do-you-ask-nicely?-Do-you-have-to-go-outside (again, the dog)?- Please-take-your-shoes-off-on-the-couch.- No-you-may-not-have-a-cookie-for-breakfast.- Hi-baby-girl!- We-don't-throw-food.- Off-the-couch (once again, to the dog)!" string of days, life is grand!Time is flying by, and both girls are growing too quickly. My mom will often remind me, "You want them to grown; you want them to thrive." But when I put on Marin's size 8 shoes, or look down at Emilie's long legs stretched off my lap, I can't help but want to freeze time just a little bit. Ever since we brought Emilie home, Marin has seemed about ten years old to me. All of the sudden I realized how big she is and how much she has learned. She gets her own snacks from the pantry. She orders at a restaurant for herself saying, "I'd liiiiike milk and mac n' cheese, please." She can count to 14, skipping a few numbers in between, and she sings the ABC's hilariously. She can put on her own shoes, although not always on the right feet. She loves golf (although she sometimes calls it baseball), and she knows the words to the Illinois Alma Mater. (Her version goes, "Hail Orange and Blue! Hail Illitoy! Hail Ala Maer, So true, so true!") Yesterday, very matter-of-factly, Marin told me, "I a big girl; don't hold me like a baby." She wasn't trying to be defiant, she was just telling me, "I can do it myself." My heart broke into a million pieces when I realized she was right. She's growing up. Today she came down from her nap without any pants on. When I asked her where they were she told me that she had to go potty so she went. When I went to investigate I realized she had gone all by herself. Now, I also found some poop on the floor, so she's not quite ready to leave my side for good...
Marin is definitely my little helper. She greets Emilie every morning with a sweet, "Good morning, Baby Emmie!" and a hug and a kiss. She wants to "help you" when I change Emilie's diaper, and often she breast feeds her dolly beside me as I fed Emilie. She has named all of her dollies Baby Emmie and carries them with her everywhere.Marin's other love of the summer is swimming. She LOVES the pool. We put on our "soup-soups" (swimming suits) and I put Emilie in a
waterproof baby carrier I bought for the pool, and Marin jumps in off the side for hours. She lines up on the side of the pool in the four-feet deep end with the eight year olds, and yells to me, "You ready, mom?!" When I confirm I'm ready, she shouts, "One! Two! Three!" and jumps way out from the edge and kicks her little legs to the top, 
only to say, "I wanna do it again!" She has little interest in the more age appropriate turtle and crab in the baby end that she loved last year. Instead she wants to go down the kiddie slide "all by myself!" and flies down the slide dousing herself in water. She walks around the pool ducking under the water joyfully shouting, "I go under water! I a fishy!!!!" Her weekday swimming lessons with me are over, but she still has two 
more sessions of Saturday lessons with Jason. I think it's the favorite part of her whole week to ride her bike with daddy to swim lessons.We spend our days together going for walks in the stroller. Emilie rides in the buggy, and Marin rides behind on her buggy board that she calls a "skateboard". How she knows what a skateboard is, is beyond us, but if that's what it will take to get her to be excited about it, then "skateboard" it is! As we walk, Marin leads the way by pointing, "'Dis way, Mommy!" At the end of every day, after our prayers, I ask her to name something that she is thankful for. She makes me so proud by almost always naming people we've spent the day with, rather than things.
My heart runs over with love every time I see Marin making Emilie smile, or when she says, "It's okay Baby Emmie" when she cries. These are the days, no matter how quickly they fly by, that I
hope I will always remember.
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