Sixteen Months!

Our bubbas are sixteen months old and are now walking all over the place and getting into everything.  If it is not nailed down then they are trying to get into it.  I tell myself that one day my house will not be in a constant state of being undone.  We are learning the chaos of having toddlers but also the joy of having these little delightful people to talk to and laugh with.

Muscle shirts?  Seriously, I die.

The boys are still learning new words but it has slowed way down since last month.  Now they string all the words they know together as if they are having an actual conversation.  It sounds something like this: "Cookie...la-ba-ta ...bubble...cookie...Bible...papa...la-la...hava-ah-ohs (avocados)."  These kids crack me up.  They can now say cracker and try really hard to say blueberries. Winston can say his own version of sunglasses. They have learned to say Jesus and it is truly the sweetest thing to hear. They LOVE Bible story time and will effusively say 'Bible, Bible' when they know it is time to get ready for bed.  They love to flex and show their muscles.  Their flexing looks more like they are seizing (and I can make that joke since I actually have a seizure disorder) and it is soooo funny.  They like to strike a pose all the time when they are eating their meals.  They like to dance and sway to music and are pretty good at shaking their little booties.

I might have put on "Yo Gabba Gabba" to make them sit still and face the same direction.

The boys fit perfectly in 18 month clothing and are still wearing quite a few of their 12 month clothing. They are wearing size four diapers and size four shoes.  It is hard finding shoes because they have feet that are kind of fat so adjustable sandals are our friends right now.  Their favorite foods are avocados and blueberries and they would eat them for as long as they are put on their trays.  They love "Yo Gabba Gabba" and it is the one show they will watch start to finish without going off to explore again.  They love petting the dogs and say "ruff ruff" when they see them.  They are learning the other animal sounds for a cow, duck, horse, etc.  They love water and splashing like crazy in the bath tub. They like their water table and being misted with the nozzle on the hose. 

Both boys like to say "hi" all the time and to whomever they see...even the people on TV.  They have become such cuddle bugs and I am enjoying having active little boys that take breaks to just sit on my lap.  They love their papa and get so excited when he comes home from work.  Papa also gets hugs before he leaves for work. They will even give kisses now when asked. The boys are still taking two naps a day and generally sleep from 7:30 to 7:00ish. The boys are still producing new teeth with Winston having a total of sixteen and Abraham having twelve.  It has not been pretty lately with Winston getting all four cuspids at once and Abraham dealing with some serious crowding and this lateral incisor and cuspid that just cannot seem to push through.  Poor kids have big teeth and a small mouth like me. 

I cornered them in the hall to take a "walking" pic otherwise they take off in different directions. 

 Abraham is our little ham and lives to get a reaction and a laugh from people.  He is walking so well now and in the last week has just taken off. Abraham can almost walk as well as Winston. We learned that he is a climber.  Fortunately we do not have stairs and he has not figured out how to climb up on chairs, the fireplace. etc.  It is a life changer to have these little people taking off in different direction. He has become so affectionate lately and it melts my heart when he walks up to me and dives into my lap for hugs. The down side is that he has become more clingy and will cry whenever I need to put him down.  I am hoping it is a short phase.  He likes to steal apples and avocados out of the fruit bowl and start chowing down.  One day he had a green little face from an avocado he absconded with and when caught, spit the pieces of hard shell into my hand.  Seriously, he is so funny. He walks around and has this little hummy sing song thing that he does.  It is hard to explain except that is just how he is...always moving and a personality to match. This kid loves sugar and has a sweet tooth like his mama. He is very impressed with special treats and it is an incentive for his toilet use. 

Mr. Abraham with a trace a chocolate on his face aka bribery.

Walking with some confidence

This little peanut wanted to sit with me and then proceeded to give me Eskimo kisses.  Love him.

