Leina is hilarious right now.

Tonight we were hanging outside. Baby sister was catnapping in the swing and we had the sprinkler going. Leina was down to her diaper and running amuck. She charged up to me and said….”mommy want a ‘cano?”

“Sure!” I replied.

“OK mommy,” Leina said and ran toward her little playhouse. “Wait mommy! Leina will get you an americano!”

She ran back a moment later with a little cup and handed it to me then turned to Kevin and asked, “Daddy want a mocha?”

I find myself asking her “who taught you that” quite often as she amazes me with all her new tricks. The conversation goes something like this…

“Watch mommy. Me skipping!” Leina exclaimed and began doing a strange shuffle step across the room.

“Who taught you to skip?” I asked my little munchkin.

Leina paused, placed her index finger on her lower lip and tilted her head to one side. “Ummmmmmmm Tutu!” she exclaimed and resumed her skipping.

It seems this is her stock answer because tonight Kevin asked her in all seriousness… “Leina, who taught you calculus?”

“Ummmmm Tutu!” she exclaimed.

Sometimes she throws us a curve ball just to keep us on our feet. At dinner, when asked who taught her to be silly, her answer was Uncle Dan. I sense there might be a bit of truth behind that one. I love asking her open ended questions because I have absolutely no idea what she’s going to say. It is, by far, my favorite game to play.

This kid is an absolute riot!

Kulia is so incredibly cute right now. Her chubba-chubba checks and big owl eyes. She loves to streeeeeach her little arms above her head after she wakes up and is beginning to coo with her sweet little voice. She is, quite simply, adorable.

She is also a handful. In fact, she broke her father today. Having learned from Leina, Kulia is already on a schedule. Wake up, nurse, awake time, then sleep. This make life much easier for all. So after a nursing, I packed up Leina and a shopping list and headed to the store leaving baby sister with her father to enjoy. He played with her and then, when she got sleep, attempted to put her down for a nap. Attempted being the key word.

When Leina and I returned, we found an exhausted father and a small child who had steadfastly refused to go to sleep. Kevin was broken. He had resolved that she was just going to have to cry and learn to sleep. And then, after a nice nursing, he held her little warm body in his arms, watched as a gummy little grin broke across her face, and Kevin….mended.

It was kind of fun to watch because I break and mend several time a day. At the end of an exhausting battle to get her to sleep, I too vow that I’m just going to let her cry. But after I calm down and hold her sweet little self in my arms, I find I have a little more patience and stamina than I thought. And once again I’m ready to do battle over napping. I don’t why is has to be so hard but I guess it’s why she’s so cute. Good thing too.

Eventually she will have to learn to fall asleep on her own and there will be much protest crying but for now we are helping her along with as much snuggling and holding and rocking and cuddling as possible. Sweet baby sister. I had forgotten what it felt like to fall in love with your child but it’s happening again. And it’s wonderful.

You’ll notice from the new counter to the right that tomorrow is the “halfway to Tutu” point. The day on which Tutu has been gone just as many days as the number of days until she comes back. Now, I know 15 days without Tutu may not seem like many, but to those in the throws of baby-dom, it’s a lifetime.

Please also note, that some people out there – I don’t want to name any names, but they live in San Diego and have 2 adorable little boys – get Tutu so frequently that they don’t even need a Tutu counter on their website, and even if they had one it wouldn’t go above some insanely small number, like 4!

But I’m not jealous. No not me.

Poor Kulia.

She has caught another cold. Leina was three months before she had her first stuffy nose but poor baby sister is on her second in only 5 weeks. Leina brings it home and Kulia suffers through it. As if it isn’t hard enough being a newborn now she can’t breathe! It seems to be worse at night because she’s waking every 45 minutes to an hour crying and totally stopped up. This makes for a very crabby child and mother. Her last cold took her three weeks to kick. I can only hope this one passes through quicker but it doesn’t look good.

Poor baby sister.

I came downstairs today pretty cocky. I had survived Thursday on my own all day long and no harm had befallen either of my girls. One whole day, thank you very much. So today, I was riding my win.

“Good morning sweetie!” I lilted and bent to kiss my big girl’s forhead.

“Mommy, you smell.” Leina said solemnly.

“I smell?” I replied. “What does momma smell like?” I was expecting her to say “sweet” or “pretty” or maybe even “like a flower.”

“Stinky,” Kevin pipped in.

“Stinky,” Leina parroted. “Momma smells stinky.”

So all day today, Leina would run up to me, give me a sniff and proclaim, “momma smells stinky!”

Yes, but I survived kiddo! Two days without help and I didn’t place either child into the recycle bin even though it was, technically, recycling day. Ha! Sleep, showering, eating leisurely, who needs that stuff. Not me! Oh no, I’m a mommy!

I can’t believe my mom is leaving me tomorrow. I just can’t believe it.

She’s part of the routine….part of our household. The idea of facing the day without her is so foreign. It hit me tonight that I’ve never given Kulia a bath without Tutu. I took Leina up to her crib today alone without my mom and Leina looked at me perplexed and asked, “where’s tutu?” Even she has come to expect her. For the first two weeks after Kulia’s birth, I wasn’t suppose to lift anything heavier than Kulia. This ruled out Leina. So my mom would come upstairs with us at nap time and lift Leina into the crib for me. The first few times she did this, Leina look at me with confusion and maybe a little fright. This was not how nap was done. By the end of the first week, Leina would run to Tutu and say “up…up” when naps came. Leina had totally accepted my mom into her daily life. At dinner, she names chairs. “Momma, Daddy, Tutu!” she exclaims pointing to each seat in turn. I feel the same. I just know that tomorrow, after Tutu has headed out the door, there will be a giant hole in this house and in all our hearts.