Holy cannoli, slow down!

Holy cannoli, this is happening too fast!  Ever since Lupe turned five in May things have been speeding up.  This summer she lost her first tooth (on the way to Paris).  She took swim lessons, cried a lot and then finally learned to swim a little bit. She started kindergarten.  She loves it. Her hair got longer, her legs got longer.  She still wants to be a mama.  She gets over tired and then cries in the shower cause I "have better dance moves" than her, or can hula hoop better. Oh my, where does that come from? She's learning to read- in Spanish.  She drapes herself over the couch like a teenager.   She's annoying and amazing.  

And Liam.  He turned two. In Heathrow Airport, London.  We came back from our trip and he really turned two.  Tantrums. Wriggles out of car seat straps.  Stroller straps.  High chair straps.  Shopping cart straps.   And, he's walking!  He'd been taking steps for a while, but in August we felt we could say he's really a walker.  And now it's September and he walks more than crawls.  It's awesome.  All these things that have taken so long to get to, but they do come.  And I know his walk will get better, he'll bend those knees and bring the legs closer together.  His talking, that's another slow one, but I can now confidently say that it will get there. But I want him to be as close to his peers as possible.  Thats why I work extra hard at certain things with him instead of just thinking he'll do things in "his own time".  It's still not easy sometimes to see kids his age doing so much that he can't do yet.  But that's just part of my roller coaster ride.  Some days it's cool.  Other days it makes me a little sad.  Up down.  

Let me end by saying that this week Liam said "mama". First he said it only when prompted (and this is after months, many months of asking him to say it). But I think I've caught him saying it a couple of times spontaneously.  Melts my heart every time, and will continue to do so.