As a little sister, Kulis dutifully adores Leina. This is to be expected. Kulia wants to do everything Leina does, eat everything Leina eats, and play with every toy Leina plays with. She is your basic little sister.

Leina, however, is beginning to show signs of baby love. At first, Kulia was a blob. Not too interesting, cried a lot, and took up precious mom time. Then Kulia became a nuisance. Always taking her toys, slowing us down, and making us wait around the house for her to wake up. Lately though, I think Leina is beginning to fall in love with Kulia.

Leina has become randomly affectionate. Kulia will be playing or cooing or smearing herself with yams and Leina will stop, watch her, and then turn to me and say, “isn’t she so cute!”

Last night Leina was chasing Kevin around the living room with Tutu arms. Kulia gave up trying to crawl after them and sat in the center of the room squealling with delight as they ran laps around her. Kulia would laugh, clap her hands, and bounce in place each time they ran by. On the third pass, Leina stopped chasing Kevin, leaned over and kissed Kulia on the top of the head, and then resumed the chase. Thereafter, every time they ran past Kulia, Leina would stop and give her some quick love; a pat on the head, a kiss on the cheek or a quick squeeze.

I just about died.

Even sharing is getting easier. Sometimes Leina wil sit with Kulia and play, letting her grab every toy and crash every building without the slightest complaint. I love it when Leina discovers something redeeming in Kulia. I can force her to tolerate Kulia but I can’t force her to love Kulia. That has to happen on its own. I guess I just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly or how sweet and heart-achingly wonderful it is to watch.

Sister.

Is there anything better?

Kulia’s fever has broken and while she is still drooling and gnawing away, she is much happier. We went from a level 11 to level 5. It sure is wonderful to have my sweet baby (mostly) back.

Her latest trick is to balance. She loves to stand on her own with these big wide eyes. And when she gets it just right and stands, she starts to laugh hysterically which, of course, throws off her balance and down she falls. She is so proud of her new found trick. Everyday she stands for longer and longer periods on her own. I’m afraid walking is right around the corner.

One trick I like to pull is the Patches test. Kulia has this little snuggly Pooh blanket we’ve named Patches. It’s about the size of a napkin and is furry soft on one side and satiny smooth on the other. Kulia adores Patches and snuggles it during every nap. I’ve discovered that Patches is the ideal way to test Kulia’s sleep state. She’ll be crawling around wrecking everything in sight. When I can guess her path, I’ll throw Patches in the line of crawl. If she is nice and awake, she’ll crawl right on by without missing a beat. If, however, she is sleepy, she will immediately throw herself face down on Patches, grasp a good handful and stuff it, and her thumb, into her mouth. The amount of time she spends face down on the floor is directly proportional to her sleepiness. A quick grab and rest means she’s tired but not quite ready while a prolonged Patches snuggle means it’s time to get her crib ready. It’s quite hilarious to see her plop down and snuggle away in mid-crawl.

Her newest game is drop. I believe she is discovering gravity and is quite amused. If she gets fussy sitting on my lap I will give her some toy to rattle or shake. Once that no longer grabs her attention, she will purposely lean over and drop the toy on the ground. She will stare at in on the ground for a while, drool flowing freely from her mouth and then reach for it an grunt. This is my cue to bend over, pick it up, and give it back to her. Rattle, drop, dool, grunt. And repeat. We can play this game for up to 20 minutes at which point my back starts to hurt. I’m not sure how long Kulia could go. Probably hours.

Well, Leina is up and yelling for me. Just my luck, she’s decided to skip her nap today. Yipee! A cranky two year old and it’s pouring rain outside! If I’m really lucky, Kulia will wake early and then I can add a teething toddler to the mix! Motherhood, ain’t it grand!

If you took a family picture of us right now, it would look something like this.

Kevin would be handing onto a tree branch by the utmost tip of his fingernails. I would be dangling beneath him, holding onto his left shoe which is slowly slipping off. Kulia would be clasp in one arm, head thrown back, bright red and screaming for all her might. And Leina? She would be dancing away on the branch happy as a clam.

Last night was horrible. Awful. Worse than any an memory. Kulia slept in 20-45 min intervals all night long. She’s running a fever and melts down at the drop of a pin so I’m guessing it’s her teeth. All I know is I have never been this tired and I hope to never be this tired again. I just left her room after holding/nursing/rocking/bouncing/patting her down. And she screamed bloody murder the entire time. I’m thinking this does not bode will for sleep tonight.

Of course, Kevin has to go to work tomorrow. I feel sick just thinking about facing tomorrow alone. Kulia is in horrible pain and lets the world know and I feel so useless and wasted because there is nothing I can do to comfort her. My eyes hurt from lack of sleep and all I want to do is curl up into a ball myself and weep until I pass out but everytime I try and begin to curl up, Leina runs up to me and gives me a big hug and a kiss to make me feel better.

Of course, she then demands that I play chasing/running/jumping games.

Lord give me strength.

I don’t remember Leina having this hard of a time. But maybe she did and I simply forgot. Some things you are not meant to remember and I fervrently hope that next week, I’ll say “crying, what crying? Kulia is an angel!”

But for now, I only hope she sleep. Please baby, just sleep.

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car. Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

“What in bag?” asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, “It’s a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.”

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said…

“Good trade.”

I had to re-install our stair gates because Kulia has mastered the art of climbing up stairs.

Yes, when most normal 7 month old children are still mastering sitting and crawling, my wild child decides to tackle stairs. She can climb up our entire flight of stairs in a heart beat. Of course, she also tries to sit down, turn around and eat every piece of dog hair and stair dirt she can find. Sigh. I’ve decided I’m going to order a baby shirt for her that reads “NO FEAR” because this child is unreal.

The sun is shining brightly today so I took the girls outside to play. Kulia was not amused by the cold concrete and would cry every time she tried to crawl around. Poor girl. She is teething something awful and is only happy when distracted and/or has something to gnaw on. Thank goodness for pretzels! If the girls wake early, I think we’ll trek on down to the park to play. When a day like today comes along, us Oregonians jump up and run outside no questions ask. Makes me believe that spring is right around the corner….

I need to start blogging hourly. Or possibly minute-ly. (Is that even a word?) My girls are doing such truely amazing things that I know I’m going to forget.

Like what?

Leina had her first overnight at Papa and Manny’s house and loved it. Kulia discovered our windchimes and her face lights up every time they make music. Leina got her first haircut and now insists on giving everyone else trims multiple times a day. Kulia loves to walk along the edge of our sofa now and tries to stand unassisted. This list goes on and on and on.

It’s almost too much, really. I’m so wonderfully happy watching them grow and change. Seeing them begin to interact and play together is a special treat. Leina is a great big sister and has infinite patience. Kulia adores Leina and follows her around with a determined crawl. And they actually play together! Ok, there’s some squabbeling and toy fighting but that’s to be expected. But it’s all erased when Leina shares a toy with Kulia and Kulia breaks into this huge smile because she just loves Leina to pieces and then Leina, touched by the smile, reaches over and hugs Kulia unprompted saying, “I love my baby sister.” It’s too much, I tell you, too much.

I guess I’m just hiting the pay-off. I knew I wanted to give Leina a sibling. I knew it would help her learn important life lessons like sharing and caring. I just didn’t realize how soon that sister bond would start to form. I thought Leina would just ignore Kulia for the first year or so and I had no idea what an influence Leina would have on Kulia. But there it is. They are already sisters through and through. My girls. How I adore them both!