10 months old

It's become more evident in the past month how much the boys cherish each other's company. It's such a blessing to have a twin. When they see each other for the first time each morning, huge grins sweep across both of their faces as if they're both thinking, "Oh yeah, you exist! Yay!" One time last week Joshua was jumping in the Jumperoo and Caleb pulled himself up and grabbed onto the toy bar facing his brother and they bounced and laughed hysterically together. There are pictures of this in the September 2006 gallery. And now that they're crawling, they will spot each other from across the room, make eye contact, break out into wide smiles, and excitedly crawl towards each other.

But of course as with any sibling relationship, they also get into occasional scuffles. They will pull each other's hair (what little there is to pull!), give each other headlocks, fall on top of each other, and knock each other down. At this point all of these scuffles for the most part seem to be accidental. They will, however, quite purposefully snatch each other's toys. Joshua is particularly intent on having for himself whatever his brother has taken interest in playing with.

Caleb continues to show signs of being slightly more studious while Joshua's extrovert qualities continue to grow. Caleb can often be found sitting alone, looking at a book, studying the text just as much if not more than the illustrations. Then he will look up at you to let you know that he wants you to read him the book he has found. He is so sweet. Joe calls him his "Sweet Muffin". Another example is that Pop Pop has noticed when he walks the boys around at Old Country Buffet (they love touring the restuarant with Pop Pop), Caleb always chooses to study the lights and signs hanging from the ceiling, while Joshua prefers to scope out all the different people. Not only is Joshua more social, he is also a bit more daring than his cautious older brother. He was the first one to experiment with letting go and standing by himself. He seems a bit more athletic and nimble at this point, as well. He is usually more interested in throwing books than reading them! But he is also very sweet, just like his brother. He is the most agreeable eater and will happily devour anything we offer him! Caleb is not so cooperative and feeding him can sometimes be stressful, so we really appreciate having at least one baby with a hearty appetite!

The boys have also begun to develop an understanding of what they are and are not allowed to do, and they like to see what they can get away with! For instance, they both love grabbing Pop Pop's shiny golden pen from his shirt pocket. He doesn't let them play with it very much, of course, because they could easily poke themselves in the eye with it. So whereas previously they would reach for the pen without thinking twice, they'll now watch Pop Pop's face to see his reaction as they reach for it. It's amazing that they're already developing a sense of right and wrong, and an understanding of rules. 

Sometimes people ask me what it's like to have twins. My reply is that it's wonderful, the only downside being that you don't get much sleep. The other day I told someone that I haven't gotten 7 straight hours of sleep in the past year and half (since in the last few months of my pregnancy I couldn't sleep through the night, either), and she seemed pretty shocked. But that's life as we know it at the present time. The boys are getting much better at sleeping at night, but they usually don't go to bed until midnight, and at best one of them wakes up at least twice during the night. And it's always a scramble to try to placate the crying baby before he wakes up his brother! We can only imagine the luxury of only trying to get one baby to sleep! But despite being perpetually tired (and we're so used to it that it's really not that bad) we thank God daily for giving us these sweet and precious twin boys, and we wouldn't trade this blessing for the world!