EllaBellaSmellaFella

EBSF is super intense. She's fully on, fully engaged, pedal-to-the-metal at all times.

EBSF is strong, fast, and physical but doesn't really like sports. She rode her bike 4 miles to [and sometimes 4 miles back from] school every day for several months and wasn't phased in the least bit. When her teachers complimented her, she owned it.

EBSF is massively competitive and cannot lose.

EBSF has an immeasurable capacity to love people. Her whole life seems to revolve around how dearly she cherishes her friends, cousins, teachers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, etc. When she loves somebody, they know it.

EBSF is painfully shy around new people but improved alot during her school year.

EBSF loves reading more than almost anything but gets very frustrated at how slow the process is. Her body does crazy contortions and acrobatics the whole time.

EBSF loves her friends to death and will play with them all day long, inventing insane courtyard games--last week they were taking turns riding her bike which was pulling the bike trailer with one or two kids in it, which had a rope attached to the back pulling a trike with another friend on it, which in turn was attached to a rope pulling a wagon full of kids. They did this for DAYS.

EBSF eats and eats and eats and eats and never ever stops. Especially "burritoswithbeanssourcreamandcheeeeeeeese!!!"

EBSF is a very happy girl and smiles with her whole body.

EBSF likes cuddling in theory but can't hold still long enough to do it. She might accidentally kneecap Daddy and head-butt him in the nose during a single peck-on-the-cheek attempt.

EBSF loves Vijay Iyer's "Duality." It just toys around with her body.

EBSF must be in any available water up to her nozzle. She's part fish [she gets it from Mommy].

EBSF will often burst into the house and bellow a very excited question 5, 6, sometimes 30 times. Mommy and Daddy try to answer on the first or second iteration but EBSF is so obsessed with asking that she never seems to realize that she has been answered.

EBSF is very, very hard on Ballyhoo. But recently they have started to have fun playing together, which is a major relief.

EBSF is VERY LOUD. She did not get this from Mommy. She likes to stay at Volume Level 11 at all times regardless of the social context.

EBSF also talks non-stop about everything she is thinking, seeing, anticipating, feeling, wanting. Monologue, dialog, whatever. She's hyper verbal.

EBSF wears all of her emotions on her sleeve at all times. She spends most of her life in an elevated violent euphoria but has frequent episodes of drama based on whether life is lining up for her or not.

EBSF is super curious and observant and consistently out-strips Mommy's and Daddy's ability to answer all of her questions.

EBSF doesn't clean. She hasn't the time for it. She makes herself very busy doing whatever it is she does. Every couple months she decides she would rather fight about cleaning for 3 hours than spend 3 seconds picking up one thing.

EBSF plays with serious dedication. She is an extreme recreator.

EBSF is exhausting but such a good girl. The joy that she derives from her busy, hard-core style of living is inspiring. She plays hard, eats hard, sleeps hard and has no regrets.

Ballyhoo

Ballyhoo is IMPOSSIBLE to photograph. She's always completely disheveled, running in one direction while spinning wildly on two axes, bloodied from some face-plant on the pavement, and shrieking in either excitement, anger or both. This is very honestly the best picture of her we've taken in the last several months.

Ballyhoo is delightful. She is very polite--always saying please and thank you and sorry.

Ballyhoo is unprincipled with her anger. She may erupt in dramatic sobs quite frequently, but she can be easily tricked out of them. A typical exchange:

Daddy: "Ballyhoo, it's time for bed."

Ballyhoo, screaming, making grotesque gurgling noises, throwing things: "BUT I DON'T WANT TO!!!"

Daddy: But it's past your bed time.

Ballyhoo, rolling on the floor, kicking things: "NO! NO! NO!"

Daddy, in a very exaggerated perky voice: "Hey, Ballyhoo, do you want to do something really fun??"

Ballyhoo: "Yeah!"

Daddy, still sounding super-excited: "Hey, Ballyhoo! Let's go to SLEEP!"

Ballyhoo, suddenly bright-eyed and cheery: "OK, Daddy!"

Hey, it works, and it's super cute.

Ballyhoo has a bouncy, perky sweetness that is hard to describe.

Ballyhoo is confident and friendly and all of her peers and teachers love her.

Ballyhoo is a very doting big sister. She cares for Bud and really, genuinely loves him.

Bally is also only recently getting over unintentional brutality in her relationship with Bud.

Ballyhoo absolutely has to do everything by herself. She cannot be helped.

Ballyhoo CANNOT be helped.

Ballyhoo loves to dance. She's a tight bundle of ungraceful but adorable exuberance.

Ballyhoo is always adorably disheveled no matter how recently she has been groomed.

Ballyhoo is absolutely indominable. After deciding to start riding her bike without training wheels, she one day face-planted on asphalt and tore her face open. It looked stupendously gory but she didn't even hesitate to hop on her bike the next chance she got.

Ballyhoo is independent, feisty but lovable, stubborn and lovely. Just like her Mommy!

Ballyhoo loves to vacuum and help out. She is just fundamentally kind-hearted.

Bud

Bud is monumentally grabby. If it can be grabbed it will be grabbed.

Bud is a goat. He must be on top of anything that is climbable. We have a ~3-foot stool in our kitchen that he learned to climb when he was only 7 or 8 months old. He pushes it around the kitchen until it gives him access to new stuff he can grab. Sometimes he just stands there because being higher is better.

Bud is unprecedentedly cuddly and sweet. He gives perfect strangers the best snuggly hugs. A couple of our friends in the courtyard get daily warm embraces from him. Sometimes he stops hugging us just so he can run into our arms and hug us again [because the beginning of a hug is the best part!].

Bud loves other babies. He likes to push them over and gouge their eyes out.

Bud is very sweet natured and happy. Everybody always tells us that he's a "special spirit."

Bud poops a lot.

Bud believes that he can let himself off of anything so long as he goes feet-first from his stomach. Stairs, chairs, beds, stages, tables, the Grand Canyon.

Bud says "Ma ma ma ma MOMMMM!!" when he needs something. And "stop!" if somebody is doing something he doesn't like.

Bud sleeps like an angel.

Bud is very creative at stealing food from people. Last week Daddy left a paper bag full of produce on top of the fence to keep it away from Bud while talking to friends. Bud walked up to the fence and pushed it until the bag fell, grabbed a nectarine and immediately inhaled it.

Bud is squirmy and restless. There is no context in which sitting still is fathomable. Sometimes he just runs around outside by himself grabbing things for hours.

Bud loves balls of any shape or size. It is clearly deeply programmed into his genetic code.

He loves to follow the big kids in the courtyard and play with them. He doesn't know what they're doing but he loves to be involved.

Bud is just a sweet dude. He rarely cries, tolerates a lot of sisterly abuse, and gives everybody unabashed love. He's like a grabby Jesu Bambino.