13 Months

These pictures and updates are over a week overdue! But I assume that no one here notices or cares but me. 

Thirteen months. By thirteen months, my babies are not babies. 

August has mostly stopped breastfeeding. He still nurses once about every 36 hours, and every time I nurse him now I find myself thinking "This is the last time I'll ever nurse my baby." But then he nurses again. 

He sleeps through the night, except that he wants to wake up at 5:30am every day. He walks, he runs, he climbs. He loves to build with blocks, drive cars, throw balls, sit on bikes, color with crayons and is basically a tiny, capable human now.

August has about a dozen "words" in his arsenal, if we include the signs for all-done and please, and animal sounds. He does a lot more moooing and ruff-ruffing than saying words. 

He loves animals, and wants to pet everything we see- especially our neighbor's gentle bunny. But August especially loves birds. If I say the word bird, even in conversation, he will gasp and point to the sky. He tenses up and starts panting in excitement if he sees a bird, which he alternates between calling a shh-shh or a twa-twa. Maybe those are bird sounds? 

There is a noisy owl who lives in the trees near our house and if August hears it, he will get very still and start whispering "whoo whoo whoo" it's so cute! I love what a good reminder he is to appreciate the world. 

He has started throwing little tantrums! They are barely even tantrums, compared to some big Pitchers I know (me Grey and Micah, obviously.) But he will scream angrily for a minute or so if something is taken away from him, or a door is shut before he can go through it. The worst tantrums occur when I take away non-food substances from him.
For example, he LOVES to eat soap, toothpaste, and crayons. His favorite soap is a pumpkin spiced goatmilk soap, his favorite toothpaste is the gross kids' kind,  his favorite crayons are beeswax crayons.
He'll eat regular soap, toothpaste, and crayons in a pinch but he does have favorites. If he is not caught immediately, he will happily devour an entire crayon. AN ENTIRE CRAYON. He will have brightly colored poop will little wax chunks in it.
He's so weird. Why are babies so weird?

August loves to be outside and will spend several long minutes trying to put his own shoes on, or sprint to retrieve them if I tell him we'll go outside. He'll back up into anyone's lap if he thinks they'll help him put shoes on.  He'll also back up into anyone's lap if he thinks they'll read to him.
He will happily read the same book five or six times in a row. His favorite books have animals and sound-effects in them, but he'll sit through most of the big boys' books too. Sometimes he'll bring us a book, and we will open it, and he will rip it away from us and throw it with a scream. Then he'll go get another. He does this several times until we find the book that he was looking for. This boy has to figure out that book covers mean something. He can also reach the book-basket from his crib, so every time I get him in the morning and after naps, I find that he has thrown out his pillows and blankets, and his bed is strewn with books.

I love his joyful, bright, content little man. We are so blessed to have this happy little creature as part of our family!

(Almost) Wordless Thursday - 13 months

As promised, here are some adorable pictures of some adorable 13 month old twins.

Doing "So Big!"

Being SILLY.

I love this pictures, because I think they look SO different from each other, and so much like themselves. Don't you agree?

These pictures were edited with Paisley and White Rabbit (BW) from HoneyBee Actions.

I'd love a vote!

13 months

My boys are sick again. ALWAYS. Micah has a double ear infection, and is pretty pathetic. But I haven't taken pictures. I still wanted to share updates. I'll take some 13 month pictures tomorrow. Hopefully.

A picture from yesterday to help tide you over.

The last month feels like the longest ever since my boys have been born.

Most of the things that the boys have learned are little, like learning to hold and drink out of their cups without help.

The boys love to put their toys away, and they love to bring me their things.  I will sit on the floor while miscellaneous toys pile up around me.  They especially love to carry big and heavy things.  They'll stumble forward, tripping over giant bottles of water, empty diaper boxes, and various other things.

The other day, I left the door to the washing machine open and a half hour later it was filled with an odd assortment of things: diaper rash cream, a sippy cup, a handful of toys, a maraca, and several other things.

Micah likes to try to eat with silverware, but isn't very good. Grey, however, likes to grab silverware and bang it on his tray (and his brother), use it to shovel his food on to the floor, and throw it at the stove so it makes a loud clang.

Needless to say, I rarely let Grey try to feed himself.

They are starting to get the hang of dishes, and won't immediately dump the contents of a bowl out. Especially if it's full of food that they want to eat. So that's definitely new.

Both boys are serious tantrum throwers. Our days are filled with little fits, caused by Travis leaving for work, their brother touching me or taking a toy, having their diapers changed, or seeing a bottle on the floor or counter without getting to drink it.

I don't know what to do about it or how to handle it. They lie on the floor and scream, they pound their fists, they push each other. They're little monsters at tantrum-time. I think I'm going to start trying some form of time-out.

But luckily the fits usually only last a few minutes and then they're back to being happy.

The boys have started to seriously harass each other, too, though. CONSTANTLY. They are always hitting, pushing, poking, grabbing, and bugging. They drive each other crazy and laugh while they do it. We have lots of handled-toys or stick-shaped objects in our home and the boys love to pick those up and bang each other over the head with them. They can't stand to see their brother with something, even if they have one, even if they were perfectly content seconds before they noticed their brother playing.

They understand almost everything I say and love to copy me.  They especially like to shake their heads back and forth "No, no" and if they get really into saying no, they wave their hand back and forth (shaking their finger), too.

They know what I'm saying most of the time, and if they're freaking out and I say, "Do you want to go outside?" they'll usually stop crying, and run to the door.  They hold out their feet for their shoes, which they love to have me put on and take off. Over and over and over again.

They can climb on and off the couches now without any help or footstool, which means they can reach a whole new level of out-of-bounds things.

They are really snugly and love to cuddle, and sit on my lap.  They'll sidle up behind me and and practically sneak on to my lap, even if I'm holding or working on something.  They both love their blankets, and will pull them from their beds and carry them around, rubbing their faces on the soft fabric, bunching them up like pillows and lying down for a minute or two, and playing peek-a-boo with me.

They can't handle seeing their brother hold his blanket if they don't have theirs, too.

Micah also love to snuggle his stuffed animals and soft baby doll.  He hugs and kisses them and carries them around the house.

They like to push the animals into my face, to make me snuggle with their toys.

Their favorite thing, though, is the fort.  They love to run in and out of the fort, and giggle like crazy if someone is in there already.  Grey will dissolve into hysterical laughter if he's in his fort and you peek your head in and say "Peek-a-boo!" He starts turning in a circle until he's literally banging into the walls and falling over dizzy.

They refuse to hold still, except for the occasional snuggle. They won't watch tv or movies, they won't read books, and they absolutely don't want to have their picture taken.

Obviously.

Grey has started covering his eyes, which is unbelievably cute.  He presses the palms of both his hands over the bridge of his nose and squeezes his eyes shut.  He does it if the sun is shining in his face, if I pour water over his head in the bath, or if he's having an especially pathetic little cry.

He also loves to YELL. He doesn't do it just because he's angry, but because he likes to make noise.  He does this high-pitched screech, which actually sounds quite like a bird, and then he bellows, "RRRAAAAAAHHH!" He does it most and loudest if I am out of the room and he is confined to his crib or high-chair, like "DON'T FORGET I'M HERE!"

Anyway. They're the best and the cutest.

And soon you will see some picture-proof.

Now, I'm going to go snuggle my boys until tomorrow.

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