17 Months

I keep wanting to refer to the twins as "the babies," but I guess they aren't really babies any more! Here's what they've been up to lately...

Aniston is very social and has been learing lots of new words. She will point to everything and jabber at me like she's asking questions. I will tell her what it is and she will try to copy what I say.

She's also been learning parts of the face. I will ask her "Where's your TEETH?" and she will chatter her teeth together with a big grin on her face! It's so cute! I will ask "Where's your eyes?" and she will blink them. She'll also point to her (or my) nose when I ask and she's learning tongue.

Today before church I had gotten her all dressed with her shoes on and and she was walking around and her shoe fell off. She picks it up and brings it too me and says "SHOE!" like she was upset that it had come off and wanted me to put it back on. Aaralyn claims that the other day Aniston said to her "Aaralyn shoe," telling her that it was "Aaralyn's" shoe. I don't know if she really said that, I've never heard her say "Aaralyn," at least if she has, it's not very clear.

Some of the words that Ani says a lot:
Jack, moon, shoe, milk, Dad, Mom, yes, more, Grandma, no... I'm sure there's more, but I just can't think of them. She also tries to copy lots of things, so she's continually adding new words to her vocabulary. Oh, and today in church I don't remember why, but she was sharing with me and said "Mom too." I think that's her first sentence!

Jack doesn't say very much, but he sometimes surprises me by saying something out of the blue. One day we were at Wal-Mart and we were letting Aaralyn pick out some fruit snacks. She was deciding between two different ones, and ended up choosing Sponge Bob kind. When she said Sponge Bob all of a sudden Jack says "bun bob," It was very clear what he was trying to say. It was cute!

Jack is still into everything and always finds new ways to drive me crazy, like pulling my purse off the table and then emptying it onto the floor, or pulling all the baby spoons out of the drawer or all the clothes out of the drawers (although I think Ani has a big hand in this one sometimes).

Aaralyn and Ani are best friends when they aren't hurting each other and Ani isn't making Aaralyn mad by taking her toys. Today Aaralyn went up to Aniston and gave her the biggest hug and kiss, said "I Love You!" and Aniston hugged her back with a huge grin on her face. Times like these make my heart melt! It's nice to see that occasionally they actually get along and really love each other! I hope this love is eventually extended to Jack... since Aaralyn really only likes playing with Aniston because she's a girl. I figure this is why Jack is so attached to me... he doesn't have an older brother to play with. And No, we aren't giving him a little brother!

Jack has become more snuggly lately and fell asleep in Dave's arms today in church. He normally doesn't settle down long enough to do that. He'll fall asleep quickly in his bed and usually won't fuss when we put him in bed, and when he wakes up we always know! Either we hear him knocking on the wall or him jumping in his crib. That's pretty much my alarm clock every morning at 8 am.

Jack still has the biggest crocodile tears! As soon as he starts crying he tears up! What's the deal!? Aaralyn and Aniston rarely tear, but Jack cries a river over wanting to be picked up!

Aniston currently has 8 teeth and Jack has 7. I think they've had this many for the last 3 months. I keep thinking any day they should get some more, at least Jack (where is that 4th bottom tooth?!), but no change, and no looks of any new ones for either of them. Aaralyn had 8 teeth by the time she was one, and it seemed like they just kept coming. It's weird how different they can be!

Jack wears size 5 shoes and I think he's going to outgrow them in no time. I think he's been having a growth spurt, at least in his feet... Haha. Aniston wears size 4, but has some size 5 shoes that fit a little loosely. I can't believe how much my babies have grown! I can't even remember how small they were when they were born.