34 months, 19 months

My babies are growing up. 2 more months and Olivia turns 3. I can't believe it's been 3 years all ready. Ava is a year and a half old. What's more amazing is that with 15 months between them they are only 1 pound apart. Ava dwarfs most other babies her age. She looks like she's at least 2 years old. In a few more months she definitely won't be a baby anymore. She pretty much isn't one now, it's just me trying to holding on to her precious few months left before she's officially off the baby radar and on the toddler scope. I mean hey, the girl doesn't wear diapers anymore, can talk in sentences, can run, jump, dance, and spin like the big kids. She can name a few colors, all her body parts, and can put together a puzzle in toddler lightning speed. She also loves to read read read, as she tells me. It's like she skipped right over the baby phase and high-tailed it to toddler hood.

Olivia's the model for Ava. Livynut dances the daylight away. She can sing many of the songs that are found in her books, she does regular cardboard puzzles without the frills of the little handles or premade places for the pieces to go. She sits on the floor at night and reads to Ava her books in the same way as I read to her. She holds the book so that Ava can see the pages and she reads off to the side. It's quite endearing. She'd make a great teacher someday. Now, she can't actually read the books. She has memorized them from hearing them countless times. She does know a few site words though. She's learning new stuff everyday like which picture is in the middle, how to go from top to bottom and left to right, the difference between big B and little b. We play memory games, and make peantbutter playdoh, and color. She climbs up and down all the play structures at the park. She has these ultrasonic ears that can hear an airplane or 'copter well before I ever hear it. She can count to 10 in spanish and 20 in english. Livy finds the greatest joy in petting dogs, cats, hunting for lizards and killing flies. Dave hands her the fly swatter and off they go. You hear WHACK followed by, "daddy I got one." Most of all she loves to nuggie and we do it almost every night. We relax, watch a cartoon, and nuggie until bedtime.

It's funny that it's sad they are leaving babyhood, but it's cool that they are growing up. It's awesome that they know now what's happening around them and they appreciate the time we spend with them. They can talk to us and tell us what they want, like, and need. Yeah the girls are awesome. Truly and completely awesome.