To My Sam and Charlie

Dear Sam and Charlie,

Sam, a week from Friday you will be 2 1/2 years old.

I am amazed daily at you. When you do things like this.

If you can't tell, you love your pacifier, which you only get at bedtime, and you despise clothes. Well, that isn't entirely true, you like certain clothes. And usually only for short amounts of time.

You love playing in your sandbox and climbing on just about anything. You love dogs, or puppies as you call them, and want to stop and greet each one that we pass. Especially in the car.

Speaking of the car, you are a master of getting your arms out from under your car seat straps. And when I look back at you and tell you to put them back in, you tell me, "Or you'll stop the car, and that will be bad? Very bad?" For the record, I have never stopped the car. Yet.

You speak very well for your age. We can carry on full-blown conversations with you about your day, and you are quite honest. Most of the time. You have told people that you did not behave for new K. You have also told me that you are going to be shy when meeting new people. The things that come out of your mouth amaze and entertain us. You love to call your daddy and I by our first names. Just last night, you came down to the office and said, "Gail, pizza is ready." You love to yell at the dogs, but also to walk them. They are usually pretty good about not pulling you down. And if they do, you just run after them yelling at them...just like I do.

You do love your little sister, even though you beat up on her most days. If we are telling you that you are too rough, you just get more rough. And then we have to pull you kicking and screaming off of her. And both of you are crying.  You know when I am putting Charlie to bed that you need to be very quiet, and tell me so. And then proceed to leave the room and SLAM the door. And then giggle...so I know you do it on purpose. 

Charlie...poor, poor Charlie. Between the dogs and your sister, you are turning out to be one tough little girl. You have developed your personality a LOT in the past couple of months. You went from barely crawling to zooming across the floor. You also have decided that crawling just isn't good enough and you are PISSEDATTHEWORLD that you can't walk yet. You can pull yourself up on anything, can stand by yourself for about 5-10 seconds, and can cruise along furniture. Or the fireplace. But you can't walk yet. And everyone knows it.

You talk a lot. While you are eating. While you are crawling. While you are supposed to be sleeping. You can say uh-oh. And the rest we have no idea what you are saying. We love it when you smile, your smile just lights up the room...just like your sister's. You have a cute little scrunch face that you do, mimicking your daddy. You also love stuffed animals, and the little red piano...

Your uncle T is amazed at how much you have changed in the past month. I say it started 2 months ago, but whatever. You have developed quite a personality. You are not afraid to demand what you want, you are not afraid to try new things. You think nothing of charging full force at something new...even if it means a possible trip down the stairs. You love to crawl over obstacles, but yet every. single. time. you pull over the dog bowls it scares you and you cry. You cry when you get scared. OH! You don't like new people. Aunt B came over today and she greeted you. You started crying and crawled away, towards me. Once you were safe and eating though, she didn't seem so scary. So at least you seem to warm up quickly.

You have also decided that getting up before 7am is the cool new thing to do. Let me tell you...it is not. But I think that you just like hanging out with me and watching me shower. You LOVE the bath. You splash and splash and splash. You don't mind getting water on your face or in your eyes. You don't even mind when your sister washes your hair or your back. Not your face though...you draw the line. You also think nothing of pulling yourself up on the side of the tub, and then show off you mad standing skillz by just standing and playing with a toy.

You have nine teeth now. We wondered why you were so fussy and a little warm...turns out there was a molar coming in! Who knew? You are just growing up so fast. I don't even realize half the things that you can do...like eat solid foods, open the drawers with the knives in them, and use Fonz as a step stool. (Actually, that one didn't turn out so well.) Ten and a half months really have flown.

I think one of my favorite things about the two of you is your diaper habits. Sam, you can change your own diaper. (We talk a lot about potty training, but you apparently don't think that you are ready yet, or just don't want to. Who knows. I am not pushing you, because I don't want to be cleaning up pee and poop from clothes and the floor. I just finished housebreaking Kale.) Every morning, you get up and change your diaper and then come sneaking downstairs. Sometimes you even throw it in the trash can in the garage. The good thing about this is YAY! You can change your own diaper! The bad thing is when I NEED to change your diaper, you want to do it. And sometimes it is in everyone's best interest for me to do it. (You kind of want to do everything on your own. Shoes, clothes, pushing the stroller, strapping yourself into your car seat, you name it...you want to do it BYMYSELF!)

Charlie, you and Sam are wearing the same size of diaper. She is small for her age, and you are completely average. Yours are actually too big, but close enough is good enough. And last weekend, you figured out how to take yours off. I am REALLY hoping that it was a 2 time fluke, because I do think that 11 months is a tad too young to potty-train.  Otherwise we will have to resort to putting your diaper on backwards or using duct tape...both of which I had to do with your sister.

There are just so many more fabulous things about the two of you. I love you both dearly, more than there are words. I know that sometimes it may not seem that way...especially when we are driving in the car, or there is a diaper involved, or when I am trying to get you in the car, or I am trying to work, or I am trying to get you out of the car. I wish I felt better most days so I could give you more of myself. You two definitely deserve the best we have to give.

Keep growing, keep learning, and I'll update the world again on where you are in a few months. That way, when you are 16 and 15 and arguing over who did what first, we can just look back and see what I said. I love you little girls!!!