2 Years Ago.

2 years ago I laid in a hospital bed, sans pain killers for 17 hours post surgery thinking I had made a HUGE mistake allowing a c-section to be performed on my body to remove twins (like I had any choice). Thinking the nurses must be joking (or insane) when they argued with me to "get out of bed and walk" (again, sans pain killers). And then grateful when my painkillers were finally released to me (note to self, being allergic to codeine is NOT handy).

2 Years ago I missed my favorite holiday with my family and I spent it eating hospital turkey food (a word I use lightly). But thankful for a fabulous cousin who came and stayed the night with me and the twins - brought REAL food! To this day, I'm pretty sure she is STILL looking for a way to buy one of those amazingly comfortable chair/bed/torture contraptions! 

But 2 years ago  - we were blessed with THIS:

Born at 36 weeks 2 days - (left) Mini P was 5lbs 2oz and about 18 inches long (right) Monkey was 5lbs 15oz and about 18 inches long.  Their birth was the most amazing experience and unless you have carried twins (or more) or battled pre-term labor you cannot fathom the relief we felt when they were both born healthy. Never once did they enter the NICU. Never.

1 year and a lot of craziness later:

Mini P

Monkey

The first year was filled with a lot of hazy days, unanswered emails, diapers, spit up and LOTS of LOVE! 

And here we are, 2 years later. We now answer most emails, have fewer diapers and our days are far more clear than they were and still filled with LOTS of LOVE! We look back and think - do we really remember how we got here? :- )

Mini P

Monkey (photo kept uploading sideways...ergh)

My sweet little baldies now have hair :- )! Monkey has even had his cut several times!

At 2 years old Mini P is nearly potty trained. She still wears a diaper at night and nap because she is a solid sleeper and logs about 11 hours of sleep a night. She is such a chatter box and at least now we can understand what she is trying to say and it no longer comes out as gibberish! We hear her say stuff like "where's bubba? OH, there he is!" She absolutely adores all of her brothers and hugs on all of them. She is the princess, but isn't girly. At all. For her birthday I tried to get her some "my little ponies" (ok folks, I don't know what I'm supposed to get a girl...) and she calls them horses and doesn't actually do anything with them.  The girl does love books and LOVES Dora and loves to play outside. She has been known to scream and throw her body in all directions when she is brought inside (brought because she refused to go on her own free will).  She is sweet as pie and hands out hugs and kisses all the time! Mini P knows all her upper case letters by sight and many of her numbers 1 to 9. We don't know why, but she just does :- ).

Monkey is such a sweet boy with not much to say. He can string 2 words together but it usually things like "daddy work", "bubba bus". He will answer your question with a "yup" or "no", but doesn't typically expand on that as his sister does.  He has always been and continues to be a Daddy's boy. I satisfy him to a point, but really, it's all Daddy!  Monkey is very much into transportation. Trucks, airplanes, trains, tractors, trailers, cars...you name it he loves it. He will lay on the floor for long periods of time just moving them back and forth...lining them up, moving them forward and backward. He still has to sleep with his arsenal of transportation items. Usually no fewer than 10 items, plus blankets, his baby, and a couple other random things. Surprisingly, he still fits in his bed!  Last week Agent P and I cleaned under Monkey's crib  (we store bean bags under the crib) and we found 25 - yes you read right 25 cars, trucks, trailers etc behind and under the bed. Apparently I should clean that more frequently. Monkey has the most infectous laugh. It is a belly laugh that just pulls you and makes you laugh with him. It is so easy to get him to laugh, which makes it all the more beautiful!!!

We absolutely LOVE having twins and wouldn't trade one moment of it for anything at all.  They complete our family perfectly and give us the perfect balance. So many people (seriously, SOOOO MANY) say, "you have your hands full". Since I refuse to carry them all - really, I have my HEART full and that's what I tell them. You don't know what you are missing unless you have total and complete chaos at least ONCE a day. Usually around here it's more than that!!!