The updates

Well, the twins officially turned eighteen months this past Tuesday.

Eighteen months.

Wow, how time flies by.

This past summer, I have watched my son come out of his shell.  He was never shy, per se, but compared to Sabrina he sometimes seemed a little quieter and a little gentler.

No more.

"Hello world, my name is Sammy and I will not take crap from my sister anymore!"

He steals toys back now, BITES (we're working on this on), and asserts his wants.  Talking wise he has said more words, but still prefers his signs to words.  And for that, I at least knows that he understands me.  He nods and shakes his head with the appropriate questions, signals "all done" ALL THE TIME for things he wants out of--even a diaper change!  So even though he might not be using as many verbal words as Sabrina, I truly feel that he is doing just fine. 

He loves to bring me books to read to him, his little people, shape sorters, feeding himself with his fork and spoon, but his most favorite thing to do is play with his cars.  He says it like this, "kers".  Too cute.

Sabrina, on the other hand, has had the language explosion I have heard other people talk about.  She repeats almost everything I ask her to repeat, can give me sounds for many animals, some letter sounds, and an extended vocabulary of her own.  Her favorite words are "No!" and "Mine!"  Okay, so she may have learned the "no" from me, but I most certainly did not teach her "mine".  That is anyone's guess.

It's funny what they pick up though.  When she started saying milk awhile back, she said it like this, "mmmmmmmmmmmilk", with the emphasis on the "m" sound.  We didn't teach her that, it was something she did on her own.  And when Sammy started saying milk, he did exactly the same thing.

But where Sabrina has got the language lead, my boy has lead in other ways.  In social situations he gets right in.  In play areas he runs in with no fear.  We were at a new indoor play area this week and you have to climb up through this netting to go down a slide.  At first he was afraid but after I showed him how to do it there was no stopping him, he must have went up and down by himself about ten times.  He is the one that now has no fear.

I sat there, that day in the play area and just watched them both in amazement. I love just watching them sometimes.....figuring out a puzzle, a way to climb up something, the way they interact with each other.

It's truly amazing.

Truly.