When it rains, it pours

Well, things truly picked up quickly. Maddy went from basic crawler to expert in no time at all. She figured out how to get into EVERYTHING. Fortunately, she's so easygoing and eager to please, so a quiet "Maddy, no" will keep her away from almost everything. She began to cruise and then went from there to her recent feat of standing with no assistance. Try as we might to get the skill on camera, and despite a general eagerness to please, Maddy is notoriously hard to cajole into anything on camera. In fact, she's known how to play the "so big" game for months, but only yesterday decided to demonstrate it. Maddy's also sprouted two top teeth, one coming in on September 4, and the other coming in about a week later. We can only hope that the large gulph that separate her two front choppers will someday go down. If not, we've got some orthodontics in our future. Who are we kidding? Both kids are probably headed for some expensive rearranging.

Speaking of Abby, she continues to do newer and more amazing things. These days her language is getting so complicated. She's becoming so adept at expressing her thoughts it's sometimes hard to keep up! She gets frustrated, though, as she realizes that her newfound autonomy and clarity of expression don't always mean she gets to do whatever she wants. We're working on the best way to strike the balance, though. These days Abby loves school. She is making so many new friends and loves to talk about them. Maddy, however, is posing a problem for her. Maddy wants nothing more than to keep up with her big sister, but Abby finds her interest insufferable. Well, it's not so much that she's bothered by Maddy's presence--she does love, after all, to give her hugs and kisses, but the affection seems directed towards Maddy as a favorite toy rather than a person entitled to her own likes and dislikes. Abby doesn't enjoy the fact that Toy Maddy is also capable of taking HER toys. Abby would prefer to relegate Maddy to the rank of passive plaything. Many a time has been spent in frozen standoff--Abby, on tippy-toes, holding as many toys as she can clutched to her chest, and Maddy trying to figure out a way to climb up.

I also predict that the two of them, once they work out their property and easement issues, will be a formidable duo for the purposes of parental manipulation. Already Abby tries to get what she wants by spinning it as what Maddy wants. It's not particularly effective for being laughably obvious ("Maddy said that I could stay up and not take a nap and, uhm, she says she also wants me to have a bowl of macaroni and cheese, so I'llgoSitAtTheTableOkMommy?"), but I can see the game getting progressively more sophisticated. I suspect there will come a time when I'm successfully duped.