To my dearest boys,This weekend was your 22 month birthday. How did we get here so quickly? It was just yesterday that you were just over 2 pounds and struggling to keep warm. Now you are almost 2 years old and I'm struggling to keep you contained!
Cole, the last few weeks you have turned into a different kid. Now that you can walk, you're so much more confident and happy. Not that you weren't happy before - but you definitely were so frustrated. I don't think I realized how much so until I'm seeing you now. You've got a whole new lease on life being able to get to where you want to go. You are starting to verbalize more and more each day - and boy, do you know what you want! When you don't get your way, we know about it. Some of your favorite things include hanging upside down, rough housing, playing peek a boo, chasing around in circles, ring around the rosie (especially the falling down part), throwing balls & climbing. Oh, and you love those balloons that you can bat around. You will try to climb anything and everything - and most of the time, you do it on your own. You can eat and eat and eat - but you don't gain an ounce! You're still very skinny but growing longer by the day. That belly of yours sticks out like an olive on a stick. You are such a love bug and still enjoy some cuddle time. I'm so thankful for that. On our recent vacation you didn't like the sand at all - in fact, you hate getting anything on your hands. But you really enjoyed swimming in the pool. There isn't a night that you go to bed without wimpering because the day is done. But most of the time, after a minute or so, you're down for the count. You wake up by 6:15 everyday, almost on the dot. And you wake up raring to go! You imitate your brother a lot - and try to say whatever he's saying. Monkey see, monkey do!
JD, you have blossomed so much in the last few weeks. Your vocabulary doubles on a daily basis. It's amazing! You will repeat ANY word, including the bad ones. It's so much fun to hear you talk every day - you have started to put short sentences together now. Your favorite things are the lawnmower (ma-mo-mo) and the wagon (wa-gm). Just this weekend you stood at the window watching Daddy cut the grass for at least 20 minutes. You were fascinated. You are running full speed now - and that arm of yours swings back and forth as you run. Most of the time you have a huge smile on your face and are just plain happy to be around. You've started to learn how to push my buttons - particularly when you take your play golf clubs and bonk Cole over the head. Repeatedly you do this while smiling and looking at me and after 2 times, I take the golf club for the day. For some reason, you do it again the next day and the same thing happens. You love to have snacks (nack) but you don't always eat your meals. Usually your brother is eating your leftovers. You are like your Daddy in that it takes you a few minutes to wake up in the mornings - you usually sleep almost til' 7am. And you're a bit grumpy for the first little while. You are a very concerned brother to Cole. Whenever he is not around, you search for him. And most times you will bring him a toy or drink or whatever it is that you have just so that he has one too. As of late, you have started calling him "Cole baby". You love to go to bed each day and you will even say night night when you're tired. You are still fascinated with brooms and anything else with a long handle; you call these items "mess". If we try to take one from you, it's not a pretty sight. You also love balls - and are learning the differences between basketballs, soccer balls and baseballs. You love ice, especially your "ice wawa".
Both of you are the light of my life. I miss you so much when I leave for work in the mornings and relish in the weekend time I have with you. You have turned into such little boys now - time just seems to be flying by much too quickly. It's amazing that you will be 2 in just a couple short months. How did we get so lucky? I love you both so very much and can't imagine my life without you.
Love,
Mommy
Mommy
Sadly, my kids didn't seem to feel that way most of the time. They were so out of sorts the whole trip that it was really hard to enjoy ourselves at times. I have held off posting anything because I really wasn't sure what to say about it. After we've been home a day or two, we now can see that the kids do not do well with adapting to change quickly. They fueled each others fires and often times if one was melting down, the other followed suit. It's probably a combo of their age (almost 2), lots of people and chaos, a new place, a new sleeping arrangement and LOTS of fresh air. They were exhausted and so were we. I think part of my stress was that I was disappointed as I really didn't consider that they might blow up without their normal routine. It caught me off guard for sure.
We did a lot of fun things though and I relished in their nap times to get a couple hours of peace and quiet. I had visions of reading and relaxing which wasn't quite the case - but that's just the way vacations are with little ones. We had a lot of extra help around which I appreciated so much (when the kids allowed me to leave the room without crying), and after about 5 days, the kids started to get adapted to things. Then it was time to leave. We all were quite happy to arrive home and sleep in our own beds. For the last 48 hours, the kids have been sleeping more than they have been awake - they're making up for lost sleep over the course of the week I guess.
Their first beach experience was a good one - although Cole isn't quite sure about sand. He fussed when he got sand on his hands but after a few times there, he learned to dust himself off and keep going. JD absolutely loves the sand, and the ocean. They both really loved the pool - it looks like our swimming lessons this winter were well worth it.
I've enjoyed the weekend being home (we got home about 1am on Saturday morning) to re-group and get ready for the grind again. I shudder to think what my departure tomorrow morning will be like - I have a feeling that our nanny is going to get a run for her money tomorrow and throughout the week. They will have to re-adjust to not having me around all day long. 
I am sad that our vacation is over. We waited so long for it and it went so fast. Even despite the lack of sleep and sore arms & shoulders from carrying babies all week, I did enjoy spending time with our family who we don't get to see often; and it was nice getting out of the daily grind. We had fantastic weather, took some fun walks, had lots of laughs, spent a few moments with just our family of four, and saw some wild horses - and that made it all worthwhile. 
Until next time...we're hoping this is just a phase with the kids and the next time will be a bit less stressful. We will return again - perhaps with a different mind set going into it! We're scheduled to depart this weekend with my side of the family, cousins and all, for a weekend in Deep Creek - consider yourselves forewarned family!
