Farewell, Mary!

(As much as I don't like to think about it or admit it...) The babies will likely have a series of caregivers throughout their childhood--and their first just left. Mary has been with us through the past year, and babies, how she loved you! She's moving onto different things--our new nanny Whitney will be here at the first of next year--and I'm really excited to get to spend the next two weeks at home (and in Idaho) with Addison and Jackson. I really, really love the time we get to spend together!

Anyway, Mary wrote the following post on her blog about you guys, and I wanted you to see what she had to say about her year with you and her observations on your personalities from the time she spent with you (and you'll see from reading this--you guys charm almost everyone you meet!):

I got into D.C. on January 1st of this year when the babies were about to turn four months old. And now they are going on 16 months in a couple of weeks! I have spent thousands of hours and hundreds of days with them as they changed and grew this year. I'm not sure how many diapers I've changed this year... but it was a high number! I've been through colds and diaper rashes and teething with them. I've been on a few plane rides with them. What a year! I've heard the first year of a child's life has the most drastic changes. Here's what the twins looked like when I first met them.

(They were blobs of fat! Haha! Love the scared expressions on their faces.)

Here's what they look like today:

Jackson

Addison

I saw them both reach a lot of milestones and I felt just as proud as their parents when they learned or did something new. They learned to sit up, roll over, crawl, walk, and use sign language while I was here. They can climb up the stairs (working on going down) and they both love to dance and sing. Personality wise, they are pretty different.

Addison is: mischievous, always running before looking, not afraid to take control, loves to wave to strangers and give hugs and kisses to people she doesn't even know. Has a killer fake laugh and a cute real laugh. Has the biggest bluest eyes that strangers always comment on. Really good at signing and saying words.

Jackson is: sweet, likes to take time to smell the roses, he will explore things slowly and is interested by a lot of different things, whereas his sister runs ahead to check out the situation. Sensitive, smiley, ticklish, likes to give hugs, easygoing, determined when he sets his mind to something. LOVES to dance and "talk" on the phone.

Today is my last day working as a nanny for them. It's bittersweet. I'm ready to move on to the next phase of my life but it's sad at the same time. It's sad that they will not remember me or all the time I spent with them. But hopefully the things I did and the way I loved them will make a difference somehow.

I LOVE YOU JACKSON AND ADDISON!!!! (Yeah, tearing up right now....)