Two Toddlers!

We rearranged our bedroom, and while we were moving stuff around my husband found this beautiful picture frame that someone gave us while pregnant with our first baby (now 3 and counting).  It has pressed flowers and says;

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide to forever have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

We just had a good friend who owns Free Spirit Studios take our family holiday pictures, and I decided to put one of the pictures in there.  Perfect.  While the quote in itself is so beautiful, it's even more apt now, as both my children are now walking, running, jumping (and wrestling).  I can't believe I have two big kids now, and no babies.

My daughter Violet is talking like crazy, and talking a lot about being vegan.  She tells anyone who will listen that she doesn't eat cow milk, she asks about what other people eat, and she's figuring out how to navigate the non-vegan world.  She's started preschool, and although everyone else shares a group snack, we pack her snack each day just for her.  I had so many fears going into this that it would be too hard or she'd feel too different.  Instead, she says, "They eat cow milk snacks, but I eat food."  No problem, as it turns out.  She's taken vegan books for sharing and had no issues with that, and when she brought her Adopt-an-Animal certificate from Farm Sanctuary, the teacher said she'd like to sponsor an animal as a class.  She's a total animal activist, and I've started a separate blog just for all the funny things she says and does in regards to veganism, Vegan Kids Say The Darndest Things.

Our baby boy is now a small man-child.  He's had the eyebrows of a man since birth, and it seems he's now growing into them with the personality to match.  He's learning to shake his head no, say "yeah," and give kisses on command (clearly this is my favorite new development).  He's a sweet cuddle bug, very independent, and he loves anything wheeled or round.  It's fun watching him grow and change in many ways that are the same as Violet and some so different.  While Violet has always been on the smallest end of the growth chart, Desmond is on the highest end.  We were recently at a gymnastics class for toddlers and all the kids were the same size, but it seemed like Dez was so far behind the others in speech.  I started asking around and discovered that the other kids (most of whom were shorter than him) were 3-6 months older than him.

There's a million more things, but what can you do?  Create time?  I'll try to catch back up, because I would like to reconnect in this way, it's just time and peace.  I've been using a lot of my free time to read or rest, and it's felt so good that I don't really find all that much extra time, but this is something I'd really like to pick back up.