Georgia these days ...

Welp. Still here. No good excuse, other than we've been incredibly busy, but that is pretty much everyone's story, right?

Georgia is just moving right along. People ask me from time to time what her personality is like, or if she is different than Ellen. She really is (as best I can remember). Ellen is just a generally loud person - breathes loudly, chews loudly, walks loudly, talks LOUDLY. Georgia can by noisy from time to time, but a I think a better explanation for her is "quietly determined". She clearly has an opinion on most matters and will let you know it.

She has been using a fork and spoon well for a few months and is still a pig, yet much more petite than Ellen ever was. She is most insulted if someone dares to eat in her presence and doesn't share.

She is starting to like reading more and more (again with the second child syndrome and our reading time with Ellen is after Georgia goes to bed). Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar is one of her favorites, as is the Boynton book "Let's Dance, Little Pookie" - she's got the hand motions down and everything. If I sit on the floor she stands in front of me and backs up until she falls in my lap.

She has an ornery streak and is more motor-inclined than Ellen was, I think. On the first nice day in March Ellen got her bike out and we all started out to walk up the street. I fully expected to stop just a few houses up with Georgia, but she kept going. If Ellen and Dad were going to the top of the street, so was she (quietly determined).

She dropped her first nap about a month ago, which has been nice for our ability to get out of the house, though the weather and sickness have still kept us home quite a bit. Georgia very clearly prefers one of her lovey's - hippo deedee - in a way that Ellen never did. She also love, loves her pacifier, but generally is happy to leave both in her bed when she is done napping or up in the morning.

She is, bit by bit, more verbal. She says "uh oh" and "dada" clearly. She says "mama" for mom and "muh muh" for milk, which sound about the same. She says "aye" for hi (or "aye-ya" for hiya!) and "aye aye" for bye bye. Night-night is also "aye aye". She still signs more, milk, all done and help. I'm not sure if she has a word for Ellen, but does sometimes say "A-ya" when we are talking about or looking for Ellen. If we sing Row Row Row Your Boat and ask her to sing, she will say "roh roh ...".  Every now and then she will drop another word in that sound so close to the real thing, never to be heard again, like "more more" "anana" (banana) and "jayhawk" (truly). Oh, and how could I forget?!? She says NO in the sweetest way. It sounds more like "doh" and is so cute. I constantly try to get her to say it and shake her little ponytails. I will regret this.

She used to bend her knees and bounce when we asked her to dance, and now she stands in place and lifts one foot off the ground and stomps.

She loves bath time and drinking bath water and reading with her sister, all clean and in PJs. 

Finally, for posterity's sake, we got the school daily report recently and it said "Georgia is having trouble following directions and is crying for no reason". Ummm - YES. I followed up with her teacher the next morning and she said she was just having a bad few days and that it was probably her age, which is what I had concluded, as well. Also, she said, "I don't know if you believe in this, but Georgia is a Scorpio. I will just say that my daughter is a Scorpio, too, and, well, from the moment she was born she knew EXACTLY what she wanted to do. Good luck. " I generally don't know or care about astrological signs, but Erik's aunt said something similar to me either right before or right after Georgia was born and now - ARE WE IN TROUBLE???

Like I said, quietly determined