Twenty Months

For some reason, the month of April seemed to drag by, but May whipped past. Suddenly, it seems, the twins are 20 months old. Four months away from their second birthday.

Can you believe it?

They've picked up a few skills here and there and learned a few new tricks. They've added more words to their vocabularies and decided on some foods they will and won't eat. However, they still both love baths.

What have I got in mah bukkit?

Jazz hands! Modesty duck says "Quack!"

At just about any point in any given day, if you suggest a bath, the twins will squeal and run for the bathroom. They will willingly leap into the empty bath and wait for you to fill it, and steep themselves in a tub full of toys.

You know we gonna regret dis picture bein' on da interwebs when we firteen, right?

Mmmmm. Duck!

They climb all over everything like monkeys, making me wonder just how far back up the chain you have to go in my family before you find one. I suspect it's not that far back. If you could see Emma climbing chairs, beds, couches and cribs, you'd wonder too. She's always ahead of Logan on the climbing front. The first to clamber up any previously unconquered object. She's still working on how to climb up my legs while I work in the kitchen.

She's getting pretty good at it, too.

Logan, however, still won't hold onto you while you hold onto him. Very frustrating. And tiring.

Interestingly enough, he learned a new word yesterday: Up.

Yes, it's a simple word, easy enough to say, but long ago he seems to have determined that "Ehn! Ehn!" was a good enough catch all phrase for just about anything he wanted. Since it worked, he stuck with it. Upon thinking about it, most of their words seem to center around food. Raisins, booberry, strawberry, cheeeeeeeze, cracker, cookie, milk, eat, water, chokkit, omnomnom, etc. They also say kitty, doggie and duck and imitate animal sounds (we're working on a wolf howl since there's nothing cuter than babies pretending to be wolves), but they sure like their food.

They also really like going to the park.

I shall conquer this slide through the sheer force of my awesomeness.

On Caitlin's last day of school, we all went to the school picnic at the park. There, the twins discovered a new food.

Om nom nom!

The frozen popsicle.

Nom nom nom.

They also discovered that the baby swing could be shared.

Who told her dis be a good idea?

This actually resulted in the 3 remaining swings being taken up by pairs of girls facing one another and squealing in delight. Those twins - they're trend setters.

On one side of the swing you have happiness.

Wheeeeee!

On the other side of the swing?

Sigh.

Resignation.

Why you do dis to me?

These kids are just never happy.

In other news, they are really and truly sleeping through the night. They are also in the process of weaning and are down to 1 nursing at night. That might possibly be over, too, as of last night. Molars and nursing just aren't a good combination for me.

Latest naptime game: the blanket toss. Now that we've pulled their cribs away from each other, they've decided they like throwing their blankets out and then crying until we retrieve them

I have more to add, but I hear Logan hollering from upstairs so my time is up. If I don't post this now, it may not get posted until they're two.

Updated later to add:

Continuing on! They are still crazy about one another, although I notice Logan pets Emma's hair more than she does his (He says "Sooooooft." while he does it so that he pets her gently.), but she gives him more hugs and kisses. She also wrestles him to the floor more often than he does her, but that's because of her massive girth. She probably has an inch on him.

Whenever we put them down for naps, the first minute is spent crying, by one or the other, that Nooo! they're really not tired! In the second minute they settle down and get quiet. In the third minute, the shrieking and squealing starts. I'm not sure what they're doing in there, but it's really funny from the outside. After several minutes of happiness, it usually ends in Logan crying because he's lost his blanket. Were they playing tug-of-war and he lost or did his throwing the blanket over the side cause this reaction? Who knows! Some days it seems like night-cams would be a really good investment just to see what's happening in there.

Emma's latest climbing adventure has been to climb into Logan's crib. If the side is down, she can get in without any problems. If the side is up she looks like she could fall over at any minute. She hasn't yet tried to climb out, but you know it's just a matter of time and then it will be the end of the Crib Era.

I'm dreading that one. How do you get them both to go to sleep if they are both in beds on the floor? It's not like you can strap them down to keep the playing to a minimum (Tempting though that idea is.) and I really don't like the idea of having to go in and out and in and out of their room to get them to stop playing and go to sleep.

They're both still very messy eaters, although Emma wins the Worst Eater award in the Utensil category. She can get the food to her mouth, but never seems to open wide enough and about 1/2 of whatever she's eating seems to wind up on her chest. And her cheeks. And her legs and feet. Yogurt is particularly horrible to watch her eat, since as it dries into her clothing it becomes soft cheese.

Ugh.

Logan, though, is quite handy with a spoon and fork.

He also really likes baby toothbrushes and wanders around the house gripping his (or hers) in his hand and insisting that you rinse it for him.

They like to help push the carriage around, but not sit in it for any length of time anymore. This is a particular problem when we're out in public and it's just me doing the baby wrangling. Do you have any idea how far away your parked car becomes when you have to carry two struggling children back towards it? They may only weigh ~20 lbs, but it doubles when they crank up their Angry Baby Densiometers.

You know what I'm talking about: an angry baby suddenly weighs more when you want it to do something it doesn't want to do. Yeah. That's the ABD system. Comes with all babies. Mine like to crank their settings up to 11 when they really don't want to go home.

Both of the twins are still dancing up a storm whenever we turn the music on. They seem to especially like any music with a heavy drum beat.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention Logan's current obsession: Wall-E. Yes, the movie. I turn on movies for them so I can get the dishes done without having a 20 lb leech attached to my leg, crying for attention and it works. Except that once the movie is on, Emma watches it, but Logan leaves the room and attaches himself to my leg. If I turn it off, he hollers for it to be on. He just wants it playing in the background so that he can go watch at his convenience.

Little bugger.

I've been trying to broaden their movie repertoire by throwing in Madagascar 2 (Which I loved, as it turns out.). I've also learned that the more often you are required to watch any movie with a baby, you suddenly discover little details that you never notice the first time around. Or the 3rd.

They twins haven't begun speaking in sentences, yet, but they're pretty good at communicating even without advanced techniques. Bonking your sibling on the head with a toy means Give me that! and slapping food out of mom and dad's hands means I don't want that. Crying and throwing tantrums still means Put me to bed NOW!, so we get along pretty well. Too much screaming makes me feel crazy, though, so that's bad.

I've gotta tell you, though, the fact that we're now only 4 months away from being two keeps blowing my mind. Only 3 years to go until kindergarten! Woo!