Twenty Months!

My sweet little babies who entered this world looking like this:

are twenty months old!

Can it be that 20 months has come and gone as fast as orange juice from Gabby and Lilly's cuppies? That would seem to be the case. In one moment I am so excited about all the things they are doing these days...the talking, the learning, the playing, but so sad the next moment because, as this wonderfully torturous role of motherhood goes, if you do your job well, your children slowly, but surely need you less and less. Obviously Gabby and Lilly still need me, but gosh I can already see them developing into independent, brilliant little girls. What an honor to get to watch the show!

What Miss Lilly is up to these days:

• Lilly says so many words. My favorite things she says are shooos, dogggg, colo, and cuppy. Translation: shoes, doggy, color, and cuppy. For some reason, she seems to have a Boston-ish accent. I'm not sure where that comes from, but fairly certain of who her father is so we'll see what comes of that! She also says something that sounds like uh-uh-opey all the time! We have no idea what it means, but she says it so often that we are sure she's trying to communicate something!
• Lilly said her first sentence recently. She was at her little table Grammie gave her and as Gabby walked up to the table she said, "I color!." It was SO sweet and very fitting since she is an obsessive-compulsive color-er.
• Both girls now know the signs for eat, more, milk, please (they invented this on their own), thank you, and all done. Even though they are talking, it is nice to have the signs when their 'talkers' seem worn out. ;)
• Did I mention that Lilly LOVES coloring? Oh, you're right. I mention that like every week, but seriously. SHE . LOVES . COLORING!
• Lilly's favorite drink right now is orange juice. Actually, her favorite drink is probably sweet tea or soda, but since she isn't allowed those and only gets a taste when she sneaks a glass from someone, o.j. is her drink of choice.
• Even though Lilly has always been a good eater, lately she is either really intersted in eating or totally not. Many times she waits until it is time to get down from the dinner table before she starts eating. If that is the case, she will hold onto her tray and start shoveling food in by the hand fulls. Because we general prefer our children fed, we usually let her finish eating. ;)
• Both girls really like songs and fingerplay/dances. Their favorites are the hokey pokey, 5 little monkeys, abc song, and most recently ring-a-round the rosies.
• Lilly loves holding hands with her sister...not so much with mommy (she'd much rather be held), but she and Gabby walk around hand in hand a lot. It is nice for getting through areas with lots of people and it melts the heart of any bystander!

What Miss Gabby is up to these days:

• Gabby knows so many body parts, even a few we wish she's wait to learn. She will quite loudly tell you about her foo-foo or who ha (why we started using those awful names I don't know, but we've decided to start saying 'girl parts' now and that seems to be sticking...we aren't into using the correct terminology with our 1 year olds. They can learn that later in life!) Gabby will also do things like say 'pee pee' or 'poo poo' very loudly in restaurants. Usually she is just crying wolf, but sometimes she is trying to communicate to us. We are starting the process of potty training with both of the girls by just allowing them to sit and get used to the whole potty thing. We plan to seriously 'train' in March.
• I'm thinking of changing Gabby's name to Michelle Phelps. Why? She is a water dog! She absolutely LOVES the water. She 'swims' in the tub, blows bubbles, splashes, and most recently kicks. We will be starting swim lessons again later this spring.
• Gabby is also quite brilliant, says her doting mother. You see, everyday I turn Seasame Street on at 9am more for noise than anything. They used to love Elmo, but he is sort of old hat around our house so these days it is just on to be on. The girls will play or read books, but really don't pay one ounce of attention to the TV. Well, imagine my surprise when Gabby was able to point to every Sesame Street character in one of her Sesame books. Apparently, she's picking up on everything....and that is why our TV is off much more these days. I'm not sure how acceptable it would be to have a 2 year old discussing things like hot topics, Oprah's latest guest, or the war in Iraq. There is lots of time for those matters!
• Gabby also knows when she does something wrong. She'll usually scope out the scene before committing crimes such as climbing on tables, hitting, playing in the dogs' food or water, and getting into off-limits cabinets. She also will look at us the whole time she is misbehaving and knows exactly where time out is in our house. She walks to time out by herself and sits without struggle for 1-2 minutes. For such a well behaved little girl, she sure is mischevious!
• Gabby repeats everything these days. She says the last word she hears anyone else say. My favorite things she says are dogga, hot, coooole, hi-dy, sisssissy, and paw-e. Translation: doggy, hot, cold, hi, sister, and potty. This talking thing is so much neater than I expected. I just love being able to communicate with them. Of course they don't really talk beyond the walls of our house and make us look a bit ridiculous when we tell people how smart our kids are, but what can you do?!?
• We have been working with our girls, trying to teach them to say excuse me and thank you. This all started when our girls started having 'tooters' as we call them, and then would laugh. While that is totally normal for little kids, we want to start early teaching them manners. So we started teaching them to say excuse me and thank you. We thought it would be years before they caught on, but to our surprise Gabby will says 'scuse' most times she toots. It is so cute! She even says it when trying to get past her sister. It doens't always happen, but they both have a good start on manners.

I could go on and on about little things the girls do that amaze me. They are so wonderful and brilliant. (Did you expect me to say anything else?!?) But, what truly amazes me about Gabby and Lilly is how they are turning into sweet and caring little girls right before my eyes. They blow me away when I see them share or give toys to other children, pat a friend or their sister in order to console, or offer kisses, hugs, and snacks to another person. It has always been my hope to raise children that are giving and who care for others. And while I am not wishing to receive any credit (because Lord knows I mess up everyday), it is such an honor to get the priviledge of watching them grow into little girls everyday!

PICTURE TIME!

Our first park play date way back in February 2009!

From left to right: Haddee, Gabby, Chalin, Lilly (can you believe how little hair they have?!?)

Today:

Sweet Lilly

Sweet Gabby

Wow! Time flies when you're havin' fun!

I love you so much Gabby and Lilly! You are the sweetest little girls I know!

With love,

Mommy