Overheard around the house

I'm realizing more and more we have two full-blown kids at this house.  The "baby" (who we still refer to as the baby... hmmm maybe time to stop doing that) turns 2 years old this week.  I don't know when "toddler" ends and "child" begins, but we've reached it for sure.  Life used to be about entertaining Camille with more advanced activities, like coloring or books, while Natalie experimented with toys and grunted.  We operated in separate worlds, which took a lot more effort and twice as many stimulating activities.

Now, they are developing a little relationship, and they happily play together more like peers.  I think the change relates to Natalie's ability to talk and, more importantly, follow directions.  Most importantly, Camille's directions.  Here are some episodes I've observed in the last few days:

(1) RIGHT NOW: Camille has built a "birdie nest" in the family room consisting of blankets and stuffed animals on the floor.  She has declared it naptime for both of them.  She's laying on a pillow humming a song, and every few minutes, calls out "Natalie, lay down!  It's naptime!" and Natalie yells"Ok Eel!"

(2) 10 MINUTES AGO: Camille declared she had to go potty and started heading toward the bathroom.  She instructed Natalie to come with her, and of course Natalie happily trailed along.  From the bathroom, I overheard: "Natalie, I have a boyfriend at school.  He is a boy at school and his name is Eli."  Silly me.  In recent years I had heard other 4 and 5 year olds mention boyfriends and girlfriends, which I thought was fairly creepy, and I'd been feeling a bit smug that Camille hadn't gotten involved in that whole game.  But apparently she's just hiding it from me and telling her sister about it instead.

(3) THIS MORNING: This morning, around 8:00am (I know, late!) I hear Camille in her room.  "Mommy, I'm up!"  Then, from Natalie's room (her door is closed, and she is in her crib), I hear "Me too, Mommy!"  Then Camille "Natalie, come in here!  Natalie!" And Natalie responds, urgently, "Ok Eel! Coming!"  From her crib.  Behind a closed door.  Natalie often acts with a sense of urgency like Camille's going to drop her if she doesn't move fast enough.  Smart girl.

(4) LAST WEEK: Last week, Natalie got a princess horse set for her birthday, and she and Camille have fought over the blue princess since the minute it came out of the box.  Yesterday, Camille was busily coloring, which is the one activity Natalie doesn't care as much about.  Camille can color for hours, and not surprisingly, Natalie can only last about 10 minutes.  I guess that's how long you can scribble in circles before it starts to get old.  After some time coloring, Natalie was getting really desperate for Camille's attention, saying "Eel, play!  Eel, play!"  When it was clear that Camille was too busy coloring to play, Natalie went over to the toy area, fished out the blue princess, marched over to Camille and said "Eel, blue pri-cess, I got first."  Clearly baiting a fight from her sister to get some attention.  I must say nice skills, Natalie, nice skills.