A Portrait of the Artists At Seventeen Months

A few things:

The pacifier only comes out at nap time and bedtime now, but when one of the babies is upset now, the other will search out a paci and put it in the crying twin's mouth. How sweet is that?!

Remember Linus telling the dog to shut up? That still happens sometimes, but now they're both shushing her. Veda even leans down to do it. It's incredibly cute.

A few weeks ago, they became little furniture-climbing monkeys. This means that all of my out-of-their-reach safe spots are now not-so-safe. Other parents of twins used to tell me this got easier. They were lying liars who tell lies.

I've said before that we're immobilized by their mobility. It's so hard to go anywhere, because all they want to do is run away. If there was only one of them, it would be manageable, but with two running in two different directions, it's dangerous and exhausting. I'm looking forward to them figuring out that they need to stay with me.

A few weeks ago I brought the basketball pump inside so that I could add air to their inflatable bouncy pony. Turns out that it's the greatest toy ever. It now lives in the toy basket.

Linus is such a smart little guy. Every day he takes on these little projects with objectives that aren't clear to anyone but him. He'll grab a couple of objects and work on fitting them together, tapping them... it's a process that takes a while, and if there's an interruption in his work, a tantrum ensues.

The Little Engine That Could has finally been overthrown as official favorite book. The new reigning favorite? Olivia goes to Venice. Veda brings it to me approximately once every fifteen minutes. I'm not sure that they're old enough to get the dry humor of the Olivia series, so it must be the artwork. And they also enjoy the "bong bong" sound effect near the end.

Speaking of humor, Veda now laughs in all of the right places in Blue Hat, Green Hat. If we're reading it at bedtime, she'll take the paci out of her mouth, laugh, and reinsert it. Ha!

Linus's kisses used to be bites. Now they're licks. Eh, at least they don't hurt anymore.

They're more into dancing lately. The dancing involves a combination of wiggling and spinning. Yeah, it's pretty cute.

Both babies have become more interested in "helping" me, Veda more so. They love putting their toys in the toy hammock at the conclusion of bath time, and I always get lots of help when it's time to transfer the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer. Veda brings me a kleenex if I tell her I need to blow my nose. This is actually quite helpful, as my nose runs like a spigot in the morning thanks to all of the allergens out here, and inevitably I'm nursing Linus when it happens.

It's hard to believe that they're seventeen months old - that's almost and year and a half! I hate that this is all going by so fast, but I'm also looking forward to the eighteen month mark, when apparently a whole new world of stuff will happen.

Snapshots of Cute Stuff 6/9/11

I was thiiiiis close to packing up the Jumperoos. They take up a lot of room in our apartment, and the babies are too tall for them. Then again, they're good for keeping the babies safely corralled when I need to take a shower. The babies aren't content to stay in them very long with nothing else going on, but add in a Signing Time dvd, and they're good. And there's also the hilarity of this:

Arts and Crafts time has been getting more interesting, by which I mean that they actually DO stuff now when I haul out the crayons or finger paint. Obviously they still put everything in their mouths, but not as much now. We're making progress. I'm soooo eager to start play-doh, but maybe they need a little more time to be ready.

This one's a little old. It's from Mother's Day. The hubby tried to take me somewhere nice. Maybe this sounds like a bad idea from the outset to you, but Linus and Veda are exceptionally well-behaved babies. No kidding, I got stopped no less than three times at Target the other day because people wanted to tell me how GOOD they are. That doesn't count the number of times I was told how cute they are. Anyway, back to this little story... It was a disaster. I ordered spanakopita for them (this was a Greek place), and they crumbled it all over the place. They were loud. They were dropping silverware on the floor. Long story short, I ended up taking Veda outside while the hubby boxed up our dinner and paid the check. Oh well, credit to the husband for trying.

Here's Veda at the zoo. What you're not seeing is the extent of her enthusiasm for the flamingos... any bird, really. Every time we see birds, hear birds, or read about birds, she furiously signs bird. I'm such an advocate of signing now. It isn't just about the communication. It's obvious that it's also helping them learn about the world around them. At the zoo, they are so much more into the animals they know the signs for. So cool.

Linus has developed an obsession with lining things up as of late. He does this on the side of the bathtub, and he lined up pieces of food on a sink in a hotel we stayed in. That was a little weird. Funny, but weird. I'd give him a piece of banana, carrot, etc., and he'd walk it over to the sink and space it just so in order. 

Here's Veda's big ol' size 3.5 sandals for the summer. We had to try on every pair of sandals in the store before we found a pair narrow enough for her. Seriously, she's the tiniest person ever.

A photo of Mr. Linus from our trip to White Sands, NM. With the sun beating down on us and the snow white sand reflecting it back up, he still refused to wear either his sunglasses or his hat. 

Veda with Daddy, looking off camera at Mimi.

Linus is such a pointer. Here he was excited to find an ant walking across the sand.

It was hot. So stinkin' hot.

We stopped for frozen custard, which the kids love. Naturally, they had to be stripped down.

My husband and Linus in Carlsbad Caverns, which boasts the biggest cave room in the Western Hemisphere. Something like that. He also wears his sunglasses at night.

If you haven't been to New Mexico, it's hard to understand how much uninhabited area there is. Here we are in the middle of nowhere, which is where the real Smokey the Bear was found. I look fatter than I deserve, but it's necessary to post a hammy vacation picture.



Also from Carlsbad Caverns. The formation behind me looked like a monster, so this is my scary face.

This has been Snapshots of Cute Stuff.

Guest Post

Today I'm the guest poster over at Rookie Moms with an article about activities to do in Albuquerque with young'uns. Ch-ch-ch-check it out:

http://www.rookiemoms.com/albuquerque-baby-toddler-activities/#more-7721