put the laundry in the dryer, just because she thinks it makes me happy and she’s being a “big girl”.  I love that she knows exactly what she wants most of the time.  I love that she has certain people she really likes even though it means there are certain people she doesn’t want to be bothered with.  It’s almost like a prize to be one of Skyler’s select few.

Sometimes, she’s naturally counter-productive when it comes to people.  She wants attention, but she won’t ask for it.  Life can go in lots of different directions, but it makes me think that if she’s a confident person when she gets older, she’ll end up with someone really exceptional.  Probably someone like her dad, who naturally gives without being asked.  In fact, I think the way that Ping gives love to his girls (me included) is going to contribute to that confidence she’s going to need.   And that’s a good thing, because sometimes the most fragile things are the most beautiful.  To me, Skyler is like a delicate flower.  You can plant it and forget about it, and it will wither.  It’s easy to kill, just like Skyler’s spirit would be easy to break.  But if you give it good care and attention, you can grow it into something more beautiful than all the rest.

This past weekend was really fun!  I got to go to the lake with my extended family,and just hang out and relax.  We fished, swam, boated, read, ate, and talked until we were exhausted, and it was all fun.

My dad, uncle, and cousin with all the fish they caught.  Mostly bass and trout I think.  My dad was thoroughly grossed out by the fish cleaning process, and I have a feeling future fishing expeditions might include a lot of letting the fish go free.  Which if you think about it, would probably lead to a better fishing experience, since you aren’t depleting the numbers of fish with each catch.  Maybe they’re gun-shy for a while and don’t bite again.  I don’t know.

This is Skyler cuddling up with her dad after a day of swimming and running wild, with no naps.  She was REALLY tired!

Sydney is funny about 60% of the time.  The other 40% is when she’s asleep.  Here are some funny things she’s come up with lately:

• The other morning after I got them out of bed, she goes in the pantry and comes out with the bottle of syrup.  ”Mama, how bout some can-pakes?”
• Today she told me, “Mama, get away from that poo-puter!”  Her word for computer is oddly more descriptive than the real word.
• Later, when I asked her to go pick up some toys she responded, “No, I can’t.  I just havta do my makeup first.”  Ten minutes later she snuck in the bathroom and started rubbing lotion all over her face and in her hair.
• This morning when I got them out of bed, I was wearing a 3 zillion year old night gown.  Not pretty, but it is kind of flowing and has embroidered flowers on it.  Sydney had a delighted look on her face and she said, “Mama!  You gots a pincess dress!  You beautiful!”  Made me feel good even though I know her idea of beauty has nothing to do with how a person looks.  Actually, it felt even better than if she thought I had a pretty face or something.  Way better.  Love that girl!

I didn’t blog about date number ten, and life has just been so stinking busy that I haven’t had much of a chance to blog anything at all.  So, today is going to be a catch-up post.

For date # 10, my mom and dad watched the girls and we drove to an Italian food place.  It was tasty, fun, and relaxing.  The funny thing about it was that we have an Italian place we love in Fort Smith, but we’d already been there once that weekend, so we didn’t want to go twice.  Instead we went out to Tahlequah and went to the first good, open place we found.  After dinner, Ping started chatting with the owner and it turned out that he was partners with the guy who owns the place in Fort Smith.  Small world!

Date number 11 was small, but fun.  I wrote out a questionnaire for us to complete and then we read our answers to each other.  Here were my ten questions:

1.  What is your favorite color, food, song, & season:

2.  Name a good memory from our first ten years:

3.  List five of your favorite things about Ping:

4.  What is one thing you could do to make Ping happier:

5.  What is one thing you would like Ping to work on:

6.  Best movie we’ve seen this year:

7.  If you had to give a detailed description of Ping to someone, what would you say:

8.  What is something you are really thankful for and why:

9.  Where do you see us in ten years:

10.  What is one thing you would like us to do in the next year:

I actually really enjoyed this one.  It wasn’t exactly Ping’s cup of tea, but sometimes you have to push him outside of the box.  (Dad, both of those cliches are for you!)  It’s kind of a nice centering thing to talk about this stuff every once in a while.  It keeps us focused.

For more info about Project 52, go to Simply Modern Mom.

This is the side of our house.  Prior to having kids, I wouldn’t even let my eyeballs go over there.  Too scary to even look at.  It doesn’t get much traffic, so it’s kind of where the bugs & snakes like to hang out.  I had no idea that Ping thought the unused side of the house was a great place to dump odd things like tree stumps, old Christmas trees, etc…  I didn’t look over there, so how would I know?  Fast forward to now and we have a MAJOR problem!  My kids love dirt!  If I turn my back for a second, they run over there and dig their hands down in the squishy mud.  Yuck!  Ping doesn’t want to mess with this stump.  He says it’s too heavy.  I say, he had to get it back there somehow, and he’s full of “you know what”.  The girls say, “Don’t take away our dirt!”

Ignore my singing.  Ignore my poor camera skills.

Isn’t she the cutest?

Perform and then get rid of the paparazzi!

The results are in, and thanks to the following people, we won the Mommy Moments  photo contest!

• Everyone I’m related to.
• Everyone who has ever worked in the Southwest ER.
• Everyone who I’ve ever passed on the street that would listen.
• Old friends from high school.
• Every twin mom I know.
• Friends of friends.
• The mail lady.
• Our meter reader.
• Maybe some of you?

Whoever you are, thank you for voting.  That was awesome!  All of the entries were extremely cute, & it was fun just to be involved.  :)