Juliana is walking now. She copies her big sister constantly (both good and bad). Elena loves bossing Juliana around. For example, Juliana tried to touch the hot stove door. Elena pushed her down and proceeded to lecture her (finger waggling, babble, and sign language), telling her NO!, that she needs to stop, the stove is hot, it will hurt the baby. Elena likes enforcing rules a lot more than she likes following them herself. While she loves being Juliana's conscience, if Elena would follow 1/10 the advice she gives to her sister she would get in a lot less trouble.
Elena loves singing karaoke. The hairbrush she is holding in the picture below is meant to be a microphone (thus helping to protect the real microphones). She likes the TV shows "the Voice" and "America Idol" because there are lots of people singing.
Juliana loves to be snuggled and watch the world go by. She is very tricky and clever. She plans her strategies two or three steps in advance.
The other night we were feeding the girls at the table. Juliana was on the left, Elena on her right. Juliana set her cup down on her left, so that Elena would not get it. Elena (not thinking), sat her cup down within Juliana's reach. Juliana grabbed Elena's cup, drank it as fast as possible (in case we gave Elena better water) and then carefully set Elena's cup down on her left side, well out of range of Elena. Juliana now has two cups, Elena has none. Elena cried "Momma! Momma!" and pointed at her stolen cup. Although we returned the cup, the same scene repeated itself throughout the night.
Both girls are grade-A unpacking experts. This is great, except that we are in the process of moving houses. We pack things into boxes. They immediately unpack the boxes and fling the contents onto the floor. In terms of energy and deviousness, we are outnumbered.
