Mistakes

I know that we all make mistakes in parenting. I'm here to admit to a big one.

In trying to teach Sebastien and Eden to nod their heads "yes," I assisted them by putting my hands on their heads and showing them the motion.

Unfortunately, what that means is that now, when Sebastien wants to say yes (nod his head), he puts his own hands on his head...and shakes around a little.

I guess I won't worry about it too much, unless he's still doing it when he's grown up. I can just see him on his wedding day, when he's asked if he takes this woman to be his wife...

Ooops.

Here's a short video clip.

Translation...

At 14 months, there are times that one of my children looks at me, utters a syllable or two, and I know exactly what he or she is saying. Other times, it takes some thought and translation. Here are some words that my kids can say, other than Mama and Dada.

Sebastien:
amma: Grandma
buppa: Grandpa
dahpah: diaper
kah-ko: cracker
coh-coh: cookie
bah: boo (as in peekaboo)
baw: ball
bah-bo: bubble
uh-oh
nana: banana
neewwww: no
toe: toast

Eden:
ahhhp: up
ahhhn: on
eeeee: Eat (accompanied by the sign for eat)
mo: more
papi: paci (pacifier)
uppa: Grandpa
mmma: Grandma
hieee: hi
bebe: baby
nana: banana

Then there are things that I THINK they are saying, namely, names. We look at the pictures on our refrigerator a lot, and sometimes it sounds like they are trying to say the names. Like, we point to Abby, and Sebastien says: Ahb. Or, when I am getting them up in the morning and they get a good look at each other in the daylight, I often will hear Eden say something like "Boppy" which I think is an attempt at Bashy (one of our nicknames for Sebastien.) And Bash will reply with "Deda," which could be Eden?

Finally, there are animal sounds. I am not even going to attempt at trying to get across what these adorable sounds are like, but my kids are learning to make sounds from cows, monkeys, owls, dogs, sheep and elephants. They also do a lizard impression now, in which they stick out their tongue, which is hilarious.

Anyway the point is, they are making progress with this talking thing, and it is SO fun to hear them learn their new words and put them together to get what they want.




p.s. Thank you Sarah for the kick in the pants; I will try to blog more often. :)

Facebook, Blogs, Flicker...

I have this blog that I rarely update because I often feel like I don't have a "theme" to post pictures under, or anything really interesting to say. Plus I often find myself doubting that anyone really even reads it anymore.

As far as Facebook goes, I post pictures almost weekly, sometimes more. I LOVE posting pictures to Facebook. It's great. I realize that were this a pre-Facebook era, I would probably be that mom who stops people on the street to show them wallet size photos and maybe even a big brag book of my kids. Instead, all my Facebook friends have to put up with seeing "Caryn added photos to 'Summer.'"

Then, recently, as I was looking through the channels on my AT&T U-verse, I discovered that if I download pictures to Flickr, I can view them on my TV! (FUN!) So I opened a Flickr account. I was putting pictures on, and Flickr gave me a disturbing warning. Something along the lines of: "You're trying to post X amount of pictures - that exeeds your maximum for the month." (The MONTH???)

Well, I quickly said, "Ok, Flickr, nevermind...." but backed slowly away from the MacBook in the realization that in just two short days, I was attempting to download more pictures than most people do in a month.

So, I don't know if there's a clinical word for it, I'll have to check the DSM... But here and now, I'm admitting that I have a problem. I'm not sure I'm ready to do anything about it yet. (I'm in the contemplation stage, not the action stage.)

But aren't my kids SO cute?

My daughter, the middle-finger-pointer

If you have spent any amount of time with our lovely daughter Eden, you might have noticed that she is a middle-finger pointer. Exclusively. Pointing with her middle finger, pushing buttons with her middle finger, reaching and waving with her middle finger... It has been her finger of choice. At first, we tried to help her use her pointer finger instead. But not too much time passed before we shrugged our shoulders and said, "Ah, well. Maybe she'll grow out of it. She might always be a middle-finger pointer, and that's ok."

