Merry Christmas 2010!

I now have 2 walking children. I could write my own version of the 12 Days of Christmas but just in twos...along the lines of 2 toddlers toddling, 2 babies leaping, 2 boys a-dancing, 2 toys a-breaking...you get my drift!

Max is developing quite a vocabulary: ball, uh-oh, OH!, see, mommy, cookie, turkey, yogurt, milk, and I think he says book or block (or maybe both?) but it's hard to tell. There are other words he uses sometimes, but that aren't consistent yet. Sometimes hi, bye-bye, ni-ni and a few others. He also points to everything he's interested in, coupled with "see?!" sometimes "see dat?!"

Alex doesn't talk as much as Max, but he definitely has cookie, uh-oh, mommy and OH! He says bye-bye too and more consistently than Max does. He invented his own toy by putting a ball on the lid of the shape sorter and spinning the ball until it falls off (see video).

They both love to stack blocks and read books. They like to dump out their toy bins and sit in them, or just sit right on top of the toys or books.

I brought home some balloons for them the other day and it was like the best day ever! They looooooove balloons, so when these were buy one, get one free, I just couldn't resist.

Anyone can whistle!

Max is obsessed with whistling. If I blow across the end of one of his pop beads, I can make it whistle (like you can do with a soda/beer bottle), and he wants me to do it ALL the time. And then he puts it in his mouth and makes a "hoooo" noise like he's trying to make it whistle. He also has these shapes with holes in them and he figured out that if he blows into them, they will whistle too. Well, the other day, I hear him making a slight whistling noise, like when he blows in the shape, and I look over and he's doing it by himself! I admit, at first, I thought it was his nose, because it was so quiet! But then he did it the other day when I was leaving the house, and then again this morning when I was getting him out of his crib, so he was closer to eye level, you know? And I could see his lips were pursed up in a whistling position and he whistled a couple of times!

I just went and picked him up and whistled at him again (I can barely whistle myself, so I don't know where this obsession came from!) and he did it back! I didn't realize they could learn to whistle so early! It's such a weird, random thing to do!

I will keep trying to get it on video and if/when I do, I will definitely post it!

I just found Alex eating a...

...rock. Yes, the boy who won't eat mac & cheese, spaghetti, pizza, or any other "normal" kid food was happily crunching away on a rock, face covered in dirt. I have two thoughts about this.

1. Where did the rock come from? He was in the BCA; no rocks there that I'm aware of.
2. Why didn't I have the wherewithal to take a photo before I cleaned his dirt covered face?

On the other hand, I think he is finally on his way to walking. Yesterday, he took 3 unassisted steps to Jess and I've noticed that he's standing on his own quite a bit more the past couple of days which is what Max started doing first too.

Jess and I took the boys to the Desert Botanical Gardens yesterday. I bought a year membership at a 50% discount through Groupon, so we can go through next November (although I doubt we'll be visiting much from April-October!). It was the last weekend of the butterfly pavilion exhibit, which is one of the main reasons I bought the pass. The boys definitely were watching the butterflies fly around, it was pretty cool. They only have Monarchs in the fall and I learned the difference between male/female Monarchs.

We tried to get a photo of the 3 of us in front of the poinsettia tree, but 2X were not cooperating!

Max is getting so big!

I swear that they each have their own chair.

Jess, Alex and the goat

"You see what I have to put up with?" - disgruntled goat

Max walks

My son walks. Not well, but it's definitely walking. He reminds me a lot of Frankenstein's monster because he has that "walk" and he also makes monster noises as he takes steps. If I could teach him to say "braaaaaiiiiins" as he walks, I could have a new YouTube sensation!

I am feeling pretty smug because I have somehow not only managed to bring a child (two, even) into the world, but I have taught him how to walk upright (amongst other things). I always thought one of the best things about having a child was the opportunity to basically teach it anything I wanted. I had this vague idea in the back of my head about always dying mashed potatoes green so that when the child went somewhere else and saw white potatoes he would be freaked out. Well, unfortunately, my children don't like potatoes and I've realized that doing something like this would be WAY more complicated than I have time for! Oh well, the best laid plans and all that.

Not only is he walking, but he "talks" constantly and has started mimicking too. He says a couple of words pretty well: cookie, yogurt, doggy, mama. All two syllable words...odd? I have no idea.

Alex is not far behind. He is standing more and lowering himself with control. He "talks" a lot more too. But I think that, for awhile, he's going to be slightly behind Max. But he's definitely the more laid back of the two. We went to the carnival and the zoo this past weekend and he loves going on the rides, whereas Max is a scaredy cat.

I'm currently in an insane nap transition from two to one nap. I'm trying to get the boys on the day care schedule so that when they go in January, there won't be too much in the way of schedule change. I will miss the nanny, but I am looking forward to saving $500/month on day care. Maybe I can pull my ass out of this money sucking hole I'm in finally!

My friend came up with a nickname for the boys, "dos equis". I think it's hilarious and I wonder why it took a YEAR for someone to figure that out.

Halloween was fun. I had a brilliant costume idea, if I do say so myself. Clark Kent and Superman! I know! Identical twins! I may have to do it again next year when they can walk and keep the glasses on, but I will switch and let Alex be Superman and Max will be Clark.

