No matter what I do, my heart is filled with you

Looking back, all of the achievements the girls had reached by age one pale in comparison to what they are up to now!  That said, I don’t want to diminish everything they did before.  It’s just that I had no idea how much could change in such a (relatively) short period of time.

Grace and Zoe are now walking masters, if not running queens, and really starting to talk.  Zoe, especially, will really try to say a word after you prompt her.  She may get only the first syllable, but she really is giving it a try.  Grace is a bit more hesitant, which is funny, since she was always the one to do things “first.”  But not when it comes to talking – here, Zoe has the upper hand.  Some of the words that Zoe has now mastered are Mama, Mom, “G (pronounced like Jah)” for Grace, pad-pad (for iPad), and all sort of body parts: head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, teeth, feet, hands.  There are so many more that I am probably forgetting, but those are the ones that she really has down pat.  Oh, and she has a lot of animal sounds down. Lately she has started to say “poop”, though if you ask her if she has pooped, she shakes her head no. J  I think my favorite thing to get Zoe to say, though, is Pout-Pout.  It just sounds so cute coming out of her. 

Grace has really developed a vocabulary in just the last two weeks.  She went from what Kris and I dubbed her “Mama, Ball and Moo” phase to really differentiating between things.  For a while, every person was “Mama,” every object was a “ball” (said with a very southern drawl – no idea why!), and every animal said “Moo.”  She still uses Moo for most animals, but she is slowly getting the hang of other sounds. 

I think what has been the most amazing part of this phase in their lives is the level of understanding they can demonstrate.  I mean, even though they don’t have the words to speak, they really get what you’re saying to them.  I can ask them to pick up something and bring it to Mama and they totally get it.  I can ask them to find something in a room (a very messy, torn apart by two toddlers, room) and they will go looking for it.  If we tell them to put their books back on the shelf, they’ll do it.  And dear, sweet, Grace, will (unprompted) bring Zoe her blanket if she is crying and upset.  Grace loves to be helpful.

In addition to really developing their vocabulary, they’ve both been working on asserting their independence.  In doing so, they’ve really been trying to test their limits, both with each other and with us.  We’ve really gotten a glimpse of the future, I think.  Poor Grace will take so much time to position herself juuuust right on the couch, with one of her favorite books in hand, just to have Zoe walk up and snatch the book away.  Much crying ensues when we take the book away from her and give it back to Grace.  Zoe definitely feels that the injustice was against her.  Sigh.  Lately we’ve had a lot of standing on the couch/ottoman/chair, touching the [fill in the blank with something we’ve repeatedly told them not to touch], and just a general lack of sharing.  And granted, sharing may be a concept that is a little beyond their age, I would argue that they know what they are doing when they steal something from the other.

They have been so much fun to be home with.  It’s not an easy job being a SAHM (even part time), but I have to say that getting to watch all of this amazing growth unfold before me has been a blast.  I think they really like having each other to play with now.  I am mesmerized by their games – for instance, they’ll take a deck of card and “trade” cards back and forth for 10 minutes(!).  They make each other laugh, even when one of them has been in the throws of a fit.  So, despite all the toy taking, they still love each other.

Lately I have been going back to the video I made of the girls for their first birthday (posted in Kris’ earlier entry), and I can’t stop thinking about the friendship that the girls are going to have as they grow older.  Knowing that they’ll always have each other brings me a lot of comfort.  I look forward to watching that unfold. 

“The way you take my hand is such so sweet…. No matter what I do, my heart is filled with you.”

“I can’t image what it’d be like living each day in this life without you.”

-Colbie Caillat “You Got Me”