two years!

Our two youngest turned two last week!  Wow.

They are delightful.  They're both cheerful almost all day long, and they love playing with Brie, and with Sam, but also love playing with one another.  Favorite things right now include running in circles around the living room while yelling, dancing whenever music comes on, being read to, watching Baby Einstein, playing in the dirt, and drawing (on everything).

Jane especially loves parking herself in the kids' little under-the-stairs play space, right next to the bookshelf, and paging through books for long periods of time. 

Jane always wants to explain things to me, and speaks a lot with her hands, holding them out in a petitioning gesture, while repeating the same one or two words she has to explain the situation. "Bear? Dolly?" -gesture, gesture, tilt the head - "Bear?"

Kate gets excited easily, and at the least provocation will bounce around on tip-toe and spin in sheer delight.  Kate also has a habit of coming over and patting me. Oh, melt-my-heart, it is so sweet. "Mommy?" Pat, pat. "Mommy." Pat, pat, pat.

They are our only two children who have really attached to a stuffed animal. Well, two. Each. They were each given a white bear a couple of years ago. And they were each given a Pooh character stuffed animal this year. But Kate has claimed BOTH white bears as her very own (and heaven help you if you try to put her to bed with just one!), while Kate is convinced that both Pooh AND Tigger belong to her.

They are speaking in one and two word sentences, and their comprehension is AMAZING. An example: Jane was trying to honk the horn on Adam's unicycle, and I told her, "Jane, you can't just push it, you have to squeeze it," and she did exactly that. Kate had a bear in each hand, and was trying to pick up a lunch box, and Adam told her, "Honey, you don't have enough hands," and she looked at him, and then put down one of the bears, to free up a hand! Seriously, for two years old, that's some great understanding!

They love naming people. They will sit at our dinner table, and point and say, "Kate. Jane. Daddy. Mommy. Sam. Brie."  Over and over.

And they're starting to remember past events. We visited some friends who live in the country at Christmas, and afterwards, Jane would catalogue the trip to me: "Bunny. Food. Doggie. Chickens. Cluck, cluck!"  Or, after their birthday, Kate has been telling me. "Birthday. Candles. Little guys. Fffffffwww!" ("little guys" are the little characters on their birthday ring and "fffffww!" is blowing out the candles.)

Jane was more high-strung when she was a baby, but as a toddler, that high-strungness has turned into a sort of independence. She's very self-aware, likely to disappear (like Sam) - not because she's hiding, but because she knows what she wants to do and just goes and does it. But then she comes back and tells you all about it. She's happy and very observant. She seems to resonate at a high frequency, if that makes sense.

Ekaterine is calm when her environment is what she expects it to be, but gets worried easily when she's in an unusual situation (oh, honey, do I ever understand!). She also has, I think, one of the biggest capacities for joy that I've ever encountered. She's loving and open and ready to be delighted.  She always wants to be part of things and to touch things (I've never had such trouble with a child in the kitchen while I'm making dinner - those little fingers just can't resist!).

Both of them come and plop themselves down on top of me on a regular basis. If I ever worried that sharing their infancy with another would keep them from feeling attached, well . . . I shouldn't have. They're both absolutely sure they have a right to be in Mom or Dad's lap whenever it suits them. But (and I think this is the gift of being a twin), they're willing to share.

I love you, Jane Alleluia!

I love you, Ekaterine Anastasia!  

Happy birthday, my darlings.