25 months old (I know, I know...)

I know, now that the boys are 2, it seems pretty silly to continue with the x-months-old updates on the 10th of each month. But I figure it's just as good a time as any to talk about what's been going on in the wild, wild world of 2-year-old twin boys. Otherwise, who knows when I'll ever get around to it?

Caleb and Joshua have finally started speaking English sentences. Here are some things they can be heard saying nowadays: 

• Where is the monkey?


• All gone! Is there any more?


• Monkey, where are you?


• Read the book!

The monkey is a small orange plastic monkey that has recently become the object of Joshua's affection. Its mere presence will calm him down immediately. I snuck it to the doctor's office with us and gave it to him after he got his shots and he stopped crying immediately. Nice job, monkey!

The boys are also very alert and aware of their surroundings when we're on the road. They recognize the streets we take to get to Mimi and Papa's house and will start yelling "Mimiiiii! Mimiiiii! Papa! Kiki! Mimiiiiii" when we're still a couple minutes away (Kiki is their name for Uncle Chris). Similarly, they know that when we merge onto a certain highway we are on our way to pick up Daddy at work, and they will yell "Daddy! Daddy!" And after spending some quality time with Daddy at Chick-fil-a, when we turn into the parking lot of his building they will say "bye bye, Daddy" even before we stop the car, because they understand that this is where we drop Daddy off.

We have noticed that while the boys will sometimes quarrel viciously with each other, they are pacifists in their interactions with other kids their age. If another kid pushes or otherwise antagonizes them, they appear to be shocked. Their lips quiver, their faces turn red, and they fight to hold back tears, as if they don't understand what they did to deserve such treatment. But with each other, there is no holding back!

The boys are becoming very particular about their attire. They only want to wear tops that have pictures or words on them. They want nothing to do with their handsome argyle, striped, or fairisle knit sweaters. They do, however, enjoy wearing their vertically-striped button-down shirts which they refer to as "Daddy," on account of their resemblance to the shirts that Daddy often wears.

We have decided to majorly cut back on the boys' TV viewing lately. It had gotten to the point where the boys would throw tantrums if we didn't let them watch the same Baby Einstein DVD 5 times in a row, so we decided to cut it out of our lives cold turkey. The first few days were extremely rough, but we ended up going for about 4 weeks without watching any TV at all in our house. Then a couple weeks ago I let them watch Baby Einstein while I gave them a haircut, and they actually sat somewhat still during the haircuts since it was such a huge treat. They no longer ask to watch TV a billion times a day like they used to, and everyone is a lot happier.