TIDWTFT

Sam

I've been trying to improve my language around Sam and Anna, which has proven to be harder than I thought.  Maybe because at my job I have to censor myself all the time and home used to be the place I could swear like a sailor!

The other day our dog was frantically trying to get a piece of food I dropped like there was no tomorrow and pushed my foot away in the process.  I said "Jesus, dog!"  I know, bad- but I've accidentally said worse in front of them.  Then Sam said, "Jesus loves me!" with an emphatic nod. (We sing the song Jesus Loves Me a lot.)  Trying to deflect my statement, I agreed, and then said, " And Jesus loves Anna too." Right after that, with his feet on the table while sitting in his booster Sam said, 'Jesus want feet down,"  nodding again.  Of course I agreed again- "Yes, Jesus would want your feet down."  Then put them down he did!  I'm still trying to get a good video of the two of them signing Jesus Loves Me, but have been unsuccessful yet.  They keep stopping as soon as I start taping to look at the screen.

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Anna

Our daycare provider is currently fostering a little girl that is just over 18 months old.  When she started foster care there about a month ago, she knew zero words. Our daycare provider decided to start teaching her sign language, although her knowledge of signs is limited to what Sam and Anna regularly use while there.  Since then, Anna has been basically teaching both the little girl AND our DCP signs. 

The little girl was evaluated by Birth-3 (Early Intervention) and qualified for services initially.... but now a month later, she is no longer delayed enough to qualify, in part due to the amount of signs she communicates currently that Anna has taught her.  The Birth-3 evaluators asked Anna to show them signs during the visit and they were apparently impressed with what she could do and vocalized while signing. (For example, while signing giraffe, Anna always says, " Giraffe- long neck!")  I'm proud of my little girl for teaching a child only 6 months younger than her signs she can use to communicate!

For the Love of Language

As Sam and Anna grow older, I am discovering more and more how fascinated I am with their language development. 

In the last few weeks, Sam has really mastered the use of the words there, this, that, etc.  we hear a lot of "I want this" or "What is that?" although this, that and there are used in multiple contexts.  It also feels like they are at a stage where they are learning a hundred words a day.  It seems like a word only has to be said to them a few times and they've got it.  For example, we pass a water fountain on the highway on the way home from daycare.  After asking "What's that water?" once and  being reminded one other time, Sam now loves to point out "Water fountain over there!" every time we drive past.  It is the same way with the two water towers near our exit off the highway.  I asked him once if he knew what was inside the water tower, and he replied "water" (although I think he was just repeating the word water at the time)... so I of course praised him for good thinking after telling him he was right and he hasn't forgotten.  Now it's an exclamation of "Two water towers!  Water in there!" every time we drive by.  This week I took it one step further and told Sam and Anna that the word on the white water tower says _____, because it is the name of our town.  So I told them that _____ is where we live and now, when I ask either Sam or Anna, "Where do you live?"  both can reply _____ more often than not.

Anna's defining language characteristic right now is her order giving.  She's certainly come to the realization that if she communicates what she wants you to do well enough, she can often get what she wants.  Unfortunately, her frequent "Walk away!" complete with finger pointing much of the time makes her seem quite bossy and rude, so we're working on getting her to include "please" with her favorite phrase 100% of the time.  But really, when she's saying "Walk away!" it could mean a whole host of things- 1.) please stop so I can try to do it myself 2.) I want you to leave me alone 3.) I don't want to play with what you are playing 3.) I am worried you are gong to take what I have 5.) if you are with me, I am directing you where I want to go with you 6.) I think you should be somewhere else doing something else- like if it is dinner time and she wants us to be making dinner or if she wants to play with us and she wants us to do something specific in her pretend play, like go grocery shopping with the play carts, or take a pretend nap (a top favorite pretend play activity).

Another cute language story: I've been practicing getting both Sam and Anna to say their first and last name when asked "What is your name?" and they have been doing pretty well.  (We usually practice stuff like this while driving somewhere stuck in carseats.)  One day this week, Anna decided to say "Mama (last name)! Daddy (last name)!" after saying her full name.  And again, I told her that she was right then praised her for good thinking, and that we do have the same last name as her and Sam.  Then Sam piped in Bella (last name)!  Bella is our dog... so they are definitely making connections between being part of our family and what that means!  They found it amazing (like eyes and mouths wide open amazing) when I told them their Grandpa Dan, Grandma Joanne and Aunts Lindsay and Mary also had the same last name.

I also think it is interesting how the same word can come out so differently between the two of my same-age children.  While generally Anna has better pronunciation and definitely a better signing vocabulary (she has a much better body awareness and can pick up new signs very quickly after watching and practicing only a few times), Sam is much more vocal in playing with language and repeating things.  Sam's vocal "orange" has a definite /j/ sound at the end... or sometimes a /sh/.  Anna's has a Hebrew /ch/ sound at the end making it come out /oranch/- such a funny harsh guttural sound coming out of a little peanut!

Words, Words, Words!

Just for fun, I tried to think of all the words Sam and Anna now have in their vocabulary.  At 16 months, here is the best list I can come up with.  This will probably be my last list of words because their word knowledge seems to be growing exponentially every day.

Between the two of them they say:
Mama, Mom, Dada, Bella, Sam, Anna, Grandma, Grandpa, Zach, bone, milk, water, all done, more, on, off, light, out, shoes, socks, belly button, gentle, boo, giggle (yes, Anna actually says giggle giggle- so cute!), hi ,bye, go, thank you, hat, baby, Baby Signing Time, sit, down, up, block, box, eye, nose, teeth, I love Mom, wow, uh oh, baa (sheep sound), moo, bawk (chicken sound), tweet (bird sound), woof, dog, meow, horse, neigh, duck, quack, that, wha's that?, diaper, ball, boat, bus, bath, fish, banana, strawberry, blueberry, yum, blue, green, back, book, door, fan, good girl, eat, no- and probably more that I can't think of. (There's a few words that one says but not the other, and visa versa, but mostly they have the same # of words).

