Video Post: Two Years Old

Happy Birthday to Colin and Jake! Here's a look back at this second year set to the music of Ben Harper's rendition of Beautiful Boy which was originally done by John Lennon.

23 Months Old

Before diving into the monthly recap we must first offer a mea culpa from the writing and editing staff here at the Four Boys and a Lady blog. As you can tell there is not an entry for Month 22 and in our opinion even the one for Month 21 kind of sucks. We offer our sincerest apologies for those of you waiting on every word from this blog (and at this point I think we’re talking to about five people!) and we strive to bring it back up to the standards to which you readers deserve. So with that…on to final month of this second year of Colin and Jake.

One of the very big reasons we haven’t been keeping up with the blog is because things are changing at such a hectic pace that we can barely keep up. Both of the boys have made such drastic changes in the past two months it’s been really unbelievable to sit back and think about for a once-a-month blog recap like this.

They have so many words in their vocabulary and we actively communicate with them now. They ask for things, albeit in choppy sentences, but still they are in the form of a sentence! But with this new found freedom and expression is the flip side – the frustration. Oh the frustration! There are things they want to say or do and when they can’t find the words or actions or God forbid you don’t understand what they are trying to say or do….watch out! If we are to believe what you read and hear about the terrible two’s and tantrums and there is something worse than this on the horizon, we’re in trouble!

As we mentioned in the last post, the boys have been going to day care four days a week. Everything has been going good and they come home with new stuff every day. You’ll catch them repeating some phrase or mimicking something and for the life of you can’t figure out what they are doing or where they learned that. Then you ask their teacher the next day and it’s part of some song they are singing or activity they’ve been doing.

We’ve also seen how having twins has helped in the day care situation. I don’t think too many kids would have grasped the sharing concept that is a must at day care so quickly other than twins. Sharing is a fact of life they have known since the day they were born (Colin didn’t quite grasp the concept in utero since he took all the food for nine months!). You still hear “Mine!” declarations from time to time, but taking turns and sharing certainly is in their repertoire.

The photo taking has been sporadic, but the Halloween holiday forced me to break of the camera…take a look at the Halloween 2007 gallery or their individual photos below.

21 Months Old

A big shift in the daily routine happened this month. For the last few weeks, the boys have been going to daycare four days a week. It’s a big adjustment to their lives since they are roughly there from 8:45 until 4:00 in the afternoon.

Children under two (or for that matter any age!) are not generally known for their ability to handle adjustments well, but these guys are giving it their best shot. Their parents (one of whom dislikes change about as much as them…not naming names though) are also adjusting to the fact that their little boys are “off in the world” everyday. It’s been an interesting few weeks that’s for sure, but for the most part everyone is starting to get used to the idea.

Each of them is handling the situation in their own way as well. Jake, for instance, does not like the initial drop-off experience. He has cried almost every day when it comes time for Age to leave. All reports have come back that after a few minutes he calms down and enjoys the rest of the day there. In fact, we know he is starting to become really comfortable there because the teacher reported yesterday that Jake was being quite the character. So we know that once he moves from quiet, shy Jake and into dancing, yelling Jake that he has become comfortable in his surroundings.

Colin, on the other hand, takes off into the room the second they are dropped off with barely an acknowledgment when Age says she is leaving. According to all the reports from the teachers is having a good time throughout the day lately, but has struggled with napping there. Colin is a big sleeper and not sleeping in his darkened room on his own bed isn’t sitting too well with him. The interesting thing about him though is when the day is done and Age is there to pick them up, he is ready to go. He tugs at her while she is trying to get the daily report from the teacher, whines and keeps repeating “Bye-bye, Bye-bye.”

For the amount of worry that we put into this decision, things have been better than expected. They seem to be getting a lot out of it and come home most days in better moods that when they left! Every time we drive past the school the boys’ wave and Jake says “Stella” (who is his teacher) and points. We think he believes she lives there!

We’ll leave you with this story from last week that Teacher Stella relayed. Jake was starting to cause a minor ruckus and had his hand raised about to throw a toy. Stella sternly looked at him and with a questioning tone said “Jake?” stringing out the “a” to let him know he was caught and she meant business. Jake looked at her and lowered his hand and with his cute smile returned the elongated questioning tone and said, “Stella?”

I can’t for the life of me understand where my son learned to be a smart-aleck?!

---

ed. note: Sorry, but there aren't any new photos this month. Promise to break out the camera more in September! Take a look at past photos here.

