The girls can both name all of their capital letters and most of their lower case letter (b, d, p, q are still tricky... and a and g seem to change, depending on the font, so that'll continue to be a challenge). If we sing the alphabet song, they can fill in the letter at the end of the natural stops in the song.
They can recognize numbers 1 through 10, and can also count to 10, although they both have a tendency to drop 9 for whatever reason. I think that sometimes, they make it a joke, because they'll say eight, then pause and giggle and say TEN! They can also count items, like the eggs we use for cooking, and things in books.
They know the colors pink, red, yellow, blue, green, purple, orange, white, and black and can identify objects as those colors with regularity.
They know all of their body parts and are getting better at playing "Head and Shoulders."
We're stuck with Texas, Illinois, Montana, California, Florida, Nevada, and sometimes Arizona for states. They know that we all live in Texas, that Chicki and GPa live in Illinois, and that Nana and Papa live in Montana.
They feed themselves for the most part. Sometimes they get lazy and ask for help, and they're still pretty messy, but they crawl up into their chairs on their own, and Izzy is even buckling herself in.
They love to read, and know that A is for Abby, I is for Izzy, D is for Daddy, M is for Mommy, L is for Lamby, E is for Elephant... and so on. So when they see letters out and about, they shout them out, with their corresponding word. They love to be read to, but also get books off of their shelves and sit down with them on their own at least once or twice per day. They're always very excited to pick out new books for themselves at the library each week.
Although all of the child development literature says that until they're three, they're not capable of associative play, the girls are definitely beyond parallel play. Izzy bosses Abby and tells her where to put things and Abby does it, sometimes, or argues with Izzy about it. They cooperate to climb up on the bed; they play ring-around-the-rosy together; occasionally, they'll play catch together. They also take turns; if one of them is playing with something, their initial instinct is to grab it away, but most of the time, they'll stop short and then yell out," Izzy's (or Abby's) turn!!!" and then repeat that until the other decides to share. Alternatively, the second twin will grab onto the item in question and say, "SHARE!!" They're very good at waiting their turn to do something... they'll stand at the top of the stairs to the balance beam at Little Gym and yell, "Next," but they wait until I'm back over there to step out. Which is awesome.
Izzy prefers to do most things on her own, or at least mostly on her own. Sometimes she'll let me get things started, like getting her feet into the right holes in her pants, or her head into the main opening on her shirt, but then she pulls away and says, "Got it!" Abby lets me help her get dressed, but insists on climbing things, "SELF!"
We experimented to see if the girls were ready for the potty. They tell me, "Good job, Mommy," when I go, and they like to sit on the potty, diapers on and not doing anything, but we're going to wait a little while to really get going, because they're not big fans of sitting there without their diapers. All in good time.
Sleep has been our big challenge lately. We went from 2 two-hour naps and sleeping in until 8:30 to getting up at 6:30 and not taking naps. AHHH! We're back to one 2-hour nap, but I think I'm stuck with the early risers. Not my favorite part of them growing up.
Physically, the girls are doing WAY better than I might have expected any daughter of mine to do! I credit Dan's genes and Little Gym. Izzy can walk herself up on the wall and do a handstand... Abby can do it, but sometimes drops her head down. In the jumpolene, they can do a sloppy forward roll unassisted. They can jump, jump, jump for hours, I think :) They love to run, and like to walk backwards and spin. They can make baskets and kick the ball, and they're pretty good at catching if the pitcher has good aim (I don't most of the time, sadly.) Izzy told me, "Got it" on the high balance beam today at Little Gym... and she did, although I refused to stop spotting her :) Their teacher is always pretty amazed with their arm strength on the bars and rings.
Abby likes to sing patty cake to herself, and Izzy likes to do the motions to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. They both love to do This Little Piggy, to themselves, to each other, and to Dan and I, too.
When the phone rings, they know that it's usually Dan, but go through a list of other people if I shake my head no (Rachel, Jenn, Sybil, Chicki). :) When they call someone on their toy phones, it's always either Chicki or Nana. (Nana is usually NanaMontana, which is funny, because they've never been introduced to the pop star who goes by the similar-sounding name).
Verbally, they seem to understand just about everything. Abby parrots more than Izzy does, and they're both producing almost-sentences all the time. They seem to understand verb tense to some degree... when they're being bossy, they use the imperative, "RUN!" and when they're in the act of something, they use the gerund form, "RUNNING!" They also are pretty good at using the possessive "Izzy's," "Daddy's," etc.
They're also making jokes... when Lamby when from "Lelele" to "Lamby," they both were calling her "Aaaamby," so I started parroting them, asking, "Aaaamby?" and they would giggle and say, "Noooo, Amby!" Now that it's evolved to "Wamby" (I don't know where the le sound disappeared to!), occasionally, one of them will remember the joke and ask, "Aaamby?" And then crack herself up.
I think that sums it up... more to come, of course!
2 comments:
but can they fetch and heel yet like their momma could?
She couldn't fetch and heel--she could only roll over
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