That's MY spoon!

There's been some interesting communication going on between the two kids. I'll give you a few examples:

Scene One
Marian: Baba gaga mmmm lala mmmm (plus other baby babble noises- you get the picture)
Ella: NO! MINE!
Marian: AHHHHH!
Ella: MINE!
Marian: EEEEEHHHH!
Me: What are you two fighting about?!
Ella: Marian says she wants my spoon but I say it's MY spoon, Marian!
Me: Why don't you get your sister her own spoon then?

Somehow giving Marian a spoon did solve their bickering. Although Marian does love spoons and simply may have been distracted from whatever she actually wanted by a shiny object.

Scene Two
Marian: Again, happily babbling away. Crawls over to the dog bed which is a big no-no in our house. 
Me: Uh-oh Marian! No dog bed!
Ella: Mama, don't say, "Ought ought ought" to Marian. She just pretending to be a dog.

Seriously, what do you even say to that kind of stuff? I went with, "Well then she can pretend to be a dog somewhere besides the dog bed." Ella told Marian to come be a dog next to her and they crawled around doing some game of their own making.

So here's my question- how much of this is my toddler making stuff up vs. the two kids having their own little mode of communication? I noticed a long while back that Marian doesn't talk as much when Ella is around. Whether that's because the poor kid can't get a word in edgewise or because she is relying on Ella to communicate for her is up for debate. Parenting experts, what say you?

11 month update

How the heck is this little baby already 11 months old?! I feel like a broken record saying this, but I am continually amazed at how fast the time flies by. I swear she was just born yesterday. Today, people are throwing around the "T" word. Am I seriously going to have two toddlers in less than a month?

Stats: Nothing much has changed here. I think we're entering the point where, like her big sister, she is too active to put on any weight.

Clothes: She can still get away with some 9 month clothes. For the most part she's moved into 12-18 month.

Teeth: Still the same four teeth. There are some new ones trying to make their way in and are causing her to be extremely crabby. And to bite. A lot. Thankfully not so much while nursing (anymore). But for whatever reason, she thinks Ella's toes are perfect for biting. Which, as you can guess, is great for sibling harmony.

Sleep: Totally jinxed myself last month. Most decidedly NOT sleeping through the night. One day, right? Right?! For the love of God, someone please tell me these kids will eventually sleep through the night.

Food: Right now she's loving tomatoes. Preferably straight off the vine. With a side of dirt or mulch. And of course still nursing.

Words: Na-na (nurse), duck, ball, Goo-gog (Dougal), Goo-gir (Crilly- think this is her saying "good girl"), and nigh-nigh (night-night) are some of her new words.

Milestones: Ummm, definitely not my favorite milestone- climbing. On everything. And then proudly standing up like she's queen of the mountain and letting out a victory shriek. Such a little daredevil. Pretty sure I will be completely grey before 30.

Miscellaneous: She's starting to demonstrate an interest in books as things to look at instead of eat. She'll sit there and point at various things and say, "Dat? Dat?"

Little baldy finally has enough hair that I can make the tiniest of ponytails or clip in a bow. Whether she keeps it in for more than five seconds is another story.

A rare moment where she's sitting down

Running around like crazy. 

What, doesn't everyone wear one bib backwards and carry another around?

Clearly I don't feed her enough. She has to chase me around with a bowl in hand.

NOT Sleeping through the night. Or, Why I look like a zombie

Neither child has slept through the night in years. Well, maybe a week. In any case, it feels like years when the hours of 2-5am are spent in a state of awful half-awakeness dealing with demands for milk and hugs and lullaby CDs and trying to explain to a toddler that you can't do anything about the fact that it is dark outside.

I'm tired of not only being tired, but of answering questions about why I look so tired from well-meaning friends and strangers and the super-chatty bag girl at the grocery store.

In response to my children's hatred of sleep, I decided to design this super awesome and totally attractive t-shirt, using my vast artistic skills and Microsoft Paint.

Told you I had vast artistic skills. Be very impressed. 

Obviously in real life the shirt won't be white. Instead, it will come in a wide variety of colors- probably all on the same shirt- to hide coffee stains, all the random stuff kids wipe on your shirt, and the fact that you haven't changed your shirt or showered in three days. 

Once you are wearing this shirt, you won't have to make mindless chatter with people or make excuses as to why you look like hell. Simply point to the shirt. Everyone will shut up and run to get you more coffee. It will also help you pinpoint other moms with kids that aren't sleeping through the night. As you are cruising the grocery store at 8am, coffee in hand and wild kids in tow, you can fist bump each other as you pass by and send twin death glares to that overly-coiffed mom from music class who clearly has kids that sleep otherwise she wouldn't be wearing heels and full-makeup- and very clearly has taken a shower already this week- so early in the morning. Solidarity, sister moms! (Except for you, overly-coiffed mom. Everyone else secretly hates you. Get with the program and wear yoga pants like the rest of us.)