Meme Frieda has arrived

Last Saturday Yossi's mother made the trip from Tel Aviv to Newark, NJ where Yossi went to pick her up. They arrived very late and did not see the kids that evening.

The next morning, we went to Meme Frieda's bedroom (Rachel, Natalie and I while Yossi was still asleep). Rachel gave her a warm greeting, jumped on the bed, gave her kisses, and held her hand. Natalie was more reserved but gave her a few smiles. Two days later, Natalie has made some progress and allows Meme to play with her and tickle her. Natalie goes to her, grabs her hand to be tickled. Last night I asked her where Meme Frieda was and she pointed to her and said "la (there)", not bad for her a 16-month.
Frieda said she would have walked if she had to see her granddaughters (she is 84!)

Natalie is fascinated with the potty and sometimes she tells me when she has made or started #2 and I sit her on the potty without a diaper. She stands there for a few seconds, then check the inside of the potty, tries to put her hands in it!, and sits again.
Natalie is now more independent as she is walking. There were a few weeks where we wonder if she would be able to walk as she was not very sturdy on her legs and kept falling. She likes to walk alone on the sidewalk, carry her coat, tries to put her shoes on, put her shoes back into the basket at the entrance of the house, walks around with her stroller in the house (from the dining room, into the kitchen and into the living room/she goes around and loves it). She piles up things into that stroller: dolls, sippy cup, ..

Our new morning routine is going very well (to my surprise) and Laurie you were right it is nice to share moments with our hobby in morning. Natalie asks to see her daddy and that makes Yossi's day.

Rachel is speaking more, still mixes French with English but has made good progress with her French.
At the daycare, she copies everything the caregiver's daughter "Lidi" does -she is a year older than Rachel. Yesterday she came back with a rhinoceros and told me it was a hippo. I corrected her and she replied "no maman Lidi said it was a hippo". Ok if Lidi said it..

Rachel discovered the pleasure of saying yucky. She smells Natalie's feet and yells yucky feet to her sister's delight.

There isn't one day passing by without us saying how lucky we are to have these 2 beautiful daughters in our live.