Taking it all in

While the boys may not be speaking much English yet, we've come to realize that they understand many things. Lately we have been playing "Where is the...?" a lot. The boys can correctly identify so many things, including things that I'm certain we never specifically taught them. They know: house, tree, butterfly, squirrel, rabbit, mouse, eagle, bat, girl, boy, Jesus, sun, fire, zebra, monkey, giraffe, cow, frog, hippopotamus, peacock, leopard, tiger, boa consrictor, lamb, sheep, fish, polar bear, flamingo, window, car, pillow, corn, table, chair, couch, floor, ceiling, diaper, balloon, bird, rooster, boat, snowman, and horse, just to name a few. They also know their tummy, chest, bellybutton, elbows, shoulders, fingers, toes, and hair. They're so proud of themselves when they can point to the correct thing, and will sometimes clap and say "Yaaaay!". They clap and cheer for each other's acheivements, too.

The other day Halmoni was asking them where the different animals in the "Brown Bear" book were, and Caleb (who is especially quick to identify which animals are which) was sweet enough to defer to Joshua and let him have a turn at pointing to the correct animals, which he did. We thought that was really sweet.

One time a couple weeks ago we asked Joshua, "Where is the elephant?" thinking he'd go retrieve his elephant stuffed animal. But instead he hurriedly sorted through his alphabet books, found the "E" book, and turned to the page with the elephants on it! He was bursting with excitement and beaming with pride, it was so cute!

Words they do know how to say include: dog, puppy, turtle, apple, eye, owl, star, moon, baby, knee, duck, and book. They are also learning to count when they walk up and down the stairs, and even though they don't know all the numbers, it sounds like they're actually counting.

They've also started hugging each other. We ask them, "Caleb, do you love Joshua? Joshua, do you love Caleb?" and they will run towards each other and hug and gently pat each other on the back while embracing. I really need to get that on video!

Perfectionist

A few months ago I mentioned that Joshua would segregate broken crackers from whole ones and would only eat the broken ones as a last resort. Now he refuses to eat broken crackers altogether. He really enjoys Golden Rounds from Whole Foods, and will frequently ask for them. Unfortunately for Joshua, Golden Rounds don't hold up very well and about 90% of the crackers will have lost their roundness by the time they arrive on the shelf. If we offer him a broken cracker, Joshua will shake his head and protest, insisting that we produce for him a whole cracker. If there are no whole crackers left, stubborn Joshua absolutely refuses to eat the broken ones, no matter how hungry he might be (needless to say this works to Caleb's advantage, since he is not nearly as particular as his brother). It seems that we've got a little perfectionist on our hands!

21 Months Old

There's so much to catch up on, I don't know where to start!

Caleb is our little portrait artist. When he draws with his crayons, he will try to draw faces. He will say "eye" and carefully scribble a big sprawling dot. Then he will say "eye" again and draw another eye. Then he will say "nose" and draw his rendition of a nose. Then he will finish up by saying "mouth" and drawing a mouth. Of course the finished product doesn't really resemble a face at all, but it's a start, and as an artist who has always had much more respect for art that actually resembles something, I'm quite impressed.

The boys both love Elmo. They've never even watched Sesame Street on TV, but they have a couple books where Elmo appears on a few pages. We are slightly bewildered that they've learned to say "Elmo" but not other useful words such as "Mommy". When we were moving into our new house last week, we were pleasantly surprised by a potted plant, bottle of wine, and two gigantic helium Elmo balloons that our nice new landlords thoughtfully left for us as a housewarming gift. The boys were absolutely ecstatic at the sight of these life-sized Elmo balloons, and embraced them repeatedly while gleefully chirping "Elmo! Elmo!"

Joshua loves to rock out to a good beat. Whenever he hears music he likes, he will bop his head like he's headbanging. He has also composed his own little song that he likes to sing to himself. It goes like this: "Dooo ba doo ba doo..."

The boys are also learning to control their emotions. If I leave them for a little while, or if a little friend plays rough with them, or if they fall and scrape their knees, instead of bursting out in tears, they will stick out their lower lip and their faces will turn red and they'll try reallllly hard not to cry. They are getting to be tough little muffins.

Our little narcissists love to watch videos of themselves. Sometimes if they are throwing a tantrum or are otherwise inconsolable, browsing the "Movies" section of this website is the only way to calm them down. They will laugh uproariously while watching their own silly antics. Maybe we should market a compilation of "The Wolf Twins' Greatest Hits" and offer Baby Einstein a little competition!

Movin' On Up

The lack of activity on this site (other than our guestbook spammers... grrr!) is due to the fact that we have been busy packing, moving, and unpacking. That's right, we are finally settled into our new home! The boys handled the transition really well- they didn't skip a beat. That just goes to show that while we adults tend to grow attached to material things, such as buildings, what really makes a place home is the people you share the house with. As far as the boys are concerned, as long as Mommy, Daddy, and brother are with them, they'll call it home!