Winston is still our little singer and tries to sing a long with "Jesus Loves Me".  The only words that come through are Jesus and Bible and it is absolutely adorable.  Winston loves dirt and will sit right down and start sifting it through his hands and dumping it all over his clothes.  He is our little engineer and has to see how everything works up close.  He "helps" unload the dishwasher, plays with all the attachments on the vacuum and wants to open and unload every drawer. He is wonderful at entertaining himself and playing alone. Abraham has been taking longer naps lately and Winston will walk around the kitchen and play happily allowing me to get some stuff done. He is becoming very verbal and likes to try to repeat new words.  He likes to try to mimic Eric and say things with this deep, growly voice.

Mr. Winston

Hot stuff

Oh, just helpin' mama with the dustin'...or playin' my air guitar, whichever you prefer.

Giggles with Papa.

We are loving this stage in A&W's life.  It can be hard some days but I know we are going to look back with such fondness on these days in the future.  We are trying to live in the moment each day.

Fifteen Months!

Well, the boys turned fifteen months old this past weekend and we finally have some toddling toddlers in our house.  It finally clicked for Winston in the last week and he is walking longer and longer distances.  He can now walk down the hall way or across the room if he is on a roll.  Winston can turn and also do circles so he is pretty impressed with his mobility these days.  Abraham can take 3-4 steps before he falls.  Both boys can now stand up without pulling up on anything without any problem.  They can both stand and squat to pick something up and then stand again.  Abraham has once again shrunk back from trying to walk and is focusing on cruising furniture and crawling.  I know it is going to click for him as well and then I will be going crazy trying to chase after the two of them. 
 

  Abraham (left) and Winston-I have to work harder for these smiles in their pics these days.

Having the boys taking steps and learning to walk is in itself a huge change but they are also gaining a lot of new words.  It thrills my heart when they say something clearly enough that I understand.  Communication, blessed communication.  It is hard when little ones cannot convey their needs and wants, so I am grateful that the boys are beginning to communicate with us.  Abraham is very verbal and started repeating words back to us last week (not perfectly though, mind you). Winston started in on the fun as well when he saw how excited we would get about Abraham saying words.  Abraham and Winston can now both say juice, poop (poo-poo), hat (at-huh), diaper (diap-uh), Bible (Bi-bo), cheese (chiz) and avocado (havaka). Abraham can also say, teeth, bubbles and book.  Abraham and Winston will repeat the word thirsty (fursty). They can both say apple and doggie very clearly.  They do not say my name, mama, very often but they are saying papa all the time now.  Abraham is very effusive and and commanding when he uses his words.  He repeats them again and again in order to make them sound correct.  Winston is more quiet in his tone and will say things under his breath.  Abraham will be saying something and I realize Winston is saying the same word just as clearly but not as loud.  It's as though Winston's words are for himself.  He has a very strong, independent streak so I think it is showing us he is his own man.  Abraham feeds off the praise and excitedly shows off his learning. I am obviously thrilled that our twin boys are already so verbal since both boys and twins tend to behind on their speech.  It is honestly hard keeping track of their words at this stage.  I am trying to write down words as they repeat them and when they start using them on their own spontaneously but it changes by the day.

I had my first sort of conversation with Abraham.  It went something like this:

Me: If you go poop in the toilet, you will get a cookie.

Abraham: Poo-poo tookie?!?

Me: Yes, if you go poop in the toilet you will get a cookie.

(After he accomplished the task)

Abraham: Tookie! tookie!

And trust me, if I do not get that cookie to him quickly enough, he will definitely express how he feels about it. 

Mr. Personality, my Abraham

He loves to find objects to slide across the floor so that he can speed crawl.

Abraham has become more extroverted as of late and has a smile for whoever smiles at him.  He is a talker and a wiggle worm.  He loves looking at books and turning their pages.  He has this look on his face most times that seems to say he is wanting to have fun and is excited.  It is sweet seeing his infectious joy.  He obviously loves his cookies and is very impressed with special treats.  Eric says that he thinks Abraham is more like him. 

This morning Winston was super cranky.  I asked him if he was thirsty and wanted a drink.  Once I brought him his cup, he said 'fursty.'  I could see him light up with the realization that 'fursty' meant he would get a drink.  Hopefully this will mean less tantrums and more talking.  My kids never really caught on to baby sign language.  I tried to be consistent enough that they would catch on but they just don't seem to like to do it. I constantly tell myself that each child is different and there is not a one size fits all approach. 