---

Video Post: Tahoe Vacation

You've seen the photos, now SEE THE VIDEO! It really was a fun trip and great to see the boys having so much fun (most of the time!). It's really a video montage of the two of them. There isn't a ton of footage of me and Age! It's just when they are dancing around, it's kind of hard to take the camera off them!

20 Months Old

“Looks like they started ‘The Two’s’ early.”

The above exclamation recently came from the woman at the front desk of our condo in Tahoe as Colin bolted out of the elevator with an emphatic “Go!” and Jake chased after him only pausing to point out that there was indeed a “phone” on the wall and could he have it. I’m not sure whether the comment from the woman was a compliment on our two boys advanced “life skills” or if she was wearily anticipating the wave of destruction that was to follow over the course of the next six days.

The “Terrible Two’s” obviously has its negative connotations. I still believe that they are not in the midst of them yet, but they are becoming more of a handful these days! They have begun to understand that the power of their words and actions can provide them the results they are looking for. This is basically a roundabout way of saying they understand now that if they scream and stomp around they have a better chance of getting what they want!

They are going to start daycare this month when Age goes back to work. The plan is for them to be there four days a week from 8:00 – 4:00 with Fridays at home. They have been visiting a few days a week with Adrianne to start getting used to it, but it’s going to be interesting to see how they react without the safety net of mommy around. We think that experiencing new people and things in a controlled environment will be good for them, but we shall see!

As mentioned earlier, we just got back from Tahoe for a week vacation up there (a big reason their monthly blog is 10 days late!). It was certainly a different trip than the one we took with them last summer when they were seven months old. It was great to watch them experience new things and see things through their eyes, but it was exhausting (see opening paragraph) and not much of a vacation for the parents! They kept us jumping the entire time we were there. Luckily we had help with Grandpa Spencer and Nana Kathy for a few days at the beginning and Grammie all day on Friday to shoulder some of the load. We took them hiking in backpacks to a nice alpine lake up off Carson Pass, visited the beach a few times, went bike riding towing them behind us, took a lunchtime paddleboat to Emerald Bay and went up on the gondola overlooking the entire lake.

There is a ton of video from this summer and this last trip. I’m trying to find the time to put something together soon! Take a look at the Tahoe photo gallery or some of the individual pictures from the last month.

19 Months Old

[ed. note: This post was originally started just before their 19th month date, but has been neglected and is obviously a little late. Please accept the full apologies from management]

It’s almost July and the summer is in full swing here. Adrianne is off from teaching and the boys have a full array of activities keeping them busy from morning to night.

On Tuesday’s they have swimming lessons. Wednesday is Music Together with Mama and Grandma and in a few weeks, they’ll add a Friday Gymboree class with Grammie and Mama. Their still getting used to all this morning activity (they spent their entire 20 minute first swim lesson on Tuesday crying!), but they usually become more comfortable after a few classes.

They both are usually a little leery at first in public settings, but Colin is always the first to venture out. It’s interesting to see because in private settings around people they know, Jake is the one auditioning to become a stand-up comic. To put it into sports terms, Jake is the leader in the clubhouse, while Colin is the leader on the field. When we are at home, Jake usually initiates something with Colin watching closely and following whatever his brother just did. But when we’re out in public or going to a new place where there are people around, Colin jumps right out in front and takes the lead, while Jake turns into a statue clinging to our legs. They have so many similarities that it’s fascinating to see this ying and yang part about them.

Language is at an all-time high lately. We’ve discussed in this blog before all the new words each of them have learned. That part hasn’t changed (and they continue to add new words to their repertoire), but what has begun more recently is what can only be described as incessant, incoherent babbling. Each of them will spend major parts of the day having “conversations” with nobody in particular. They mimic the cadence and tone of a normal, adult conversation but replace most of the words with gibberish. It’s really funny because you’ll hear them having this little conversation and real words will creep in and out of the stream. You’ll hear “Gabba itch’l toma mon toat. No, mama. Itsmon lot keen. Scout. Baaal.” We’ve been trying to get it on video because words doesn’t do it justice. You really have to see and hear it, but they clam up when the camera comes on!

Our goal this summer is to post more videos. It’s getting harder to write monthly recap posts, when things start sounding the same each month. They are growing and changing so much each month, but again, you have to see it more than read about it each month. So for now, the best we can do is some new photos! Check out the galleries below for some of the latest snapshots.

Video Post: Bosom Buddies

Remember the classic sitcom from the 80's Bosom Buddies? Take a look at the original opening sequence and then imagine what it would be like today.......

18 Months Old

Eighteen months have gone by since Colin and Jake graced us with their presence….a year-and-a-half…wow, who could have known how much can happen in such a short period of time?! Well, I guess our parents or friends could have filled us in, but that would have taken all the fun out of it!

