16

The babies are 16 month old. Do you know what that means? 2 more months until they can start attending nursery at church. Who's excited (picture me, Josh and my entire church congregation raising their hands...)? This past month the girls have been... challenging. The first couple of weeks, Lillian was teething and then Sophie decided to start as soon as Lillian finished. Throw that in with Thanksgiving, finals, getting ready for Christmas, etc, etc... Yeah, life has been crazy and I sadly haven't taken that many pictures (and by that many, I mean probably only a hundred instead of my usual six hundred). However, I have a lot to say about these little stink and I managed to come up with a few adorable photos.

Sophie

 

I'm still trying to figure this girl out. Is she shy? Does she like to be the center of attention? Does she hate me? Will she ever let me put her down? She literally changes every minute. One moment, she'll be happy and babbling up a storm and the next, for NO reason, she is arching her back, kicking her legs and slamming to the floor. It confuses me. That's really all I can say about it... It's confusing.

Sophie is a heafty eater. Usually, every morning I make the oatmeal, or cream of wheat or scramble up a few eggs along with some fruit or something (no, the fruit isn't scrambled...) In the past, I've been able to split a bowl (i.e. a package because I usually do a little packet... laziness at it's finest right there...) between the two of them and that's been enough for them. Not so much anymore. Earlier this week, they got to the end of the bowl and Sophie was still famished. Lillian was good, so she ran off to play, but Sophie just kept eating and eating and eating. I gave her grapes, apple sauce, and split a piece of toast with her. Consequently, I wasn't too surprised when a friend came over to measure the girls' waist and Sophie's was slightly bigger. She's been a bottomless pit lately.

Sophie is smart and really wants to communicate. I dropped the ball with the whole Baby Sign thing because I wasn't seeing instant results and I'm apparently not a patient person. I now wish I would have been better though because I think a lot of Sophie's issues are from not being able to communicate. She understands English really well though. Better than Lillian I would say. If I ask the girls, "Wanna go outside?" or "Where's the puppy?" or "Where's Jenny?" (puppy = neighbor's dog and Jenny = neighbor, but not the neighbor with the puppy) Sophie goes running to the door in utter excitement. If I ask her to go downstairs so we can eat, she does and promptly walks right to her high chair. If I say, "hold on, I'm getting you some milk." she usually calms down. If I ask, "What do you see?" she usually points to whatever she's looking at. She really is smart. Lillian does some of these things, but it's usually only after Sophie does them first. I don't want to make it sound like Lillian is a dummy or anything, but Sophie is pretty good at understanding things.

Lillian

 

 

Lillian continues to be the silent, but deadly baby. She's feisty. Just in the past week, she's pushed Sophie down the stairs and bit her at least 3 times. This isn't to say that she's a bully or a brat, but I think she definitely has a ways to go as far as sharing goes. In contrast though, she's the sweetest little girl. She's starting to give kisses and is the only one that I can count on to cuddle with me. She's my adorable, chubby cheeks. I just love that kid. 

Lillian is obsessed with sugar. Now, before you go a flamin', know that I don't give her much, if any at all. However, if I'm eating a cookie and hold it out for her to take a nibble, she'll take off half the cookie. If I put a few grapes and a saltine cracker on her high chair tray, the grapes will be gone first. Every time. She definitely inherited that sweet tooth from her daddy. And I think it's perpetuated by him too, since I've caught him countless times letting her have a bite of his Twix or Kit Kat or a Jelly Belly (or 5).

Lillian is becoming quite silly. Her latest quirky saying is, "Oooootooootooot" Which consequently has me singing, "I like to oot! oot! oot! Ooples and Banoonoos..." Her eyes get really big and her mouth forms this tiny, adorable O. She also head bangs when music comes on, and over exaggerates surprises. She gasps as if she just saw the coolest thing in the universe, even if it's just the same old stuffed animal that she's been sleeping with for months. 

 

 

These girls have definitely got a love/hate relationship. They are either giggling hysterically/'talking' or they're trying to kill each other. For the most part they get along. I really think they communicate with each other. They have this "oogalaligaligalooga" babbling system going on and they seem to know exactly what the other is saying. My favorite sound in the world is listening to them talk and giggle with each other. 

The girls are really becoming partners in crime. Seriously. If one can't open/reach/get something, the other is always close to aid her sister. Yesterday morning, Sophie grabbed the Cheerio box off the table when Lillian couldn't quite grasp it. Within seconds, hundreds of little O's were on the floor. And that's the second time this has happened in the last week. You'd think I'd learn put the cereal in the pantry.

There's always a trail of goodies on the floor left by the girl. At any given moment you can find a tube of mascara, hairspray, medicine syringes, magnets, hair clips, silverware, pens, wrappers, library cards, soap, and anything else you could possibly think of, on our floor. These girls grab things, examine them for a minute or two, run to find something new and drop whatever is in their hand. That means, things that go upstairs are downstairs, things that go in my room are in theirs and... you get the picture. It's a mess, but it's useless to pick up after them. Oh and I know you're thinking, "baby proof your drawers" but guess what? They are. They can open some of them. 

I feel like I say this every month, but I love the stage that the girls are in. It's probably been my most challenging month (yes, even compared to when they were newborns) but it's been great. I'll take my grumpy, opinionated, teething, fighting babies any day because when all is said and done, they really are adorable.

It's been such a fantastic 16 months and we love who these little girls are becoming.

And holy smokes, that was looooong. And I didn't proofread it, so there are bound to be a billion typos. Hopefully you're not offended. :)