22 months

Once again the month is over. Time carried more quickly than the leaves that fall from the trees outside my window.  The holidays are here.  Arriving both abruptly and unexpectedly.  For as soon as the Halloween decorations come down...the stores bring forth the garland.  Yet how can it be that Christmas is already upon us again?  That this is going to be my babies' second Christmas? Our weeks are busy and the days pass quickly.  Too quickly.  It's not as if I am not exhausted by the end of the day, because I am, it's just that after bath time and prayers...I wonder where the time went.  And I can't help but wonder that if in that given day I did enough.  Certainly they are fed and changed.  But did I teach them?  Did I treasure them.  Did I love them...enough?  Because I do.  I love them with every beat of my heart. 

Beckett: You walk everywhere.  And you are so deliberate in your walking.  You walk with purpose.  You might not always know where you are going, but you go with intent.  It makes me laugh.  You have such a look of concentration on your face.  And sometimes you will put your hands behind your back and walk like a little old man, with your eyebrows raised.  You talk more than any baby I know.  Your thoughts are an open book.  Whatever happens to be on your mind...is said aloud. Your vocabulary amazes me.  One of my favorite things that you say is "cut grass." Every time you see a lawn truck you say this phrase.  We put up the Christmas tree yesterday while you were napping.  When you came down the steps you were in awe.  And you said, "pretty tree."  And I thought my heart would burst right there :) You love to read.  You love  pointing out objects in books and telling me all about them.  You love the TV remote and will obsess about it until it is in your hands.  You will repeat, "remote, remote, remote" until I give it to you.  You still love your Zoey.  Every time we leave the house you say, "bye ZoZo."  And she is the first thing you look for when we come back home.  Your eating is okay.  You don't like vegetables, but you like fruit.  And you love chicken.  Any time we pass Chick Fil A you say, "chicky chicky."  You are still as stubborn as an ox.  This month has been a little trying with discipline.  You are asserting both your opinion and your independence.  And sometimes....we clash heads.  This is a story that is just beginning.  I have no doubt...that "time out" is in our future;)  You are beginning to accept going to Mother's Day Out, which makes me very happy.  You are still a sensitive little one and need frequent encouragement, but you are learning to get back up when you fall down.  You love your daddy and are still your mommy's biggest fan.  And she is yours :)  Anytime I leave, I can hear you saying, "mommy come back, mommy come back."  And of course, I always do.

Blake: You are a runner. And you are hilarious when you run.  You put your head down and you make yourself have a double chin.  Your arms are swinging and you are laughing.  You are goofy.  Life to you is funny.  You are such an easy going baby.  Unless somebody takes your ball.  I swear that you are going to be a ball player.  Nothing makes you happier than having a ball.  At this point you don't have a preference.  A football, basketball, soccer ball....you don't care.  When a ball is in your hand, you are so animated.  Maybe you will retire your parents one day.  Your eating is okay.  This month you have become addicted to both ice cream and apple juice.  You have always loved them both...but now you crave them:)  You will not try vegetables.  But you love to dip.  If we are eating you say, "eep," and you want ketchup or queso or mustard. It makes me laugh.  You are talking now. Finally you say "mommy." But your enunciation is not good.  You can't pronounce many words.  And  your voice is monotone is sound sometimes.  We have taken you to the Heuser Hearing Institute several times.  Every time you fail.   Your tympanogram is always flat.  So finally this month  we decided to do something about it.  You will be getting tubes in your ears, which isn't such a big deal...but there is more to it than that.  Your eyes have always leaked.  Tears periodically stream down your face when you are not crying.  You have lacrimal duct stenosis.  So...while you are getting ear tubes, an ophthalmologist will be taking a nasolacramil cannulae to your tear ducts and opening the narrowing.  And finally you are tongue tied.  So in addition to your ears and eyes, your frenelum will be clipped.  And that is the scary part.  The doctor wants a secure airway, so they will be intubating you.  In other words, you will be under general anesthesia.  And that makes your momma a nervous wreck.  We haven't picked a date yet because we are waiting on all the doctors to coordinate the schedules.  Hopefully after this, you will talk :) You still love Signing Times and Baby Einstein.  You are quite the cuddler.  If I am sitting down, you will come over to sit in my lap.  Yet you are very content to play by yourself. You still do not love Mother's Day Out.  And I worry about leaving you there....in fact, I still pick you both up thirty minutes early.  You love water. You become a prune when sitting in the tub.  You don't want to get out...EVER.  You think you are funny.  And that is funny.  I love watching you try to play a joke on me.  Every night when we say prayers, whoever is holding you gets extra cuddles.  Because you love to wrap your chubby arms around our necks and lay your head down on our shoulder.  And it is then that I understand just what grace is :)