I'm the Princess!!

Alemitu and I jetted off to Texas for a long weekend to visit my sister and her family. We had a great time even though we only left the house twice, and that was just to go ride the carousel at the mall down the street. My sister and I are perfectly comfortable staying in our pajamas all day and just letting the kids play while we catch up. Plus, it was really cold outside. Each day we'd sit on the couch while we talked and researched on our laptops. I was obsessing, I mean "researching", information about a house we had just got into contract with -- and then we canceled it that weekend -- and then we put an offer on another house I had never seen that weekend too. It was crazy, and I ended up electronically signing an offer on another house that I had never seen on the flight home. Jenna found the house, Adam saw the house, and then we made an offer on the house -- all within 12 hours of it getting on the market, and even with asking over the listing price, we still didn't get it. In addition to obsessing over finding me a house, Jenna was also "researching" her upcoming Disney vacation. I think we drove Zach crazy, but it was the perfect weekend!

Riding the "round and round and up and down"

Alemitu and Chloe had a great time too. Sometimes they would graciously include Baby Levi (as Allie refers to him) in their fun. Both girls are very strong willed and like to be in charge, but they carry it out so differently. Alemitu is loud. Very loud. I didn't realize until that weekend exactly how loud she actually is. Chloe is extremely quiet. You have to concentrate to hear her, but she is just as strong willed -- just quietly. I call her "silent sneaky". Both girls ended up standing in the corner a few times, but overall they played together really well. I had brought Chloe some sour gummy worms to win over her affection. It worked. She would quietly walk up to me, sometimes climb in my lap, and just stare at me. Gummy worm time. :-) She got tired of doing all that work after a while and then just started sneaking into my room and getting them out of my purse. BUT, she still wanted me to hold her at times -- and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Dr. Pepper sitting next to me that I'd always let her drink out of.

Picking Flowers

There was one incident over who was the princess. Alemitu is so into princesses right now. Everything is about the Disney princesses. She shared her passion with Chloe that weekend. One evening at dinner Chloe very quietly said she was a princess. That did not sit well with Alemitu. Alemitu immediately, and loudly, announced that she was the princess, not Chloe. They went back and forth. We explained that there are two princesses -- Princess Alemitu and Princess Chloe. After saying that a few times, Alemitu calmed down and accepted it (or so we thought). Later that evening when the girls were getting ready for bed, Alemitu asked if she could go give Chloe a hug goodnight. Of course, sweet child. She went into Chloe's bedroom and gave her a sweet hug and kiss. What a perfect angel child I have raised. As we were walking out of Chloe's room, Alemitu stopped at the door, spun around, and loudly declared "I THE PRINCESS!" And then she turned back around and walked to her room. Oh dear. 

It was the perfect weekend, and I thought I'd be okay saying goodbye because I will see Jenna again soon. However when we said goodbye, Alemitu starting crying really, really hard. All weekend she wanted her daddy and brothers. We had to talk to them several times a day. But she was so sad to leave Chloe. She just kept crying and saying that she wanted to stay with Chloe. Of course Jenna and I both lost it at that moment. Chloe just quietly stood there staring at Alemitu, probably freaked out over Alemitu's extreme reaction, but I know her heart was hurting too. It just killed me to see Alemitu so upset over leaving Chloe. I'm glad we'll get to see them again soon.

 

That weekend, Alemitu also began declaring that she is not "baby" "honey" "sweetie" etc., she is "Alemitu". Every time we would call her something else, she would declare that she is Alemitu. Since we've been home (I'm writing this blog 2 months after our trip), Alemitu has a script that she repeats word for word about 10 times a day (because we haven't broke our habit yet). It is "I not a baby. Levi baby. I Alemitu."She even repeated it to her teacher at school who translated that to mean that I was having another baby. Um, no. Jenna says that Alemitu's world will turn upside down next month when she see Levi and sees that he isn't really a baby anymore. I'm more interested in seeing how both girls share grandma. Although favorite Aunt Tina will be there too, so I think we'll be okay. (Let's not kid ourselves, Jenna and I rank far below Energetic, Never Stopping, Aunt Tina when it comes to favorite aunts. And Allie talks about Tina every day. So it will be just fine.)

Alemitu trying to hold Baby Levi

In a vertical tunnel, trapped by Uncle Zachy