No!

The inevitable has come to pass- quite some time after learning to say "yes", the boys have finally learned to say "no!" I think it sunk in a few days ago when I got passionately upset with them for making an unusally huge mess. I must have been gesticulating somewhat wildly while exclaiming "no! no! nooo!", because now whenever the boys say "no!" they wave their forearms in the air, just as someone would who is saying "enough is enough!" They will walk around the house and point to all the crayon scribbles that have cropped up on our walls and furniture recently, and sternly say "no! no!" They have also started saying "no!" to each other when they irritate each other. They have not been so brazen as to use it against their parents, though!

Caleb has memorized the rhythm of Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? books. Throughout the day I will hear him singing to himself "Brow-bear, brow-bear, wha da daa da?" or "Lion, lion, wha da daa da?" etc. He can also identify all the different animals at the end of the book, even in the Polar Bear book, which has children dressed up in animal costumes and is therefore a little trickier. If you ask him "where is the walrus?" or "where is the zebra?" he will point to the correct animal costume. He is one smart little animal-lover.

One funny thing that the boys have been doing for a while now, but I keep forgetting to mention, is that if you tell them "Joshua and Caleb, you look sooooo cute!" they will look down and examine their outfits to see what they are wearing. I don't know how they learned to do this, but it's really funny (and sooooo cute)!

On track?

Sometimes I can't help but compare Caleb and Joshua's development to other kids their age and wonder if they are "on track". One of my friends can ask her son (who is the same age as our boys), "Would you like to eat an apple, a banana, or pretzels?" and he will calmly mumble something to her, and she will reply "Oh, you want an apple? Ok!" I found myself gaping at this exchange in awe, considering that our boys are more likely to convey their food preferences in the form of pointed fingers, high-pitched shrieks, or Caleb's favorite phrase as of late, "ahbidgee-bijah!", which we've determined means a variety of things. Another friend has told me that her son (who is also the boys' age) has started speaking in sentences. Our boys will "speak" in sentences, sure, but none that any English-speaking person can understand! Also, Halmoni says (and has photos to prove) that when I was the boys' age, I could feed myself a sliced-in-half grapefruit with a spoon. The boys' favorite thing to do with a spoonful of food is fling it through the air. I'm even lucky if I can get a break from holding the boys' sippy cups for them while they drink! 

I have been told that I should attribute Caleb and Joshua's verbal shortcomings to the fact that they are twins and that they don't feel as great an urgency to learn to communicate with others, namely their parents and other people who speak English, since they can commuicate with each other in their own "twin language". Perhaps this is true, I've decided to let myself think that it is. As far as their motor skills are concerened, though, I probably have nothing to blame but my own uptight tendency to cringe at messes and wastefulness. Perhaps what's holding the boys back is my hesitancy to allow them to "feed themselves" (or in other words "fling across the room and smear all over their faces and clothes") organic baby yogurt that is nearly worth its weight in gold.

20 Months Old

The boys have hit the big 2-0! I've got to say that I'm kind of looking forward to when we can simply tell people "they're 2" or "they're 2 and a half" because keeping track of months can get kind of tricky after a while.

The boys have been enjoying their last month in this house before we move. This little old house and its many quirks have grown on us, and it's sad to think that in a matter of months it will be a mere memory, with a behemoth McMansion standing in its place. The boys won't remember this house when they're older, and we'll never be able to walk down our street and show them their first home. But at the same time, we feel like we've outgrown this small space and the move will be good for our family. We're hoping to transition the boys into their own toddler beds, and maybe even their own room, when we move... we'll let you know how that goes! A dishwasher and hardwood floors are two upgrades that we're especially looking forward to. However, we're really going to miss our huge yard, garage, and neighborhood, and Joe is going to miss his "man" bathroom since our new place only has one. But the new place seems to have less wasted space and more room for the boys to play indoors, so in that respect it will be an upgrade.

The boys are getting to the age where they're fighting with each other a lot, but they're also constantly "loving" each other and playing with each other really well. It's so fun to watch them sit across from each other and play "monkey see, monkey do", mimicking each other's actions and laughing uproariously. Another game they play a lot involves running towards each other from opposite sides of a room, yelling. They also enjoy wrestling their way out from under a big colorful quilt that is thrown over their heads. They also like to create crayon masterpieces, kick and throw balls, and ride their spring horse. They enjoy going to the pool and having water dumped repeatedly on their heads. Joshua has a strong kick and loves kicking the water, and Caleb has been experimenting with putting his face in the water. Have I mentioned that I can't wait til they're old enough for swim team? :)