N laughing at O’s sticking black olives on his fingers by saying his very first pun:
“Olive! Errrrrrrrr!”
N’s response to a handful of Veggie Booty as I was getting dinner on the table:
“This is a good beginning!” (I think he may have been quoting Omie?)
Last week O took a good look at our clematis, which was in full bloom, and said “Many, many, purple stars!”
I love the conversations they’re beginning to have. They say the darndest things to each other in their cribs after I close the door for the evening and they’re supposed to be sleeping. Their latest game is for one boy to lie on his back and move himself feet-first up the side of the crib as high as possible until his brother can see his feet. Then brother (usually O) yells “I can see your feet!” as loudly as he can, and then both boys giggle hysterically. I am so glad we’ve decided to wait to move them into beds. I think it would be an all night party in there right now, and they need a little maturing before they can manage staying in bed and actually going to sleep in the same room together. Though I’m sure they exist somewhere, I’ve never met a twin parent whose kids share a room that didn’t either wait until as long as possible (using crib tents for safety like we do), or regret not doing so.
Other random things I’ve heard on the monitor lately:
“Daddy is working. He brings his seeds!” (N, talking about J’s trail mix)
“Mama is a biiiiig girl!” (O, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Everybody knows I’m a big
mama).
Oh, and just now, as I write this, N said, "Mama is very dirty in the backyard!" It's true, I was weeding barefoot while they ran around in the sprinkler, and I got mud all over my legs. Now N is singing "twinkle, twinkle, little bugs!"
Yesterday was our last day of our Wednesday Early Childhood class, and I was sad to see it end. J and I gave the staff a card and a bag of needed items for the Fall class, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The program has been such a help for us this year. The mom’s support has been great for me, the boys have learned skills like learning to sit together in a group for singing, learning to wait their turn (an area in which they had a bit of a head start), to separate to someone other than a family member, all kinds of things. I really hope we get in again next year, but lots that apply don’t win the lottery as there just aren’t enough spaces. I think that a year from this Fall, the boys are really going to love preschool.
When we got home from class, we took a walk around the block. A rather heavyset teen jogged by in very tight jogging shorts, and N said “her bottom wiggles!” Thankfully, she didn’t hear him. It can be interesting having a very verbal little boy with no filter whatsoever…
The boys have been seeing their baby cousin quite a bit, as grandma is taking care of her when Jenn*ifer works and brings her by to visit. N told me this week that “Zo*e is not a grownup. She is a baby animal!” I wonder where he thinks she sleeps at night. Maybe in a dog bed like Ivy, or the basement like Orbit?
Maybe she sleeps in this handy infant car seat.
As you can see, the boys (and Aunt Me*agan) like Zo*e a lot these days. They were a teensy bit jealous at first (actually, N once suggested that Jenni*fer come over without her!). She is a very smiley, happy baby, and we’re lucky enough to see her quite a bit when grandma brings her over.
My mom was over here for a whole week, and had a nice visit.
No*ah waking up from his nap in Omie's lap.
After nap hijinks on the couch.
The boys remember Omie well by now, and really enjoyed their time together. Here she was saying her goodbyes before their naptime on Sunday, reading a book about airplanes and explaining where she was going.
They were a bit somber that afternoon.
The next day, we were in the backyard, and a plane flew over the house. N said “is that Omie?”. O said “nooooooo!”, and N said “she went home to make Opa happy!”.
If you’ve notice that I tend to quote N more than O, it’s because O is not quite as forthcoming with the sentence long funny observations at this point. He’s more likely to chime in with well-timed but less quotable exclamations, but he has plenty to say and lots of words to say it with. So, a little more about my wonderful O: he loves to water “his” plants in the garden, mostly marigolds, nasturtium, lettuce, and herbs.
He knows exactly which ones he may eat and which ones he needs to leave alone, though when I cut some lettuce for supper tonight, he started to cry and asked me to "put it back together". I hadn't thought about what it would seem like to him to just hack away at the plants he's been watering for the last few weeks. He notices all the bird calls, and recognizes the sounds of crows, seagulls, pigeons, cardinals, and sometimes chickadees. He so loves going to the church nursery and to the Early Childhood classes that he gets a disappointed look on his face when I come back,then grabs a favorite toy, and hides. He always has a big smile for me when I find him, but he’s sad to leave. O loves musical instruments, and loves to tap along to the music with pretty decent rhythm. He insists on copying every single thing N does, even if N was just disciplined for it, and at least once every day I say to him “make your own choices, O!” He has a very strong sense of fairness and independence. He has a poetic touch with words sometimes – his first two-word phrase was “sky ball”, describing the moon. A flashlight is a “make-sun”, and a swing is an “up-down”. He is my big hugger, and often requests “eggssa hugs!” (extra hugs).
