18 months!!

Yay - we turned 1.5 years old on September 26th. Their birth, just seems like yesterday!

-We are down to one nap. Usually the kids get up between 0730 and 0830 (sometimes 0900 if they have slept late - which is very rare). So, we do lunch at around 1130-1200 and then they are off to nap by around 1230-0100. They nap 1.5-3 hours. I think they are still mastering this whole thing, because they are sometimes very exhausted by the end of he day (depending upon how the day has gone by).

-S-i-p-p-y! Yes, RM is drinking from straw sippy all his milk (including before bed), for RT... we have finally settled for a Nuk soft spout 6 oz red cup. Yes, that is the only one she will take! I purchased a bigger one of the same kind, and nope, she won't drink from that. I think she is a little shaken with the loss of her bottle, and me eventually flipping (in the third week) and trying multiple sippy's after two weeks of close to zero (straw sippy) milk consumption. We stopped night time bottle (switched to sippy) at the beginning of third week - which was a trigger for RM to start accepting his straw sippy, and a slow progress for RT to let go off her bottle dependency. So, I guess I will give her some time. I want her to get her milk and I can not tolerate her taking less than 5 oz milk a day for days together. The duo is not a very big cheese eater, and yogurt I can only give so much. I am hoping that eventually she will try to experiment with RM's straw sippy.

-We can point at our heart, cheeks, chin, knees, pee-pee and butt, besides the hair, head, nose, ears, eyes, teeth, hand, feet, belly, belly button that we could already identify.

-They love to fart and laugh!! Before they start laughing, they will make the fart sound by their mouth! RT will occasionally tell that she has poopoo'ed, but RM has consistently told "Pooo" the last couple of days. We are not planning on potty training any time soon. I have no intentions of having 2 naked toddlers running around with some poopoo disasters happening just yet! They need to be more aware of their bowel movements.

-Sometimes, one will hold the others hand and lead them to me, especially if I am calling out for them.

-They hug, kiss, and caress each other and us a lot more frequently... pushing and a little hitting is also a new tool they have discovered to get the other one away or grab something the other one has. RM has gotten a lot more aggressive, and as a result, RT's toy grabbing has reduced.

-We kiss everything we like, from a food item on the tray to a character/animal on a book or DVD.

-One of our favorite songs is Robots are Dancing on a Baby Genius DVD. They dance like a robot and have started identifying robots in books. It's hilarious - the way the dance!! We did not show them any tv till they turned 15 months, and I do abide by the recommendation of no tv/less than 2 hours tv a day till they turn 2. Though, I think there is a fine balance between showing them stuff on these children's DVDs. They have picked up on so much that my brain could have hardly imagined.

-RT can sit at one place going through books or playing with a toy for a very long time, and RM is bouncing around from one place to another constantly. It used to be the other way round.

-They love to drop Mommy's cell phone behind the couch (between couch and the wall). I have to move the heavy couch at least once or twice a day to get my phone. Some times they just lay their hand on my phone before I can figure it out!

-There vocabulary has blossomed this month! I am not much in to counting the number of words they speak, but they pick up any random word they hear... or repeat something completely unusual. It's amazing how much it changes every month. They can associate words with actions and purpose much more now than they had ever before.

-We already have complete set of teeth. So no more counting till we get to the last 4 set of teeth around 2 years.

-Our Pediatrician appointment was yesterday (rescheduled) Oct 03, 2011. RT weighed 23.91 lbs (50 %ile), is 33.4 inches tall (I don't think they got her height right - might be a little taller than that), and head circumference is 19.2. RM weighed 26.6 lbs (75 %ile), is 33.4 inches tall and head circumference is 19.8. We have stayed consistent with our %ile's. I was a little concerned with their weights, especially RT's after her diarrhea, colds, picky eating habit, transition to sippy. But she is doing fine (touch wood). We got our flu shots for the season. Our next appointment will be at 2 years!!

We will be going on vacation this month and I am in a prep mode! :)