(NOTE: no, I am not on top of my game this much to post this while having a baby yesterday. One of the many nights I couldn't sleep, I went ahead and scheduled like 10 posts all through Oct and Nov...this is one of them :) I'm probably burping, changing, nursing a baby or hopefully sleeping as this posts :) )
How can my 5lb babies be TWO? That seems so old, so toddler! I am thoroughly enjoying this experience of learning to love the new, evolving characteristics and situations that form my children. They have changed so much in a year...really in just a few short months! I don't quite know how I feel about the "terrible two's" .... times two :)....because we sure had a ROUGH spring/summer with Caden. Maybe he just got his out of the way earlier so I can concentrate on Sassy Jenna whenever it hits her. Yes, I'll just take that and run with it:) Anyway, Happy Birthday Jenna and Caden....what a journey we have been on the past year!
Dear Caden,
"Oh the difference a year can make" would be your theme for the past year. A year ago today, you couldn't pull yourself up to stand, if you were lying on your back you couldn't sit up by yourself, you couldn't crawl and you certainly couldn't walk. We worked very hard with seemingly endless evaluations and appointments to find out how we could help you. You were diagnosed with Joint Hypermobility Syndrome...just a fancy way of saying you are very double jointed! ah-hah! Now it all makes sense! I'm so glad you were too young to remember those first few months after your "diagnosis." You would have thought Mommy was trying to kill you. But we worked and worked and worked and in no time you were meeting all of your milestones, moving around and LOVING your new-found freedom! You LOVE your braces that you still have. You will wear them until you are three. You are much more confident and comfortable when they are on. Your name means "fighter" and I can certainly say you have had to fight to do things that seem to come easy to Jenna...at least at this point in your lives. I'm so proud of your progress - we promise to keep working with you so you can do whatever you set your mind to do in your life.
You continued to be my perfect sleeper this year....THANK YOU, SON! We put you down for nap or bedtime and you may play around or talk to yourself, but you soothe yourself right to sleep and do NOT wake up. We laugh at your sleeping positions because you are in a different one each time we check on you, you drool like a camel, and....trying to think of a good way to put this.....let's just say your digestive system is most active while you are asleep. You 9 times out of 10 wake up with a diaper changed needed ASAP! phew! At night, we have developed a funny, CONCRETE sleeping routine. Caden always has to go to Ryan, turn the button on the sound machine and snuggle. We say "I love you" and he comes out says some funny combination of sounds that have the same syllables as "I love you." Prec!
Our current struggle with your development is your eating/nutrition. Around a year of age you stopped liking foods you previously loved. You would eat them as along as they had a fluid/sauce consistency on them. In fact, we put Ranch dressing on everything for a long time. Totally disgusting, but you ate it! Then, around 18 months (about the time we moved to Ohio) you stopped.eating.anything. We have spent the past 6 months going to evaluations, appointments, therapists, all sorts of fun people to try to help you learn to eat again. I wish you could remember this and tell mommy one day what happened. We are slowly getting you to eat more things...we are far from a balanced, good nutritional diet, but the fact you eat more things than just fruit and crackers is a major milestone for us right now!
You LOVE the outdoors...straight from your Daddy. No matter what is wrong: if your mad, sad, hurt, or sick, a trip outside will cure you instantly! You have a real gift for anything dealing with a ball. You love to throw, catch, roll, kick and just hold a ball. You have recently discovered choo-choo trains like any boy does. You love saying "choo-choo" over and over and over again. You are also slightly alarmingly obsessed with shoes. Any pair of shoes qualify, but you have a special allegiance to your choo-choo shoes that Aunt Alice bought you. You go straight for them in the morning saying "choo-choo shoes" over and over. You cling to them like a lovey stuffed animal and you freak OUT when the velcro comes undone. Thankfully you know how to fix them now and pop up, clap your hands and say "all better." I don't take this for granted, I know it would be more of a "problem" if you were the opposite and would never wear shoes...esp now that it is getting cold up here! And plus, you have to have shoes on to wear your ankle braces :)
Somehow, you get hurt all of the time. You are so active, yet so shaky sometimes in your ankles that you fly right into walls, toys, corners, you name it! Your skin is so sensitive and pale that any little bump shoes up quickly.
