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.