Growing up

I've been with the twins for nine months now.  Every month brings so many changes when kids are under four or five, and looking back to last summer, it's amazing to me how these kids have grown up.  We were playing outside today in the beautiful weather; I kept getting flashbacks to late last summer when we'd do the same.  "Don't let them go up and down the stone steps by themselves," I heard their mother tell me almost a year ago, as I watched both Patrick and Lilly nimbly do exactly that.

We've been having three-way conversations lately, too.  It's a new thing.  I asked Lilly this morning what she wanted to do outside, whether stroller (go on a walk), paintbrushes (paint the sidewalk with water), or slide (play on their little slide).  She said stroller, and I said we should ask Patrick.  She yelled down the stairs for him (he was coming up) and asked what he wanted to do; when he said paintbrushes, she thought for a minute, and said, "Okay, paintbrushes."  They both then told me they wanted to paint, and which color paintbrush each wanted.

Almost two year olds are very much alive.  It's the age Bug is, as well as Isabella, Sean, and many other kids I watch.  But the difference from the twins at almost two to now, just past two and a half, is stunning.  They're talking so much; they're so interactive.  They've really just come alive.  I love it.