The very existence of this blog is basically a recap of how much has changed in the past 18 months, so we won’t bore you with the details of all the changes. But one fairly significant change has occurred since the Month 17 posting. We’ve documented the growth of each of their vocabulary these past few months, but this past month has seen an explosion in communication.

We are not at the point where we’re all sitting down for dinner and having conversations, but it’s safe to say that our communication is becoming a two-way street. For instance, Jake will look at us with his arms up in the air quizzically and ask “Paa? Paa?” looking for his pacifier and we’ll say “I think you dropped it in the kitchen. Go look for it.” Off he’ll go into the kitchen and come back around the corner with a big, goofy grin and a pacifier in his mouth!! Or Colin in the bathtub the other day laughing mischievously after I told him to “Pour the water on your brother’s head” and he looked at me with a “really?” expression before pouring a glass of bath water on Jake’s head. I know there are people studying linguistics and how children learn language and I’m not breaking any new ground here, but it is so amazing and interesting to watch each day.

It has also been a good month watching them interact with each other and to see how much they enjoy each other’s company. There are moments where they both would rather they didn’t have a brother hogging all the attention, but for the most part they like playing and being around each other. This video of them in the bath was taken back in April, but is a good example of their love for each other and how much they are understand these days.

The summer is here and they have been spending a lot of time outdoors. They are the quintessential little boys playing with dirt, water, sticks, rocks and whatever else they can make a mess with.

What is it with trucks that fascinate little boys so much? Thursday morning is the best because that’s the morning that the trash and recycling trucks come. They usually show up right around the end of breakfast and we’ll slide them in their highchairs over to the front window to watch the garbage truck come and take our cans. If they have finished their breakfast already, you should see the sprint to their chairs when they hear those trucks come rolling down the street!

With the summer here, that also means Age is almost done with the school year. To keep her sanity slightly intact, we’re in the process of signing the boys us for swim lessons, Music Together and Gymboree classes. It’s going to be interesting, but I think both of them are really going to enjoy being around other kids and doing fun, physical and different activities a few times a week.

So 18 months are done and we move into the stretch run before the “terrible twos” if there is such a thing!

17 Months Old

Once again, the monthly blog update is late. Thankfully, this one is a case the Warriors playoff run holding things up and not their illness again.

After recovering from their bout with the flu last month, it seemed as if both boys where shot out of a cannon into this month.

Their energy and enthusiasm has been off the charts lately. They really enjoy doing new things, being outside and mixing in the occasional wrestling match with each other. It’s really starting to sound like a broken record, but each month they seem to be growing into little boys more and more.

Their personalities, expressiveness and especially their communication skills are developing by leaps and bounds. On the flip side of all these positive things, they are also beginning to understand that their assertiveness can get them things as well. They know what they want and aren’t afraid of letting us know it either!

For the past month, Jake has started this new trend of getting up between 5:45 and 6:30 a.m. There was a time when both of them would sleep until 6:45 on most days. Now only Colin sleeps in, while his brother yells out to be picked up at the crack of dawn. We rotate who has to get up with him and sometimes he’ll go back to sleep or sit quietly on your lap. But once he’s up, he is ready to start the day! After a quick bite of Cheerios and some juice, he’s off to the races.

Colin enjoys a nice leisurely wake-up. There have been times that we’ve gone back to their room to just check and see if he’s up yet and he’s just sitting in his crib quietly waiting for someone to come and get him.

It’s been mentioned before, but his temperament is so relaxed sometimes. He recently got an eye infection and on the first morning when we went in to get him his eyes were caked with goo and mucus. He didn’t seem to mind that he was temporarily blinded and couldn’t pry his eyes open in the morning! He just casually waited while we washed his eyes off with a wash cloth and started his day as if nothing happened.

It’s still an elusive video to capture, but when the music hits the both of them; it becomes Dance Party 2007 in our house. Both boys get boppin’ and shakin’ to the music. It’s so funny to see and this written blog doesn’t do it justice. We promise to post a video as soon as we can get it while their not looking.

16 Months Old

When you're not looking they're heading in opposite directions these days

The monthly post is a little late due to the boys’ first bout of a stomach virus. Colin started things off Wednesday last week when he woke up vomiting and finally began to feel better by Friday afternoon. Jake picked up right after that and proceeded to throw up a day’s worth of food (conveniently for Age, he did all five times on me!).

