Times, they are a-changin'.

It's been about 2 years since I've posted. Holy cow. Those 2 years simultaneously have seemed like a lifetime and the blink of an eye. "The days are long but the years are short," as they say. And oh how incredibly visceral that phrase is, especially, when you have children. You hear it so often, or at least I did, before you have children. How time flies. How hard it is. How rewarding it is. How your life will never ever be the same. But it's honestly not something that you can ever convey to someone who hasn't been through 3-4 years of it. Even when Audia was 2 or 3, I didn't get it. Those first 3-4 years of ONE child's life are so intense. At least they were for me. And looking back, I wish so much that I could go back and tell earlier mom me to relax. To enjoy it more. To worry less. But the truth is that was who I was, and that was who Audia was, and that was who Chris was. Callen, in his own way, made things easier. Both because he is so laid back and because it forced me to divide my attention, and my worries, between two kids. Thank heavens for that. Poor Audia bore the brunt of my worrisome nature for three years! Good grief. But holy moley, how wonderfully she's turned out. How resilient she is. How independent, and strong, and brave, and willful....Audia, if you ever read this, I hope that you always know how proud of you I am. You surprise and delight me on a daily basis. That's not an exaggeration. Just this week, you told me how you had decided, on your own, to be friends with someone who was a bully to you at the beginning of the school year. You told this girl that you didn't like how she was treating you last week but you wanted to be her friend. And now you are. And things like that....these amazing, independent testaments of your character...they happen regularly. And I just sit back in awe. You are such an amazing young lady.

And Callen. You have not had nearly as much "blog time", so to speak, but only because the addition of you to our family has forced me to chose between special time with you and your sister or time blogging. Time with you obviously trumps that. But, I want you to know that at age 4, you are the size of the average 6 year old boy (SO TALL!!) You still LOVE your vehicles and regularly correct anyone who incorrectly identifies a vehicle ("No, Mommy, that's not a digger. It's a front-end loader.") You still love Lego more than anything, and build things from scratch and imagination that make both your dad (former Lego Master) and I (also a former Lego Builder) in complete awe. At your age, according to the packages, you should still be playing with Duplos. But you build the 5-10 aged regular Lego sets by yourself. It's truly incredible. You also talk to yourself. A lot. OK, *constantly*. To the point where I regularly ask you who you're talking to, just to double check, and 99% of the time you say "I'm just talkin' to myself, mommy." Your favorite color was anything "Fiery" until about a month ago when you switched back to green (which was your favorite about two years ago.) You LOVE Minecraft and are a true master builder; you build incredibly detailed buildings in Minecraft with incredible speed. Complete with rooms, stair cases, windows, and roofs that look like real tiled roofs. You are still shy(er) with kids your age, and mostly prefer to play by yourself. But you adore adults.

And both of you are, of course, incredibly tall for your age, even this young. Audia, you're in the 95th percentile for height again at age 7. Callen, you are more and more off the charts for height every time we go in. Based on your growth curve, it's estimated that you'll be between 6' 4" and 6' 8" as an adult!

You get along so well, for the most part. I think it's a testament to your love of each other (at least, I'll chose to see it that way) that you would rather be playing together and fighting than have me separate you.

I want you both to know how proud I am of you, how blessed I feel to have you as my children, how much I adore and like and love you. I cannot ever imagine my life without you.