Winston-this kid is intense and serious and so is his smile.

Watch out world, he is on the move!

Winston is analytical and serious.  He can be goofy and playful when he is feeling comfortable with his environment.  For a while he was our extrovert but he has returned to more of how he was when he was born and quietly listens to everything around him.  He likes to growl because we laugh when he does it.  He is our snuggle bug.  Winston likes to quietly sing to himself.  Eric says that Winston is more like me. 

They are going to have a lot of pictures of them in the bath tub when they grow up.

We are dealing with a lot of the normal toddler stuff like tantrums and not sharing.  It is exhausting trying to referee them and try to help them understand empathy.  It is hard because Winston has started to get very aggressive with Abraham (formerly vice versa) and will slap him in frustration or throw objects.  Sigh.  The boys are also cutting teeth like crazy.  Winston is now at eleven teeth and Abraham has ten.  They have several very close to coming in.  I am telling myself we are just getting this stage out of the way and will hopefully have it wrapped up before they turn two.

Raising children has its highs and lows but it is the most wonderful job I could imagine having.  We are immensely blessed. 

House Full

Since I am home during the day now, we set up some appointments to get some things looked at in the house.  It seemed like all the sudden there were these items that popped up that neither one of us had the ability to fix.  Eric called our home warranty company regarding the different items and they said they would call back within 24 hours to schedule a time to come to the house within the next week.  Scratch that.  Everyone and their brother came over today within a 8-hour period.  I was glad to have such a speedy response but it was a bit overwhelming. The plumber came to look at a leaking toilet and our hot water heater.  The HVAC guy came to look at the blower motor in the furnace.  The electrician figured out what was wrong with our master bathroom lights.  The high speed internet guys came to figure out why our internet speed was so slow and intermittently cutting out.  A general contractor came to give Eric a bid for the master bathroom floor since the slow leak in the toilet was starting to bubble the linoleum in there. 

At 8:35 this morning when I found out that the first of many people were coming over, I thought that today was going to be disastrous.  The boys have been teething and full on boycotting nap time.  Amazingly, Abraham took two 2-hour naps today despite all the in and out of people and all the loud voices.  Our killer attack dogs Suzie and Scooter also threw in some barking for good measure.  Winston was in a much better mood today and I was soooo thankful.  The little guy had been wearing me down.  Here is the crazy thing.  Winston woke up from a nap and I laid him down to do a diaper change.  He smiled at me and I saw something on his upper arch.  I did not think it could be a tooth already but it most definitely was.  The little dude has cut both of his eye teeth or lateral incisors.  I am not quite sure which ones they are because it's hard to assess how much space his teeth would take, how close together, etc.  It definitely looks like his eye teeth.  I now know why he was so grumpy.  Apparently those eye teeth are extra painful when they come in.  He is my little vampire baby for now.  I checked Abraham and no sign of his yet but he did cut a lower lateral incisor last week.  These boys are totally different in some regards.

Thankful that we can get stuff fixed around here.  Thankful for a home warranty.  Thankful that the boys had a good day.  Thankful I can be home to love on my boys and smooch their cheeks as much as I want.  Thankful for my husband bringing me home roses just because. 

********************************************************************************
Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo.  It feels good to accomplish a goal.  I doubted I could do it but I managed to get a post done everyday.  I learned how to write and compose faster which is a very valuable skill.  I will be slowing down the blogging pace from here on out for a while.  I want to focus on getting stuff done around my house and getting ready for the Christmas season.

Wordy Wednesday: The Teething and Feeding Edition

I have fallen off the blogger wagon as of late and am trying to get back on. I really don't have an excuse. By the end of the day I tend to feel like mush and writing is the last thing I feel like doing. I figure the only way I am going to remember this crazy twin time in our lives however is to write it down; so forgive this more verbose post as I am trying to document what is going on with our little men and how quickly they are changing.

