Why?

Aubree is becoming increasingly inquisitive. In fact, I think she's secretly playing "stump-the-mom." I appreciate her desire to learn and understand, so I try to answer her questions as best as I can. However, she often asks things I've never really thought much about or are difficult to answer. Such as, "why do we have lips?" or "why do people get older?" or "why do lizards eat bugs?" As is typical of children her age, she's rarely content with the first answer I give her and almost always follows up my simple explanations with another "why?" It reminds me of my youngest brother, Daniel. One summer I came home from college and decided to try to be a cool big sister and take him out to lunch (he was only 4). On the short drive into town he asked a steady string of questions that left me both amused and totally stumped. Although it's been ten years since that day, I still remember some of his questions:
* What would happen if telephone wires were made of steel?

* Why do we have five fingers instead of six?
* What would happen if the sky were yellow instead of blue?

So, I imagine this is just the beginning. I'm sure Aubree will become better and better at her stump-the-mom skills.
Besides being more inquisitive, she's also been so random and funny with her comments. Here are a couple recent comments that I actually remembered to write down:
* "I know, Mom, let's hide our feelings!"
* "I don't cry these days. I just say 'oww'."
Aubree still loves to dress up and had a blast the other day when we got together with her two best buddies, Ella and Cheyenne. The girls spent a lot of time putting on their dresses and then admiring each other, dancing around, and posing for pictures. It's wonderful that all three enjoy the same types of activities.
When Aubree is home playing "pretend" she's begun to assign out roles to Mark (if he's home) and me. Aubree is almost always "the mommy." My roles vary from "the big sister" to "the neighbor." Mark's assignments are often the most interesting. Most of the time he's "the daddy," but he's also been the baby, the big sister, or the lion. Bryce is occasionally included, but even in those instances he's usually still "the brother." Once Aubree's made her assignments, it is very important that we act accordingly. It always makes me laugh when she calls out to me, "hey neighbor!"
Recently I bought Aubree a new bathing suit. Her old suits were all-of-a-sudden too small (growth spurt!). A few months ago she had borrowed a friend's two-piece tankini-like swim suit. Aubree was thrilled that it had "underwear so she could go to the bathroom." I thought that was a pretty great feature as well. I also liked that the top was more like a t-shirt and provided a lot more coverage from the sun. So, we jointly decided to look for that type of suit. We had a surprisingly difficult time with this search, but were ultimately successful. The picture on the right is Aubree's first time wearing her new bathing suit.

Bryce is doing quite well. I've been focusing this week on his naps. He still sleeps really well at night, but daytime sleep is really hit-or-miss, with most days more "miss". Today he actually took two real naps. He's such a happier baby when he gets enough sleep (and yeah, I'm a happier momma too). He's getting interested in toys, but his favorite "toy" by far is a water bottle. Last evening he woke up after only being asleep a little while and was quite hysterical. When I couldn't calm him down we pulled out the magic water bottle and very soon he was still. I set him in my lap and let him hold the water bottle and he fell asleep with his little fingers still gripping the bottle.