Just like Braydon says in the post below, K & O have been talking a lot about when they were babies, and talking a lot about when they grow up— or, in their own words, when they will be “a Big K” and “a Big O.” Right now we seem to be in a stage of them feeling compelled, to assert their independence. They like to do everything themselves, with “NO HELP!” They like to do “growned-up” things, like “REAL cooking! NOT pretend cooking!!!” They like to try to do things on their own (for example, yesterday morning they tried to get themselves their own milk in the morning — bad idea — but got somehow sidetracked and began taking every single item out of the refrigerator and placing them in random places around the house – a bottle of ketchup here, a jug of juice there… you get the picture… by the time Braydon and I came downstairs and realized what was happening half of the fridge had been dispersed all over the house). Anyway, the thing is, I think especially with twins– this sort of independence is such a relief. Twins are really hard to care for– just even physically/logistically speaking — when they are babies. Any parent of twins knows what I’m talking about. Just the simple task of lugging them both to-and-from the car, for example, is a major task. I think back on the days that I was mixing up huge pitchers of formula to make bottles by the dozen every morning and strategizing how to hold two bottles and two babies at once… I think back on the days of diaper-after-diaper-after-diaper (ask any parent of multiples and they’ll tell you the war stories– of course, just as you get one cleaned up and re-diapered, you have to start in on the next one, and this can just go on and on and on all day and all night)… I think back on the days when both of them would be throwing food all over the place, with bits of baby food smeared everywhere, and no matter how often we’d ignore it or scold them for it, there would be zero impact since both of them would be laughing like crazy at each other and getting the biggest reaction possible out of each other… I think back on all of these sorts of things and I feel so grateful that we’ve got these two guys in a whole new phase now. Now, rather than having food fights and apple-sauce-smearing contests at the dinner table… Braydon and I are looking across the table at each other and laughing at: #1) how much the boys eat, and #2) the fact that we literally [and I do mean, LITERALLY]cannot get a word in edge-wise during dinner these days. They boys dominate [and I do mean, DOMINATE] the dinner conversation. Kyle and Owen are a handful, for sure. Have always been, and I suspect they’ll always be. But man, life is so much easier now than it was then. But still, still, still, still, still, still…. oh how I miss the baby boys that they were. I thought it then, and I stick to it now (I know, I know, every mother feels this way — just indulge me here…) I swear, Kyle and Owen were the cutest babies in the whole wide world. This isn’t to say they aren’t adorable now. They sure as heck are. But my oh my were they ever the cutest little things back then. Apple-sauce-smeared and all.