I sorta have an obsession with big brother and little sister outfits. It’s like the cutest thing ever in my opinion. One of my credit cards has a picture of Mason and Audrey from a long time ago on it:

Today, I pulled out that card and realized it had been awhile since I tried getting shots of the two of them together. No time like the present! I put on the most recent additions to their matching wardrobes and we ran out to the park by our house. Which is when I remembered why I don’t often get pictures of the two of them together. Regardless, I was able to get a few good shots.

Mason

Mason is 2.5. Which means he goes from totally astoundingly awesome to totally astoundingly annoying in about 2.5 seconds. If he’s not making me laugh hysterically, he’s making me want to scream in frustration. Very rarely is there an in-between with Mason. He comprehends things, he remembers things, and he tells us things that amaze us. His newest habits are to tell me every.single.night. that “it’s real hard to fall asleep mommy.” Each night, we “cover me up” and then hand him big rabbit and little rabbit, two stuffed animals he has suddenly become attached to and cannot fall asleep without… it’s real hard every night, but without big and little rabbit it’s an impossible task.Each morning I ask him if he had any dreams, and he usually tells me about them. This boy has got quite the wild imagination. He dreams about friendly pink ghosts that eat cookies, he dreams about rocket ships, and about once a week he dreams about Chuck E Cheese – which is hands down his favorite place to go and he requests a visit to Chuck E Cheese about once every 3 days. He refuses to keep his shoes and socks on in the car, and no longer naps unless on a very long car trip at just the right moment.  If I allowed him, he’d spend his entire life outside – preferably naked. He has learned how to unlock and open the front door, which made me instantly grateful for what I until recently thought was a silly second door on our front porch. He can get outside, but he can’t get off the porch because he needs one of our stairs to reach the handle well enough to turn it… so while it’s a pain in the butt to constantly fetch him from the front porch, it’s much easier than constantly fetching him from the yard or farther. When I ask him to come inside, he almost always tells me “I have work to do” and will continue on about his way doing whatever it was he was doing before I asked him to come in – usually playing with a rake or a shovel, or sitting on his Cars ATV PowerWheels. He now loves school and points it out each time we drive past. The other night we were out to dinner and a little girl was talking about her day at school. Mason was ANGRY. “She no go to my school Mom.” We had to have the talk about how there’s more than one school and lots and lots of kids go to school, not just you. It was too darn cute.He is fully potty trained during the day and is darn close to being trained overnight as well. I can’t really remember the last accident we had… unless you count intentionally peeing all over his shorts. The other day, we were at a park and he had to go – the bathrooms were locked and we were a good 20 minutes away from home, so I pulled down his pants and held him in the air in a seated position (we haven’t moved on to standing yet) and told him to just go. He did. And he thought it was probably the coolest thing in the whole world. A few days later we were outside in the backyard and he told me “me need go potty outside” before dropping his pants and underwear to his knees. He then sorta stooped over, but not really and peed all over himself and his shorts. That was the last time we peed outside, and he now insists on taking his pants all the way off regardless of where we are because he doesn’t want to “need new pants mama.” He is all boy and is {almost always} a pleasure to be around.

Audrey

Audrey is the belle of the ball. She loves to be a princess and will attempt (and is sometimes even successful!) to put anything and everything on as a bracelet or necklace. She likes getting dressed up and will already bring us clothes in hopes that we will change her outfit or add to it. She loves to pick out her shoes and sits patiently while we try to cram her curled toes into them (someday she’ll learn to just relax those toes and putting shoes on will be easier). She is still breastfeeding, but mostly only does it out of boredom or for comfort. She does nurse at night or before a nap, but she then breaks her latch, moves away from me and goes to sleep on her own (most of the time). She knows how to get off our bed, and is tough as nails. If she forgets to go feet first and topples off the edge there are very rarely tears. In fact, today at the playground she fell (about a foot) off the playset and got a full face of mulch and a tiny bit of a bloody nose. I thought for sure there would be tears, but instead she just sat up and started playing in the mulch before climbing back up onto the playset – the only time she cried during the incident was when I had the gall to try and wipe off her face so she wasn’t completely covered in mulch for the remainder of the pictures. Audrey is a drama queen. When something doesn’t go the way she hoped, she lets the whole world know just how angry it makes her. She has figured out that letting loose with a nice loud shriek will get some attention, and will often get her brother to start tossing anything and everything within reach in her direction trying to pacify her before he gets in trouble (which is funny because all we ever do is remind him “be nice to Audrey”). She loves to eat and will try just about anything you put in front of her. Even if you don’t want her to. I wish I could tell you her favorite foods, but if it’s edible it’s pretty much her favorite. And if it’s not edible, well, she’ll try that too thankyouverymuch. Audrey wants to be just like her big brother, and tries to do everything he does. Her newest obsession is drinking out of cups with straws (which coincidentally is what that screaming picture is from – I wouldn’t let her have my coke!). Some of her favorite things to do are to open and close doors, which frequently lands her locked in a bedroom, closet, or bathroom if I let her out of my sight for more than a couple seconds. I’m quickly learning that if I want to get anything done and not worry about her, I simply need to put a plate of snacks out and she won’t move until they are gone (which doesn’t ever take long).

Audrey wants to be completely independent or completely dependent. If she’s walking, she likes to go where she wants to go and refuses to hold anyone’s hand or listen to direction. If you don’t like where she’s going, you have to pick her up and carry her. Don’t even think about trying to feed her – she can do that all by herself and gets downright offended if you try to help. She’s currently obsessed with the cozy coupe in my neighbor’s backyard. Being the idiot mother I am, I sold the one we had for Mason since he never once played with the thing… so of course she would be absolutely in love with it and spend hours on end climbing in and out. Thankfully, I have sweet neighbors that don’t mind when my child spends half the day in their driveway playing with their cozy coupe.

Between the two of them, my hands are always full. My mind is always racing, and I am almost always tired. But it’s so wonderful. They are amazing. They are my world. And they are finally starting to understand each other and I think like each other even!