I mentioned in one of my recent blog entries that my husband trashed our camera the other day. I immediately ordered a new one – for his birthday, no less – but it still hasn’t arrived.

And I am desperate. Without the camera, I’m helpless to post new photos to the blog. And I know how much my five or six loyal readers enjoy seeing pictures of the little monsters.

So, if you’ve already seen this photo of little Sophie, please forgive me and blame my husband. To make matters worse, he broke it while trying to take photos of the girls drowning in a sea of stuffed animals on our living room floor. But that mess is now long gone. An opportunity for cuteness lost, never to be recaptured (ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, since I’m sure the girls would like nothing more than to dump the stuffed animals on the rug all over again).

His birthday is on Saturday. And there’s no way I am going to wait until Saturday to use that camera if it arrives before then. Too bad for him. It’s going to be an early birthday present, to which I have exclusive rights. I love those kind of “shared” presents, especially when they’re his.

Sophie’s been a bit out of sorts since yesterday. A little under the weather, and a whole lot of cranky. She required cuddles, but she often resisted them.

She’s become a fan of throwing things. Especially things that make noise. Jim-Jim, the guinea pig we’ve been watching, is terrified of her. She’s not a threat to him, but whenever she’s near his cage, he scampers away into a corner of his cage until she leaves again.

I don’t blame him. If I was his size I’d be scared too. She’s just too unpredictable. I think he’s going to be very happy to return home tomorrow – where there are no toddlers scampering around and causing mayhem. And I think Sophie is the only one who’s going to miss him.

It’s been a week, and she’s the only child in the household who displays any interest in feeding him. And even she’s not consistently enthusiastic. It’s a good thing my husband and I are around to pick up the slack. The moral of the story is that we’re not getting a pet anytime soon. Not even a fish or a crab or a bug. Two human girls are more than enough work.

Chloe is definitely going through some kind of difficult stage. Do the terrible 7s exist? If not, I’m officially coining a new term: the “sucky 7s.”

It’s been challenging over the last few days. Having her home from school doesn’t help. Kids should be in school all year long, with just a day off here and there. Not too many days off in a row, because that’s when they start going bonkers on you.

It’d be easy to attribute her recent behavior to my return to work. But that’d be giving me too much credit. So I don’t know what it is. But it’s tough, and it’s not much fun. And we’re at a bit of a loss as to how to handle her.

Mind you, although I’m complaining about her, she really is a big-hearted, loving child. But she just takes things so personally, and gets frustrated so easily. It can’t be hormones – we have a few more years before that, I hope. Although maybe she’s suffering from some premature aging disease…

Chloe is a lot like me. A lot like I was at her age. And I wasn’t an easy kid. But I wonder, could she have really inherited all of my annoying genes? That may be part of it. She must also be taking cues from us. But I’m a bit at a loss.

Parenthood can be so frustrating. For every step forward, I feel like we take a few steps back. I hope that her special papa day tomorrow will set her straight – at least for the next week.

This is Sophie giving us attitude. She’s been doing that a lot recently. From imitating all of the things we wish Chloe wouldn’t do, to finding her own ways to annoy us to death.

This face, however, was more of a Sophie being silly face while eating a Valentine cupcake. It’s truly thrilling to see what new things she going to do everyday – whether she surprises us with new verbal skills, or acts even more closely like her monkey cousins with her climbing skills – even discovering what pisses her off is somewhat entertaining, once we manage to distance ourselves from her tantrums.

Now that Sophie so eagerly apes her sister, the pressure is on Chloe to behave. But for a 7-year old, that mandate is especially difficult. At dinner, Chloe got up to get a napkin – but she didn’t simply stand, walk and retrieve. She stood, danced (and shook her booty) and eventually retrieved. During which time, Sophie, who usually thinks her sister is the best thing since sliced bread (except when Chloe hits her), stood, danced (and shook her booty) and retrieved nothing.
For a few minutes, dinner devolved into a dance contest.

What to do? They were too cute to get angry. And they did eventually sit back down and finish eating. My husband and I lost control over our girls for a pretty delightful five minutes or so. It wasn’t the first time and it definitely won’t be the last. The joys of parenthood.