Eden and Everly 21 Months

Eden and Everly are 21 months! Now I can probably start saying they are going to be 2 in November instead of using a crazy number of months for their age. I have to think about planning a birthday party for them! The changes just keep coming for both girls. Their language skills continue to grow and physically they are getting stronger all the time. Both girls understand many many words. They can follow short directions almost all the time, and continue to amaze me with all the phrases they understand. Everly tends to repeat everything we say as we are saying it while Eden will say a word or two out of the blue that we haven't said all day. They are both starting to say their abc's and learn their colors and shapes. They are also really good at identifying characters and coming up with titles of books.The girls are practicing going down the stairs now, and they are getting pretty good at it. We are starting to spend some time at the little playground in our neighborhood in the afternoons. Ellasen's bus drops off right in front of it so we usually take the time to play for a while. It is really hard to keep them both same on this playground right now. Tim likes to say they know just enough to be dangerous. They go in different directions with an internal compass towards the most mayhem. They can climb high on the playground but don't seem to realize they can't dive head first off the top of the slide without some bumps and bruises. In other physical developments they are starting to use spoons and forks more and more. The mess is impressive. I might not survive. Tim leaves the premises. That is all I will say about that.

This month Eden has become quite the little toy/attention thief. She wants anything anyone else has (including Mommy's lap and arms) and finds a way to grab it. If both girls are playing nicely with a toy across the room from one another Eden will get up and go grab Everly's toy. Everly has decided she doesn't always want to play that way and she has started some very vocal and sometimes violent protests. Ahh, twins. In Eden's defense Everly is a little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. Some times Everly has enough of Eden's stealing and just throws the toy at her when she charges. Some times Everly screams and hits. And some times Everly shares. Eden plays Russian Roulette every time. She doesn't seem to mind any reaction except the one where she gets clocked in the nose.

For what it is worth Everly probably has a right to be a little moody. She bit through her beloved paci. I had to cut off the nipple part to prevent choking. This did not nominate me for sainthood in our house. There was complete and utter devastation. See, her beloved paci was no ordinary paci. It was attached to a stuffed monkey which is her one true love. She strokes the monkey's tail as she falls asleep and no other paci will do. We offered her the elephant, the giraffe and the caterpillar each of which had been cast off as not worthy almost a year ago. None would do. We offered her plain paci's with no stuffed animal. Not a chance. So we decided she would give up the paci. (For the record Everly wasn't on board, but you know, she is a baby and how much control over a household do they really have?) She could keep the monkey obviously but since no other paci would do what choice did we have? And then, during a particularly difficult nap time (screaming time) I remembered we had Amazon Prime. The angel on one shoulder said "Don't do it! You are almost home free! This is probably the worst of it!" The devil on the other said "Order that paci with convenient two day shipping or we shall all surely parish!" I couldn't push submit order fast enough. The day arrived when new monkey came in the mail. We hid old monkey and pretended they were one in the same. We were IDIOTS. Everly acted like new monkey was full on possessed and that her parents had surely lost it for even bringing the thing into the house. If we thought elephant and giraffe were slightly offensive, new monkey was a throw it out the window, bury it in the backyard and dance on its grave kind of evil. So much for that. Old broken threadbare monkey for the win! On a positive note, Everly doesn't take a paci anymore. One down, one to go. Eden might take hers to college. I am not going through that again.


Here are some things we notice about the girls together:
*They are becoming more independent, wanting to try new things
*They still nap 2.5-3 hours a day
*They sleep 12 hours at night
*They can understand and follow a two step direction
*They know their Sesame Street characters from books
*They know circle, triangle and square
*They know pink and blue
*They call Goofy "Foofy"
*They love music
*They call shoes "Fancies"
*They love to copy each other especially if we give a reaction
*They like to have their picture taken

Here are some things we notice about Eden:
*She loves stuffed animals and shoes
*She calls the ABC's "HHJ's"
*She loves Doc McStuffins and Minnie Mouse
*She dances by raising her arms up one at a time
*She is still a pickier eater. She doesn't love meat
*Her favorite foods are pasta, oranges, blackberries and goldfish
*She doesn't love to share
*She likes to do things herself

Here are some things we notice about Everly:
*She loves books. She would look at books all day.
*She likes to repeat the words after me in the books
*She calls the ABC's the "aBc's" with the emphasis on the B
*She loves to eat. She will eat anything I give her
*Her favorite foods are chicken, yogurt, cheese and cherries
*She loves to be held
*She will do anything for a laugh. Making funny faces and hiding very quietly then jumping out are two ways she makes us laugh.

We love these two to the moon and back! Only two more monthly posts before the big 2!