The older kids have gone back to school and I'm at home with just Florence and Alexander. Florence is well into her "terrible twos" even though she is only 20 months. She can throw a tantrum that can be heard down the block. However, she is also capable of being the sweetest most nurturing little thing. Whenever her siblings or cousins get upset, she tries to hug them or rub their back. She's really into giving kisses too. Her smack is not quite there, but the pucker is adorable. 
Her favorite toys lately are the baby dolls with their stroller and crib. She put her baby to bed no less than 20 times the other day, tucking her in, giving her the pacifier (papoo), covering her up, and the whole time talking to her about what she was doing. It was adorable. She'll stroll that baby all over the house with her and love on her, rubbing her back and giving her kisses. It makes me feel good cause odds are she learned this loving behavior from me. It's nice 
to know I'm not always a screaming lunatic.
Florence's language is really coming along. She must've picked up close to 100 words at Grandma's this summer. She's always been a great babbler, but now she's really trying to put actual words together and form tiny sentences, especially ones like "that's mine" or "give it back!" She repeats things back a lot quicker and more readily now as well. There are still a lot of words that I know that wouldn't be obvious to someone else, but it is becoming easier for others to understand her. She loves to call for me and say "Moooooooommmmy, whereareyou?!" Since she's #4, I'm not quite on top of milestones, but she strikes me as right on target verbally. She's extremely observant and copies everything she sees. She knows almost all her body parts and can say most of the words for them. She appears to know the color yellow, but she's not consistent enough for me to know for sure.
She slept wonderfully on our vacation. I was worried about that because she was generally uncooperative about sleeping anywhere but her bed, but she did well. For the most part, she always slept through the night. Lately, she's been waking alot. I think she might be trying to cut a few more teeth, but I also think she might be having nightmares. The other night, I went in to her, and she was still sleeping, but was calling out to her oldest brother: "Chaaaarliiieeee" - it was really kind of sad. I couldn't tell if she was afrai
d for him, or if, in her dream, he was doing something to her.
d for him, or if, in her dream, he was doing something to her. We're going to attempt potty-training soon. She is very aware of going and always asked to be changed as soon as she's gone. I'm hoping she can learn to tell me before hand. It would be so nice to be done with diapers, but I also don't want to be the one that's trained. I'm plann
ing on rolling up the rugs next week. We'll see how it goes.
ing on rolling up the rugs next week. We'll see how it goes. 
Her favorite toys lately are the baby dolls with their stroller and crib. She put her baby to bed no less than 20 times the other day, tucking her in, giving her the pacifier (papoo), covering her up, and the whole time talking to her about what she was doing. It was adorable. She'll stroll that baby all over the house with her and love on her, rubbing her back and giving her kisses. It makes me feel good cause odds are she learned this loving behavior from me. It's nice 
to know I'm not always a screaming lunatic. She's still a tiny thing. She eats well...when she wants to. One of her new phrases is "I'm full". If she doesn't like what we're having for dinner, she'll push her plate away and say that. She's very active though, so I suppose I shouldn't worry. And she is FINALLY getting some hair. It's red, like Alex's, very strawberry might be a better description. It's quite curly in the back as well - it would look long if she didn't have such boingy curls back there. When we were back east in the humidity, it was especially springy.
