Ryan and Juliet

Ryan and Juliet have officially moved out of their cribs and into big kid beds. Which is really just a mattress on the floor so they don’t fall off and bump their heads. First night, Ryan woke up crying but after being comforted, fell back to sleep. Juliet, on the other hand, ended up in our bed half way through the night. Second night, both slept soundly through the night. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that our good luck continues through the upcoming nights.

Ryan and Juliet,

You both turned two last week. I wonder how old you are now reading this. We had an amazing day on your birthday. Your Dad took the day off from work. We went to the park to see the ducks and ride the carousel. We rode it 3 times with stickers to prove it! Each time you got to choose a new horse and you picked awesomely. We gave you finger paints so I immediately made us all go outside to paint. I did well waiting as long as I did really. We had dinner and went out for ice cream (baby cones, twist, w/ rainbow sprinkles). Then home for some ball play with the neighbors and finally off to get ready for bed. I think you both loved your day. Next came your birthday party…

Note carousel stickers

I was so stressed before the party, I just kept running around telling your family who had just arrived after a 3 1/2 hr. journey, “Can’t talk, too busy”. Its amazing they still love me. Well, I suppose they have no choice (evil laugh). With everyone’s help, it came together just in time. As it turned out, nothing really mattered but the balloons. We gave you each one and weighed it down with a bracelet from Grand Ellie. Juliet, you held your balloon so tightly for fear you would lose it. I think you held onto your balloon and your Daddy for the entire party. When Ryan let go of his you screamed to him “RY-RY BALLOON, RY-RY BALLOON!!”. You were quite distressed until he came back to retrieve his balloon. Ryan, you did what you do best. You went around to several of your guests and gave them hugs and love. You melted many hearts that day.

After the party, in a quiet house, while everyone slept, your Dad and I reminisced about the day and the two years gone by. I get tearful when I think about how far all of us have come in those two years. But what have I learned? I have learned about inner strength, and when you need it, you find it even if your body or your mind is telling you it doesn’t exist. You pull it up and you use it. I have learned a love for my family that drives selfishness out the door. Before you both, I was deeply afraid I was too selfish to be a mom. You might worry about this too one day, but try not to as when you are a parent love conquers. That’s it… that’s what I’ve learned! Love conquers. Cliché? Maybe. But when you stop to think about it, you’ll count a hundred different ways it already has. But that’s another post…

Ryan is starting to talk and while he is amazing us he is also making us laugh. Around 18 months, Ryan wasn’t talking too much except for a few words here and there. And then at the library, while standing on a stool I told him to be careful. He turned to me and said quite clearly, “I know Mom.”

Then last week, he walked by with the phone in his hand and I asked him if he was calling 911 (as Juliet has been known to do). He said, “I don’t know Mom. ” I asked, “Ryan can I have the phone?” Ryan handed the phone to me and said, “Here you go Mom.” I said thank you and he replied with “Your welcome Mom. ”

Then a couple days ago Ryan looks at us all individually and says,  “Hi Dad.  Hi Mom.  Hi Judet.  Hi me. ” Dan and I are still laughing.

Ryan and Juliet will be 18 months in 4 days.  We can say they are a year and a half now! Amazing. They’re no longer babies. They now look and act like little kids. What happened? It’s all Dan’s fault really. I knew I should never have let him buy clothes for them past NB. Since then they’ve just been growing and growing!

Here’s what they’re up to….

