With the whining, crying, and my patience wearing thin…and I start to daydream of decorating my future padded room, my eyes become open to how my girls are changing so much, so suddenly. I know the old cliché of how time goes by so quickly, and I have never been so sure of it since having my daughters. Sure, there are the wrinkles around my eyes, and grey hairs, but this week I noticed what little individuals Isabelle and Allie are becoming, and quite frankly it is making me a little sentimental.

Walking home from the grocery store tonight, Isabelle was jumping up saying, “I can’t reach it”. Again, she jumps, and exclaims, “I can’t reach it!” I asked her, “Reach what?” And she said, “The moon”. Sure enough, right ahead of me, at 6 pm, and it was just starting to become twilight…there was a shadow of the moon in the blue sky. I started to tell Isabelle that the moon was so far away, farther then a plane trip, way up in the universe. And then I went on to explain the stars, and planets and galaxies and how you need to take a space shuttle and wear a funny suit to even see the moon. But, I guess the moon does look a little reachable to a 2 year old. I thought to myself how I should tell her how even being so little and the moon being so big, that every person has a purpose and can impact our world and the moon that shines on us at night. I think of all of these things that I should tell her or show her and Allie, and know that life has a way of blindsiding you and everything that you know could be gone in an instant.

Isabelle has really started to talk so much more the past few weeks and it is so fun to have little conversations with her. Like today she gave Allie a huge hug and she said, “I am a big girl, so I like to give big hugs”. She is always quite concerned with her welfare and that of her sister. She talks about how, “Allie can’t have Isabelle’s vitamins…she’ll choke”. And she is obsessed with bandaids, and little scratches on her fingers and bruises on her knees, and that things, “hurt bad”. It is so funny so see her little personality emerging and how grown up she is becoming. She surprises me with things that I may not teach her, like counting backward (thanks Elmo), lowercase letters, and how to fast forward her DVD player. She will stop suddenly and say, “You hear that?” “I hear birds”. And I love to stop, shut out all of the noise and traffic and say, “I hear it too”. It is amazing how children seem to notice the things that I find that I have become at times oblivious to.

Allie is approaching her first birthday! I can’t believe how quickly it has gone. Since I am at home with her full-time, I notice all of her progressions…and they just seem to happen over-night! This week she has really been focused on trying to move. And if you have met little Allie, you know that she has a temper…so she has been a tad frustrated. She always has seemed to act older then her age…I don’t know how to explain it. Not physically or even developmentally, it is just her personality and impulsiveness. She looks at me with a bit of wisdom sometimes. I know it sounds crazy but it is true. She has finally started to inch-worm forward after months of pushing herself backward and spinning in circles. She also in a few days has been able to get on her hands and knees and even pull herself up to her knees. It is unreal what kids can learn and achieve in a matter of hours. She also has started to respond to your emotions, like if you are sad…heck…she will cry (and cry hard) right along with you.

She is an unbelievably sweet baby with such beautiful round eyes that go into squinty, sparkling eyes when she is happy…and she is happy a lot. Allie has such adorable cheeks and soft little starfish hands that caress my hand and arm when she nurses. She knows what she wants and is quick to cry when she isn’t satisfied. She babbles and “talks” and babbles some more. I know that she will have a lot to say, when she can finally say it.

I feel so lucky and blessed in this life. I feel like I need to have more moments like this, where I step back and say, “wow!”, instead of being stressed about having no time that is my own, doing the taxes, or being annoyed of stepping over laundry on the floor. It has been a pretty great week.