Sweet. And Sour.

It seems that we're just not meant for being true bloggers... it takes us at least a month to remember to update this site, then another few weeks to do something about it. In the meantime, JJ and Alexis continue to both delight and frustrate us as they develop into such entertaining (and exhausting) little beings. Since it's been almost 3 months since we wrote down their latest shenanigans, this post will likely be pretty lengthy.

A few months ago, Alexis was becoming quite aggressive, and almost daily there would be a twin-toddler altercation resulting in JJ having Alexis' teeth imprinted on his arm, hand, cheek or back. We started out firmly telling Alexis, "No!", then trying to distract her with something more enticing than gnawing on her brother. But that didn't seem to help... so we moved to an alternative disciplinary strategy that I'd learned from some other twin parents... combining a time-out with lavishing attention on JJ. I initially was very dubious about this approach but tried it a few times. It didn't work right away, and indeed, I'm not sure if the lack of biting that we currently enjoy is a result of the strategy or if it was just a phase she was going through. Regardless, it seemed to have worked and now Alexis no longer bites her brother--she just whacks him on the head.

One of the things that did surprise us when doing the "time-outs" was that Alexis immediately knew that she did something wrong, and she would never try to get out of time-out (I would put her facing a wall/chair/or other inanimate object that was close by and tell her not to move). She just stayed facing the wall and would cry until I would kneel down and ask her to say she's sorry. She's learned "sorry" from sign language videos and was getting quite good at making the sign. Another thing that we find ironic, is that as soon as we'd get her out of time out, she would come to us for comfort... we were, after all, the one causing her to be upset in the first place.

Thankfully, at almost the same time we were having aggression issues with Alexis, they both learned how to hug and kiss. They would constantly make the smacking noises and run over to each other or us to plant a big one. Of course, neither of them has the best balance, so when they try to give each other hugs, it usually ends up with them horizontal on the floor. But we are so grateful that despite the energy they drain from us, they also melt our hearts.

Additionally, Alexis and JJ have learned to hold hands. They mainly like to do it across their car seats, but also while we go for walks. They think it's hilarious. Speaking of walking, I'm so proud of them right now... I've been letting them out of the stroller while we walk to the park or at the zoo, and will tell them to "stay on the sidewalk" or "stay by momma"... after months of redirecting them back to the sidewalk or by my side, they now almost always walk right beside me. I don't even have to use the leash-backpacks. I feel like a mother duck with her two little ducklings waddling behind me. Of course, this won't last as they'll test their boundaries endlessly, but for now, I'm enjoying the obedience.

They've also finally transitioned to one nap a day, and we're enjoying the extra morning time... They're still great sleepers, usually giving us from 2.5 to 4 hours of nap time... but we're still waiting for them to become stellar eaters. We may be waiting a while for that one. But at least they're not quite as messy as they used to be and no longer throw food on the floor deliberately. They do like to clean up now, and Alexis especially seems to like everything in it's place. She's always putting the shoes back where they go and little pieces of garbage into the garbage can. They both love to play with the brooms and mops or take their old burp clothes and wipe up the floor. When they first started eating in the high chairs, I would use those clothes to wipe up the food they would without fail, fling to the floor. They would sit in their chairs laughing their heads off while I was on my hands and knees cleaning up the floor. It's nice now to have them think it's cool to clean the floor by their chairs instead of just mocking me.

In other news, we've started them in swimming lessons. We tried parent-child swim classes, but decided pretty quickly that we wanted something a bit more serious and found ISR. A friend of ours had her son enrolled, so we decided to give it a try. The goal is to teach them "survival" swim, not how to do the breast-stroke, but it's still pretty intense. They learn how to get to a float after falling in the water, how to hold the float, and then how to turn from the float to swim to an edge. The instructor often comments that if we could take Alexis' attitude (she LOVES it) with JJ's skills (he's a great floater and strong swimmer but screams the entire time), we'd have a swimming genius. I'll post some pictures and video next time.

They also seem to have had a slight language-regression as opposed to the language-explosion that supposed to happen around 18 months. At their 15 month well check up, we went through their words with the pediatrician and they had about 20 or so, and with signs well over 40... Then they got a few more words until they started calling their bottles, "Ba". We still give them one bottle before bed, and whenever they would see us even start to make it, they started yelling/asking, "Ba?" "Ba?" Then, suddenly, everything they wanted when they were upset became "Ba?" If Alexis was pointing at a toy she wanted on the counter she would hold her hand up and say "Ba?" The funny thing is they just keep trying and we can tell they're thinking as they're crying, "one more time... if I say "Ba" one more time, then they'll understand." So, they stop crying, look at us, take a deep breath and yell "Ba?" before breaking into more hysterics. And then repeat.

They do throw little tantrums now where they'll fling themselves onto the floor face down and then slide their foreheads on the ground. Not sure what they're hoping to accomplish by doing that, but they both do it fairly frequently--especially when they've unsuccessfully tried to take something from the other. We're pretty good about ignoring them during these fits, so they're not very prolonged, but sometimes they happen at the craziest places. The other day, Alexis was at swim lessons when she threw herself down on the crushed-granite patio by the pool (after pointing to who-knows-what and yelling, "Ba?" of course). Then she proceeded to push her forehead along the patio floor. She ended up with a scrape on her forehead but as soon as I got her snack cup (which sounds nothing like, "Ba" for the record), she was dancing around. Injuries never seem to bother her (perhaps because most are self-inflicted).

They are playing so much more together now (not just alongside each other), and have also become more sophisticated when they're fighting over toys. Instead of just using brute force (in JJ's case) or biting (in Alexis') to get what they covet, they will find something they think will entice their sibling away from the toy they're after and offer it up as a "trade." The amazing thing is that it seems to work 9 times out of 10.

One more story to end this long post: I occasionally let them play with our TV/Media equipment... they love to push all the buttons and open and close the DVD and CD players (I empty the discs ahead of time). I was on the couch doing some work on my laptop while they were quietly playing. While pushing buttons, they must have turned up the volume knob and set the receiver to FM because suddenly mega-decibel static blasted from the speakers. JJ and Alexis froze for a millisecond, then both hit the ground as if a bomb had gone off--of course, they landed on top of each other, which delayed their frantic scramble away from the TV. I turned off the receiver and couldn't stop laughing while they were both crying and clinging to me with never-before-seen panic. They haven't tried playing with the media equipment since.

I've been taking fewer video and pictures, but a couple of weeks ago posted the last ~7 weeks of footage/pictures on Dropshots...