June's posting - 21 months

So this is actually the last picture we have of the girls sitting down for their monthly photo in the picture taking chair. You will see why in the photos that follow!

20 Months - about 2 weeks late

Cuties with rubberbands and a remote control - why they like to play with these things is beyond me!

Water Babies!

With the warm summer days just starting here in Central VA the girls are taking to the water quickly. They are now old enough to understand that we have made them silly hairstyles while they play in the tub. They also now that when the hose comes out all all water spraying begins!

Bath tub fun and games:

Washing the car with daddy:

April was busy!

These little busy boddies are in full motion now. While they are not in a full on run just yet there little legs can power walk with the best of them. Not really sure how tall the girls really are right now but we do know that when they visit childwatch at the YMCA they stand as tall as 2.5 to 3 year olds. Not bad for these skinny winnies!

While the art of speaking still eludes them they hare starting to master a few words. Where ever they see the yellow bird with the orange bill in a book they say "Daaahh - khheee". The sounds of barking sets them saying "Daaaaawww-gee". Some times they sound very much the same but the long drawn our vowels are usually the give away.

The girls have mastered finding their body parts - head, ears, eyes, nose, mounth, chin, belly button, feet and hands. We are still working on shoulders, knees, fingers and toes. Sometimes they will understand face and cheek but they really depends on their mood and or how tired they are. They understand that their feet go into socks and shoes. Sometimes they will go into a tizzy if you say shoes as they then want them on their feet or what the ones on their feet changed out for another pair.

Meal time has become more of an adventure. Now we are living the warnings that the doctor told us with termpramental eaters. Whether it is texture, taste or both one of the girls is always finicky... usually it is Alexandra on texture. Oddly enough Alexandra really dislikes the texture of regular bread, so much so that the only way we get her to eat it is by toasting it a little bit. Annellice could care less about the texture but take away her independence of holding her spoon/fork and feeding herself and you might have WWIII on your hands. Sometimes we feel that we are feeding them the same foods every single day - when actually it is probably every other or every 3rd day. We are praying that they start to become better at chewing things down soon so we can given them smaller meals of what we eat currently.... easier said than done when you have a sensory specific child though.

The easter bunny came and went - the girls had a blast finding the eggs that Kevin dispersed in the yard! They had their first dose of easter at the beginning of April at a RAMOM picnic. There they played with other twins at the playground and then hunted for eggs in the soccer field. Having never been exposed to the "hunt" before they picked up on it quickly... so quickly that they had full on fits of anger when we made them wait until it was their turn to go (those few moments felt like an eternity in front of all the other parents with well behaved kids).

We are glad that May is here now and that the cold weather bursts are behind us. Now if only we could keep the shorts from falling off their tiny behinds!

Pictures of PB&J time!

19 Months - Came and Went

18 Months and GROWING!

So the girls are catching up on the growth curve now. We spent a few hours on Sunday bagging up clothing that is now too short for them. Bye-bye to the cute 6-9 month ruffle pants and 9-12 month jeans and overalls... some of which were taken out of rotation over a month ago. They are now firmly in the 18 month sector provided the waist is small enough. Just this morning Annellice was sporting a peek-a-boo diaper look that was priceless given her penchant for kicking pants off these days.

Gone are the black eyes of last month. This months theme has been molars! Not just one or two of them either. Annellice has all four of hers cresting - in about a 7 day span. Alexandra's teeth are always a longer battle, but her top two molars are out and sharp - the bottom two have been giving her great pain though. At this rate Alexandra may have hers all out by next week which will be approx a 2 week span that is mighty quick for her! Until them she gets several doses a day of Baby Oragel and pain relif meds.

They are still not quite ready to talk but you can see their brains processing the words we say to them more. They understand simple things like "take your diaper to the trash can" (kevin taught them that one), "time to get your shoes", "find your baby-doll", etc. Alexandra likes mimicing sounds (IE: us calling for Titan to come she will yell "Ahh-Ahhhhhh" repeatedly until Titan is close by) sometimes it is backwards though (when I say "uh-oh" for something that falls she the inflection in her voice is opposite with the sound being "oh-oh"). We take what we can get at this point.

The girls love to play outside more and more each day. We have taken them to the park several times and now that they have better balance they love to take longer walk abouts. I have been slowly training them on how to get to and from the car and the doors of the YMCA. They get the part of going to the Y with great ease - it is heading back to the car after our visit that they tend to want to stray a bit. Here is a picture of Alexandra demonstrating the awesome kicking the rocks routine that Annellice showed her moments before:

Here are some fun pics from post-naptime bliss... I am sure they will hate me later for it!

Alexandra:

Annellice:

Sanibel Vacation

Just returned from a trip to Gramma & Grampa Reid's in Sanibel. The weather was nice, certainly better than in Va. Not only did we take over the house at large, but the dog's bed(s) as well. Behind us is a fine collection of sea shells that we were happy to let be...until daddy made mention of how good we had been the whole trip - on the next to last day no less - so we just had to play with them.

Three days we were able to get into the pool for a swim. The water was a lovely 90 degrees; we just wish the wind wasn't so chilly when we got out. Luckily a warm shower is not too far off.

Two days we walked to the neighbor's house for cocktails and puppies. While the event was only two houses down, by the time we got home we were exhausted. Each night one of the neighbors hosts anyone who wants to bring their dogs over to play. The adults have a cocktail and catch up on the news (you understand that we mean gossip) of the day. Our job was to look cute, entertain the grandparents in the group, and run our parents ragged chasing us around the driveway and street and yard.

While it was a shame that gramma got sick the last couple of days - we would have loved to have had more time with her - it was good to get a bit of extra grandpa and daddy time. They let us play in the yard, pick lemons, dig holes in the sandy dirt, and take walks with the dog a couple times per day. We did get to spend a whole day with gramma alone when grampa, mommy, and daddy went fishing.