That’s one of people’s favorite things to say about twins, isn’t it? “Oh, they’ll have a friend for life! They’ll always have someone to play with!” Yeah… I guess. Mostly it’s been screaming over stolen toys and the beginning of hitting and biting, recently. Not a fun development, and while certainly interactive, not exactly what I’d call “playing together.”
I think that is all starting to change. They’ve been sometimes laughing at each other for a while now, which is always fun. But the last few days, it seems like they’re actually playing together. For one, they seem to have learned there’s fun to be had in “chasing” one another. They’ll race around, pushing their Ikea stools, shrieking and giggling. And while I might have once thought it was less playing together and more “oh, that looks like fun, I’ll do it too” parallel play, now I notice them looking over their shoulder for the other kid.
Last night, while I was putting together dinner, I heard the hysterical giggles and went to investigate. They actually seemed to be playing tug with a blanket, and not just trying to take it away from the other child! Of course, it did end up with blanket-stealing, a minor fall, and some bedtime tears. But there they were, playing the beginnings of a game.
And this morning, more shrieking and giggling. When I looked up, it appeared to be little more than chasing each other between the front hallway and the dining room. Back and forth, pause and wait for the other one to come after you, and skitter away again. Apparently, hysterical. I didn’t manage to get a shot that quite captured the action, and my video camera is still having a disagreement with my computer, but still. Trust me, it was cute. (And yes, I had them dressed kind of matchy this morning. Just cause sometimes that’s what you do.)
It’s her new favorite thing. She brings me book after book, and stands in front of me, bouncing with anticipation, until I start reading. If I take too long (or am still reading the first book she brought me), she makes it known that she is quite displeased. I have to remember to tell her to “sit down please” before I start reading, or I’ll get about two pages in and she’ll be off getting the next story.
The yodeling is clearly for his own entertainment, he loves to make his voice do funny things. When he’s climbing the stairs or otherwise moving and concentrating, he often does this funny, growling “word” that would probably be “Gof” if I tried to spell it. But it almost sounds like he’s chewing something. It makes me laugh almost every time. Another “word” of his is “dob”. As in “dob a-dob a-dob.” No idea what it means, if anything, but it’s friggin adorable. I also think that, at least 50% of the time that it seems like he’s waving, he’s actually making the sign for “light!” One last thing: he apparently is part-dog. He just loves carrying things around in his mouth when he crawls or climbs.
has become quite a little bookworm. It has happened a number of times, but I’d say yesterday she sat for a solid 25 minutes, carefully turning the pages of one book or another. This morning it was Pat the Bunny, and she took that little pointer finger, turned the page, and patted that darn bunny. So small and perfect. She also now makes funny faces just for the sake of being silly. She kind of juts out her chin and puckers her lips, making kind of a funny “oooh” sound. Silly girl. And god help you if she decides she wants you to help her walk and you don’t get up fast enough. Ooh, 12-month-old temper tantrum!
The first time they laughed at each other was a shining moment, for sure. Now that they almost play with each other (OK, so they grab each other’s toys and ears, but it’s a start), I just love it. The two of them giggling and babbling at each other is one of the best parts about having twins so far.
it’s party time. Sometimes, when I hear them shrieking at each other over the monitor, it’s hilariously cute. 45 minutes later, when Rebecca has finally fallen asleep and Daniel is standing at the edge of his crib, glaring down at her, and screaming… not as much. And he has been fighting the afternoon nap tooth and nail for the last week (they’re only 11 months, and definitely not ready to drop a nap). Once or twice he has skipped it entirely, other times he takes anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes to finally go to sleep. The resulting nap (if there is one) isn’t great, so it makes for a rough rest of the day.
I have them sharing a room and how long I want to continue doing it. Back in the days when they were still waking up at night a lot and taking bottles two or three times, I really preferred having them in the same place. We went through a phase when M freaked out that they were waking each other up, so we separated them, and it drove me nuts. Because they’d still wake up at the same time, so now I had to be two different places to soothe or feed them. No thanks, back in the same room they went. We kept them right next to each other when we Ferberized, and that really did help them learn to sleep through each other’s noises. And I really do like the idea of these two little kids sharing their room. I like that they entertain each other, that they make each other laugh.
At night, they go down pretty well. But sometimes those naps… ooh, man. And maybe separating them wouldn’t help, and it would turn out that Daniel’s just in the midst of a nap strike regardless of who else is in the room. Hopefully it’ll pass, but I know this is something I’m going to come back to over and over again in the next few years…
(like our mom/baby class teacher reading a story, that’s Rebecca in the overalls at the bottom of the frame). She’s happy to go off and do her own thing, or come over and climb on me. She’s a major climber. When she does get upset, though, there’s no halfway. She becomes positively inarticulate with rage. RAGE. Her meltdowns tend to be much more angry than sad. I think she may have gotten my temper…
He’s a bit more snuggly than Rebecca, and wants to be held more (lucky me, as he’s the heavier one!). He loves even watching Rebecca have fun, and will very often laugh at her. He’s really just the sweetest thing, you can’t stop smooching those big cheeks. He seems to really love just knowing you can see what he’s doing, and it makes him smile when you cheer him on.
Rebecca climbs all over Daniel and steals his toys. Daniel is, shall we say, less than pleased. But he also thinks she’s hilarious if she squirms around in her high chair, and sometimes they just laugh at each other and I have no idea why. They also imitate each others sounds, especially raspberries. Rebecca’s raspberries are long and loud and forceful, and she’ll do it for a few minutes on end. Daniel will then chime in with a little pflbht. A shorter, softer little burst. A pre-verbal “yeah, what she said.” I get the feeling Rebecca will be the bolder one, the initiator, and will do a lot of talking for him. Which is not to say Daniel is a shrinking violet, but I just have a hunch that she’s the more take-charge type. We’ll see…