• Juliet likes to call me Dadda (I think because it’s easier), but when she does say Momma it melts my heart. Don’t be fooled though. She knows very well who her Dadda is and when he’s here, she’s only has eyes for him.
• Ryan sits at the table and eats all that I give him, except vegetables. He will have none of those green things. Juliet’s the opposite. She loves broccoli and fruit, but is not so great about sitting at the table to eat.
• They both play so well together. They share everything and work together to explore and make new discoveries.
• Juliet loves to draw. Ryan will draw a little on the paper, but if I take one quick glance away, he’s off to find a wall or book to draw on. To his utter disappointment, which he expresses with giant tears and his saddest cry, I take the crayons away from him and set him back at the table with his crayons and paper.  Rinse and repeat.
• Books continue to be their favorite toy. Dan and I will neatly put the books on their bookshelf only to have them immediately go and take them all off and blanket the floor with them. They will sit and “read” to themselves, or bring them to us to read to them. Juliet loves to stack them. Ryan loves to unstack them.
• They take one nap a day after lunch between 12-1pm and nap for about 2 hrs.
• They like to sit with their blankets on the couch and watch Curious George, Dinosaur Train, or Sesame Street. They say TV is bad for them at this age, but I just don’t know how else to get breakfast, lunch, and dinner ready. Who are “they” anyway?
• They can crawl up the stairs and down the stairs, just sometimes not at the same time which makes it difficult when there is only me to catch them if they fall.
• Juliet LOVES to dance. She twirls and twirls and has even started to do some ballet moves on her own. I think she comes to this naturally. (Clearly she got this from her mother’s side.) Ryan likes to dance too, mostly by twirling and then falling into things (headfirst of course).
• They sleep from 7:30pm to 5am.  Yes, that’s right.  There seems to be a 5am internal wakeup call. In addition, 4 out of 7 nights they wake up in the middle of the night and I treat them with a small bottle and a short snuggle.  This will be coming to an end quite soon, however.  I mean it this time!
• They know lots of animal sounds.  Dog, kitty, horse, turkey, rooster, monkey, owl, duck,chicken, and likely many more.  Also, they both have an ferocious roar.
• Their eyes have settled into a color which remains nameless. Ryan has the eyes the color of a rain cloud as the sun shimmers through. Juliet’s eyes might appear brown at a moments glance, but look closely and you’ll see they are the color of a maple leaf on an august morning. Of course, if a name is not found, these descriptions might be found a bit lengthy one day for a driver’s license.
• They talk quite a bit, especially Ryan, but they are intelligible only to themselves and possibly each other. We can make out “uh oh”, “kitty”, “Ry Ry”, “Juliet”, “Momma”, “Dadda”, “go go”, “bottle” (pronouced as baou), “please” (pronounced as “cheese” by Juliet),  “no”, “yeah”, “bye”, “hi” and the beginnings of many many more.
• They are trying to count, but instead of saying 1, 2, 3 Ryan says “die, die, die” and Juliet says “tee, tee tee”.
• They walk, run, play peek-a-boo, dance, chase, do Kung Fu, and work very hard on jump.

Late August, 2010, when the real estate market was at a low, Dan and I were lucky enough to find a family in our neighborhood who wanted to buy our home. With four floors, no parking, and two babies (almost toddlers), we clearly jumped on the opportunity. It was a good deal. No real estate agent and a decent offer. We accepted. After looking at 15+ homes to buy we chose the one we loved and put in our offer. In a matter of two weeks, we had a contract to sell our home and a contract to buy a new one. Next began a series of very stressful weeks of packing, finding a mortgage, paperwork, lawyers, buyer drama, inspections, etc. At the same time, Dan had to juggle a boatload of work, a stressful wife, and two teething babies. He did an amazing job and balanced his priorities beautifully. I spent every opportunity the babies allowed me to pack boxes and make my daily phone calls to annoy everyone I could in order to ensure our sale stayed on track. After what seemed like the longest two months ever (looking back, of course, it doesn’t seem so bad) we moved out, closed on both houses, and moved into our new home in Saratoga Springs.

To say our new home is totally awesome, would be a understatement. We own two acres of land. The majority of which consists of woodland with evergreen trees and a river marking our back yard border. We can walk out onto our deck through our green room or family room French doors to the enjoy the peace and serenity of our backyard. Our home is filled with so much light that even on a dreary March day I should feel rejuvenated. Ryan now has his own bedroom and no longer needs to get kicked out of the guest room for our overnight visitors to sleep in the office full of computers, wires, boxes, and books. The babies no longer need to scream up the stairs for me to return back from the upstairs kitchen for a treat or bottle. I can travel back and forth from the kitchen to the family room a hundred times a day without going up and down stairs. To put Ryan and Juliet down for their nap, I went from from three flights in the old home to one flight in our new home. I fear I might lose my slim, sexy figure. To top it off with whip cream, cherries, and rainbow sprinkles, we have a two car garage. What a beautiful sound that makes… two car garage. There are countless reasons for how wonderful our two car garage is, and as lovely as they all are, I won’t bore you with them.  Two car garage is enough said.

Meanwhile, a parade of events pasted us by like a whirlwind, giving us only a few precious moments to stop and savor it before going back to work on settling into our new home. We quite literally savored Thanksgiving at Gramee and Grampa Turkenkopf’s. Christmas started with the four of us and we were later on blessed again to have Gramee and Grampa Turkenkopf and Uncie Drewbie here to visit. The new year rolled in quietly. Well, sort of anyway. I was up to answer the cries of Ryan and Juliet in the night. There was, however, a distinct lack of streamers, alcohol, noise makers, and giant balls dropping from the sky. Instead I rocked Juliet in her chair and cuddled with Ryan (separately of course) until they decided it was OK to sleep again in their cribs. Dan took vacation from Christmas Eve through January 3rd. 10 days of bliss where mostly we stayed at home and just simply enjoyed each other.

So here we are, January 5th, and I am able to sit down and write again. There is still so much I could say about the last few months, but alas, I try to console myself with the words of Grampa Tom, “You can live it, or you can record it”. For the last few months, I’ve been living it. There have been days of stress, days full of food, days full of presents and wrapping paper, and days of complete and utter happiness with my family.