It's been quite a long time since I updated this blog. It looks like the girls were about 18 months during my last post! They turned 2 on December 5th! Can't believe it! Where has the time gone? They are so smart, happy, polite and adorable. They melt our hearts each day with their smiles, hugs and kisses. We love them so much!
The past 6 months have been busy with activities and travel. I still take the girls to their music class each week and either the zoo or Academy of Sciences. They also love the park and are getting more bold with climbing and slides. They are running a lot more and we sometimes take the ball to the park and have them practice throwing and kicking. At home they are still really into their books and pretending they are reading. Some new toys they are into are Mr. Potato head, Disney and animal figurines, mini kitchen, purses, stuffed animals and baby strollers. They continue to like coloring on their easel and ask me to help them write their name and make shapes. They also LOVE playing in the car and pretending they are driving, adjusting mirrors and pushing buttons!
Maggie and Mary just had their 2 year old well visit at the doctors. They had a clean bill of health. They are almost 33 lbs (95th%), almost 3 feet tall (85th%) and their heads are still in the 99th% (that's why they are so smart!!). The doctor was impressed when I told him they each brussel sprouts, kale, broccoli, peas, corn and sweet peppers along with most meat and fruit. Their favorite new fruit are raspberries, blackberries and clementine oranges (small and seedless). They are also off the bottle and just drink milk from a sippy cup and juice from their straw cups. We moved from the highchairs to a booster chair a couple months ago and they really like it!
Their intelligence continues to amaze us (may be because we are first time parents!!) They know their entire alphabet (upper case and most lower case) by sight and in sign language. They can count from 1-10 and are practicing 11-20. What's more amazing is that they know all their colors, which is very advanced! Their vocabulary is also huge. They pretty much repeat any word we say and are now stringing together 2-4 words. Some cute things they say are "what the, what the?" , "God bless you", "amazing!", 'love you", "watchya doing?" "here ya go". Mary and Maggie are also very polite. We taught them to say thank you, sorry and please in sign language, so now that they are talking they say these words all the time, usually on cue, "Whats the magic word?" or "Say sorry to your sister."
They are very happy girls when they are well fed and sleep well. Luckily this is most the time! We have had a few melt downs and tantrums, usually when they are sick or we are traveling. We feel extremely blessed when we talk to other parents of toddlers who report tantrums every day! We started time-outs when they were around 19 months and they have worked really well. Mary is better at them since she's had more practice :o). Maggie is pretty good at minding and taking direction. Mary usually wants to do the opposite of what we ask.
They really love and care for each other. The other night after Mary had a time-out, Maggie came up to me with a mean face and hit me softly and then said "time-out" and then went and sat with Mary in the living room. Then just recently, Maggie has been pretending to whine and be sad. She waits for Mary to come up to her and ask "wrong?" "OK?" and pat her on the back. Maggie then laughing hysterically. They also hug and kiss each other randonly, as you can see in the pictures.
We went down to Orange County and saw Nana and Papa (Maggie and Mary get extrememly exciting to see them!!!) in September and December and both times went to Disneyland. The girls loved It's a Small World ride and talked about the "boat" ride and loved hearing the song for months later. During our most recent trip they were very excited to go on the Winnie the Pooh ride. They were both excited to see the actually live characters while we were standing in line to meet them. Maggie freaked out as soon as we got close to Tigger and Pooh, but Mary just loved them. They have also been a bit scared about Santa this year, so we didn't even try to get pictures with him.
The girls both love to play with our phones, mainly because there are games and movies. This was a Godsend on our long flight to see Gaga and Pappy (Larry's parents) in North Carolina over Thanksgiving. The weather was amazing and they really loved being with their other set of grandparents who spoil them. We decided to stay in a hotel because Larry's sister threw her back out on Thanksgiving and she really needed our bed. The girls would get upset when we left Gaga and Pappy's! When we were on our way to their home in the morning, the girls would get all excited and say "yay!" and "Gaga, Pappy" They got their first nice baby dolls with lots of accessories from Gaga and Pappy. Right away they started feeding their babies with the bottles! So cute!
Since I last wrote, I started introducing some cartoons. We are pretty selective and try to choose the ones that are educational. They love Super Why! (reading, phonics) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (which is surprisingly very educational for their age!), Sesame Street (Elmo!!!), Thomas the Train and Angelina Ballerina (they love dancing around like ballerinas!) By far their favorite is Mickey Mouse and they ask for it daily, but we limit TV to about an hour. They saw their first movie a month ago and are now hooked on the new Winnie the Pooh movie. I have to admit, it's adorable and very intelligent!
Here are some photos. Enjoy!