In what will be the first of many lessons learned on dealing with their sickness, instead of having both of them sick for three days, they were sick back-to-back for six total days. Obviously purposely making one child sick is not something I’m willing to go on record endorsing, but there is something to be said for not trying so hard to limit their exposure to each other! We spent a lot of time watching what bottle Colin was drinking out of, washing his hands, cleaning pacifiers and in the end Jake ended up getting sick anyway. I think it’s almost inevitable that the other twin will end up getting the same sickness, so why delay? Three days of them both sick at the same time will be tough, but in the end is it better than having the entire ordeal stretched over six days?

With all of that, we are happy to announce that they are back to being themselves. There have been some minor lingering affects, but for the most part they are recovering nicely. It was a very hard ordeal seeing their personalities disappear for a few days and watch them go through this. We sure missed them and it’s great to have them back.

It’s those personalities that have made this past month so fun to watch. Besides this end-of-the-month setback, things had been going great. We have mentioned this many times before, but it’s amazing what a sweet, little boy Colin is. He loves giving hugs to anyone he can. Sometimes he’ll stop playing and just walk over and give you a big hug, then go right back to what he was doing. And of course, the beneficiary of so many of these hugs is Scout! That dog puts up with so much and at the same time he wouldn’t have it any other way. He is very protective of his two little guys and has more than once assumed some “baby sitting” duties when we’ve turned our backs.

Most of the time turning your back means that Jake has scooted off to a new task. The kid is a bundle of energy. In addition to his non-stop movement, he has added a verbal aspect to his repertoire. He is definitely the more vocal of the two and enjoys jabbering away with a constant dialog on life as he sees it. Most of it is his own brand of language, but he floats in the right word as well. You just have to be able to decipher if the “Ba” happens to apply to bottle, ball, brother or some other word beginning with a B. If he points to something and says his word and you don’t understand what he’s saying, he’ll say it again and this time with a little more inflection in his voice. It’s as if he’s saying, “No, I said Ball dummy, not bottle!” Then if you say what he thinks he said, he’ll give you this big grin and be so happy that he just communicated with you and it was understood.

In some of these monthly posts, including this one, we tend to focus on one aspect of their personality and a lot of the same things are repeated. Jake is high-energy, Colin is quiet and serene and we don’t know what we’re doing!

It’s easy to pigeonhole a label on someone, but I think it becomes even easier with twins. The inevitable question always comes up from strangers at the grocery store or friends and family, “Which one is he, the troublemaker or the good one?” Or like we have done here in this blog (see Jake = high-energy, Colin = quiet and kind). There is something to be said for patterns of behavior – hopefully not the “we don’t know what we’re doing” part – but as their personalities take shape as toddlers we’re shown it’s more than that. Just like their adult counterparts there are multiple levels of to their behavior and personality.

When you see Jake pick up a pacifier and offer it to his crying brother with a soft pat on the back or Colin running laps around the living room screaming like a banshee, you know their differences are not that far apart and their similarities are closer than we think.

It’s like we are watching and living in this fascinating human development experiment. Everyday you recognize something new and different to each of them that you didn’t see before. The speed at which these changes and wrinkles in their personalities come at is astounding. It’s as if who they were when they went to bed the night before isn’t reason enough to be excited for the next day with them, but they make each new day a joy watching them grow into who they will eventually become.

A Day On The Farm

We took the boys to the Little Farm at Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills this past weekend. With their growing mobility and Colin's future calling as a veterinarian, we thought this would be the perfect place for a weekend outing. The life of raising toddlers quickly snapped us back into reality when 30 seconds after arriving at the farm, a huge cow bellowed out a deep "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and promptly made Colin cry. We went from having visions of our two boys feeding the animals celery sticks and making all the farm animal sounds they've been learning from their books, to this:

After a while they calmed down and were able to enjoy the ducks and geese while bravely put up with the sheep. Jake was having a pretty good time and wasn't as scared, but his mood soured as soon as he did a face plant while walking. Chasing them around and trying to convince them both that everything was all right made both of us pretty stressed.

The boys rallied though and ended up having a decent time I think.

15 Months Old

A couple of days late, but Colin and Jake turned 15 months old a few days ago. With only 28 days in February, is their monthly “birthday” February 28th or March 1? Just asking….

Anyway, both boys enjoyed themselves this past month with their newly acquired skill of walking. In the span of 30 days, both of them have gone from quick, little baby steps of 10 feet or so to what closely resembles running! They have really enjoyed the freedom that mobility has provided them and take pleasure in showing it off. In addition to walking up and down our court, they have taken to doing little “laps” from the living room around the kitchen and back into the living room.

