18-19 months old!

The twins turned 18 months on October 22, 2018.  Eileen and Ewan have gone through a huge cognitive leap over the last couple of weeks.  Their language comprehension skills are unbelievable.  On Saturday I asked Ewan to throw away his dirty Kleenex and he walked over to the kitchen garbage and waited for someone to open it.

If you show Eileen and Ewan how something works, within 20 minutes of trying, they can replicate the skill.  They are very smart kids (it’s all those good genes and breast milk ).

Both of their official first word is ‘uh oh’, the pronunciation is perfect and they use it in context.  This started the first week of October (around Thanksgiving at Ken and Renee’s house) but they didn’t perfect it until around the third week of October.

Eileen has been laughing lots lately, a real genuine enjoyment for life.  Ewan is always smiling and laughing.

They play well together except when they are fighting over a toy (obviously!).

Eileen’s tantrums have decreased. And looking back they might have been related to teething.  Eileen went through about a 4 week (most of October and some of November) phase where she only wanted to be held by mom all the time, and I soaked it up!!

Since September, Eileen has been helping us dress and undress her.  She is still obsessed with buttons, Velcro, snaps, zippers, and hardware.  Now she is obsessed with shoes and wears people’s shoes around the house.  Bowen and Madeline (cousins) gave the twins a bag full of shoes, which has become Eileen new favourite thing to play with.  She puts the shoes on herself and Velcros the strap.  She also loves this long beige vest. She looks for it in the morning to wear.  Ewan cooperates with dressing/undressing but he’s not as skilled as Eileen.

They both drink lots of water, all day! It’s wonderful. I am so happy for their little bodies to be well hydrated with clean Canadian water and not juice or other sugar filled drinks.

They are both dancing machines.  Eileen has started dancing with her whole body and she looks like Elaine Benes (a little Seinfeld reference).  Ewan is a great climber and Eileen wiggles her hips when she walks.   Eileen waves at the animals and her reflection in the window and Ewan runs everywhere with a huge smile on his face.  They share/trade food at dinner and have their own language of grunts groans and sounds.  Eileen just started making this throat/guttural noise that Ewan finds so funny!  They have preferences and personalities.

This week Eileen has started with imagine play.  She makes ‘food’ and eats it with a big wooden spoon (she even shares with her brother!).

This is such a wonderful age (I think I say that every month!).

This Halloween the twins dressed as a Rooster and a Hen and trick or treated at three neighbouring  houses.  They were very cute and the costumes were made by me!

Grandma and Grandpa Shivas were here in November helping with the twins while Kyle was out hunting.  And Grandpa Shivas was here in October installing a new shower in the basement.  Our basement renovation (due to a toilet repeatedly overflowing in early August) is almost complete.  Lots of added work over the last couple of months.  My parents were a great help putting the basement back together while they were here (painting, clean up, bathroom reno, organizing contractors etc).  The basement wouldn’t be anywhere near as complete without them.  Also they helped with dinner, dishes, grocery shopping, taking care of the twins- just so much wonderful help!! ??