15 months

It seems odd to blog about the twins on Abby Jane's birthday, but I have quite a bit of

catching up to do on them, as they haven't had a monthly update since they turned a year! That's the holidays for you. This last month was HUGE for them. In the last five weeks, Blythe has acquired three teeth, and Joy has sprouted two... bringing each to a total of five teeth and working on a couple more.

The ear tube surgery was very successful last month. Both girls showed immediate relief. However, despite Blythe's immediate improvement in her verbals, she has since plateaued off in her attempts to mimic new words. We're going in for a speech therapy evaluation in a couple of weeks just to help her catch up a bit from months of not hearing us well. I'm looking forward to getting some focused time helping her make up for lost time! Her current words are mama, dada, and mi-mi (milk). She waves bye-bye, blows kisses, and does hand signs for "more please" and "all done". She can make smacking sounds for what the fish says, and she knows how to blow on her food. At their 15 month well check, she weighed in at 22 lb (45%) and 31 inches (75%). Blythe took her first steps over Christmas, but still crawls more than walks. In the last day or so, she is walking more and more, so she may become a majority walker in the next week! She is very ticklish, and LOVES getting tickled! She laughs when she sees the tickle coming. Blythe's favorite things are her Polly horse that she sleeps with, hand puppets, books (particularly animal or flap books), the musical instrument set, the yellow front-end loader, blocks, toy kitchen food, and her favorite push toy. Our Blythe is, in a word, sugar.

This pic is significant because though Blythe loves her mama, she has a VERY special spot in her heart for her Daddy and chooses him above me sometimes! Other important points are her sippy cup that she LOVES, and the beads around her neck- we'll come back to Blythe and her bling in a moment, though.

Joy walks everywhere now and is really fast! She weighed in last week at 23 lb 11 oz (60%) and also 31 inches (75%). Her vocab is expanding all the time as she is doing a great job of mimicking and attempting new words. She says mama, dada, Abba (Abby) bye-bye, nigh-night, hi, amen, mo (more), baba (puppy), and Joy versions of "Blythe" (starts with a B and has various endings), "all done", and "please". Her animal sounds are moo, elephant sound (with motions), baba, meow, neigh, ooo-ooo for monkey, fish smacks, and blows on food as well. Joy's favorite things are her green blankie that she sleeps with, snuggly toys she can bury her face in, the toy piano, blocks, musical instruments, books (particularly flap books), and toy kitchen pots/pans/spoons. Joy laughs all the time (unless she's being shy, which is rare), and she has acquired a new laugh in the last week that Jake and I get a pretty big kick out of.. She is in a word, a ham. I let her hold a pretzel today... looks more like a Cuban in her chubby fingers!

Back to Blythe and her bling- today at Jake's office, they gave the girls some random beads to play with. Blythe right away had about four around her neck, and Joy tried to do the same, but just couldn't figure it out.

Here she is later on, still trying, with another necklace! Poor old Joy- I think Blythe may have her beat here.

Another thing that has been great in the last month or so- the girls can really handle some rough-housing with Abby Jane. She straddled Joy last night and just sat on her back... Joy belly laughed and laughed. We love that she's helping her sisters be rough and tumble- we're never nervous when they're around bigger boys because we know a) they can handle a lot and b) they're not afraid to let us know when they've had enough!

Why does taking kids clothes off give them a burst of energy? We have had some hilarious moments recently with the three of them running around "nik nik"... if this blog were not public, I would post some priceless videos we got.

I know no one is still reading, so the following falls in the "for our records" category. "Twinsie" items of note. When they are awake in their cribs, they are talking to each other and laughing. The other day when Jake and I left on a date, Mom said they dealt with their frustration as follows: Blythe was sad and cuddled up in Mom's lap, while Joy was mad and started throwing toys. They pass food and sippy cups back and forth on their trays. They are in the hitting stage, which is tricky when there are two going through it. At least I know that stage has an end point, or at least it did for their big sis... that is, until her little sisters started hitting her... Blythe and Joy aren't clingy to each other, but they are more content with going to sleep when the other one is in the room as well. I think our family is more like triplets- the three girls play together all the time- so it takes away from some of the twin magic, but it makes the three of them more BFF... most of the time! On that note, they LOVE Jane- she makes them laugh when no one else can, and she is so tender with them... it always cracks me up that she regularly calls them "sweetie"- "I'm sorry you bumped your head, Sweetie. Do you want a block, sweetie? I'm praying for your rash, sweetie..." You get the picture. It's funny. I love my girls!