My dear Audrey and Antonino,
Happy 2nd birthday! I can't believe you are two years old.
You both came out as tiny 34-weekers who needed to stay in the NICU to grow.
Not an ideal start but you quickly showed everyone how strong and determined
you were to get out of the NICU right away.
It has been amazing watching both of you grow. When you were
just months old, we waited every month for you to hit all those significant
first year milestones like crawling, rolling over, babbling, and sitting. Then
after your first birthday everything went by at lightning speed. You actually
look more like kids now than babies and somehow you know it. You always say
"Big geeeel Adee!" (Big girl Audrey) and "Big boy Nino!"
At one year old, you were just learning to cruise around
while holding on to your play fence but after a few months you were already
walking, running, jumping and climbing all over everything!
You can identify your alphabet, the numbers 1 to 10, colors
and shapes, and items in your picture
word books and relate them to actual stuff.
You have become very independent too. You insist on feeding
and dressing yourselves and even reading your board books by yourselves!
Wow!
You both have also become very talkative! You talk in
sentences and speak in big voices (we really need to work on your inside
voices). You can already tell us what you want. You've also developed the habit
of singing loudly when the lights are off and it's time for bed. You run
through your favorite songs like Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa
Baa Black Sheep and Itsy Bitsy Spider until you fall asleep. One of these days
I will record your nursery rhyme mash up so you can hear them when you're
older!
You have also become big-hearted kids. You guys are so sweet
that at times it makes me tear up. When you think I'm sad or whenever I tell
you we need to rest because my back hurts, you're always quick to give me a
kiss, and pat my back so gently while saying "Mommy back hurt. Ichokey (Mommy's back hurts. It's OK)."
You have also started building your sibling bond. You now
interact and play with each other more. It's so much fun to watch you two even
though there are moments when both of you want to play with the same toy at the
same time. But you try to work it out by repeating the things we've been
teaching you like "Take tons (turns)," or if there are two of the
same toy, you say things like "This is Adee's/Nino's" and "This
is yours." Sometimes it works, sometimes you need our help to sort it out
but I guess that's how it really is.
You've also learned how to look out for each other. Antonino, I
remember one time when Audrey got a time out you wanted to keep her company so
you followed her to the corner and stood there too. And Audrey, once during
lunch Antonino threw his fork on the floor because he wasn't in the mood to eat
and you said "Mommy, a-si-dent (accident)" in an effort to save
Antonino from getting disciplined. My heart is fullest when I see the two of
you together and I'm so happy that at such a young age you already have each others' backs.
Happy 2nd birthday, Audrey and Antonino! I love you so much.
I hope the coming year will be the best one yet but most of all, I really wish
that you will always have each other.
Love you always and forever,
Mommy
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