What's the word?

Life is surprisingly quiet, considering this time next week we'll be on the road toward Flagstaff. I plan on taking advantage of having family nearby to get all my cleaning and organizing done so the packers' job is easier.

The girls have been crazy lately. Everyone tells me they're probably sensing that something big is right around the corner. I believe it. I've noticed changes in my own way of getting through the day and I think the girls have picked up on it. They've definitely picked up on the fact that I have way less patience than normal recently.

Anyway, a little brag post before I run and put on a bit of make-up for my lunch date:

Cadence is amazing us with how smart she is. She picks up so much just from interaction. She's able to count in her head (small numbers) and tell me how many things she has. For example, if I give her three cookies, she doesn't have to count them out loud to recognize she has three of them. She's speaking in full sentences almost entirely now. The heat's gotten to her recently and she's been whining in one-word sentences, but mostly she'll chatter at us nonstop. She loves songs and now has a small arsenal of favorites. She won't sing with me when I'm singing but at night I'll hear her singing "Wheels on the bus" or her favorite: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Megan's talking like crazy, too. Unlike Cadence, who picked up words I used frequently, Megan has picked up on her sister's favorite words. Our favorite of hers is a very pronounced "He-ey!" whenever someone does something she disapproves of. She still monkeys Cadence in everything and has a chronic case of the "me-toos". She's so cute when she wants a diaper change. She'll bend over and put her head on the ground, then flop her butt sideways and roll to her back and grin up at him. Thanks to her sister, she's also very much aware of bodily functions such as "pee", "poop" and "fart". And if she ever hears a fart sound, real or not, she will instantly run over to me and pull on the waistband of my pants to see if it was me. Cracks me up.

Anyway, kind of nervous how they'll handle the upcoming road trip and week or more of hotel stays. I'm optimistic, though. So long as they have plenty of freedom to run themselves ragged, they're pretty easy-going kids. We've split it up so we only have one really long day of driving and two 7-8 hour days.