Fifteen Months

I'll give you the lowdown on why I haven't been posting separately. First, here's the latest on the short people (They're more fun to write about, anyway.).

Somewhere in here, between Nov. 27th and Dec. 27th, Logan finally decided that he could climb up stairs all by himself. He went from refusing to take a single step to ascending the entire staircase in a single shot.

Oh. Well then!

Logan has finally surpassed Emma on a couple of things, first among them is number of teeth. He has both his top two and bottom two teeth, while Emma has only her bottom two teeth and a single top tooth. Apparently she's not concerned about dental symmetry.

"I not worried. I bet I nurse longer wif fewer toofs den he duz!"

The twins are down to two naps a day, now. Once after breakfast and again after lunch. Then there's a sudden hard stop around 5:30 pm, when Logan starts throwing himself at the floor* in a meltdown and is in desperate need of sleep. Sometimes, when he's not completely asleep, Logan will rock in the crib and set the wheels to squeaking (Eeek-ah! Eeek-ah! Eeek-ah!) over and over and over again until he falls asleep again. This noise doesn't wake up Emma and doesn't really seem to wake him up, either. If the twins are put down for a nap and both are still awake, you can hear them laughing and squealing together until someone finally passes out. Or, sometimes someone will start screaming and when you check on them you'll discover that they've reached through the bars of the cribs and stolen the other's blanket. (We've since moved their cribs a little farther apart to stop the blanket stealing.)

Logan has also made a very interesting developmental leap related to the vacuum cleaner (Yes, this is important! Geez!). I was cleaning their room and as soon as I turned on the vacuum, Emma started crying until I picked her up and put her in the crib where she could watch from an appropriate Vacuum Safety distance. Logan, however, just turned and walked out of the room and then sat down in the hallway while the vacuum was running. As soon as I turned it off, he toddled back in. If I turned it on again, he just left the room and watched quietly from the hall. Smart!

On the nursing front, he's not so smart, though. He's taken to testing out those upper and lower teeth on me when he's tired and the milk isn't coming out fast enough to suit Himself. Then there's the howling and fussing (Mine.) that follows.

These teeth, right here. Don't let that innocent look fool ya!

They're down to nursing three times a day (Thank goodness!): first thing in the morning, right before bedtime and then a nightcap somewhere around 11 pm. Fortunately, they're finally sleeping through the night*, by which I mean from that nightcap until about 7 am. I'd like to drop that feeding, but it seems to involve a lot of screaming. Of course, were I really smart, I wouldn't be up at that hour playing WOW with Eric. I'd be in bed. However, apparently either I really like being sleep deprived, or it's all Eric's fault.

Guess which answer I choose?

It's all Eric's fault! He makes it seem all fun and stuff!

Anyway, back to the twins.

Emma is clearly taller than Logan now, by at least .5 to 1 inch, but he has the meatier thighs of the two. I'm not sure who weighs more, so they're probably still hovering within a few ounces of one another. They love to take baths together and if you throw Caitlin into the mix, they go crazy! The squealing reaches new heights. I think I have hearing damage from it.

The twins take turns chasing one another around and stealing toys from each other. This always results in either a) screaming or b) grabbing and screaming.

Even with that thought in mind, when Caitlin and I went shopping for Xmas presents, I totally spaced it and had Caitlin buy them two separate, non-matching presents. Only after we had left the store and I was driving home did it occur to me that this was a huge mistake. I immediately informed Eric that he had to pick up a matching toy for Logan when he went out to do his own shopping (Dec. 24th, in case you were wondering. We like to go right up to the wire on Xmas shopping 'round here.), which was a good thing since this toy was the hit of the day.

The toy of the hour. The baby cellphone.

You can record messages on it. It rings. It beeps! It plays a couple of songs! It says a couple of things! It comes in silver!

The recording feature was so cool that Caitlin wouldn't leave it alone.

Then when Grammy and Grampy came over to spend the day, it turns out that they had bought one for the twins. Suddenly we had three phones. Caitlin lobbied for the third phone (which was in black) and won out. So now all three kids have cell phones. Personally, I think what she really needs is a recording microphone or Karaoke set. She just likes hearing herself sing. Perhaps for her birthday....