It's amazing to me that just a little over a month ago, Anna could say 12 words and Sam had a vocabulary of 24 words, and now they are regularly using 70+ words throughout the week.

They also sign a lot of the words they say:
Mom, grandma, grandpa, milk, dog, shoes, water, more, thank you, all done, hi, bye, baby, baby signing time, ball, diaper, strawberry, banana, eat, fish, horse, bath, boat, bus, hat, book, etc.

But some things they sign without saying the words are:
Wash hands, soap, please, bird, train, airplane, car, brush teeth, drink, - and probably more that I can't think of.  If they want to sign something, but don't quite get how to make it, both Sam and Anna move their hands around to sign "signing."  It's kinds cute to see them attempt to tell us something that way.

Now they use 35+ signs, and a month ago Sam was making 15 signs while Anna made 13. 

It is so great to be home with them this summer to witness their communication really take off.  This is a really fun age- yes, they are always on the go and wear me out, but it's wonderful to understand what's going on in their brains so often.  Since they are understanding directions and following them more and more, our daily routine is that much easier as a result.  Sam and Anna understand when I say, go get your shoes, a book, etc. and do what I ask.  They understand when I say it is time to eat, and go to their highchairs.  If I say, time to clean up (okay, I do sing a song too), both Sam and Anna start putting things back where we keep them.  Sometimes, they remember that it is time to clean up before we do something else like eat or go somewhere and start picking up before being told (If only I could get them to keep doing this for the rest of their lives!) If either my husband or I ask if they want to go somewhere, they go to the door and pick up their shoes.  Of course they understand what no means, and sometimes follow that direction.  They understand "sit down" "get your milk" "bath time" "be nice (or gentle)" as well.

Molars Stink

Molars are much worse than I thought they'd be.  We never really had issues with the first 14 teeth that erupted around here, but that first molar is causing quite a ruckus.  Sam is miserable.  He won't nap for longer than an hour.  He is waking up off and on all night, and was awake (miserable) from about 2-4 am last night.  And all that is with generic Tylenol.  Combine that tooth discomfort with the lack of normal sleep and we've got one cranky little boy around here who won't let me set him down (sorry Anna) and doesn't go more than 30 second without fussing when he's awake.  I really hope we don't have to go through this for all the other molars to come.

In other more happy news, it's our 8th anniversary today.  We celebrated this weekend when my Mother in Law came to visit and babysat so we could go out.  We went out to dinner and a movie.  the last time we were able to go to both dinner and a movie was the month before Sam and Anna were born.  (We saw Avatar that time and I was so proud of my 8-month-pregnant-with-twins-self for only one bathroom break during the extra long movie!)  Tonight we'll just have a special dinner at home.

Other latest happy things: Anna's newest thing to say is "good girl" to our dog Bella.  Most of the time, she'll start petting her too.  I told Sam "good job" yesterday afternoon, and Anna then said "good girl" to him.  Adorable.  She's also started to say "thank you" after I say thank you to her.  My husband also got Sam to say "I love mom" last night- punctuated with a hug.  Heart bursting, tears forming all sorts of ridiculous cuteness to hear that for the first time in his little voice. They are growing up at lightning speed.  Where did my babies go???

Wordless Wednesday- Video Edition

Sam's newest favorite thing to do is roll all over soft things like blankets, pillows, and our couch, rub his face into the fabric and get really, really silly.

After a tasty but messy lasagna dinner, Anna says, "All done!" her new favorite thing to say. Usually she does a really good job signing it too, but this was the best I could get on video.

Melt My Heart

We've moved beyond dadadada and other babbling around here at 8 1/2 months old- Sam and Anna have started repeating words we commonly say.

Anna's first "word": Bella- our dog's name (although I'm not sure she understands the meaning of it yet, she did actually repeat it without prompting after my husband said the word). This is not surprising to us at all, since both Anna and Bella are enthralled with each other. She repeated it when we did try to get her to say it again.

Not to be outdone, Sam's first "word" (again, although I'm not sure he understands the meaning of it yet, he did say it on his own, without prompting) was said a few hours later today: his was Anna. He repeated it for me a few times after I tried to get him to say it again.

Cue the "awwws...."

(This is a video of Sam and Anna chatting with each other- not saying "Bella" or "Anna." I just included it because I think it is cute! You can hear Sam babbling to Anna and you can hear Anna's current favorite sound to make: her gurgling noise.)

Talking At 4 Months????

I took this video to document how Sam and Anna had that magical moment recently in which they started to discover each other. They've spontaneously held hands a few times in the past, but that was different. They now seem aware of each other as a person. Sam smiled at Anna the other day, and he only smiles at people. Anna babbled at Sam this week too. We're on the brink of a great milestone that not many babies get to experience: when a twin learns they have a built in playmate to go through life with. One that will be there every step of the way- learning how to eat together, crawl together, walk together, grow up together.

Little did I know that I captured something pretty darn amazing, until I watched it on our computer. It's about 27 seconds in- listen closely to what Anna says:




Am I crazy or did my 4 month old baby tell her twin brother "I love you"????? OMG- and she says it so purposely- she doesn't "say" anything else but that. First rolling over at 4 weeks (only 3 days old adjusted age, to boot), now talking in sentences??? I'm astounded by her genius-ness. ;-)

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)