sisters

the girls are 14 months apart to the day.  when lucy was born, chloe wasn't even walking yet -  talking, yes, walking no ;-)  they've shared a room since lucy was 11 months, and with the exception of two weekends that i can remember, they've never been apart for more than a few hours.  they've always gotten along well, i would say, but more and more, some of the sweetest moments of my days are just watching them together.  sure, they occasionally fight over things (e.g. the current most valued commodity: Berenstain Bears books), chloe has been known to shove lucy off a stool she wants, lucy sometimes systematically destroys things her sister is trying to build, and they are quite often partners in crime.  investigations of naptime screaming generally go like so -
c:  'lucy clunked me with her head!!'
mama: 'lucy, get back in your bed'
l:  'but i want read book with toco [coco]!'

that is all unremarkable though.  after all, which of us is not selfish and willful at heart?  the beautiful thing is when they spontaneously care for each other - the 'toee [chloe] need tissue!' when chloe's crying in timeout, chloe's 'good job! that's it!' when lucy puts a puzzle piece in place.  there is endless rolling around, giggling, story-reading, synchronized book pile-making, and bed-scaling (you didn't know a toddler bed was a piece of gymnastics equipment, did you?).  you can find them hidden behind chloe's bed with a stash of treasures or inside their armoire (having dumped out the contents), or walking the length of their alphabet train puzzle, or pushing each other around in a laundry basket.

oh, and i shouldn't forget - they have an imaginary friend, avanor.  chloe met him first, but lucy seems to have befriended him also.  my requests for one of the girls to get back in her seat or finish her food are sometimes met with, 'but that's avanor's seat' or 'avanor's food'.  how can you argue with that?  avanor just turned 5 - at least, that was the claim at the last birthday party, of which there have been more than a few lately.

so, a few pictures of the nicholson sisters over the past month or so -