Anna and Sam continue to multiply their vocabulary. My favorite word they say now is "trade?" which I taught them to use with each other to minimize the toy scuffles. Its kinda cute to see them ask each other for the toy the other one has, and willingly give it up because they understand what the other one wants. The other night at dinner, they "traded" sippies of milk back and forth 10 times happily because they asked so nicely. :) We are hearing more and more phrases from them on a regular basis. Anna likes to say "hi Mama" when I get them from daycare and both say "hi Bella" when we get home. Sam is starting to tell us when he has a dirty diaper by announcing "I pooped" as well. The other day Sam wanted his water cup out of the frig, and said "and Anna" to get hers for her as well. Such a thoughtful guy. Other new words that I can recall in the last month are "dirty" (which they also sign) "help" (which I have been trying to get them to say for a long time now) "fork" "spoon" "cracker" "phone" and "deer," which of course makes Daddy pretty happy. I'm sure their individual vocabularies are each well over 100 words by now. New signs they make include dirty, cry, peach, clouds and probably more, but signing has slowed down a little now that they are back at daycare during the week and our daycare provider doesn't sign with them. They seemed to be more interested in colors in the last month, saying red, blue, green, orange, pink, purple, yellow, gray, brown, black often, and although I do think they have an understanding of the colors, they have not mastered identifying those colors by any means.
Sam went through a phase this last month where he was obsessed with reading Llama Llama Red Pajama and Is Your Mama a Llama? which he seems to be getting over now. His current book favorites are probably Time for Bed and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. He likes to say the "Boom Boom!" for you while you read, and is showing more interest in naming the letters after you while reading. Anna's favorite book du jour is 5 Little Ducks, and she will not tolerate Sam having that book without her. She loves quacking along and signing duck throughout the book.
Anna and Sam's newest favorite toys seem to be things they can pull behind them like the snail and puppy we have each on a string. I also got them two new puzzles with large knobs for them as half birthday presents, and they gravitate towards those often. I have been wanting soft chairs for them for a while, and after seeing a great deal on these on Amazon (much less than their current price), I snatched two up, and they love those too. They are light enough so they can tote them around the house, but are not easy to tip. I got a purple and orange chair, but Anna seems to prefer the orange one the best. She will plop down in the chair to watch Baby Signing Time and won't budge until it is over.
Besides the old body parts they could identify (eyelashes, feet, mouth, hands, head, hair, ears, nose, tongue, belly button), Sam and Anna are especially enjoying identifying and naming their toes and other people's toes. They also identify fingers, knees, legs, arms, and butt now.
Personality-wise, Anna has been expressing her sense of humor more lately. That girl is such a character. She loves to fake laugh along with you. Anna loves to rock her baby back and forth as well. She's also showing more and more that she's a girly girl. She loves shoes. I got new red patent leather mary janes at the fall multiples resale the other week, and once she saw them, she had to wear them... even though she was wearing purple knit shorts and a purple tank. Once they were on, she pranced around the house obviously very pleased with her new shoes. Now that I'm back at work, I wear more necklaces, and not only is she very interested in them, but she wants me to take them off and put them on her (and often has temper tantrums when I don't). At daycare, our provider says she'll try to put whatever she can on as a necklace or bracelet.
Sam's newest nickname is "Klingon" as in- he's much, much more clingy on me lately. I think he's aware more than ever that he's at daycare during the day without me and that both Mama and Dada are at work. Because of that, once we get home in the afternoons, I have to hold him until it is supper time. While I am impressed with the biceps I now have from holding twins for the past 18 months, I would like to be able to put him down and pay some attention to Anna during that time too. I can't wear him in a carrier during that time, because if Anna sees the carrier she wants to be in it as well. While I do have an Ergo and a Mei Tai that are wearable at the same time, wearing over 40 lbs of toddler strapped to my upper body for an hour before dinner every day doesn't sound like very much fun.
All 4 molars have now broken through for both Sam and Anna! Anna's total tooth count at 18 months is 12 and Sam's is at 10. We are still waiting on those bottom two teeth of Sam's to make an appearance.
Back at school for me and back at daycare for Sam and Anna means back to cold and virus season as well. It didn't take long for runny noses to appear again. Sam did seem a little ill last week (99.5 temp, glassy eyes, fussy, and loose stools), but he got over it quickly. BUT no sign of an ear infection this past month for the first time since February! Woohoo for tubes!
Our proficient walkers have taken the past month to fine tune their skills. Sam loves running around the house and yard, and Anna loves turning in circles. They seem like such big kids now because they walk to and from the car and daycare on their own these days.
I'm seeing a trend of every other month being harder in the temper tantrum department. Months 14 and 16 there there were a lot, while months 15 and 17 there were less. I'm hoping that this month breaks the trend! I have heard that the terrible twos peak at 18 months and slowly start to get better until the second birthday- I really hope that is the way it goes with Sam and Anna. Since Anna bit Sam really hard, we haven't had to give any time outs, so that's good. Coupled with learning to communicate "trade," maybe they are starting to get their boundaries a little bit more and what they can and can't do? I certainly hope so.
Our naps and nighttime sleep improved again after last month because, well, um.... we gave back Anna's pacifier after a week of increasingly hellish sleep. We kept waiting for it to get better, but 7 days later it was not getting better at all, it was getting worse and worse. I guess at this point sleep for Sam and Anna is more important to me than removing Anna's pacifier at all times. Bedtime is at 7:30 pm, while wake up is at 6:50 am. Nap time is usually at noon until 3ish pm.
Anna's pickier eating has created some issues for us. Her blood work indicated an iron deficiency, so along with giving her iron supplement drops, we need to make a conscious effort to increase her iron intake through the foods she eats. We are also working hard to up both Sam and Anna's fat and calorie intake to make up for the %ile drop from their 18 month well-child appointment. Let's just say we put a lot more butter on their food lately! Most meals we finish up with a pouch of organic food that has a high calorie amount. We just make sure that they both eat a substantial amount at every meal, even if we have to keep offering different things to get them to eat (where in the past, I didn't sweat a smaller meal because they were overall decent eaters). We'll see if it makes any difference when have both re-weighed in a month.
1 comment:
They are as adorable as ever!! I can't believe how big they're getting!
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