Here are some Halloween photos. I love the 2nd one of Alex with the glasses in his mouth; couldn't have posed that if I tried. And also a video of Max starting to walk.

It's been a year...

The boys are ONE. I can't believe it. This year has flown by unbelievably quickly, and, in many ways I'm glad because it's been the toughest year of my life, by far. Everyone who told me the first four months would be the hardest were right. That part is a blur to me now, but, in a way, I'm glad because I do remember a lot of tears (on all of our parts), a lot of frustration and a lot of sleepless nights.

The boys finally sleeping through the night at about 10 months old has been, I think, my biggest success so far. Being able to have predictable sleep myself has definitely made a difference on my quality of life!

We had fun up in WA with the family. The boys loved crawling all over, exploring the new place. Here are some photos from the boys' birthday and the cupcakes.

Early Intervention evaluation

The boys were evaluated yesterday through a program called "Early Intervention". This program checks development through age 3 to make sure that babies, especially preemies or babies at risk for delays are developing on track.

The EI eval went really well...there was no question on their physical skills (gross motor, fine motor, social). They were a little shy for about 2 minutes and then they were climbing in the evaluators' laps, playing with them and all of that. Max showed off his "look, ma, no hands!" skills in the standing department and they both had age appropriate skills for playing with toys, picking them up, finding hidden toys, banging stuff together all of that.

They don't show toys or put toys in a container. They also don't point to objects that they see or want, but they do use a pointer finger to manipulate buttons or poke at something. They also have a neat pincer grasp when picking up puffs or stuff off the ground.

Oh, I should mention that they were scored on both 11 month (adjusted age) and 12 month (real age) scales.

For the verbal skills, which was what I was worried about, they scored "average" on an 11 month scale with scores between 97-103 on an 100=average scale and mildly/moderately delayed on the 12 month scale with scores of 75-83. Mild/Moderate is NOT enough to qualify them for services and the speech pathologist said that one month behind is pretty normal for boys/twins/preemies at this age anyway. She didn't officially give them credit for their one word "nom nom" but said she would consider it a word since they use it appropriately and consistently during mealtimes.

They each have at least 5 consonants (M, P, B, D, T) and use them in repeating syllables, "mamama", "bababa", "dadada" and also combine them in "bap" and "dat". They are starting to imitate/mimic, which I knew they would do if you blow raspberries they will raspberry back, but she also got them to repeat mamamama and babababa to her, so she said to keep working on that.

To increase their verbal/communication skills she said to keep talking to them like I was doing. They did say that I was talking to them a lot and appropriately. And also to work on a couple of baby signs. I've been trying "more", "milk" and "food" with them, but she told me to only give them 3-4 small pieces of food/puffs and then when they're done say "more?" (then I do sign for "more" and then take their hands and do the sign while saying "more") and THEN give them more. Alex was kind of copying me last night, so maybe he sort of got it? I am going to get a baby signs DVD this weekend.

She also said, when reading to them to ask questions like "Can you show me the dog/bunny/baby?" but also ask questions like "Here's a picture of a dog, where is your dog?"

Anyway, I think that was it. It was just really nice to have someone else validate what I am doing with them and give me a couple of pointers. They kept commenting on how cute the boys were and how well they play with each other and stuff, so that was nice too!

It was also nice to get some suggestions and ideas of what else I can be doing with them, like with the reading and stuff. One of them had this really good book that I am going to see if I can find online. Of course, now I can't remember what it was called!

Almost one year

Well, the boys are going to be a year at the end of the month. The time really has flown by, which I guess is probably a good thing because this has definitely been the hardest year of my life.

The boys are not quite walking and I don't think they'll get there before a year and they're not really saying anything yet. Max does say "mamamama" (I take this to mean mama) and "ni-ni" (night night?) and "nom nom" when they're eating. They do follow some simple commands, like when I tell them to put their pacifier down in the morning, they'll drop them in their cribs or spit them out. They don't really understand "come here" or "bye bye" yet, but they are getting their fair share of "NO", even if they choose not to pay attention! I know they understand me because they'll get this "you mean you don't want me to touch this? This riiiiiiiight heeeeeeeere??????" (as they're slowly reaching and touching) look on their faces as I say NO, Alex (or Max), NO!

They are happy boys and they go to sleep on their own fairly easily and they sleep through the night most nights now (only took 10 1/2 months!) and wake up happy. They play together with only moderate hair pulling and toy stealing. Max has started pulling this "no, mama, don't leave" pitiful routine when I go to work in the morning, my little drama queen!

I registered them for the pre-school they'll start going to in January. I think it will be good for them to be with other kids in a setting where the teachers know to teach them things like high 5 and pat-a-cake (which I didn't realize they should be doing by now). The pre-school also has web-cams in all the rooms so that I can log on and see what they're doing during the day. I'm guessing that I will spend at least the first week watching them pretty much all day long!

I made invitations for their birthday party. We're having a little get together just for cake here the weekend after their birthday and a little family get together up in WA when we go there in a couple of weeks. I've also arranged to have their 1 year photos taken up there so there will be fall foliage and trees and green...all things we don't have here!

Here's the invite: