For the record: 18 months

The latest change in our house. 4 tooth brushes in the bathroom. And yes, that is a Heros of the Torah collectible juice glass.

The Wonder Twins turned 18 months this weekend. 18 months. That means they are now a year and a half old, and according to books, this means they are no longer babies. Sigh. HOW did that happen?

In an effort at keeping track of the milestones that are flying by, I will now attempt to list the highlights:

• They know 23 words, of which my favorites to hear them say are: Sissy (Baby boy's name for his sister),  bubbles, nana (banana), bye-bye (which is said in a slow southern drawl), toes, and of course, Mama & DaDa.
  
• They know 11 American Sign Language signs including: please, thank you, book, help, bath, and fish. Granted, thank you & blowing kisses are pretty much the same, as is milk and star. It's all in the context.
  
• They can tell you what each of the following says: lion, cow, chicken, sheep, elephant, truck (broom broom), 3 singing pigs (La La, La) and a ghost (boo).
  
• They know all the movements to "The Wheels on the Bus," "Farmer Brown," and "Skidamarink"
• Their current favorite joke is to fake cough until one of us says in a silly voice, "oh my...are you ok!?" This cracks them both up. 
• Baby Girl has 6 teeth. Baby Boy has 5. But they seem to be teething 24/7 so more should be on the way soon. 
• They never, ever stop moving. They walk, run, roll, dance, and pretend to fall (yes, they have mastered the pratfall). They wave, blow kisses, kick and throw balls (or trucks, or magna-doodles). They can climb stairs and the ladders for slides and think nothing of trying to step off a 2 foot high ledge. And yet, they will not step off the 5 inch high deck in our back yard without holding onto us. That's kinda weird.
• When they aren't moving their other favorite thing to do is read. They can both sit for half an hour at a time just flipping through books on their own. Sometimes they babble the storyline out loud, sometimes they just skip to their favorite pages and 'read' that part ("all the hippos go berserk!" Recently they want to sit in our laps and 'read' to us.  Books are the #1 go-to toy for us.
• They have moved past their fear of the baby doll and now fight over who gets to rock her and put her down for "nigh-nigh."
  
• They know how to put away their toys. Baby Boy loves to clean up. All I have to do is sing the first 2 words of that darn "clean up" song and he is rushing to put books on the shelves. If there are no books to put away, he has been known to knock some down just so he can put them back. Baby Girl on the other hand... not so into cleaning. You hand her a book to put away and she will walk to the opposite corner and start reading. Baby Boy responds well to applause and high fives. Baby Girl might need money...
• They can sorta, kinda use their forks and spoons. Ok, not really. But that's my fault. I have a hard time letting them get crazy and messy. So they don't get a lot of practice with utensils. I'm trying to be better about it...
• They love straws. They will drink pretty much anything if you let them use a straw. And straws usually mean there is a lid. They like the straw, I like the limited mess potential. Win-win!
• Baby Boy loves his trucks. He loves to make the broom-broom noise as he drives them along the window ledge. Which may or may not have something to do with his latest obsession: the broom. The boy loves to sweep. He also loves to drum and sing. He has one tune but three different sets of lyrics (dada, dadi and noni) and will sing on command.
• Baby Girl loves to swing. We go to the park and all she does is stand by the swing set, signing 'please' over and over again. It's pretty cute and never fails to make some other parent instantly take their child out so Baby Girl can have a turn. Baby Girl is the Jim Carrey of toddlers--she can contort her face into all sorts of crazy looks. Anything to make her brother laugh.  She also loves to climb--slides, the sofas, beds, hills... she is Jim Carrey the goat. 
  
• They genuinely seem to like each other. "Sissy" is the first word out of Baby Boy's mouth when he wakes up. And Baby Girl follows him around like he's a god. Sometimes they just look at each other and start laughing hysterically. I know boy/girl fraternal twins aren't supposed to have that mystical "twin thing" but I do think my kids can read each others mind sometimes.
• They aren't all sunshine and good manners... oh no. We've hit the beginning of the Terrible Two's I think. If they don't want to hold your hand they will let their whole body go limp so you are suddenly dragging dead weight. If they don't want what's on their plate they throw it. Diaper changing time has become an Olympic wrestling match with both of them. Baby Girl can burst into ear-splitting, tearful screams in .2 seconds. Baby Boy spends his days screeching "eh?!" Yes, he knows 23 words and 11 signs but he would prefer to screech "eh!?" all day long.  They hit and pinch. And as of yesterday, bite. And they are now able to look you straight in the eye while doing something you specifically told them not to do. You take something from them and they will go find something bigger (and louder) and repeat the action. They laugh at timeouts and after wards fight over who gets to sit in the Time Out spot. And they use the fact that there are two of them to their advantage. One distracts with sweet kisses while the other climbs up on the table and grabs the forbidden iPod. I'm not kidding.
• They have just learned how to have tea parties and spend a lot of time now asking "tea? tea? tea?" 
• They like a lot of people but they only do their special, "Yay! You are are!" dances for mama, dada, and Ella, their nanny. Nothing in the world is sweeter than their happy-to-see-you dances.
 

Notice I don't say anything about their sleeping and eating habits. I'm not stupid...no jinxing is going to happen here. There you have it. Two pretty normal, totally extraordinary 18 month olds.  Oh, screw the books. They are still my babies.

That was then.

This is now. Baby Girl with her Quilty.

Baby Boy with his Ellie and his collection of pacifiers (hey-if he can find one in the middle of the night then I don't have to!).