Sisters

Rachel and Annie are having more fun together these days. They actually play together (and fight with each other) sometimes and it's pretty fun to see and hear. Rachel is still really stuck on pretending to be a baby, so she tries to copy what Annie is doing. And of course Annie wants to be just like Rachel, so she tries to copy what Rachel is doing. Sometimes it is a bit of a connundrum for them as they stare at each other waiting for the other one to do something they can copy. :)

The other night when it was almost Annie's bedtime Rachel went and got her footie pajamas on (which she REALLY, REALLY wanted so she could have a "onesie" just like Annie). She and Annie then decided to have races. It was so cute. They'd both get by the front door, and either Rachel or I would say "Ready, set, go!" and they'd take off running toward the back door. At some point along the way Annie would always turn around and head back to the door, sit down, lean against the door and rest (with Rachel copying her every move), then they'd get back up, say "ready, set, go" and they were off again. At least 10 or 15 times. It was rather entertaining for Jake and me.

I love how Annie's pj's make her look like she's either a linebacker, or stuck in the 80s with shoulder pads.

For our Family Home Evening treat this week we had smoothies. I shared mine with Annie until Rachel volunteered to share hers. They were having so much fun laughing at each other and copying each other. It's nice to have two little girls that love each other already.

They're such happy sisters. (Which isn't to say they don't fight daily, but hey, that goes with the territory, right?)

In other news, Annie is ready to move into a front-facing car seat.

Yes, I know the new recommendation is to wait until she's 2 years old, but the last week she has thrown a tantrum almost EVERY time I put her in her car seat. At her doctor's appointment the doc said basically that yes, it's safer for kids to be rear-facing, and it would be safer if everyone except the driver were rear-facing, but it's much safer to drive with a happy kid than with a kid that's screaming and distracting you as you try to placate her with snacks or toys handed back to her. AMEN.

So I got the front-facing car seat out to fit to Annie so she can sit in it for our drive up to Utah. I've almost switched her over early several times over the last week because of her huge tantrums, but decided holding off will make it that much more of a novelty for her and maybe the 12+ hour car ride won't be quite as torturous for Annie (and us) with her fancy "new" carseat.

Annie is really into chairs in general and loves sitting on things, so this was a big hit today. I love this stage where they start backing up to try to sit on stuff, then completely miss what they're aiming for half the time.

And one last random picture:

Annie loves music so much. I was playing some Christmas music (yeah it's a little early, but so what?!) and she was delighted to join in the fun.