As you can see from the previous video post, Colin really loves his dog Scout. But we think we may have a future veterinarian on our hands because he loves all animals. One of his favorite words is “bird” and he points them out in the trees or flying by whenever he is outside. When he goes over to Grandma and Grandpa Scully’s house their poor cat is on alert because Colin is constantly chasing him around.

As long as we’re picking future professions for each of them, Jake is on his way to a life on the stand-up comedy tour. His utter delight in making anyone – including himself – laugh is so funny. Once he sees that whatever he has just done has made you laugh he grabs onto that and keeps repeating it. This time with a sly little smile on his face as he goes for more laughs.

I’m assuming everything you learn at this age is mimicry in one form or another. But Jake’s ability to hear something or see something and then try and repeat it is pretty staggering at times. We’re constantly amazed when all of a sudden Jake is next to you trying to repeat what you just said or did.

The harsh reality that they are listening to everything you say now was illustrated very clearly the other day with my choice uttering of a frustrated F-bomb in front of them. I’m not saying I’m proud, but I blurted out the word while running late to work one morning. I was then serenaded with “Fuuuuah”, “Fuuuaaaack”, “Fuuuuaahhh” as each of them tried to work out the word Daddy had just said. It was very funny, but reminded me that we may soon have to implement the use of ear muffs as shown in of one of the funniest scenes (view clip – contains language not for the easily offended) in the movie Old School.

All in all, we both agree this was our best month as a family with these two boys. They have been so much fun to be around. The toddler stage has been great so far for both them and us. It has opened up an untapped world for them and allowed us to enjoy life with them outside our immediate house and yard. Each day they seem to recognize more around them and surprise you with some new skill.

Video Post: Puppy Love

A lot of things have changed in Scout's life in the past 14 months. Scout has proven he's made some changes as well.....

Video Post: Wrestle Mania II

Not to be confused with Wrestle Mania I - The Cage Match. The boys were on fire last night and in the best moods. Right after they got done with this little wrestle match they chased each other around for a while. Age looks at me and says, "I'm so glad we have twins. What would they do if there was only one of them." Raising twins is so hard, but a moment like this when you know all they need is each other and they will be happy, makes it all worth it.

14 Months Old

Boy…that was exhausting (And extremely fun too!). I’m talking about the 30 days from December 29th to January 29th. Or in Colin and Jake’s world, going from 13 months to 14 months old. The changes came at such speed this past month that it was hard to keep up with them!

The first and most visible of all the changes has taken place over the past week or so. Say it with me now….”The boys are walking!” That’s right, Colin started motoring around on two feet around 10 days ago and as recently as yesterday was able to sustain the upright position for a good 10 feet or so. Jake soon followed and takes those baby steps a little slower, but is still able to maintain his balance for a good stretch of land. This is still not their preferred mode of transportation and when push comes to shove they get down and crawl if they really want to get somewhere. But they both seem to enjoy this new-found skill and are practicing all the time.

As we mentioned last month, the boys definitely understand a lot more words than they are able to actually say. I’m sure there are studies upon studies about this somewhere out there and I’m not breaking any scientific ground here, but it is interesting to see how these guys develop language.

They can say the standards, “Mama” “Da-Da” “Baaa” (ball) “Hi” “Bye” and even mix in a little “Tout” (Scout) here and there. But ask them to point to their nose or brother or ask them if they want to go outside and they definitely understand you. This also leads to severe frustration - - more on Jake’s behalf than Colin’s - - because he knows words in his head and just can’t say them. So they’ll spend five minutes pointing and going “Uh, Uh, Uh”, while you go around picking different things up saying “This? You want this? How about this?” until you finally pick the right thing up. Meanwhile they give you a look like what took you so long? You adults aren’t so sharp are you??!

This past month has also shown a noticeable increase in their awareness of each other. They have these great moments that make us appreciate being the parents of twins. The chase game is the one that always gets me. I’ve been trying to get video of it, but can never catch it at the right time. Basically they both “think” their being chased by the other one and end up going in circles either around their highchairs or crawling around the coffee table. It’s so funny to see them giggle or squeal out when they come around a corner and the other one is there. They then go off in the opposite directions and run into each other at the other corner and laugh again.

There have been so many little changes in both of them this past month. They are now officially toddlers and have become little boys. In a blink of an eye they have transformed from 3:00 a.m. feedings and needing help to roll over to these little people that are able to melt your heart with a simple “Hi” when you walk into the room.

Video Post: All The Tricks

They have a few more tricks up their sleeves since this video was taken and finally edited. Just a quick glimpse at some of their new-found skills!