Emma and Logan are working on language skills, both verbal and sign. Logan has the hang of asking us for something to eat by either signing "more" or "eat" and smacking his lips together. He also says ball and bath (which sound remarkably similar, although they get way more excited about baths than balls), kitty and Caitlin (sort of), duck, baby, bye-bye, doggie, puppy, hi, dah-dee, mom-mee and hat. Emma says all the same things and also does a bunch of animal sounds for the assorted books we read. She pops her lips when we read about fish, meows occasionally for kitties, pants for dogs, moos for cows, sometimes whinnies for horses, quacks for ducks, ribbits for frogs and says Nah! or No!, depending on the book we're reading or if she doesn't want something. They probably say other things, but that's all I can think of offhand.

"I berry tock-tive. I got lot to say."

Oh, they also say "Pop-Pop", as we discovered after he babysat for us a couple of weeks ago. Nothing like a little positive reinforcement for a job well done (Thanks Pop-Pop!)! Good going, grandbabies!

They really really like cheesecake.

Grampy, Grampy's cheesecake, and a new cellphone. What more could a boy want?

They also really like people other than just mom and dad and will happily guest surf until they've found the tallest and/or snuggliest visitor in the house. Logan went crazy for Lee (Misty's husband) yesterday. They like to flirt with perfect strangers when we're out shopping.

"Who? Me? Flirt? Never! Well...maybe just a leetle!"

Which reminds me, Logan took his first swan dive out of a shopping cart on Friday.

I was bending down, right next to the cart and looking at cocoa powder when I heard Thump! and looked over to see him flat on his back on the floor, completely poleaxed.

I

FREAKED

OUT.

Except I had to do it all internally, since there I was: in a grocery store where I had to remain calm for Logan, who was inhaling for his trip to Screamville. Ever have to check your child over for blood, contusions, lumps or breaks? Check to see if they can still move limbs or walk? Yeah, that was me, trying to calmly and quietly make sure he was still OK. I swear that boy is losing braincells from all of the falls and head smashing he goes through. Poor thing!

He was fine, in case you're curious. My heart, on the other hand, was going a mile a minute. Emma was calmly watching from inside the cart. They make the carts at Whole Paycheck so small that there's only a seat for a single child. Those of us with twins either have to take two carts or put a kid inside the cart. Guess which I did? This is why my hair is going more and more grey. Whole Paycheck: you are on notice! People with twins also go grocery shopping.

Good thing they're cute.

World's longest eyelashes.

"I can see dah future: possible broked bones an' skateboards. Maybe a tree involved, too."

One of the interesting things about Christmas and the twins (Other than the fact that 15 month olds could care less.) was the fact that everyone that sent gifts was so worried about Caitlin being over-shadowed by the twins that the twins received very few gifts at all. Good thing, too, since we still have all of Caitlin's old toys. The twins have plenty of gear, other than occasionally needing clothing appropriate to their size and the season. They're still quite little and at the 15 month mark, Caitlin was in summer clothing. Caitlin, of course, was thrilled by this turn of events.

Caitlin, being thrilled. Logan, happy as a clam with his Grampy, Caitlin, cheesecake, a phone and a spoon.

The other half of the equation, with a Caitlin cameo.

The days are cold and dreary, but the twins are sweet (Mostly all the time with occasional bursts of ear popping screaming.) and happy. We seem to spend an awful lot of time cleaning up after them and I swear I've never mopped one section of floor so much in my life! Where's my Rosie the Robot?! The cycle of feeding, cleaning, laundry, and changing diapers seems unending and is possibly a Circle of Hell, previously undiscovered.

It's madness, I tell you! Madness!

Still edible.

Well, I must go. Laundry is piling up in my room and the diaper pail is threatening to overflow in a horribly stinky sort of fashion.



* Is this just a boy thing? Caitlin never did it and neither does Emma. All of the boys I know do it or have done it - the completely boneless, throwing themselves backwards onto the floor meltdown.