20 Months!!

On Monday, Jackson and Cullen turned 20 months! They are growing and changing at lightning speed lately! Here's what they're up to these days:

*Becoming more and more independent every day. They especially love to be outside, free to explore wherever they please.

*They're always on the go and never sit still for even a second. They like to use me as a human jungle gym... and occasionally a punching bag.

*They absolutely insist on using spoons to "feed themselves" lately. I put that in quotations because they're not exactly feeding themselves with the spoon, they hardly ever get any food in their mouths with it. More like using their spoon to stir the food around their trays and fling it to the floor while feeding themselves with their other hand. And I'm not exaggerating when I say they insist on having a spoon at each meal. Today at dinner, I put Jack in his chair and his plate in front of him. But he immediately burst into the most pitiful, uncontrollable sobs and I had to ask him 3 times to calm down and try to show me what he wanted or what was wrong. Through his very dramatic tears and moans he pointed to Brandon's fork and the very instant I said "Oh, you want your spoon?" the tears magically stopped and he went on to thoroughly enjoy his dinner.

*Both boys are ultra mischievous lately. Just this week, I've caught them taking apart a gift bag I had made for a friend, emptying every last drawer in their dresser, yanking their curtains completely off the window and breaking a curtain rod while doing it, stealing my makeup, opening up multiple decks of playing cards and scattering them all over the apartment, taking our DVD's out of their cases, eating toothpaste straight out of the tube, drawing on the couches with pens, and swirling Brandon's electric razor around in the toilet (laughing hysterically while they did it of course). How do they think of these things?!?

*Unfortunately, still not speaking. They did learn one new word in the past 2 months: please (thanks to my Mom and sisters!) But they're still not nearly where they should be. So, today I called to set an appointment with the early intervention program. I will take the boys in next week for an assessment and then we'll go from there. At first, I was totally opposed to them getting "speech therapy" because I didn't want to be an over-protective/over-concerned Mom. I wasn't worried at all that they weren't speaking (I'm confident it's not because of any physical or mental disability) and I figured they'd get it in their own time. I still believe that, but I think it's starting to have negative consequences on them and that learning to speak would greatly help them in our daily life. Lately they have been becoming extremely frustrated and whining/screeching a lot. Remember how I mentioned the screeching a couple months back? Well it's been getting steadily worse and it's driving me crazy. Any time they want/don't want something, dislike something, are hurt, are tired, are hungry, or pretty much anything besides perfectly content, they start whining and screaming. I think that if they had another form of communication this would lessen their frustration and allow them to get what they want or tell me what's going on without screaming. I've also heard from a few other moms at our church who put their kids in speech therapy and they were singing its praises. So we've decided to give it a try. Hopefully it will help them soon!

*Although they're not communicating verbally, they are getting much better at conveying what they want and obeying (sometimes). Using their sign language or just simply pointing and yelling they can tell me when they're hungry, thirsty, tired, want to go outside, want to read a book, etc. And they're showing us that they understand so many more words than we were giving them credit for. When we read books with them, they can point out certain pictures on the page if we ask them. They know some animals, lots of everyday objects, people and nearly all of their body parts. This has made reading a lot more fun recently! And they beam with pride after they've correctly shown us where the all of objects are :-)

*They're sleeping 11-12 hours a night with 1 or 2 naps in between. We've been gradually trying to drop their second nap since they've been resisting it, but on their extra-grumpy days I make them take one anyways. Even if they just stay in their cribs and have quiet play time, that's fine with me, I just need a few minutes of peace to tidy up and make dinner.

*Still obsessed with fire engines and airplanes. I'm not joking when I say that not an engine or plane goes by during the day that they don't notice and rush to the window to see. And considering that we live a few miles from the airport and directly across the street from a fire station, they always have plenty to keep them busy.

*Baths are getting a little easier again. As long as I put them in when the tub's empty and run the water while they're in there, they're happy to play in the tub. There's always lots of screaming and tears when it's time to actually wash up but they do enjoy their playtime in the bath.