Creative play
- They love to play creatively together. They try to include the whole family when both parents are available. Many evenings have passed with them hopping back and forth on the couch as they pretend to be various Mario Bros. characters. DF and I are assigned to be Bowsers, or sometimes good guys.
- Everything can transform, when they are imagining. They can go from magic carrot to butterfly to zapping robot in the span of thirty seconds. It's hard to keep up :)
- At night, they want me to make up a bedtime story for them. They tell me what should be in the story. Last night, Gus was a treasure chest and Gibson was a baby bunny who lost his family.
- We went camping last month - stayed in a cabin. Although they had been running around playing outside all day, they seemed almost compelled into creating a pretend scenario before bedtime that involved crawling through a blanket on their dad's lap.
Physical development
- Both are expert balance bike riders. Gibson always wants to go in front down hills and is a bit of a daredevil. Gus usually lets his brother go first, though he also has a need for speed.]
- DF and the boys like to race their scooters in the alley behind our house
- They love to climb higher than my nerves enjoy - playground equipment, trees, etc
Academics
- After one semester of preschool, we decided to pull them out of school at the end of last year. It was just too much for all of us.
- We attend a local tuition-free Parent Education program, which has been awesome. It's like a preschool where the parents and kids stay together for part of the time.
- They know their letters and can count to 20, with minor confusion in the teens
- We're big into science experiments these days (slime, de-oxidizing pennies, soaking raisins, nature exploration, oobleck)
- Their video game education has begun. They're knowledgeable about all the Super Mario Galaxy characters/planets/lumas. They can sort of drive in Burnout (Gamecube). They like slicing stuff and bad guys on Wii Sports Resort in the swordplay levels.
Social
- For the most part, they like going to Sunday School at church and have made friends there
- They think "big kids" are cool, like to follow them around, and try to do whatever they are doing (anyone older than say 6). They even joined in a water balloon fight recently without a melt down!
- They generally find babies annoying. We are doing our best to help them form a good relationship with their 18 month old cousin. Gibson was proud of himself during her most recent visit because "I only kicked her one time today!"
- Gus is more of the rule follower and enforcer. He likes to be helpful.
- Gibson is more mischievous and will see what he can get away with. He loves to laugh.
- They fight with each other a lot and also play together fairly well
- Both boys are super attached to me, sometimes to the point of clinginess. I'm hoping they grow out of it before kindergarten...
Language
- They talk A LOT! I am biased but feel their vocabulary is extensive for their age. People can usually understand their speech. They don't have any "twin language" that I'm aware of.
- Gibson likes to tell us bedtime stories. They even have some plot to them!
- They are getting better with pronouns. Still confusion on male-female and also he/him she/her.
- Their past tense verbs are creative. Made-ed, eat-ed, put-ed
- Pronunciation seems pretty age-appropriate. They still have lots of cute things they say, like "gwish" instead of "squish." Hey, stop gwishing me! Neither of them say r correctly all the time. Gus's sounds like /w/ while Gibson says /y/. That confuses me sometimes (run could be wun or yun).
- They use multi-syllable words with no problem, like camouflage, elephant, and Saturday. But then they drop the first syllable of other words, like (con)troller, (ma)chine, (with)out, (dis)penser. Actually that last one is pronounced fencer, as in Gus, you be a candy fencer and I will be an ice cream 'chine.
People told me raising twins would get easier, and you know what? They were right. The first 1.5 years are kind of a blur. I'm glad I took photos/videos and recorded my thoughts on this blog. But really, now I feel like I just have two kids who happen to be the same age, and in a lot of ways, that's great!
