17

*Ack! I accidentally published this instead of scheduling it out. Oh well. Tomorrow, Monday the 9th is the girl's 17 month 'birthday'. So if you're reading this on Sunday, just pretend it's tomorrow.

Another month has past. The girls are 17 months old. I don't feel like typing out a lengthy introduction, so let's just dive into it. :)

Sophie

This is her "why on earth did you stick me on this stupid, freezing horse?" face.

This girl is smart. Really smart. She can understand pretty much everything you say to her. She started talking this month and her words include,

Cracker

Bye

Hi

Bubble

Puppy

Uh-Oh

and the usual Mama and Daddy.

So, not a ton of words, but she's getting there. She's very conversational. She's constantly babbling and she understand when she should 'comment' on something. If Lillian pulls something off the table that she shouldn't, Sophie is right there telling me about it. If she finds something interesting, she runs up and let's me know. It's pretty funny.

Sophie waves to everyone. Everyone. We were at the store a few days ago and she waved to everyone she saw. She waves to humans, animals, pictures, etc. She loves waving.

She's usually not afraid of strangers and is usually pretty friendly.

Sophie is quick. A couple of days ago, I was collecting things for the recycling bin and I accidentally left the door open. Before I knew it, Sophie was on my neighbor's porch. I freaked! Not that my neighbors are scary people, but the fact that she got out of the house and ran 100 feet without me noticing. So yeah, that was definitely a rockstar mom moment on my part. :( I've been very careful since then to make sure the door is actually closed. And as I'm typing this, I'm thinking I probably shouldn't admit to this mistake on the blog. Oh well....

Sophie still isn't much of a cuddler. She's very independent and doesn't like to be buckled, strapped, or confined in anything.

She's a cheese ball. She knows she's cute and she knows people recognize it. She definitely feeds into attention and will do cute things just to get a reaction.

Lillian

 

Lillian (well I guess both girls technically, but currently Lillian) has taught me the danger of comparing. I think it's really easy to compare your kids no matter what age they are, but especially when they're twins. I worry a lot when one girl isn't picking up on something as quickly as her sister did. I think "shouldn't so-and-so being doing this by now? Her sister is and she's only 2 minutes younger/older!" I have to remember that these girls are individuals. I have to remember that Lillian crawled almost 3 full weeks before Sophie did. Lillian started sleeping through the night first. Lillian is a less picky eater, etc, etc. However, Lillian still isn't talking. Not really any words at all other than the occasional 'mama' and 'dada' but we still don't get even that very often. One positive thing about having twins is that I'm able to recognize the budding stages of those milestones because I just experienced it with the other girl. So with this talking thing, I know Lillian is getting close because she's babbling just like Sophie started to a few months ago. For months, Lillian was silent. Hardly any babbles, but now she babbles for hours at a time. She's loud and I know one of these days words will start forming.

And even though she's not saying words, Lillian is still really smart. She also understands pretty much everything we say to her. She's the only one out of the pair who knows where her belly button is and when I say "where's mama's eyes?" she gets really excited and stabs me with her fingers. She points to everything and babbles about it, which like I said, Sophie started doing a few months ago. She's right on track to speaking. :)

Lillian is a cuddle bug and I love it! She isn't all the time, but a lot of the time she's perfectly content to sit on your lap, hold onto your fingers and bury her head into your neck. She's especially a daddy's girl. She has a meltdown every day/night when he leaves for work. She is absolutely obsessed with that man.

Lillian gets really excited when music is playing. She dances, claps, and nods her head (or as Josh likes to call it, "head bangs") and it's adorable. Absolutely adorable.

She still loves animals (both toy and living) and she is obsessed with hugging them (the toy ones that is). I have to make sure she has some sort of stuffed animal in her crib every night or she won't fall asleep.

 And the pair of them...

I know, I know I say this every.single.month. but the girls are best friends. Whenever I get the first baby up from in the morning or at nap time and we go into the other sister's room, both of their faces light up and they usually will start 'talking' or giggling. They play together really well and usually have no sense of a personal bubble. Lillian's been doing this thing lately where she'll sit down right next to, or sometimes on top of Sophie and Sophie normally doesn't mind it. Of course, it's a little hypocritical of Lillian to do that because if Sophie steps on her turf when she doesn't want her there, she bites her and bites her hard. Like leave-a-mark-for-several-days hard. It's awful, but for the most part, they get along great.

I have people commenting all the time about their 'twin language'. And I must say, it's true. I honestly think they understand each other. They babble back and forth with 'normal' voice fluctuations and I can usually tell who's the most domineering or bossy one in the conversation. I've read and heard that twins usually develop language later than singletons because they talk so much to each other. I didn't really believe that up until a few months ago, but seriously...they really do talk and understand their sister.

And can I just say how incredibly impossible it is to get a good picture of both of them looking at the camera? Seriously, this is what 99% of the pictures look like from the past month.

But here's a cute one where you can actually see their faces

Happy 17 months, girls! Just four more Sundays and then you go into nursery. :)