Square Peg in a Square Hole: Not babies anymore... Twins are 2!

My little preemies have thrived and grown and they are ... (sniff, sniff) two years old. They remain incredibly different, and endlessly fascinating to watch. August has kept her title as the Queen of Charm. She addresses everyone by name, speaks endlessly in sentences, and is incredibly charismatic. She remains taller than Sam, in keeping with their birth story... and is 1 1/2" taller. They weigh the same amount, around 26 pounds, but The Shortest Man Alive is only 32" tall (under the fifth percentile). August is about 50th percentile all the way around.

The babies said their first "I Love You's" on May 6, one after another... in traditional twin fashion. Whenever one of them starts a new phase, the other one follows suit within 24 hours. Sam greets everyone with a full "Hellllllo" instead of "Hi" which I think is beyond adorable. They call the television the "TB" or the "TEEB." August said to Matt the other day, "Hi Dad, Okay, let me have a show." They are both learning their colors, and August is obsessed with yellow. Sam calls yogurt "lokurt," and the color blue, "balooooo." August pointed to my computer the other day and said "Mommy's compey-do." They have started swimming lessons and cannot wait for daily "fwimming." This year at their birthday party, there was no burning of fingers when they stuck their hands in the flame. We didn't repeat that mistake as last year, and refrained from lighting candles. They still had decorative numerical candles, however, and both insisted on using them as utensils to eat their cupcakes (very ineffectively... I think they got about two morsels.)

They are both still obsessed with Day-O (Daniel Tiger), and live to play "ah-side." For their 2nd birthday, one of the highlights was getting a playhouse from Grandma Becky, Grandpa Mike, and Uncles Cam & Dan. Matt stayed up until 1am building it the night before their birthday. The next morning, we opened the garage door for the big reveal, and they were quiet... scoping it out like two little elves finding a new tree to make cookies in. August was the first to lay claim to it, yelling "I'm goin' in!" as she crawled down the stairs to see it. Sam started marking their new territory by bringing everything into the playhouse that he could fit, including a camp chair, and Matt's weed whacker. They are like this tiny married couple and this is their first house...I can't even describe their joy. They are excited every second to go and play in it, and beg for it first thing in the morning, after meals and at night. It is simply precious.

Sam loading tools into the house... you know, for home maintenance.

Other awesome gifts were a car/train table from Grnadma Tam for Sammy and a mini basketball hoop for August. I have a feeling she might be a tomboy.... Grandpa Judd and Grandma Melissa gave them a mini picnic table with benches for outside. It is so cute and now they can finally eat lunch outside without me dragging their highchairs out there.

Among other things, Matt and I gave the kids tiny wooden rocking chairs. Again, a little old couple that will rock in their chairs on the front porch of their tiny house and watch the sunset. August was sitting in hers the other day, and started patting the seat of Sammy's chair, asking, in her priceless lisp... "Sammy, come sit!" The only way to describe how she speaks is for you to imagine a person carrying on full conversations with you, but they have a mouth stuffed full of popcorn, and they spit on you every so often.

The most creative gift they got were $2 bills from Uncle Zach. He collects them, and he gave each twin a crisp, new $2 bill to celebrate their second birthday. How absolutely adorable. It makes me so happy to be home in Utah (for many reasons), however I love getting to see my sister and her husband who I am SO grateful to welcome into our family. He just basically rocks... they are a great pair.

Sammy also got spoiled with clothes form Grandma Tam and Auntie Erin, and August got some much needed shoes. However, if you know Sammy at all, you are familiar with his shoe obsession. He immediately confiscated August's navy and seafoam polka dot flip-flops and I don't see him willingly giving them back. They make him happy and she doesn't seem to care. At this tender age, I love their opinions most of all. It can get a little taxing, but mostly it is hilarious and rewarding to see them individuating in funny, subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways.

My sweet Claire has grown up what seems like 10 years in age since the twins were born. She, Matt and I are a team raising these babies. She loves to dress them, always helps me with diapers, helps feed them and plays with them. She so rarely complains about them infringing on her territory - much to my amazement. I think they infringe on my territory! Grandma Tam gave Claire a beautiful tanzanite heart shaped necklace with tiny little diamonds on the twins birthday, to celebrate what an extraordinary, mature big sister she is.

Claire and I have grown closer than ever and an unexpected benefit of me staying home to raise the twins full time has been my opportunity to watch Claire grow up, too. I worked full time until right before I delivered the twins, and , though I would absolutely never change what that did for my career, my mind and my heart, I have been truly grateful for the opportunity to stay home with all of my kids the last two years. I don't know how long it will last, I do have an itch to work again a bit, but however it shakes out nothing can take away what the world has brought to me since these babies were born.