Happy Homecoming Day, Elzi!

Dear Elzi,

I can't believe my tiny little girl is two. You have developed so much this year, you amaze me on a daily basis. I have seen your personality change tremendously this year.

You used to be incredibly active, and of course, you still are. However, you have developed quite another side since being the mobile fetus that the nurses could never find on the monitors. One of your favorite things to do is color. You will often sit for up to half and hour at a time coloring in coloring books or drawing on blank paper. You are still working on learning your colors, but blue and green are your usual requests.

You are still as independent as you have always been. You rarely give a thought to what anyone else is doing. You do what you want when you want. Taking your shoes and socks off in the car has become a frequent occurrence, which often leads to Lillian following suit. I can tell that you are going to be a leader.

One of the things that surprised us this year was that although still very active, you have become more cautious. For a few months one of your favorite words was "scared." We are still not sure if you understood what it meant, but you used it a lot. You also surprised us when you climbed to the top of the bouncy slide but refused to slide down. Although we were surprised by this measure of caution, we are also a bit relieved and hope that you continue to be careful in the future.

Life with our family of four just seems to get better every day. My favorite parts of this year were being able to share holidays like Halloween and Christmas with my children. I think I love holidays more now than even when I was a kid. It has been such a wonderful year of growth, development, and love. I would not trade it for the world.

I love you bunches!

Love,

Mommy

Happy Homecoming Day, Lillian!

Lillian,

I have learned so much about you this year. You have gone from being my little baby to a little person. When I look at pictures of you from the hospital, I just can't believe how tiny you were. This year you finally made the growth chart and, other than pants, you are wearing 24 months or 2T in all your clothes! Much of this is probably due to the fact that you normally finish all of your food and often finish Elzi's left-overs, too.

Your speech has improved so much this year. Now you are consistently using two-syllable words and even sentences! One of your favorite words is Elzi. You like it, and use it, so much that you think it is your name, as well.

You are such a wonderful sister. You are always concerned with where Elzi is and what she is doing. You will not only get your water bottle when you are thirsty, but you will take Elzi's to her, as well. One of your favorite things to do is to "hop on" each other's backs. Elzi often sits behind you in the tub, hugs you, and you wrap her legs around you and you slide forward taking her for a ride.

You are so active and brave. You love to climb to the top of the slides at bouncy places and slide down all on your own. We were so surprised the first time you did it as you had previously been the more cautious one. Fortunately, your courage has only resulted in one unintended mishap. When you tripped going up the brick steps, you only cried for a few seconds after chipping your front tooth. We are hoping that you will become more cautious by the time your permanent teeth come in :)

It is so hard to believe that you have been a daily part of our lives for two years, yet I cannot remember what it felt like to live without you. I know that you are going to develop even more this year, and I look forward to seeing what the third year has to bring.

I love you so much!

Love,

Mommy

Diaper Houdini

Something told me to check on the girls before I went to sleep tonight. Both of them seemed to be sleeping soundly, so I was simply going to put their blankets back over them and quietly exit. First, I covered Lilly up. She was laying on her silky. Then I covered Elzi up. I reached to the right side of her crib to grab what I thought to be her silky only to grasp a discarded wet diaper. I looked at Elzi all suited up in her fleece, footy pajamas and wondered, "how could this be?" When I turned her over I discovered that she had unzipped her PJ's just far enough to take off her diaper and slip it out the opening. She's a pretty clever little girl. It looks like it's time to start safety-pinning the zippers closed!