19 Months

I keep telling myself that each "month" post will be the last, but then I just have so many little things I want to remember.  So, here is what was originally going to be my "quick" little 19 month post.

Charlie:

Current Favorite Book:  My Big Book of Things that Go

Current Favorite Activities:  Reading, Watching Cars, and Racing with Himself

Charlie continues to chatter away and is busy learning people's names.  He can also say his name (Char-ee) pretty clearly, but he will often just point to himself rather than say it.  He's also added quite a few foods - strawburee, blu-buree, wa-der-der-der (watermelon), wa-kul (waffle), ba-gul, yo-yee (yogurt) and chewy (fruit chewy) - to name a few as well as more vehicles - copter, a-pain, tractor, mom-bine (combine...how about that Pa-Paw Long!), truck, duck (dump) truck, bi-kah, and boat.  After seeing the movie "Cars" on TV and realizing that we have it in the house, he now requests daily to "wa cars, wa cars?"  I often cave and let him watch the opening race seen.  He usually tells me when the cars "crash" and then how the cars are "hurt."

One quick funny Charlie story for the month.  Charlie is "counting" (really just copying us) recently, and also just started running.  He often has little races with himself and starts by shouting, "Two, free...two, free...Go!" and then running...somewhere.  One morning while on a weekend lake trip with friends, the boys were sleeping in the same room with Scott and I in their pack-and-plays.  Of course, they woke up pretty early and we pretended to still be sleeping to buy a few extra minutes.  They happily chatted to one another for awhile.  Then, out of my half-closed eyes, I see Charlie standing on one end of the pack-and-play holding on to the railing.  Suddenly, he shouts, "Two, free...Go!" and runs to the other side, only to repeat the entire process, "Two, free...Go!"  Now, picture him running back and forth the short length of the crib.  I swear I'm not making this up.  I guess he likes to get his exercise done in the morning!

Jake:

Current Favorite Book:  Eight Silly Monkeys

Current Favorite Activities:  Chasing Dog, Playing Piano, and Snuggling with Blankie

Jake is picking up many new words (and signs) this month.  One morning I had been telling him not to pull on a certain button on a piece of furniture.  Well, he must have understood, because a few minutes later when Charlie tried to do the same thing, Jake walked over to him and quietly said and signed "no, no."  He must also be picking up quite a bit from our "Signing Time" videos, because he is signing more and more every day.  It is great because it's helped us to realize that he knows a LOT more words than he can say.  Some of his favorite signs are:  food, banana, cracker (which he also says), cereal, milk, train, car, bath, clean, dirty, bye (which he also says), blankie, please and, new this month, he sometimes signs for thank you!  (That last one is my favorite.)

One quick Jake story as well.  Latley, the boys like to play the piano as they are now tall enough to reach up to the keys from the floor.  Sometimes we also sit them on the bench so they can play a little duet as well.  Well, a few mornings ago as I was cleaning up after breakfast, I heard Jake playing the piano.  I didn't think anything of it since both boys will often tickle the keys.  However, as I walked around the corner, I realized that he was sitting on the bench and playing the piano!  On his own, he had pulled out the bench, somehow managed to climb up, and promptly sat himself down to give Charlie and I a little concert.

Other Fun Tidbits:

Both boys are working on going downstairs the "big boy" way, which scares me quite a bit.  But, they can do  it, they just need to hold my hand (which they will often refuse saying, "self, self!").  Charlie will often remind us that we need to be careful and go down the stairs "so-wy."

Dare I say it, but naps lately have been awesome.  After lunch, I usually just say something like, "Ok boys, time to go snuggle with blankies now" and they go running for the stairs toward their room.  Today, Jake even had his fists in the air, as if to say, "Hooray, it's nap time!"  And...they are sleeping...for almost 3 hours!  "Hooray!"  That is cause for mom to have her fists in the air!

Jake couldn't make it until nap time on this day.

Another of my favorite things from this month is that both boys will now bring us a book while asking us to "ree?"  Pretty hard to turn down that request, and they know it, because they are already using it as a pre-bedtime stall tactic.

Finally, they are also learning their body parts and will point to most of them and say a few as well.  I apologize if I've subjected you to showing off that they can tell you the location of their "wee-wee."  I promise, we only taught them this for future potty training purposes. ;)