My "babies" are getting bigger and bigger. Sam wore his first 2T shirt the other day. He has only been wearing 18 month clothing since mid September, so since he was in 12 months from last winter until this fall, we haven't gotten nearly enough wear out of the 18 month stuff. I guess our weight gain project is continuing to work! This was the first time I was a little sad about the need to size up. It just seems like a big jump from sizes in "months" or sizes in "T" for toddler. Anna's fitting into her 18 month clothing even better, although she did just wear a 9-12 month onesie the other day. Sam wears size 6 shoes and Anna wears 5.5 size shoes.
Phrases are a regular occurrence now. It is very common for them to put together 3 words/concepts to communicate with us, like "mama, more please," or "no Bella, down!"I would even go so far as to say that both have said things that would qualify as sentences as well. Anna has said "Uh oh mama, where did it go again?" complete with the cutest little hand gesture as she shrugs her shoulders. Both Sam and Anna are regularly using me, I, my, and mine to refer to themselves as well. I was wondering when the "mine!" would show up. Sam is really enjoying saying "my daddy" or "my mommy" They also like to label things as their color when talking about objects, like telling you that an apple they are eating is red, or that our car is gray, etc. As for total number of words they know and use- I gave up counting a long time ago, because it is well over several hundred at this point.
Both Sam and Anna are making a lot of new animal signs right now... mostly because our newest Signing Time DVD is Volume 9- Zoo Train. Sam and Anna especially like the sign for gorilla and zebra, while they also now know tiger, hippo, rhino, lobster, shark, shrimp, dolphin, panda, crocodile, giraffe, monkey, octopus, whale, crab, kangaroo, penguin, seal, camel, elephant, bat, lion, starfish and animal. These two kids adore animals, so this was right up their alley. Anna especially is stringing together multiple signs with words to communicate, like "more again please?" They both seem to understand and can follow most directions we ask- such as "give Anna her coat" or "please hold my hand" or "put the puzzles away."
Sam and Anna know their colors and will say most of them, although green is the hardest to decipher and white is the least consistent. Having a gray car helped them learn that color! Anna prefers purple stuff, while Sam likes yellow and red best right now. I've caught both naming heart, star and circle shapes, but they do know what a triangle is if I tell them to find the triangle, they just don't say that word verbally yet. Sam's favorite letter continues to be M, and so he's been pretty stubborn to focus on any other letters right now. Anna likes O and e (I wear a lot of clothing with a word on it that has M, o, and e in it), although she says "eee" for P, Z, T, C, B, D, G and V since when you say them, they kind of end with that sound. They can both distinguish between "Sam"and "Anna" in print. Anna's favorite number to say is 2, while Sam likes 9. They don't really count (and by count I mean say the numbers in order) on their own, but they know when to say their favorite numbers in the sequence when I am counting. :) If they "count" on their own, it often comes out as one number said several times as they point, like "2, 2, 2.."
It seems like Sam and Anna are more independent players than before, but that might be a by product of the amount of time that their daddy has been away from home lately. Their pretend play has become more complex as well. Anna talks to her babies and hold conversations with them- asking them questions, and ending the conversations with a kiss. She likes to change her baby doll's diaper, put it in her high chair, give it her pacificer, etc. Sam is really into Elmo right now. He searches out the diapers that have Elmo on them twice (all of ours have Elmo on them once), and requests those. He likes to sing along to Elmo's song when we play it for him. They continue to be stellar clean-uppers. I don't know we did it, but we managed to have kids that like putting things away in something rather than dump stuff out. It is our routine to clean up together before we eat or go somewhere else.
Anna's favorite book is probably Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin or any of the How Do Dinosaurs... books this month. She really likes the dinosaur books and we have several of them. She's finally showing less interest in 5 Little Ducks. I'm enjoying the break from reading that one multiple times a day! Sam's favorite book is still the family member book I made on shutterfly. He loves his grandmas so much, he was thrilled to see them over Thanksgiving. That kid was grinning ear to ear and saying over and over, "grandma, grandma grandma!" as soon as he realized where we were. He does love two books that have horses in them as well- Big Red Barn and The Very Busy Spider.
With Daddy being gone on 3 trips in the past month, Sam's been going through another separation anxiety stage. Most days he needs to bring his "Bap Bap" into daycare (his lovey- a white cloth diaper we used as a burp cloth) although she says he doesn't carry it around all day long. He had a lot of anxiety when Daddy would pack up our vehicle, going outside multiple times to carry stuff out over our road trip this past weekend. I'm hopeful this stage will pass once we've been back to normal for awhile.
Both Sam and Anna regularly climb into their own high chairs at meals, and both have climbed into their car seats in our cars on their own. Still no sign of climbing out of cribs anytime soon, thanks to sleep sacks though.... Anna's throwing ability has really improved in the last month. She can really launch stuff with her overhand throw. She had a lot of fun throwing around a football the other day. Both can walk up and down stairs using the railing independently, but they have been doing that for awhile. Sam and Anna each have very different running styles. Sam tends to take smaller steps but goes at a faster speed, while Anna takes larger steps going a slower speed. Their dancing style is different too- Sam prances on his tiptoes, while Anna tends to bend her knees and bounce up and down .
Sam and Anna are pretty proficient at using spoons now- Anna can especially use a spoon to put soup in her mouth without spilling. Since she loves tomato soup, this is a nice development to help speed along mealtimes. Sam is starting to like puzzles with multiple pieces that fit together rather than the one piece by itself puzzles we've done for months.
Sleep wise, things are similar to last month, although I've noticed that we typically get a long nap out of them on Saturdays- after putting them down at 1 we usually end up waking them up after 4 pm so it doesn't interfere with bedtime. Our one nap a day is always over 2 hours, typically 2 1/2 hours, and up to 3+ hours before we will wake them up. Bedtime is at 7:30/7:45, wake up is at 6:50 on weekdays and they will sleep usually until 7/8 am on weekends (so usually 11-12 hours of nighttime sleep).
Sam has been showing more readiness signs for potty training, although I still don't have plans to do that anytime soon. He has started telling us before he is going to poop, and tries to change his diaper on his own afterwards if we aren't quick enough. It has been nice to ask both of them if they have a dirty diaper and get a correct answer instead of needing to do a smell check too.
Sam also finally got one of his lower lateral incisors- about the same time Anna's first canine broke through. We got a nice break from teething there for a while. Sam's canines are close to arriving soon, with a total tooth count of 11. Anna currently has 13 total teeth.
Sam and Anna have become a little more pickier eaters this month. They've both learned to lick or suck off any dipping sauce without eating the food, so our old trick of using dipping sauces like ketchup to get them to eat something won't work anymore. While they still eat veggies, they both definitely eat less vegetables than before. Food favorites include grapes, mac and cheese, and pasta with red sauce.
The best part of twins is how they interact with each other. Sam and Anna always kiss each other goodnight, and kiss frequently during the day. They love to give Group Hugs on comand. Anna recently has started comforting Sam if he's upset by rubbing his back and telling him "it's okay." She also has tried to tickle Sam when he wasn't wearing clothes before a bath saying "tickle tickle!" 20 months is a blast!
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