Huh. I was describing the kids as mellow and able to roll with the punches. Wow. What a change. So it hasn't always been like this. And that tells me that it probably won't always be like this, either. What I mean to say is that there will be some point in the future when spending time in the house with the kids will not involve near-constant protestations of unbearable agony over the fact that the cat walked away from me!
This time last year I was describing Nora as having more energy and moving around more, and I talked about how Milo was content to just sit there and not move around much. Now Milo is always on the go. He runs to and fro, to and fro. He throws things and cackles and is a constant blur. Milo is capable of sitting down and playing with something for extended periods of time, so I think his high-energy ways are completely normal. This past weekend up at the lake Milo was in disposables because it's hard to use cloth when traveling, and so the diaper was so slim that his pants weren't really staying up. At some point his pants started riding lower and lower, and then as he was running across the room we could all see a plumber's crack as his diaper started slipping too. But Milo just kept running, and the next thing we knew his diaper and his pants had fallen completely down around his ankles, exposing us to the Full Milo, if you will. Amidst everybody's hysterical laughter Milo just kept running, even though it's hard to run with your pants around your ankles.
Milo's favorite book right this minute is one called baby colors, and he can name almost all of the pictures in there, including dolphin, chocolate, eggplant, and grapes. His favorite is the dolphin and he'll ask over and over again "where'd dolphin go? Where'd dolphin go?" as he flips through the pages. Then he'll find it and say "there it is!"
Milo continues to wake at night. Sometimes it seems clear that it is his teeth. Other times it seems like he gets spooked or scared. When Jake comforts him, Milo will sometimes cry once Jake prepares to leave the room. Then I go in and comfort him and he'll ask me "where's daddy?". Once I tell him that daddy is sleeping, he seems to accept that and he'll lie down and go to sleep himself.
Milo is getting a lot more hair on his head, although he still looks generally bald because his hair is so white blond. He is also getting big enough so that he can crawl up on things, like the futon and the rocking chair. The other day I walked into the bathroom and found him standing in the (empty) bathtub. Milo can almost climb up on the sofa, but not quite unless he's got something to grab onto as he yanks himself up, like the cat. He loves getting up on the sofa so he'll ask me "up, please?" breaking out the please because it's something he really wants.
Milo got spoiled up at the lake with lots of grandparent junk food, so much so that last night at dinner he eschewed the meatball I was trying to get him to eat and said "ice cream?" Like he thinks he can order up what he wants! Then he asked for berries and crackers. The good news is that he's eating more and more people food: broccoli, red peppers, cold chicken, several different kinds of fruit, and the occasional piece of pasta. He also likes his sweets, which he discovered with glee at the grandparents' house, like ice cream and brownies. My goal is to have these kids on 100% people food by the age of 2 and feeding themselves entirely. This seems like a reasonable goal for Milo, at least. (Nora won't eat a single thing on the above list. Not even ice cream.)
Tonight Milo said a 4-word sentence. I cannot, however, remember what it was. This is probably the result of ongoing sleep deprivation, the likes of which are truly unfair to inflict upon a geriatric 38-year old such as myself. It was a good one, though. The kids are smart and funny and especially fun to hang around with directly after meals, when they're all energized and cheerful.
Today Jake taught Nora to count to 5. She's been walking around saying "One two three four five! One two three four five!" Obviously cardinality and ordinality are beyond her, but Nora does know when she has two of something rather than one. Nora can also now recognize the letters N, R, and A, which unfortunately brings to mind the NRA, but O is tricky because it looks like a circle. I can draw a circle, triangle, square, and rectangle and Nora will name them all. Today we played with a wooden puzzle that their grandmother picked up at a yard sale. It has lots of shapes and Nora learned some more shape words like "trapezoid" and "hexagon". It's almost as funny to hear her say "trapezoid" as it is to hear her say "totally radical".
The separation anxiety thing is getting worse rather than better. Today Nora broke down and sobbed and cried "Mama, Mama" several different times even though Jake was right there. She's also doing that at night. Developmentally, I imagine this is the peak time for this sort of thing, and in time it'll lessen. I do feel terrible for her, and of course leaving the house is a difficult endeavor. Nora also cries sometimes now when the twin whisperer leaves, saying her name in a tearful, pitiful voice. Honestly Nora's ability to use her little voice to the utmost sympathy-eliciting power is truly stunning. The other morning I took her out of her pack and play and we dropped the pacifier into it (they're only allowed to have pacifiers during sleep times). Nora then wanted it back and started saying "Pafier? Pafier? PAFIER?" with her voice literally quivering, on the verge of tears, her face contorting in pain and agony. It was so endearingly dramatic I wanted to give her an award.
I've noticed that we've really lightened up on the eating thing. Milo looks noticeably skinny to me, especially with his shirt off. Nora doesn't look quite so bad. Part of me has been thinking, eh, they don't have to go back to the doctor until December so that's tons of time to fatten them up. Also, I think I have decided that since the kids seem to be cognitively normal, physically healthy, and growing (albeit slowly), then it's time to stop torturing us all over the eating thing and just let them decide how much they want to eat. I offer all the time, and then they choose what to accept. Nora won't try a darn thing. Just in the past week she's refused to even taste chicken, bananas, strawberries, nectarines, meatballs, pasta, broccoli, red peppers, roasted potatoes, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, and brownies. I mean, honestly. Nora's still strictly a toast and purees kind of girl. Oh, actually I take it back -- Nora did taste a strawberry, actually several times. She would take it into her mouth, sort of, lick it a little bit, and then push it out of her mouth. She'd say "I like it" but she couldn't bring herself to actually chew it. I was proud of her for giving it a try.
Nora's umbilical hernia is noticeably decreasing now. I can tell it's going to close up on its own. This isn't exactly interesting information but it's the kind of detail that maybe I would want to remember for myself 30 years down the road. In other physical developments, Nora's hair is curly and wavy, and is kind of growing in in weird ways so I'm not exactly sure what I should do, if I should cut it, or let it all grow in on the top and just start cutting the bottom until it all reaches the same length, or what. Or maybe put it up in some little pig tails? Right now her hair is kind of in a boy hairstyle.
Nora's a weird nut to crack as she's simultaneously very social and shy. Whenever we see anybody new she clings to me like a monkey and buries her head. But she loves to talk, and when she's around people she knows Nora will carry on nonstop conversations with herself. On the car trip home the other day Nora did this for 3.5 hours in a row. She just talked and talked and talked. It's kind of cool because it's like a window into her mind. Nora is also the one who loves to imitate, so I hear my words coming back when we're at dinner and Nora suddenly says "no throwing!"
The sleep thing is messing everything up so much right now that I'm just trying to get from one day to the next. I'm kind of mad that this is still happening at this age, which seems outrageous, but I'm also sort of accepting of it, in a sad, defeated way. One thing I've realized lately is that good parenting is not just a matter of knowing what to do, it also requires having enough energy to actually go ahead and do it. Sometimes, these days, I don't have that energy. Oh, you want to play with those firecrackers, sticks of dynamite, and giant anvils? Eh...looks safe enough to me. It's not like there are any matches around. Just play quietly for a few minutes while Mama rests here on the sofa.
Toddlers are tiring but they're loads of fun. I love seeing how Nora and Milo think, and learning new things about them every day. We can talk now, and play games together, and the kids can also play games with each other, and in those respects I'm loving every minute of it and wouldn't trade 19 months for 7 months, no matter how mellow they were back then.
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