Tuesday Tidbits

Sam's smile has morphed a little into a sweet little closed mouth smile.  He still grins a big open mouthed toothy grin when he's really happy, but sometimes now he'll smile with his mouth closed when he is content and just simply happy. 

Sam's favorite animal has changed in the last few weeks.  He now has a huge obsession with anything Llama (sheep are soooo last month).  His favorite books?  Llama Llama Red Pajama and Is Your Mama a Llama?  If you humor him by reading one of those books for the 20th time or so that day, he'll settle into your lap and flash you that closed mouth smile to let you know he's grateful you're reading it again.  It's a must before bedtime too.  We told him the alpaca at the State Fair was a llama (close enough) and he was pretty thrilled to see one up close.  That is, until it moved.

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Anna's such a big imitator.  She picks up on things so easily and quickly because of her tendency to imitate everyone around her, both with actions and verbally.  Counting on her to imitate us is the best way for us to get her to do things- either eat more at mealtimes, cleanup, or learn signs.  I foresee an annoyed older brother if she continues to imitate as much as she does now when she gets older, though!  Her favorite thing to imitate right now is snorting or sneezing.

Anna's hair was much darker than Sam's when they were born.  Although his color hasn't changed much from his newborn hair, Anna's is much lighter now and has settled on a darker warm blond (slightly darker blond than Sam's but almost the same hue).  It took much longer for hers to get to growing, but now that it is, I am amazed at the curls on the ends.  The longer it gets, the more the curls roll up, making it seem like her hair isn't getting longer at all.  But when it's wet during a bath, her hair is well past her shoulders.  I love to wrap the little corkscrew curls in my fingers!

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Today Anna bit Sam so hard, she broke his skin.  This was all because he had a toy she wanted and he wouldn't give it up.  While they have both attempted to bite before, this was the first time a lasting mark was made.  We marked the occasion with Anna's first ever time out.  Later, Sam had been up from nap for over an hour and I asked him if he wanted to go wake up Anna.  Before I could blink, he charged in the room (opening the door on his own on the first try) and patted her on the head in the crib before handing Anna her favorite book, Goodnight Gorilla.  ...I think he had forgiven her.

Wordless Wednesday

All smiles!

Amazing Changes

Within the last few days, both babies have really started interacting with us. Anna has especially been talking with us and imitating us. Both babies have been smiling at us for a while, but it was a little hit or miss to get them to smile back when we smiled.

Yesterday, Anna and I had a conversation back and forth that included a lot of "ahs" and "gaas." You could tell she was trying hard to make the same sounds I was. Then I stuck my tongue out at her and she very deliberately copied me (she has been sticking her tongue out on her own for weeks, but this was very obviously an effort to do what I was doing). We did that a few times, and it was great!

I think we're entering a very fun phase right now! :)

(10 weeks old)