A family kiss

Yesterday, as Jason and I were putting the twins to bed, we followed our nightly routine as normal.  This:

We read several books.

We sing songs.

We clean up.

We put the twins to bed.

As we are getting them in their cribs we always exchange kisses.  Sabrina kisses dada.  Sabrina kisses Sammy.  Sabrina kisses me.

Sammy does the same thing.  He usually starts with me, then almost knocks heads with Sabrina while trying to give her a kiss.  Then he teases dada with his kisses.

Last night, I declared, "four-way kiss!"  We all leaned in to give smooches and the twins burst out with laughter.  They thought it was the funniest thing.  We repeated several times until they were content with the four- way kiss.

It was, without a doubt, the perfect family moment.

A family kiss.

Love You Forever

 

Another favorite nighttime read.  The twins, especially Sammy, adore this book to pieces.  Even when he was much younger--eight or nine months old he would hear me read this book and be mesmerized.  Here we are ten months later and it is still no different.

Sabrina likes this one too, but Sammy will choose between this one and two others most of the time.  He definitely has his favorites.  He brings it to me, knowing that I will read it, using the same tone and inflection that I used when I read it to him when he was a tiny baby.

I just love this story.  Some people might find it odd, but it is truly just the telling of a mother's love for her son.  Only a mother knows that love.

But I too, know the love I have for my daughter.

I'll love you forever

I'll like you for always

As long as I'm living

My baby you'll be......

Yes, though my babies are growing up and getting bigger, they will always still be my babies, no matter when they are eighteen months old, or eighteen years old.

Sigh. 

The updates

Well, the twins officially turned eighteen months this past Tuesday.

Eighteen months.

Wow, how time flies by.

This past summer, I have watched my son come out of his shell.  He was never shy, per se, but compared to Sabrina he sometimes seemed a little quieter and a little gentler.

No more.

"Hello world, my name is Sammy and I will not take crap from my sister anymore!"

He steals toys back now, BITES (we're working on this on), and asserts his wants.  Talking wise he has said more words, but still prefers his signs to words.  And for that, I at least knows that he understands me.  He nods and shakes his head with the appropriate questions, signals "all done" ALL THE TIME for things he wants out of--even a diaper change!  So even though he might not be using as many verbal words as Sabrina, I truly feel that he is doing just fine. 

He loves to bring me books to read to him, his little people, shape sorters, feeding himself with his fork and spoon, but his most favorite thing to do is play with his cars.  He says it like this, "kers".  Too cute.

Sabrina, on the other hand, has had the language explosion I have heard other people talk about.  She repeats almost everything I ask her to repeat, can give me sounds for many animals, some letter sounds, and an extended vocabulary of her own.  Her favorite words are "No!" and "Mine!"  Okay, so she may have learned the "no" from me, but I most certainly did not teach her "mine".  That is anyone's guess.

It's funny what they pick up though.  When she started saying milk awhile back, she said it like this, "mmmmmmmmmmmilk", with the emphasis on the "m" sound.  We didn't teach her that, it was something she did on her own.  And when Sammy started saying milk, he did exactly the same thing.

But where Sabrina has got the language lead, my boy has lead in other ways.  In social situations he gets right in.  In play areas he runs in with no fear.  We were at a new indoor play area this week and you have to climb up through this netting to go down a slide.  At first he was afraid but after I showed him how to do it there was no stopping him, he must have went up and down by himself about ten times.  He is the one that now has no fear.

I sat there, that day in the play area and just watched them both in amazement. I love just watching them sometimes.....figuring out a puzzle, a way to climb up something, the way they interact with each other.

It's truly amazing.

Truly.

How do you do it?

We had some changes in our schedule over here this week.  Jason was finally home for ONE WHOLE WEEK!  He was working on getting a varied schedule so every fourth week he would be home for ten days rather than three.  It looks like it's working out to be that way.

More so than lately, people have been asking how it has been with him traveling.  They ask me how I do it?  Well, to be honest, I have my good and bad days.  But more often than not, the days are good.  Why?  I think a lot of it has to do with our personal relationship with each other and our commitment.  And the fact that it happened at the right time in our marriage.

I guess what I am meaning to say is that we communicate very well with each other, even when he is five states away.  We talk, IM, email, several times a day.  It's like he is just at "work" for the day rather than him being far away.  The only difference is I am alone with the babies at night. 

When I say that it happened at the right time in our marriage, I really mean it.  He couldn't have done this when the babies were two weeks old or even two months old, or at other times during our marriage.  This was the right time.

This was also, I feel, the right time for him to pursue his biggest dream career wise.  And he has.  He has come SO far in his career in the past couple of years and I couldn't be prouder of him.  I don't mind holding down the fort here because I am not really doing it alone.  Even with distance between us during the week, we are together on every decision made for this family.

And this won't be forever--far from it.  It's merely a stepping stone.

Keep on stepping baby.  You're doing your family proud.

We love you.