The other white Christmas

Christmas came and went and with Grandma still here visiting and Chris on vacation,  we decided to make the most of our holiday by going to the beach!  I still can't believe that we live so close to so many amazing beaches.  The weather was warm and sunny and I felt a bit overdressed in jeans and long sleeves (cue the eye roll from my friends and family partaking in traditional winter).  Since it was so warm, we undressed the boys down to their diapers so they could wade in the waves. They loved the feeling of their feet sinking into the sand as the waves rolled in and the feeling of the water pulling on their tiny feet as the waves rolled out.

Grandma was great and building sand castles and sculpting characters into the sand for the boys to guess (like we used to do when we were little).  Brady and Brody were less interested in construction and more interested in destruction.  They knocked down every sand structure almost as fast as it was erected.  

The beach really is the best place for kids and dogs.  It has wide open space, beautiful sparkly (COLD!) water, lots to see, and is relatively uncrowded, basically all the things that I want in a little daytime adventure.  The only imperfect thing is that the sun is always behind my photo subjects making shooting at the Pacific Ocean during the day very difficult (cue the second eye roll).  But, since that is my only complaint, I will keep quite!

 

Christmas morning

Christmas morning was so much fun!  I have few words and lots of pictures to remember what the day was like.  We started our day by trying to capture the boys' faces as they saw the tree with the presents and their new tricycles for the first time.  They were not quite sure what to make of the room when they entered.  Brody immediately jumped onto one of the tricycles (like he does at the park whenever he sees one!) and did not get off for a solid 30 minutes.  In fact he opened may of his gifts while siting on this tricycle, reluctant to remove himself even for a second.  Brady yelled "OPEN, OPEN, OPEN" as he grabbed every present in the room.  He loved discovering what was underneath the paper and hated having to wait as we undid the packaging that was between him and playtime.

Happily, the boys loved their toys and played with them ALL day.  We spent quite a bit of time outside riding bikes, coloring, blowing bubbles, playing music, sticking stickers, racing cars, stacking legos, assembling Mr. Potato head, and playing with every other toy they got.  It was a super special day.

Twas the night before Christmas

Christmas felt extra magical this year.  Celebrating such a festive holiday with two year olds is simply amazing.  They loved every fun tidbit associated with the holiday from the outdoor Christmas lights to the ornaments on the trees to the presents (especially the wrapping paper on the presents)! On Christmas eve we baked and decorated sugar cookies. Brady and Brody loved smashing the cookie cutters into the dough and hated waiting for them to bake.  Seems about right for two. 

Don't let the color of the icing fool you, these are not Easter cookies.  My hippie food dye did not quite make bright red and green icing to paint our Santas with but the kids did not seem to mind!

After cookie decorating, we opened our new pjs and let the boys burned off their sugar buzz with lots of dancing, laughing, and singing.

Chris and I waited up for Santa to finish his business and headed to bed feeling like giddy school kids.  We could not wait for our boys to wake up and experience Christmas morning!

Happy Two!

Happy Birthday to our wonderful boys!  We have been celebrating all weekend.  We tried to space out the opening of the wonderful gifts that great grandparents, grandparents, and aunties sent us so that the boys were able to cherish every thoughtful thing that they received.  They loved everything they got and [I think] they loved the act of opening even more!

Since their special day is sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we tried to make it stand out by having a theme unrelated to the holidays.  The boys  like robots (pronounced "boppies" by them) so we had a robot themed birthday.  We found some robots to give as gifts (surprisingly hard to find for two year olds) and I found some random robot shirts to wear for them to wear on their special day.  We also bought singing balloons and cards because our boys find them exciting and they like any excuse to start a dance party!

We kept with our practice (started last year) of having cake for breakfast!! Not only does this buy us major cool-parent points, but it also works well with our three hour time difference by allowing the grandparents to join in for singing and blowing out of the candles (via skye).  I made individuals cakes for Brady and Brody and drew robots on each one.  I am not known for my drawing skills and I have to say, I was really proud of these robot cakes!  I may retire after this year! ;)  The boys loved being sung to and blowing out the candles.  Much to our surprise, the boys completely knew to blow out the candles at the end of Happy Birthday without any prompting. Actually, they enjoyed that part so much that they asked for more candles to blow out latter in the day and I obliged because you are only two once (or twice two in our case).

After cake, we headed to Monterey and went to the aquarium.  It was so much fun! The aquarium was the perfect way to spend a special day.  There is so much to see and do and we can just basically let the boys lead the way knowing everywhere they turn, there will be great stuff to see.  After the aquarium, we went to the beach to let the dogs and kids run around and play.  It was a great way to celebrate two!

(That disgusted look on Brody's face was after a puffin nosedived right past him.  He was not really sure what to make of that.)

What more can I say about these boys? They are special individuals who have the good fortune of being twins.  On their birthday, we try to celebrate the fact that we have two amazing humans who are growing older together.  

We have our Brody who is a tough, strong, independent snuggle bug.  He loves to run, chase, catch, throw, and wrestle.  He hates to be away from his brother and is a true dare devil with no fear (most of the time).  He gives amazing hugs that end with a few love pats on the back.  He is toddler with the guts of a much older kid and he keeps me on my toes.

And we have Brady who is silly and observant.  He is task oriented and focused when he wants to be, and wild and crazy the rest of the time.  He is a great communicator, expects his needs to met in a timely fashion, and is really much wiser than even I seem to be able to accept. He is my sidekick and would spend every minute in my lap if I let him!

These two guys belong to us, the family who cannot figure out how to take a self-timed pictures of themselves, and who appreciates the specialness of having two boys who share everything.  

They have a mom who made it a point not to be behind the camera all day so she can have some pictures of herself with the two year old boys.

They are siblings who share a birthday.  They developed simultaneously in utero and over the course of two years, still manage to be synchronous in so many ways, even in the way that they walk.

 

They are zany and wild

messy and devilish

and they know what to expect from the other one (as told by the smile you can just barely see on Brady's face).

But most of all they are brothers, doing and caring for one another even at the tender age of two. 

Their birthday shirts, though awesome, just need one minor correction to be perfect

and I could not be any prouder to be the mom of these two amazing boys.