World's Youngest Granny & The Alphabet

This past weekend we went to visit Granny and Grandad for Granny's surprise 50th birthday party. Today is her actual birthday, so Happy Birthday to the youngest, hippest "Granny" I've ever met :) The boys had a blast riding their bikes all around Granny and Grandad's huge driveway. They impressed Grandad with their curiosity in wanting to know (and being able to identify some of) the letters on the license plates on the cars. They were also able to correctly identify Granny, Grandad, and Uncle Patrick! Before our visit we spent some time brushing up with one of our wedding photos, and I think that the boys are developing a pretty solid long-term memory as well.

Both boys now call us "Mommy" and "Daddy". It is very heartwarming. Joshua even says "Mommy, I do!" which I'm pretty sure means "Mommy, I love you!" He has a big smile and looks so proud every time he says it, and sometimes it's accompanied by a kiss, too :)

These days the boys are completely fascinated with the letters of the alphabet. They can say about a dozen letters and can identify most of the others. Sometimes they mix up the pronounciations for "M" & "N" and "B" & "P" but they get the general idea. We haven't pushed them to learn their alphabet at all. After all, we never would have guessed they'd even be remotely interested in learning the alphabet before age 2. It all started with the boys pointing to the text in their books and asking "Da? da?" which means "what is it?" At first we'd just tell them, "Those are words" but they would get increasingly frustrated with us and we eventually realized they wanted to know what the individual letters were called. Last week we got them a simple wooden alphabet puzzle and it now seems to rank among one of their most-played-with toys. When we're out running errands the boys will see different letters on store signs and read parts of them to us. For instance, today we drove through a BB&T bank parking lot and Caleb shouted out "B!" And the other night we were at Safeway and Joshua saw the Y at the end of the big sign in front of the store and shouted out "Y!"

Canine Farewell

Today Joshua spoke his first English sentence (and I use the term "sentence" loosely). Upon hearing our neighbor's dog anxiously barking from the other side of the fence, the boys exclaimed "dog! dog!" and walked over to greet it. When we told the boys it was time to go inside, Joshua called out, "Bye, dog!" as Joe escorted him inside the house. And there you have it, his first "sentence".

22 Months Old

The twins attended their first official playgroup this morning! It was at the home of their friend Faith, who lives in our old neighborhood. Their friend Ryker was there, too, and they met a new friend, Elizabeth. Caleb and Joshua spent most of their time taking laps around the living room riding Faith's tricycle and pushing her doll stroller. Maybe one of these days they'll actually play with their friends at playgroup!

Joshua and Caleb can now both jump all by themselves. They've come a long way since the Jumperoo! Their favorite toys these days are their Mega Blocks (which we were happy to discover were made in Canada, not China!), their toy animals, their tricycles, and their books. The boys, especially Caleb, also like to draw. They know a few letters of the alphabet (including "Y"...check out the September movies to see for yourself :))

Starting tomorrow we're going to be watching our neighbor's daughter for an hour and fifteen minutes each morning before the school bus picks her up at the end of our street. She will be coming over at around 6:50 am. Lately the boys and I have been sleeping in until 9 am! No more excuses, we're going to NEED to get our little night owls (and ourselves) to bed earlier from now on!

How to Break up a Twin Fight

When the boys are in the heat of battle, we interrupt and ask them "Caleb, do you love Joshua? Joshua, do you love Caleb?" and about half the time they will stop fighting and hug each other. Then we will tell them they are so sweet, and then they forget about the fight.

The boys have been making each other crack up a lot lately. Usually what happens is one boy will say something nonsensical (something from their twin language, perhaps?) that will prompt the other boy to laugh hysterically, and they will go on and on, back and forth, for 5-10 minutes. I witness such exchanges about twice a day, usually when the boys are off playing on their own in another room. It always warms my heart to hear their deep belly laughs floating into the kitchen or wherever I happen to be. Having a twin to share your childhood with is surely a great blessing.

The boys are learning their shapes now. They can correctly identify squares, circles, triangles, diamonds, stars, and hearts. Caleb has shown a particular interest in learning the letters of the alphabet, as well. He likes to point to the different letters in a printed word and ask what each one is. He still has a ways to go, though... right now whenever he sees the letter "C" he says "moon!" (you know, like a crescent moon...) :) Both Caleb and Joshua will point to the words in a book and ask "da?" which means, "What is it?" and we will say "words!" and then they will tilt their heads fondly towards the words and smile, which means they love them.

Who's that? Mommy!

You'd think that when words such as flower, Elmo, and turtle effortlessly roll off a young child's tongue, Mommy would also be a long-standing member of that child's spoken vocabulary. Well, this was not the case until today. While looking at our family photos on the computer screensaver, I was pointing to various family members and telling the boys who was who. When I pointed to a picture of myself, Joshua piped up and said "Mommy!" I was in shock. Did he really just say "Mommy"? So I tried again with another photo, and he correctly identified me as "Mommy" again! He has yet to address me as "Mommy" in person, but at least he can say who I am, and I feel honored to have finally earned the prestige that his beloved Elmo has been enjoying for the past couple months :)