Abraham cut his first tooth two weeks ago and Winston quickly followed last week with his. They cut the exact same tooth. At first I thought they had each cut a tooth on the opposite side from one another but it was in fact #24 that was the first tooth cut for both of them. Winston cut his second (#25) tooth earlier this week and it looks like Abraham is just days away from it as well. The actual tooth cutting has been easier than the weeks and months leading up to it. Abraham especially was like a different baby once he got over that hump. The drooling, drool rash, biting and irritability have been way less of an issue. They don’t do the random pain cry (as opposed to whiny, hungry, tired, etc.) nearly as much anymore. We hardly used any pain reliever when the teeth were coming through and not any for the tooth that just came in for Winston. It was just a matter of checking one day and sure enough they had finally come through. I am not sure if it was the teething necklaces that helped so much or that our kids just have a harder time with the earlier stages of teething as opposed to the actual cutting part. Abraham is my biter, if you catch my drift, and I have had to flick him when he does it. He has not bit me in the last four days so I am hoping he has caught on.

Eric manages to show off Winston's toothlets

This is the face Winston makes every single time he tastes his food for the first time. 

Fortunately he warms to it pretty quickly.

Also these boys love their food and were definitely ready to start getting some variety into their diets. Abraham took to eating from a spoon right away and would get grumpy if there was a deceleration in the pace. It was like a constant shoveling motion with him. Winston was tongue thrusting more and would also keep bringing his right hand up to his mouth and start sucking his thumb. We kept taking his right hand and removing it from his face while telling him no. We would also hold his hand down until he figured it out. Winston now does really well and generally has about the same pace as Abraham when it comes to eating. Winston is still our little gourmand however and will roll the food in his mouth and play with it before actually swallowing it. We tend to feed the boys separately because they get distracted by watching one another. They both eat about a cup of oatmeal mixed with breast milk in the morning and a cup of a vegetable and rice cereal mixture in the evening. Their afternoon bottle gets some oatmeal added to it as well. They are learning to drink water out of sippy cups as well as regular cups. Winston picked up the regular cup really fast. Winston would be watching me drink water and his little mouth would make the motions so I decided to give it a try. Granted it gets a little messy when they take in a little more than they actually swallow, but that’s why we only use water for now.

Abraham open his mouth nice and wide.

Winston showing how off his big boy cup.

They are packing on weight quickly with the addition of more solids to their diet. My arms get tired quickly if I am trying to hold or bounce them both at the same time e.g. at church trying to keep babies that have missed their naps happy. Collectively they are over 30 lbs. of baby and with their car seats over 40 lbs. I need to get some weight training in so I can keep up with these kids. The increase in solids also meant more sleep for Eric and me (cue the sounds of celebratory music in the background). The increase in solids has also meant waking up occasionally around 3 a.m. to some gross diapers. Seriously, I wish the kids would contain their BM’s to daylight hours but I guess that’s how their little metabolisms work. Of course once they get their diaper changed, they are even more awake and they need something to eat (read milk) before they will go back to sleep. They take after their mom in that regard, not the milk mind you, but I have to eat something if I wake up for more than a couple minutes during the middle of the night. Six months was a really big milestone for us and I think it has gotten easier juggling the needs of the two babes. The boys are at a really fun age and I am looking forward to doing their seven month post and sharing all the little personality quirks that have come out in the last several weeks.

Bibs

We use bibs in our house a lot lately. The boys are drooling a lot and chewing on anything they can. This is teething, right? They chew on their own hands, their brother's hands and mama and papa's hands. Poor little guys. I just feel bad that it goes on for so long. We have been using a rotation of acetaminophen and ibuprofen and it seems to help. Overall they have remained happy little guys. I think they are coming out of it for at least a little while. Their noses are clearing up and we have not had to give them as much pain reliever. Anyone have any experience with Baltic amber teething jewelry? I am kind of curious. All that to say that I love their little character bibs and how they can match their little personalities.

Winston's mommy loves him.

Abraham is handsome like daddy.

Winston is definitely one of the stars :-)

Abraham's smile can turn it into a party.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone