Day In-Day Out

As chaotic as life seems to be sometimes, I realized the other night how blessed we are as a family. We are healthy, we have 2 beautiful, wonderfully spirited children, and we are happy. I had a 3-day weekend thanks to President’s Day, and then ended up home for an extra day…making for a nice 4-day stretch with my family. Friday night was a normal, “quiet” night. We played, laughed, ate dinner, danced around, and then slept happily in our beds. Saturday the kiddos spent the afternoon and night with their wonderful Grandparents while we tiled our kitchen backsplash. After 9 hours of hard work it is finally done! The tile was supposed to be up before the babies were born, in fact the weekend I went into labor back in June 2009, was the weekend Brian was going to do the tiling. But “life” got in the way. Here we are about 18 months or so later and it is DONE! Pictures to come… Sunday after picking up Jack and Maggie we stopped at Manna Cupcake in Lebanon to try and say hi to one of the NICU nurses from UC, but she wasn’t there. We still got to enjoy a yummy cupcake though! Afterwards we headed home and were greeted by Wilma who was unusually excited to see Jack and Maggie. She chased and played with them in the family room, which was a complete first. The rest of the long weekend was fairly normal. And I soaked up every minute of it!

Last night while rocking Jack and enjoying the small amount of alone time I get with him each night, I sat and thought about how much has changed over the last year.

A year ago my babies were, well, babies. Neither kiddo had teeth nor were they crawling yet. We could put them in one spot, and they stayed there. Jack was learning to sit with boppy assistance and Maggie was discovering her toes and rolling onto her belly from her back. They were sleeping longer, but not through the night. They were swaddled when sleeping. They loved their swings. They loved their jumperoos. They couldn’t talk.

Now…they have tons of teeth. Maggie is cutting many right now, two of which are molars. We brush our teeth at night during bath time. Jack loves brushing his teeth. Not only do they sit; they walk, run, jump, climb and never seem to stop moving. They crawl, but only when playing because they think it’s funny. They sleep through the night! The swings, jumperoos, and stationary playmats have long been packed away. They talk, sing, and mimic all day long.

What’s the same? They still love to cuddle, especially when tired or not feeling well. They smile so wide, it makes everyone else smile too. They are sweet, happy and the joys in their Mommy and Daddy’s lives!

Constant motion

Jack and Maggie are officially toddlers! And they seem to be in constant motion from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed! Which means, they finally sleep like champs. The day has finally arrived where we can say "Time to go night-night" and lay them in their beds. And... they go to sleep. I seriously wasn't sure if we would ever get past the crying it out stage...but we made it!

They are also climbing machines! They have discovered climbing onto little chairs to look out the window and will stand there waiting for me when I get home from work. They also push the chairs around the kitchen chasing each other. Recently they also discovered they can climb up and "help" at the counter. Maggie has figured out how to climb up the back of the couch and look out the family room window. She loves cars! And will say "car, car, car, car..." over and over and over.

"Car!"


Outside!



What I see when I pull into the driveway


The most recent and dramatic change, Maggie has said "bye-bye" to her pacifier , except for when sleeping. We weren't sure how it would go down, but she did great! We took it away cold turkey a couple of weekends ago, and she now only gets it when she goes down for a nap and for bed at night. No fuss at all! And since she has stopped having the pacifier, her talking has really increased! She sings, babbles, talks and has picked up a lot of her communicating. Jack has noticed and is talking a lot more too.
One last look at Maggie with her pacifier...


So happy!


Another new thing we are working on is plates, bowls and silverware. Some days they do great, and others well...










Life seems to be always in constant motion as well, but we've been fortunate to be back to good health again. Spring is right around the corner and we are really looking forward to getting out and about in the warmer weather. June will be here before we know it and California, here we come!