Thursday, February 28, 2008

Two years

"I'm still wild but not lost from the thing that I've chosen to be"

Wow - the kids are two! I know I've been pleasantly distracted by the endless stream of changes and developments in our lives and I apologize for the lack of photos to share with everybody. It just seems that when I finally get the time to upload a batch of photos, I have a hundred or so more to download off the camera.

Ty and Erin had their 2 year checkup last week. Ty weighed in at 26lbs and Erin has overtaken her brother at 26lbs, 7oz. I've abandoned all hope of getting Ty to eat what I cook for Erik and I. While Erin will eat anything she can catch with a fork or spoon, Ty prefers pizza and a homemade vegetable conglomeration of squash, carrots and potato spiced with cinnamon. I often hear of parents hiding veggies in their children's pasta. I have to hide pasta in my son's vegetables, as futile as that would be because he consistently finds the offending noodles and ejects them, clean.  Every. Last. One.

Both are talking up a storm. Erin is quite the chatterbox and a budding macaw. Needless to say, any and all words of an unsuitable nature are carefully avoided - not always successfully. Ty on the other hand doesn't have Erin's vocabulary, but I was relieved to discover after reading the milestones in the Toddler Years Handbook that Ty's vocabulary includes at least 50 words - evidently the minimum for a child of two. I'm sure nobody but Erik and I care, but here they are...

apple, again, arm, banana, blue, bye, call, dada, down, dessert, eight, eye, fan, feet, fish, five, fork, four, grapes, green, hair, hello, help, hide, home, knee, knife, mama, milk, more, night, nine, nose, oatmeal, off
okay, on, one, onion, orange, purple, red, run, seven, shoe, six, so, ten, three, two, up, yellow

There are more than this list and I hear new words every day.

They're into size 4 diapers, size 7 shoes and balls of all sizes. Erin loves to help me make banana muffins and spinning in circles until she's too dizzy to stand. Ty loves playing the piano and building tall towers with lego.

They are learning how to be gentle with the cat and Riley has been extremely patient with both of them. An astounding feat considering he was never fond of anything less than 4 feet tall.

Two years.

"Because you thrill me, silence me, still me. Prove things I'd never believe"

Two years ago, I was so unprepared for this journey. Two years later, I can't fathom the passage of time that has brought us to this point. Whenever we can share a snuggle or a passing hug, I instinctually call them both "baby". Erin will now stop and look me in the eye as she claims, "I'm not a baby. I'm a big girl."

In two more years, I'll be registering them for school...