Somebody turned ONE!

On Wednesday, at 12:30am while we were all fast asleep, Matteo officially became a one year old!

Cliched as it may be, this year has flown by!  Life with three (very young!) kids is busy, fun, frustrating, difficult and joyful all at the same time.  And it provides lots of fodder but not enough time for blogging as evidenced by my lack of posts and updates during my littlest one's first year.

As if he knew he would be turning one and wanted to celebrate with a big achievement, he started walking just a few days before his birthday.  He has been taking steps for a while but still favored crawling for the most part.  Not so much anymore.  He is a man on a mission!  Usually that mission involves a ball, the dog's water bowl or Mommy.  Or the stairs.  Yes, he is a pro at climbing (crawl climbing) the stairs and I need to be extra vigilant about keeping the doggie gate up because he will be upstairs faster than Sebastian and Collette can yell "Noooo, Teooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"

And he is talking so much, it amazes me.  He tries to repeat so much of what we say and seems to be adding words to his vocabulary at a pretty good pace.  He definitely says "ball" and I think he has been trying to say Lola, which is a hard one to say.  He signs "all done" and tries to say it but isn't quite there.  He even tries to sing and you'll hear a little tune come out of his mouth that sounds a heck of a lot like the melody to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I know that this coming year will be full of fun now that we have the "baby" phase behind us as a family but I am so grateful for this past year.  Matteo showed me that maybe I am a baby person - I almost didn't mind those midnight feedings, all snuggled up with him watching him drift back into his warm milk drunkenness.  He has brought out the sweet side of his brother and sister (usually) who try to take care of him and cheer him up when he's sad and play with him when he's happy.

Here's to another terrific year with a most terrific boy.  Happy (belated) Birthday, Matteo!

Toddling Times Two

I now officially have two toddlers. Sebastian has been walking way more than crawling (although he still stumbles a lot) and Collette hasn't crawled for a couple of weeks now. Funny how this changes how I view them but really, not much else. At least not immediately. I know this is just the beginning of their toddlerhood and walking is a huge jumping off point for other toddler milestones but, in our day to day lives, not much has changed. I don't have to babyproof anything new. I know once spring arrives and we are out at parks, I will understand what all the other twin moms talk about when they say, "wait 'til they're walking!" For now though, it's just pretty cute to see my no-longer-babies toddle around the house.

***

Thanks to everyone for your advice on my post yesterday. Obviously, a lot of it was just venting, like we all need to do from time to time. As for the SAHM vs. working mom thing, I know there is no right or wrong answer. And regardless of how I feel sometimes, I know that being a SAHM is the best for our family right now. It will always be isolating, I think. That's just life. Playdates and the like help, but it's not the same as going to your job everyday and interacting with other like-minded adults. On the flip side, working outside of the home will always mean missing time with your kids. There's no perfect solution. If there were one, everyone would do it. So, thanks for listening and commiserating.

I'm Back, Biatch!

Yes, I'm back. Back to reality and freezing temperatures and a painful 1:2 adult:child ratio. 15 days in El Salvador truly spoiled all of us. After 2 days there, I was almost in tears at the thought of coming home - sorry Mom!! Life down there is just so much easier. No cooking or cleaning or laundry. All the beans and rice a pregnant girl could want. Beautiful weather. But when the 15 days were up, most of me was ready to come home. I missed Lola. I missed my family. I missed speaking 100% in English. And now that we are back, I realize it's not so bad. We all fell right back into our lovely routine as if we had never left and things just feel right.

I have so much to write about the trip and plenty of pictures to go with it. My new camera is great and I will be able to upload all my photos tonight when I install all the software. Without any pictures for this post, I will just share with some quick highlights/interesting things from our vacation:

• Collette learned to walk. I know I said she has been taking steps but by Christmas, she was walking full time. Sebastian is just now showing signs that he is ready, taking more steps by himself to get to his favorite toys.
• In Spanish, they have a special word for "to hold" when you are talking about holding a baby/person. I think it's because they do it so often. Seriously, it's amazing Collette learned to walk considering how much time she spent in someone's arms.
• I found out that kids in El Salvador start preschool (they call it "kinder") at about 18 months old, some even younger! And its 5 days a week, 8-12!! I won't even tell you how little it costs. Lucky bastards.
• In El Salvador, it seems that they don't know what ear infections are. I was quite worried Collette had an ear infection because she had a very bad runny nose, fever and was just so cranky - very unlike her. When I mentioned my hypothesis to Billy, he thought it was his fault because she dunked her head underwater in the bath while he was washing her. When I mentioned it to someone else, they looked at me strangely and asked when Collette had gone swimming. The only ear infection they are familiar with is "swimmers ear", not the inner ear infection I was referring to. Weird, right?
• The beach was a complete disaster. Well, the sand, anyway. How do people take their kids to the beach at this age? The sand-eating and sand-in-the-eyes caused a complete meltdown for poor Sebastian. Collette didn't seemed to mind as she just kept eating the sand, non-stop. She also eats dirt. Is it considered pica when it's a baby doing it?
• My kids are totally bilingual!! Well, you know, in receptive language. They're not talking just yet. But they understand so much in both languages, I was so amazed. I think it really helped to have so many people around them talking and interacting. Another reason I was scared to come home - they are all alone here.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and will probably go back at that time each year. Which means next year we will have 2 two-year olds and a 5 month old. Yikes!

Makes My Monday: Baby Steps

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Two weeks ago, I mentioned that Collette took her first steps. Since then, she has been getting better, but still not doing what I would call "walking." She is up to about 8 steps at a time and once even got to 17 steps. They are so small that she barely covers any ground, but every little one counts in my book.

Sebastian is a bit behind his sister. Collette has been standing alone for quite some time and is very sturdy on her feet. Sebastian is not as strong and steady and only recently started standing without holding onto something. But today, at bedtime, he stood up from the ground all by himself, without pushing up off of anything. And he stayed up for a bit, too! Later on, sometime between drinking milk and listening to Goodnight Moon, he stood up and took a step. It was just one step before he reached me but still, he did it! I was so proud.

Both my babies have passed one of the biggest baby milestones and before I know it they will be bona fide toddlers, toddling around. We will have the video recorder at the ready and, as soon as we re-load the software onto my computer (don't ask), I can upload some action videos to share with you all!