Just like a ball, the other thing that seems to come much more natural to you is verbal skills. You love to talk and try to say new words. You are excellent at imitating the same number of syllables of the word we are trying to teach you. Even if the sound doesn't come out right...you have the correct number of syllables. It's precious. You can say several 3 and 4 word sentences such as "bye-bye big truck" and "shoot the ball." Our favorite words you say right now is "Octopus" (Op-i-top-i-ta) and "Alligator" (ah-ga-ga-ga), "Gross" (oh-groak) and "Truck" (truuuuch).
I love you little buddy! I often say that for all the times I want to cry and have to walk away from you at the dinner table out of frustration, I want to kiss your face every morning when you have slept through the night soundly.....so I do. :) I know we will get through each stage as they come. You are a true joy, your smile is contagious, your perfect round face in a hat is ridiculously adorable and the way you run on your tip toes and grunt when your trying to climb up something is precious. Your teeth are so terribly crooked (sorry, that came from me!) and your hair is the strangest combination of straight, frizzy, course curly hair. Can't wait to see how much you grow and develop this next year!
Dear Jenna,
Oh my sassy thang. You are SOMETHING ELSE! There is no question that you are Baby A / the Dominant personality in the pair. I don't know how, but somehow you know that too already! You continue to grow and excel pretty much on time with everything. The biggest difference in you the past year is your looks...you look like a totally different little girl to me! You shot up tall this summer which makes your big, muscles appear thinner and your hair shot out long, thin as spaghetti and blondish brown! That is definitely not mommy's hair! You have one million faces and expressions all of which are adorable and hysterical.
Something terrible has happened to your sleep cycle the past month. All of a sudden you are waking mommy and daddy up like 3-4 t imes a night! No maam! What in the world? We have tried a LIST of things to do to help you snap out of it, but baby brother is on his way fast so the time has come my dear...we are letting you cry / scream it out. You are cranky these days b/c your sleep is not as deep, but we will get through this too - we must. Your bedtime routine is that you must be with Mommy, and we turn off the light while the boys turn on the sound machine. We say I love you, Mommy her prayers over you and Caden, then by that time Easton is wiggling because your sitting on him so to the bed you go.
Just the opposite of brother: however you frustrate me in the sleep department, you more than make up in the eating department. You are so great to try anything I give you, you eat exactly how much you want - I never have to worry about you not getting enough or too full. You are strong as an oxe from eating so well! You can climb, pull up, push over, pick up, do just about anything you want.
Your major physical skill is jumping....a girl after mommy's heart. You have some mad ups, girl. You have been jumping with both feet off the ground for months, can jump forward to another "spot" on the carpet for example, and you can jump OFF tall things and land just fine (which makes mommy nervous.) You still "run" like a horse gallop which is hilarious and you always "jump stop" like in basketball when you have reached your destination. Hilarious girl! You fall down alot from all of your jumps, but you ALWAYS pop right back up, without evidence of the fall. You are one tough cookie.
I'm not quite sure what to do with your hair these days....it is long, stringy and resembles a mullet so we have to put it up in ponytails or pigtails. Your eyes are a very unique color which I love. You have a smile that will melt any frustration or anger we have when you disobey. You put your shoes on with brother in the morning, because you have to do anything he does (duh), but quickly shed the shoes and socks once we are downstairs 10 minutes later. Therefore, our house is littered with your shoes and socks everywhere!
You too LOVE the outdoors. You and your brother are the easiest kids in the world if your outside, running free. It is certainly when you are most happy. On the flip side, you are a TV / Movie loving girl! You sit right there and watch the entire episode without moving. (Your brother is still a mobile viewer, walking around the room, half playing with toys/half watching the movie).
You don't say as many words as your brother...at least not in the English language. You speak to him in some other language between the two of you that we don't understand. When you try to "repeat" a word we are teaching you....bless your heart....it just doesn't sound anything like what we are saying alot of the time :) You did learn "NO" first and taught your brother. Thanks :) You say the funny words I wrote about in Caden's letter and you say them the same way. Very cute.
I love you sweet girl. You are keeping me on my toes already - you bring so much adventure and excitement to our life. You are growing up way too fast so part of me does and part of me does not want to see how much you grow and develop the next year! You are so beautiful and we are proud to have you as our strong willed, sassy, never-dainty daughter!
