So... my girls are pretty awesome.
Now that they're so much older, so much of their awesomeness has become "routine" and it's harder to notice the new things they pick up. But then, sometimes, they'll say or do something and I'll think "holy cow..." and realize just how old they are.
For example: I bought the girls some cheap magna doodles at our local corner store. Since they both wanted the pink one, I wrote their names on them with a permanent marker to tell them apart and avoid the inevitable squabbles. Megan lost interest in hers rather quickly, but Cadence, my little artist has been carrying hers around (with Megan's stylus, since Cadence's lost the magnet in its tip) with her pretty much nonstop (I think I know what the Easter bunny is getting her this year...). I've bragged about Cadence's artistic skills in the past, but she really is advanced for her age and doing stupendously. She'll hold up pictures and I can recognize them without her telling me what they are. She draws mermaids, castles, ships, cats, cups, princesses, babies, etc. I watched her draw a castle and she narrated as she did, pointing out the towers and the grass and the tree and the princess, etc.
She also totally stunned me by holding up her doodle pad with a legible version of her name (copied from where I'd written it).
Both girls love music and singing and pick up on their primary songs quickly. Cadence is just a little bit faster, due to her age, but Megan is not far behind her. They both learned all four verses to "I Am a Child of God" and are on their way to learning both verses of "My Heavenly Father Loves Me". I'm determined my girls will know the primary program songs as well as any of the senior primary kids by the time September rolls around. ;-) They also know a large number of songs from Disney movies, probably more than they "should", but what can I say? They love their princesses.
The music has evolved into their creativity. "Brave" doesn't have any specific songs for the girls to memorize, so Cadence makes it up and calls it Merida's song. It changes daily. I try to get video of them singing, but by the time I have my camera in hand, they usually stop, no matter how sneaky I am. They play
so well together and I love listening to their make believe conversations and stories. They're often based on their favorite movie characters, but still 100% unique.
I wish I could pinpoint Megan's "special skill", like Cadence's art. However, Megan's still young enough it just hasn't shown itself. She's definitely the more social of the two and her imagination goes further. She adjusts to new situations easier than her sister. Other than a brief meltdown the other week because James took her to primary instead of me, she's fully adjusted to Sunbeams. In fact, last Sunday she gave her first talk in primary. No ideas on how it went. I had to teach and James stayed home sick, so the presidency walked her through it. She might not have been understood (she has a lot of words, but she talks so fast the whole things blurs into gibberish), but I'm sure she did well.
I still maintain her physical manipulation skills are above par. They'd have to be to keep up with her sister starting at such a young age. Only my own fear keeps her held back, because goodness knows she doesn't know the meaning of the word some days.
I talk to the girls about Connor daily. They'll get in moods where they want to "play with him" (shake my belly) or "kiss him" (self-explanatory). When Megan cuddles with me, Connor tends to kick a lot and she'll get a little smile on her face when I ask about it. I love watching them interact with the baby dolls they have. It makes me so excited to see them interact with their baby brother when he comes here. Cadence insists she's too little to hold Connor when he comes, but I bet we'll be able to change her mind once he's here. At that point, we might have issues trying to get her to not hold him. He'll quickly become their favorite toy. ;-)
