Rose and Finn right now

Rose loves any opportunity to laugh these days. She likes to make silly faces for me (they are pretty tame, so it's even funnier that they're not that silly haha). I am using this to displace her stress or high emotions. "The monster is coming to get you!" seems to work well. She loves to jump on the bed. She wears princess dresses and tutus almost every day. I just let her wear them out and about- it is cute. Today she said, "I'm incredible!" Yes you are. One thing she likes to do is sing while I play the piano. She is good at I Love To See the Temple. It's Sooo cute. Also, she got a stuffed mermaid at Legoland the other day, and it is her new favorite thing. It's fun that she's so attached to a new toy! She sleep with it, gives her a nap with stories and all (she does the entire routine to the mermaid that we do with her, even using some phrases!) she calls her Ariel, even though she looks pretty different. She took her to Walmart, and hugs her and says I love you forever. She is also into lining things up lately and walking on tip toe. She's so 3. (When someone asks you what's new, I guess you could say, "oh I'm getting into lining things up.") I just realized it. She is acting so much older. She is completely solid now on all her colors, is starting to ask about letters and their sounds and gets some of them right occasionally. She has an "f" in her room for "Finn" that we talk about often. She likes to go through all of our names in the family. Daddy Raimo. Sometimes Raimo Laitinen (not Raimo Aleksis- Aleksis is Finn's name). She says Finn's whole name Finn Aleksis Valentin. And sometimes Finn Colette Balentin, or Finn Coleksis Valentin, which I really think I funny. Also , mama J, or Jessica Laitinen. 

Finn has gotten so big and drooly. He can scoot himself on his belly. He's been able to turn from tummy to back for a while now. Mostly it happens by accident because he'll do a push up and fall over. We have had a rough couple of days because he lost his favorite binky. But today he was crying and I found Rose purring it in his mouth. "Where was it?!" I asked and she pointed to her little kitchen cupboard. Oooh so much trouble. Well she did not get in trouble, but it sure caused a lot of hassle. Getting Finn to nap at home is hard, so I try to be on the go. He'll sleep on walks, in the car, in the baby bjorn (with the correct binky of course). He loves to look into people's eyes and have some face time. He's loved it for a few months now actually, but it is still very fun for him. It makes him smile when you smile at him. He even loves making eye contact with himself (or me) in the mirror. It's so cute. He had discovered his scream unfortunately and it's very high-pitched. His cries have always been pretty tame, and he only makes a kind of grunt in the middle of the night when he wakes up for a feed. But now he can scream! Ah! He still wakes up once, usually at 2 or 3, to eat. Then he wakes at 6 to eat again ( I blame Rose for this because he was naturally sleeping in longer before, but she always gets up and they are both in the habit). I am grateful he has been a good sleeper, but I also get the feeling he could easily sleep all night now- he's just waking by habit and wants to be comforted/fed back to sleep. Maybe next month I'll try to do something about it. He is also talking a lot, babbling and cooing. His laugh is cute- like he's gasping in. He laughs when I tickle him and give him big smacking kisses or when I nibble his squish. He can stand really well. I think I forgot to offer him toys until recently. I've been babying him, but he is really interested in toys and reaching for things. He'll reach for my face when he's standing in front of me on my legs. I love it. He'll scootch forward very slowly to get toys. 

I was reading the last page of my book tonight (I had a bit of a marathon, reading half of it in a few hours) when I heard Rose quietly crying out Mama. I ditched the book and headed to her room, my head still swirling in the fictional world. When I entered the dark room my eyes took a moment to adjust from the light, but I went straight to the bed and could sense she was sitting up and in a moment my lips were surprised with a wet kiss, some tears left behind on my mouth. It was not at all what I was expecting and I picked up my oversized baby and held her. I couldn't tell if she was awake, and I pressed her with questions about bad dreams or pain and she just squirmed uncomfortably till I asked, "Do you just want to lie down?" to which she nodded yes. And so I tucked her back into bed with her bumpy blanket and the pink bear and pillows-arranged-just-so to keep her from falling off the bed, and laid some of my weight on her and cuddled her and brushed back her damp hair. "Do you want me to leave?" She shook her head no. In that moment all the rest of the world and all the important things fade, and she is the only thing in it.  I will move mountains to get to you. I will fight evil men to save you. I will dive off a cliff to rescue you. 

I love her. 

My heart