the wonder years

right now is quiet time in our house.
and it is actually quite quiet, for the moment.
ahhhh, sweet peace.
while i am taking a breather, i have netflix on -- i am currently re-watching my childhood favorite show, the Wonder Years from the beginning (thanks to my sister's brilliant discovery).
did you watch the Wonder Years?
of course you did.

it's like "our show."
you know, the show of our childhood.
the show that gives us a glimpse into what our mom + dad's childhoods may have been like.
the show that makes you think of your own jr. high/high school friends and first loves. 
the show that makes you imagine yourself as Winnie Cooper and remember your own Kevin Arnold.
the show that makes you laugh and be frustrated and tear up and ...really, makes you feel like you're watching your own life in a show form.

anyway. i love this show. it's hilarious. and cute. and makes me forget all of my sticky floors and puzzle messes and remember what it was like to be a kid. it makes me remember my wonder years. sometimes i miss being a kid. do you miss being a kid too? life was just so much simpler then. like when you could just go for a ride on your bike. or when the biggest stress of your day was forgetting to practice the piano or that it was your turn to do the dishes or wondering if Johnny Hot-Lips thought you were a Suzy-Hot-Tush.

today's episode started with this quote:

"when you're a little kid, you're a little bit of everything; artist, scientist, athlete, scholar. sometimes it seems like growing up is a process of giving those things up, one by one. i guess we all have one thing we regret giving up. one thing we really miss. that we gave up because we were too lazy. because we couldn't stick it out. or because we were too afraid."

it made me remember that being a kid wasn't always easy either.
and the growing up part is hard. giving things up is the worst.
and i really hated the insecurity that being a kid/teenager brought.
like reeealllly hated it.
of course then, i probably didn't understand how challenging those moments were.
i'd like to believe i made the best of the hard stuff and enjoyed the fun stuff.
but now that i realize how hard some of that was, maybe i'm glad that i have grown up a little bit.
i'm glad to be a little more the Master of my life and a little less the questioner, the wonder-er... of what it all would become.
wondering who you'd become someday was a scary thought, wasn't it?

even though my childhood is long gone, now i'm thoroughly enjoying watching my girls enjoy their childhoods and their own wonder years. they are so cute and fun- and they change every day.

Alice is changing especially fast. she is suddenly SO active. and has a very LOUD opinion of things. she loves finger rhymes- especially 5 little speckled frogs and the itsy bitsy spider- and can even mimic the hand-motions. it's really cute. she loves to get jiggy with it during our family dance parties and...meal-times are her holy times. it is impressive how fast she can clear her tray. which means i'm eating meals especially fast these days, too- because i can't get a decent bite if Alice isn't strapped down in a seat somewhere.

oh, and most importantly these days, Alice is my little Linus. you know, Linus from Charlie Brown? you see, she walks (read: marches) around all day long, dragging long her little lovie.  what is Alice's lovie, you ask? well, it is a silky slip that my mom let me cut. Alice was obsessed with my silky under-clothes. (get what i'm puttin' down?). somehow she would find tops and bottoms in every which place and would hold them to her face and suck on her thumb. it kind of got out of hand, so i asked my mom (the fountain of knowledge) what the heck i should do. well, like most moms do, she had a brilliant solution- using a silky slip in its place. and it's done the trick- and been Alice's companion ever since. she LOVES that thing.

Ellie is my little emotional ballerina diva. her favorite color is red, (hence the red coat),

 

she loves to look pretty (read: dress up/put make-up on/admire herself in the mirror),

and she is obsessed with candy. so obsessed, in fact, that i followed the advice of one of my friends, Karen, and had the Switch Witch come to our house the day or two after Halloween and take all of our candy in exchange for a little present. crazy, you say? well, that's what you have to do with candy-obsessed children; take it all away because it makes them nuts. and in turn makes their mamas nuts. anyway. these days Ellie feels like she is a big kid. she hates to miss out on the fun- especially at bed-time...and so more than once or twice, M and i have found her like this (after she's come out of her room a dozen times or so):

 

and while she is getting so big, she's still so little. don't you think she's so little? oh, and she's so sweet, too.

and the girls together- well they're a cute, feisty little team. they love each other. and they love to argue with each other and take each other's stuff all the time. kind of reminisces of Kevin and Wayne, no? Alice basically follows Ellie around everywhere all day long.

 

i'm convinced Alice learned to walk so young (took first steps at 10 months, full-on walking everywhere by 11 months) out of desperation to keep up with Ellie. she asks for Ellie first thing she wakes up ("El El El El," is what she says for Ellie) and wants to do everything Ellie wants to do. about 50% of the time, Ellie enjoys this, and kisses that Alice to death...making her fall on her butt until Alice squawks and yells at her. the other 50% of the time, Ellie has some serious aggression towards Alice. and Ellie then goes to time out for acting upon that aggression. (again, reminiscent of Wayne and Kevin). but Alice does a pretty good job of sticking up for herself. and seems pretty resilient to Ellie's jabs and pushes. and Ellie's jabs and pushes are becoming less frequent. still, i've had to succumb to my new role in parenthood as a referee. i hate this role, but i guess it is what it is.

and so the days are just melting away.
these Wonder Years of my sweet girls' lives are flashing by quicker than i can catch my breath.
and we're loving every out-of-breath moment as much as we possibly can.

xoxo