Riley and Avery

I had a rather heartbreaking conversation with Riley tonight. I was putting Avery to bed (and hoping that Riley would go too) when Riley just started crying for what seemed like no reason. So I asked her what she was crying about and she said that she didn't want to be a big sister. I told her that Avery is fun and loves her very much. I was off, because it wasn't the "sister" part that she didn't like, it was the "big" part. She said "I don't know how to play if I'm big." And I told her that she's still little to me, and she said "but look how big I am!" And then I tried to explain that she may be a big sister to Avery, but she is also a little sister to Amy and Emily. That went way over her head. She couldn't understand how she could be both a little sister and a big sister at the same time. Then I tried to tell her that she got all sorts of cool toys to play with now that she's just a little bit bigger. Like her kitchen, and her dolly, and board games that Avery is too little to play. She just continued weeping, saying "I don't want to be a big sister!" I ended up just distracting her. You know, I don't try and persuade her to do things by herself by saying that she's a big girl now. Very occasionally I joke that she's too big to nurse, but usually follow it with a tickle. When I notice her doing something that she couldn't do before, like building a big tower of blocks, or snapping her pajamas by herself, I compliment her and say how big she's getting. I thought that was a positive thing. I guess I'll have to back off.

I cut Riley's hair today using Heather's tried and true way of cutting hair, by putting her hair into a ponytail on the very top of her head and cutting the end of the ponytail. It's only about a few inches shorter, but now has nice layers. I cut it dry so we'll see what it looks like after its been washed. But don't tell Riley. I asked her if she wanted me to cut her hair and she was all gung-ho until she saw her hair on the floor and then told me that she didn't want her hair "cutted." So I pretended to put it back on her head. And then she said "thank you." So she doesn't really know that her hair has been cut. Sucker.

We went to Gymboree yesterday with gift cards courtesy of Mina, Brendan, James, and Allan (thanks you guys!) and got Avery a sweater, an embroidered turtleneck and shirt, and embroidered velour pants. Oh, and bubbles for Riley. Avery was is serious need of some clothes. While we were at Gymboree, Riley tells me "Put that back! Those are too 'spensive! Everything here is too 'spensive! That means we have to leave this place and go to Barnes and Noble!" Then she says, "Daddy's silly. He calls it Barney's. I'm going to go tell him that it's Barnes and Noble."

Tomorrow is supposed to bring another blizzard to Colorado Springs. Conveniently, tomorrow is also payday, so our streak of poverty is nearly over. We are planning a trip to Walmart for tomorrow morning to get some food and a snow shovel. I don't know what it is about Rudi's days off, but we keep getting blizzards on them. Kind of like when you're a kid and it always seems to rain on the weekends. Anyway, we were planning to go into Denver, but there's no way now.

I took great joy today in taking down the Christmas tree. That was a whole lot of fun. Ah, even more space!

Wow, long post and no pictures. Tomorrow will be a picture bonanza for sure...