While watching this short clip, you will see some very cute things, namely Eden screeching with her high voice, and Sebastien walking confidently with his sister's clothes in his hands. You might also wonder why I say "good job" to these things and almost everything my kids do. (I can't answer that.)

But here I also ask you to notice in the last seconds (maybe even the last half of a second) that Eden is pointing at the camera. Take note of the finger that she is using. :)

Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Eden and Sebastien! I can't believe how far we've come in a year!


Sebastien is a very entertaining little boy. He makes little faces at people, yells loudly, tries to sing, bounces around. He is still quite a talker, and will sit and play with his toys, or "read" his books, all along practicing words and noises. (Both our kids LOVE books by the way.) Sebastien's giggle is contagious and we love to make him laugh. Especially when it turns into a belly laugh, it is hilarious. He remains our more easy-going child, even in his rambunctiousness. While he is not walking, he is trying hard and he can take several steps at a time.



Eden is so delightful. She has always had a heart-melting smile, but it just seems to be more beautiful with time. The older she gets, the more her sweet personality shows. She is also quite smart, or at least her very impartial parents believe. We enjoy watching her little mind work as she plays keep away from her brother, brushes her hair, makes a "tickle me" motion (if her brother is being tickled), says "da-ee" when she hears the back door open. She took her first steps, but we have not seen very many steps since then. She prefers crawling or walking with a hand to hold.


Here are a few pictures from their birthday party on Saturday. The party went great - both kids were in fantastic moods. They seemed to love having so many guests at their house. Eden got a little overwhelmed while we opened presents, but that was ok, she just sat on Daddy's lap until she felt better. We sang "Happy Birthday" of course, which Sebastien gave some hearty applause for afterwards. They loved their first taste of cake, especially the frosting, but somehow they didn't get too messy. We felt so blessed - not only because of our beautiful one-year-old children, but also to be surrounded by friends and family who adore our kids.

Summer Fun

Sebastien and Eden went for their first swim in Grandma Tuls' big pool today. They were both a little nervous at first, but seemed to be more comfortable after awhile. It does seem like it might take some practice. Luckily their mommy loves to go swimming in Grandma's pool, so we'll have lots of opportunities to get wet.

Eden testing the water

Sebastien was holding on pretty tight to Daddy.


Family picture


Looking cool in his sunglasses

Pineapple princess

Daddy, those are MY sunglasses!

Individuals

With twins, you try to keep a lot of things the same for your own sake - same sleeping/eating schedule, same food, same method of feeding... Which brings me to my point. We can keep things the same all we want, but (thankfully!) individual personalities are going to show. Take eating, for instance. These days, Eden tends to get through a meal unscathed....

(Note the clean tray, the relatively clean face.)
While Sebastien makes a mess of himself and everything around him.


Other things they're into...

Standing. Sebastien is a pro at standing (not on his own yet) while Eden still wants to stick her little booty out most of the time.



Walking. Sebastien wants to walk whenever and wherever he can. Eden also likes to walk but often gets so excited she forgets to step.


Waving. This is Eden. Yes, Eden wearing blue.


Feeding themselves.
While I don't have a picture to prove it yet, we're also experimenting with a lot more finger food. Admittedly, they were probably ready for this earlier than I was. They've done great with Cheerios for awhile, but I have this fear of them choking... I finally just had to get over it for the sake of their development. So, we're trying "new" things like bread, peas, carrots, bananas, etc. They've done great, and have had some interesting diapers since. (Sorry, but it had to be said.)

Being goofy. Ok this was just an excuse for me to post this picture.

I don't want to perpetuate any myths here. People often ask me if they still share a crib. They haven't shared a crib since before they were 3 months old. If they shared a crib these days, they would steamroll each other all night long and nobody would get any sleep. :)