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mali has decided it's time that she started potty training. let me remind you that she is only 17 mo. old. i didn't start noe until she was 18 mo. and had to stop and start several times after that. (on a side note, noe is done potty training. she wakes up during nap time to go potty rather than pee in her pants, and she's completely dry in the morning). anyway, several times a day, mali tells me that she has to potty ("i pee" or "i poop" or "need potty") and leads me to the bathroom. i got some pull ups for her to wear on occassion so she can pretend to potty like her sister. so far, she doesn't actually do anything on the potty but pretend to wipe and want candy. we've had somewhat of a breakthrough, though...of sorts. she gets upset about pooping in her diaper, actually cries to me when she does it because she wants to go on the potty (though she won't actually sit on the potty at those times). so i have to comfort her until she's done, then she wants to run away before i can change her. but it's a step, right? also, from watching her sister on the potty, she realizes that she's supposed to poop in the water (she hears the splash and sees water in the potty). this realization could be seen as a step forward...or not. depending on who's bathing her. every time lately that fai has bathed the girls, mali has pooped in the tub, resulting in a cry for help from a grown man, the draining and cleaning and refilling of the tub, screaming of two little girls who have been rudely interrupted during their bath, and the happiness of the dog who has been left with the leftover food in the kitchen while the chaos swirls above stairs. you can see why i am not very thrilled about mali's notion to potty train so early?

noe is my soft hearted baby...excepting, of course, if she's the one guilty of offense. she cries and protests when someone is upsetting her sister or a stranger. we went to lunch at mcd's yesterday and there was a little boy in the tunnels on the play ground who was crying. he'd hit his head or something. noe went up trying to find him to help him come out because his brother wasn't bothering to do what their mother was telling him to. once he got out, she refused to go back up in the tunnels to play, insteady standing by him while his mom calmed him down. it wasn't until he had stopped crying and was ready to play again himself that she resumed her activity, but still insisted on helping him through the tunnel at least once. and last night, while mali cried in the tub while daddy tried to clean up her poop (noe was sitting on the potty because she had poopy water on her feet and wasn't allowed to run around), noe cried and demanded that mali be allowed out. "don't make my sister cry" she sobbed. it was heart wrenching stuff. only hours before, however, they were playing in the storage cabinet downstairs and she had smashed mali's fingers in the door. she told her quickly and several times that she was sorry while mali screamed, then shut her in the cabinet and ran away. there are also the times when she runs away from her friends who want to play with her toys, opens the basement door and chucks the item of preferrence down the stairs, and slams the door shut again, turning the lock so that no one can play with it. not much sympathy or empathy there.

mali loves babies. she's facinated with them, and poor little landen may not live through it! she will litteraly love him to death! she crawls on top of him to give hugs, grabs his head in a death grip to give him kisses, tries to calm him down by practically smothering him against her cheek or chest, scratches him on the head when she's attempting to "pet" him like she sees mommy doing, and tries to share her food and juice with him. landen is not even 4 months yet and can't have these things, of course. so they end up on his clothes and in his hair.

we're going to hong kong for a few weeks at the end of october (on my birthday, to be exact...oh, joy to spend a full day on a plane with two little kids on my 30th b-day when i should be wallowing in self pity and cake). ever since we told noe that we're going, she's talked of little else. she says we have to stop the plane to get yei yei and nai nai. she cries to go to hong kong. she tells daddy that she's going to hong kong when he comes home. she's pretty excited. i'm hoping she's going to stay this excited on the 22 hr. flight.

well, that's it for now, so for lack of a better closing, 'till next time.