two turn two.

I have no idea how we got here already, and I have no idea how it took so long to get here, but here we are. Quinn and John turned two on the 25th. We celebrated the big day with a little family fun, because that is what we like to do best.

We picked Carly up from school and headed to a local bowling alley. Luckily, the bowling crowd is pretty sparse on Tuesday mornings, so we had the place almost to ourselves. It should come as no surprise that John loved bowling. A big heavy ball going down a ramp and knocking a bunch of things down? What else could a little boy want? Quinn's interest was quite the opposite. The one time we got her to participate she came and quite literally poked the ball with a single finger to get it to go down the ramp. She enjoyed walking up and down the stairs, snacks, and cheering on her more passionate siblings. Carly would send the ball down the lane, and as it crawled ever so slowly toward the pins, whisper, "Please please please please." It was a fun time had by all, even if we only made it through 6 rounds.

We headed home for lunch, candles and cakes, and presents. The cakes perfectly fit the little gender stereotypes they both are. Quinn's was a little pale pink cake topped with gold star sprinkles. John's was a chocolate construction site with his beloved "dig dig" doing its thing. True to form, Quinn wanted to eat unlimited cake, while John really just wanted his digger back. We sang the birthday song twice and blew out candles (with a little help from big sis). We kept presents limited, but a few favorites included a pair of glass slippers for a petite princess, and Thomas the Trains in two sizes for his biggest little fan.

[I absolutely adore this picture. I have been trying to teach them to hold up two fingers, with obvious success.]

So now we have two two-year-olds and the party is already beginning. They scream at each other and fight over things ("mine!" is the most frequent word spoken by either) but they also have an immense love for one another. The other day John was laying on the couch not feeling well, and Quinn brought him his Thomas to play with. One act of love of the countless I witness between these two. They have also started being sneaky together. One evening I was making dinner and kept peeking out to see them playing together in the corner. I thought it was so cute, until I realized they had grabbed by iPad and were probably hiding in the corner where I couldn't see they had it. Stinkers. They certainly have a sweet, and humorous, relationship.

As for "Baby A"? Two years later she is a tiny quiet girl that holds a whole lot of opinion and personality. Quinn loves accessories. Sunglasses, hats, headbands, shoes, necklaces, bracelets, sleeve tattoos made of stickers . . . you name it. She has a STRONG opinion on what she wears, especially her shoes. She always has something unique going on, and I just go with it because how do you not? I have put her down for many naps wearing knit hats, fancy shoes, or even sunglasses. Carly recently showed her how to put her hands in her pockets, and now she can often be spotted that way, which is unbearably cute.

Quinn loves princesses and Minnie mouse. She loves her two blankets. She will lay on the ground with them and roll around until they are wrapped all around her. She loves sweet treats especially, but really she's pretty good about eating most food. She loves books. When we look at books she likes to pick out "me" on every page. It will be a page of butterflies and she'll pick out which one she likes best and say "me". A page with a mommy elephant and baby elephant, she'll point to the baby and say "me!". Its so funny, and it is actually interesting to see what she will pick to represent her. It is usually the smallest and/or cutest thing. She continues to be quite the little mama's girl, and I can't say I mind most of the time. She likes me to watch her or follow her requests, and if I don't she'll frantically say "Mama . . . Mama . . . Mama! Mama!" I mean, she'll do this if she's sitting on my lap and I don't respond to her fast enough. But mostly she's sweet as sugar, giving kisses and hugs and smiles. She has also started asking "Why?" A habit I think she got from her big sister.

Quinn is quiet. She has a soft sweet voice, and talks a lot in "Quinnish" as we have come to call it. But her English vocabulary is somewhat limited. A few words I can think of: mine, mama, dada, John Boy, Sissy, juice, sit, chair, chapstick, "pretty" (princess), Minnie/Mickey, shoe, mittens, bubbles, more, please, thank you, and all sorts of sounds. She just started putting two words together, like "more please".

Chris and I often joke that Quinn is our favorite. That is not true, of course, as we love all of our children equally. But she certainly does have us wrapped around her fancy little fingers. 

John is simultaneously a cranky little pain, a sweet little gentleman, and a rough little bruiser. He continues to be generally high-maintenance, though he is finally showing a bit of improvement. He still spends too much time screaming, but it is more bearable now than it was even a few months ago. 

He is incredibly sweet though. We were on a walk in the snow once and Quinn went up on someone else's doorstep. She cried that she wanted help back down, but I told her she could do it on her own. She stood there whining, so John turned around and walked back to her. He held out his little hand and helped her down the stair. It was the sweetest. Another time he dropped his water cup at night time. He was yelling "water! water!" so I snuck in in the dark and handed it to him quietly. It was quiet for a few seconds as he drank, then I heard him yell, "Tank tu, mama!" I couldn't help but laugh. He loves sitting on laps and looking at truck books. He loves, loves, loves Carly. He really just thinks she is the bees knees. When we drop her off at school, he always cries for her, and he is so happy when we go to pick her up. The two of them play so cute together, making each other laugh and doing silly things (Q is more of a finesse player). John will watch Carly and say "sissy! woah, sissy!" because she does such cool things. He really is so sweet.

And he is definitely "all boy". His very favorite thing is wrestling with daddy. He loves roaring. He loves balls. He LOVES any type of vehicle. I thought that was just something people said about boys, that they love planes, trains, and automobiles. But nope, it is real. This boy in a house full of princesses and rainbows loves vehicles. Tonight at dinner he was pretending his bread was a truck. He likes to dig in the snow, jump off things, knock things over, and hit things with sticks. I can't wait until spring comes (assuming it ever does), because this boy belongs in the wilderness.

John is a little more vocal than his sister, but not by much. His vocabulary is pretty similar. He does say "helicopter" and "orange", both of which come out as a hilarious series of gurgles. So naturally I ask him to say either as frequently as possible.

John is quite the little piece to our family puzzle. We wouldn't be complete without "Baby B". We love him like crazy.

We went to their two-year check-up on Thursday. John is 29 lbs 12 oz, 36 inches tall. Quinn is 25 lbs 4 oz, 34 inches tall. John is noticeably bigger than her, but the height gap is closing. They both hit growth spurts over the last 6 months moving up in height percentiles especially. I can tell because they have both started eating like full-blown humans, and the sudden shift to feeding 5 people means food flies off our shelves (in fact, lately they have both been out-eating Carly). They are both delayed in speech though. Their doctor said it didn't seem too bad, but he referred us to get an at-home speech evaluation so if any intervention is needed it will happen early and therefore hopefully be less than if we waited. I am not too worried about it. They are behind, I have always known that, but they are both very smart. It will come. I am endlessly grateful for their health and general perfection.

So now we enter a world with two two-year-olds. I remember reading a blog when the twins were very little. It was a mother of triplets who were 3, and people would ask her if it was easier now that they were older. She always wanted to say "No, its not easier, I have three three-year-olds! Its just hard in a different way." I feel that way a lot. It is not "easier", it is just hard in a different way. But I will say, I will take this hard over the newborn hard (knock on wood). Two-year-old hard also comes with two-year-old fun, and these two sure are fun.

When I was in my early days of their pregnancy, before I found out there were two, I wrote a post about being sick. As my head hung over the toilet, I got the most distinct feeling that "Deux was someone special," as I wrote. What a sweet thing to go back and read now. I think Heavenly Father was letting me know something out of the ordinary was happening, and He was right.

These two are certainly something special.

Happy two years, Q and J. We're glad you joined us.