Happy New Year ... where has 18 months gone

My little guys are 18 months old today ... can someone please tell me where the last 12 - no wait - 18 months has gone.

It has been a joyous year, though it seems a year that passed in the blink of an eye. A few countless precious memories were made, with an endless parade of triumphant and spectacular firsts ... first proper words,first foods, first crawls, first steps,first climbs and falls, first birthdays, first teeth and first bites and first reciprocal hugs.

I am sorry to say goodbye to my twins babybabyhood ...I saw a newborn at the hospital when visiting my SIL and oh, how clucky I felt and deeply sad. I yearn for another baby or maybe it is the yearning for my daughter who I didn't get to know.

I feel a little awestruck that I was blessed with twins but at same time sad that each son did not enjoy all my devoted attention and I had to share so many cuddles when it could have just been me.I could have enjoyed each as a baby separately and not just at the same time. Selfish? perhaps but if you have twins or more you might know what I mean.

I rarely got the time to capture the memories I wish I had ... though blogging has helped me journal a few.I wish I had taken more photos too.The pace has been thick and fast. A whirlwind of days and sometimes sleepless nights.

S & J have reached out and touched so many hearts, grasping at the world with now not so small hands pulling down and wrecking all our stuff . They are demanding of much love and attention but within reason.The joy they have given us in return a hundredfold ... and more than I ever imagined.

As the New year is on the horizon their attempts to communicate are becoming clearer. They are no longer babies.I am looking forward to them being more independent toddler but with a few regrets... as long as it doesn't happen too fast.

The laughter flows all day along with food and spills on the floor and our cup overflows not to mention the laundry with the love and cuddles they return unconditionally.

Do you wonder, like I do, what hopes and dreams God has in store for 2008 ?. I have a long list in my head and in time they will be revealed.

Tomorrow, or the day after I hope to write my letters to them ... when my husband returns to work and my SIL & BIL, & MIL leave. My SIL is visiting tomorrow before she flies home to Queensland- since she didn't get much time to catch up being in hospital.

Today, we did a lot of rearranging of the furniture and finished cleaning up 'Christmas'. It was exhausting but it all looks good ... don't ask me how long it will last with the two tornadoes but hopefully we have them contained again.

I am also pleased to have made it to 18 months of breastfeeding. As long as I am still BF I feel they are babies.