We made it.

Poor sweet Eliza.  As you can see, when Everett was a baby, I chronicled every teensy thing.  There's not a chance that I'll go back and fill in the ginormous gap from Everett's 12 month post to now.  (You'll notice that my last post was in October of 2013, right after Eliza was born, and she didn't get a mention.  I suppose in my head I thought I would eventually do a post for her birth.  Not sure what I was thinking.  I haven't seemed to have a minute to catch my breath since.)  It's probably best that I don't chronicle the missing months anyway.  It would probably go like this:  Change a bazillion diapers.  Clean up more vomit then I ever cared to see in my lifetime.  Try super hard to hold it together and not cry until Daddy gets home.  Say over and over and over in my head 'These are really really precious moments, try not to wish them away.'  Repeat.

So whatever, water under the lack-of-family-memory-recording bridge.  She's here.  She's almost one.  He's almost two.  We made it.  And that pretty much sums up the last 11 months.

Eliza is, in many ways, our super laid back child.  Food... eh.  She'll take it or leave it.  She gets a little grumpy when we skip naps, but she gets by.  She really would prefer we just did everything for her, as opposed to her super independent brother.  She just recently started holding her own bottle, and even with that, she won't do it for very long.  She eventually just tosses it aside until someone sits and holds it for her/coaxes her to eat.  Same with table food.  She eats it with her hands by herself.  For a bit.  And then she's over it, and someone often has to sit there and talk her into it.  (This is all evidenced by her teensy weensy legs, whose ability to hold her up defy the laws of physics.  Yes I know.  Pot, kettle, black.  If you ever read this Eliza, know that your mother is 29 years old and not very many days go by that I still don't get comments about being skinny.  You will get so very used to it.)  In other ways, laid back - not so much.  She shrieks ALL the time.  She spends zero seconds just sitting still.  (This is a new development.  The Lord was so very, very kind to give me many months of a very, VERY chill baby while I tried to take care of her and her totally insane, still very young brother.  But her days of sitting and watching everything are long gone.)  She started army crawling around 7 or 8 months.  Before that, for a long time she did this swimming thing where she would lift all her limbs off the ground and move them as if that would get her somewhere.  She is able to get up on her hands and knees and move, but she still prefers the army crawl.  About a month or two ago, she started pulling up and standing.  She's definitely not cruising or really interested at all in holding onto our hands and trying to walk.  This is a-ok with me.  I'm not ready for two kiddos running around just yet.

Everett was (mostly) incredibly sweet to Eliza, or Zaza as he calls her, from the day she came home until she got mobile.  Now that she gets into 'his' toys, he isn't quite so much a fan.  She intentionally antagonizes him.  She puts her hands all over his face and pulls things that he's playing with out of his hands and just generally tries to annoy him.  They drive each other absolutely crazy sitting next to each other in the grocery cart.  He pulls her bow out, she scratches him, etc.  We're all getting used to this sibling 'fighting'.  But his face still lights up when she comes downstairs from a nap, and that's just so precious.  He's EXTREMELY bossy with her.  All day, it's 'No ma'am, Zaza!  Stop it.  You may not scream!  You're in trouble!  You go to time out!'  (As you can tell, he's quite vocal.  Just for my records, at 18 months he had about 100 words.  Now, I'm not sure there are words he doesn't have.)  Again, this is evidence of second child-ism.  I would say Eliza's first word was Mama.  She still doesn't seem to really use them specifically to refer to us, but she does say Mama and Dada.  Tonight when I told Everett, 'Eliza's going to bed' she said 'NighNigh.'  So maybe she knows that one too?  She claps and gives kisses and waves, and she signs 'all done'.  She'll repeat any sounds we make.  She has the same laugh Everett had as a baby.  She was a very serious spitter-upper for a long time, but that has settled down quite a bit here recently.

Everett talks all day, all the time.  He started preschool last week.  (His teachers told me on the first day, 'He talks a lot!')  He loves people.  He loves to make people laugh.  He's gotten quite a bit more affectionate this past year.  He gives tons of hugs and kisses and is just generally so sweet.   He's absolutely obsessed with all things Thomas the Train.  He only wants to read, watch, and sing Thomas.  We discovered in August that he gets car sick on long car rides.  He loves donuts and asks for them many times every day.  He's recently gotten very attached to his 'blankie', which is really any crocheted blanket.  He sucks his thumb while he's falling asleep (they both do) and sucks on the corner of his blankie.  (Gross.)  He is very much a creature of habit.  Everything in the house with a buckle must be buckled at all times.  He mostly takes out the same toys in the same order.  He goes around and hands us things that he knows are supposed to be put up where he can't reach them.  (Not that he's 100% obedient, he definitely is not.  This is just part of his routine.)  He loves to help- throwing things in the trash, 'cleaning' up after he spills something, putting away his blocks, etc.)  He loves to blow his nose constantly, so we have no kleenex out in the house right now.

I know there's no way for me to catch up, but those are some things I wanted to remember.  Hopefully it won't be a year until I do this again, and I will just put silly little things they do that we can look back on later and laugh.  I'll be honest, these have been hard years.  Having two kids in twelve months is not something we would have ever planned, and sometimes I feel like we're still reeling.  It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done, and I can't really say I always handled it like a champ.  But for the first time since 2011, we aren't having a baby this September.  We're finally out of the infant stage for the second time, and so I'll say it again.  We made it!

(And now, a year in review in pictures.  Get ready to scroll.)