Almost two year-olds

It is hard to believe that the twins are almost two. They will be two in one week. Where has the time gone? I remember getting ready for their first birthday party like it was yesterday. They have grown so much in the last year. Most of all in the last year they have grown into two uniquely different children who have their own personalities.
Lior was always quick to do things. She was the first one to get teeth, crawl, and walk. She was always in such a hurry to do everything. I used to call her my motor baby because her gross motor skills were so good. When she was nine months old she took one unassisted step toward Matt and on her tenth month birthday she started walking across our play room floor. Life as we knew it was over. Lior loved to walk. She was not a talker she babbled and had a few words but did not have a huge desire to talk, she wanted to move.

Now that she is going to be two she is still fantastic at both fine and gross motor skills but her expressive language skills are what she is excelling at right now. She went from single words to short phrases very quickly and now she is speaking in short sentences on a regular basis. She narrates what she is doing as she is doing it. "I running", "I jumping", "I knock mommy" (which is more like punching but knocking sounds so much better!), and lets you know what she wants and when she wants it. "I want eat cheese", and "I want call Nama, NOW". She understands volumes and does not miss much in an adult conversation. She answers questions that are not directed to her if she knows the answer. When we were on vacation we were driving around waiting for the girls to fall asleep when my dad asked if Lior was asleep. My mom whispered "no" and then I hear this cute little voice say "No, I awake".
She follows directions and is extremely observant. She notices things that at times shock me. One morning several months ago Matt and I were each wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and she walked over to each of us saying "same, same". She knows her colors and loves pointing out yellow cars, "Yook mommy, yellow car, yellow car". Lior loves to give kisses and hugs to both of her sisters and lets Sydney get away with a lot. She spends a lot of time laughing at our resident ham, Sydney, and gets hours of enjoyment flirting with the boys.

Sydney, was my easy button when she was a baby. She was so easy going, Lior was a very demanding baby and often had to be fed first and had trouble calming down when she was upset. Somewhere along the way they switched and Sydney became the more demanding of the two. Sydney was content being a baby. I was able to sit her down on the floor with a toy and she would play for ten minutes. She was the first one to roll over but she was not in a hurry to do it all the time. She was content hanging around and did not really roll over again until I started to worry about her.
She was always SCREAMING! And when I say screaming, she screamed. She screamed when she was happy, she screamed when she wanted more and she screamed for the sake of screaming. Sydney screamed! When she was not screaming she was singing and just talking away. When I taught the girls some simple sign language Sydney stopped screaming (as much) and started signing for the things that she wanted and she continued to just talk away.
The day Matt taught her how to walk is etched on my mind because that is the day our lives really changed. The baby who was always content sitting discovered mobility and never went back. She is in a constant state of motion all the time. Sydney mastered walking up and down the stairs in no time flat. She can open just about any container you put in front of her, shape sorting puzzles are her favorite (and she can name all the shapes), she climbs our rock climbing wall and out of her crib with ease. Sydney is now our motor baby. She can stack towers that are almost as tall as she is and loves anything to do with drawing. She walks around all day with her aquadoodle marker saying "marker".
Sydney has an amazing sense of humor and spends the better part of her day trying to make Lior and Jordan laugh. Sydney is fantastic at following directions and loves to help us around the house, especially if Lior was asked to do it first. When we give Sydney cookies and we ask her to hand one to Lior she gives the cookie to Lior first and then comes back for her own. She takes it very personally when Lior does not take what she has offered. Sydney is an extremely kind child and very aware of other children, especially if they take a toy from one of her sisters or approach one of them. Then our kind hearted Sydney turns into our tough baby and does not let them get away with it. Sydney has been caught pushing kids twice her size because they are in her way or Liors and she holds a grudge. Sydney remembers from week to week which kid at the gym or at mommy and me took the ball from her or touched Jordan and does not let them get close enough to do it again.
It is hard to believe that our tiny little babies are going to be two in one week. One week! The strides that they have made are unbelievable. As much as they have changed, some things stay the same. They still love a good cuddle with each other.