Cupcake gets it now.

I think yesterday and today it started to sink in for Cupcake that Princess Eee is here to stay. She has started treating her like competition, like a sister she didn't ask for, and at beautiful yet all too rare moments throughout our day like a big sis to pal around with. Cupcake has gotten down right nasty with Princess Eee a few times in the last two days. She gave her a whopping bite mark on the belly today. Princess Eeee was babied and coddled and band-aided and sat upon the counter to help me finish the pumpkin muffins while Cupcake was banished to the big chair in the next room and forced to sign "sorry" and give hugs. It's tricky because Princess Eeee knows exactly how to taunt and tease and get Cupcake all riled up until Cupcake snaps and does something obvious like bites. It is easier to call someone out for biting (insert hitting or pinching) than for teasing and pushing another's buttons- especially with my limited grasp of the spanish language. And Cupcake is WAY tougher than Princess Eee so far. So for most of today I refereed and tried to keep them happily playing in separate spaces. It is a lot like when Zippy and The Spark were just getting to know each other. They are 11 months apart and neither could talk when The Spark joined us. These two are 13 months apart and neither one can talk to the other.

They do have brief encounters of a gentler kind. They spent a few happy minutes dumping out the toy basket (again), and I snapped this photo when they were pretending to talk to each other on plastic phones.

Princess Eee did not cry for her Mami Nana much at all today. Even when bitten. She did, however, at one point go over to sit alone on the stairs and said she was angry. When I asked her why she was angry, she ignored me for a minute. I asked again, and she told me she was angry with Mami Nana. My poor girl is trying very hard to figure all this out. She has been able the last couple of days to tell me things about her foster family without crying or whimpering while telling me. It is much more matter of fact stuff. It is nice to hear her talk about them without so much sadness. She told me who had cats and what their names were. She told us something about a song at one of her aunt's schools, but we didn't catch all of what she was trying to tell us. And when we were reading a book with drawings of people in cars, she told me one looked like Papi Jorge and one looked like Tio Carlos and one even looked like Papi Moco Loco- that's Jason.

The biggest break through today though was that she let Papi Moco Loco (Jason) do bathtime tonight! And she allowed him to help her brush her teeth last night too. Up until then, she would not let him be involved with any actual child care activities other than playing and food prep. Especially if I was not in the same room. Tonight he followed Cupcake and Princess Eeee who is always overjoyed when it is finally time for a bubble bath (we must have the cleanest kids in the north country right now because bathtime is one of her very favorite activities but she does not like to go it alone) upstairs after dinner. She called for me, and I told her it was my turn to clean the dishes tonight. A minute later she tried again and got the same response. That was all I heard until I heard giggling girls stampeeding in the upstairs hallway post bubble bath. And I got to hang with the three biggers doing chores and finishing dinner like a bunch of big kids.

Today was Music Together and unlike last week, we stayed for the whole class. I prepped Princess Eee ahead of time that we could go potty right before class started and again right after, but not during. And we talked about how fun it would be to stay for the whole class this time. She did great. She asked once to go potty, but I said we could go in just a few minutes when class was over. And she asked twice for "agua pura" and I told her it was in the car and we could get it as soon as class was over. It's only a 45 minute class, and she didn't even want to use the bathroom after class and made it til we'd been home for awhile, so I know she can hold it about 100 times longer than she thinks. Tomorrow is gymnastics which she loved last week. And Friday we are going to visit her potential new pre-school. I am considering starting her after her birthday rather than waiting all the way until next fall. She is (so far) such a dive right in kind of kid, and there is a first-language-spanish speaker as an aide in the classroom she'd be in which would be a nice bonus. If we like it when we visit, I think I'll sign her up for end of November and see how she's doing attachment-wise by then. I would also like to be sleeping back in my real bed by then. Princess Eee thinks my nest of blankets on the floor next to her bed is my real bed.