18 Months

Happy 1.5 years to our little bundles of energy! Here are some of their latest developments.

Language/Talking
They are saying a few more words lately including "wow" and "no." I wasn't sure if they actually understood the word "no" until the other day when Gibson tried to take a toy Gus was playing with. Gus hugged the toy to his chest saying "nononononooo!" Ah ha, I think he gets it!

I can tell they understand new things every day. When I say, "Do you need me to wipe your nose?" they both make sniffling noises. I've even gotten them to carry things from one room to another, just by giving verbal directions. I love watching their little brains catch on to stuff like this!

Eating
Their newest obsession is cantaloupe. All summer, they devoured watermelon and I found cantaloupes on sale at Aldi last week. Good deal, because they've been turning their noses up at my other fruit offerings lately. Oh, except canned pears. Fresh pears are hit or miss, but Gus slurped down almost a whole can of pears by himself recently.

Gibson is the more carnivorous kid. He enjoys all types of meat - fish, poultry, beef. I'm teaching them to like the good salmon (wild caught Alaskan) from Costco. It's got a kind of spicy sauce, but they don't seem to mind.

Ketchup is their new favorite thing to eat with pretty much all food. I see they take after their uncle, Jr. Fuzzy...

Health & Hygiene
They survived getting tubes in their ears and adenoids removed last month. Really, it didn't seem to faze them too much. It was more of survival on the parents' part, especially the really long surgery day at the hospital when it took them forever to recover from anesthesia! After a couple days, they were mostly back to their old selves. They both had colds at the time which didn't really help with recovery. But we've now gone 3 weeks without an ear infection, so that's good!

They are working on getting a bunch of teeth right now - lots of chewing and drooling. Gus has all 8 of his front teeth with molars coming soon. Gibson has 7. They both hate getting their teeth brushed. Sometimes we let them "brush" their own teeth but they mainly want to throw the toothbrushes on the bathroom floor or gag themselves by sticking the brushes all the way in their mouths.

Brush that they love = hair brush. Perhaps because they finally have grown some hair? For whatever reason, they are always asking me to brush their hair. I don't let them play with the hair brush, though, because it's too perfect of a weapon.

Playing
They like to chase each other around, and since they're getting better at trotting, this activity is more enjoyable. We have some big boxes that they run around, hide behind, and then squeal with delight when they catch each other.

Gus's favorite games are "tackle brother" and "whack-a-brother," the latter involving any object and Gibson's head. If I hear a yelp coming from the other room, I usually respond, "Gus, get off your brother!" and I'm right 90% of the time. He's got about a pound weight advantage that he literally throws around. I'm not saying Gibson is an innocent little angel - he likes to whack his brother, too - but Gus is definitely the more aggressive one.

Large Motor Skills: Climbing
I took them to a play group held in a space with a raised stage, maybe 18" off the ground. Danger zone! They both kept just walking off the edge while I hopped back and forth trying to teach them how to get down safely. But one time they went two different directions which meant I only caught one of them. Bonk goes the Gibson! After that, though, he figured out how to climb up and down without falling. I believe that is what we call natural consequences being the teacher. Gus, meanwhile, continued to fling himself off the stage, blissfully oblivious to the effects of gravity since Mom was there to catch him.

Holiday Celebrations
I think they like all the sparkly Christmas lights and decorations we see when we're out and about, but I don't think they really understand the idea of "holidays" yet. They got to open a couple presents already and were more into ripping/eating the paper than the contents of the package. That seems pretty normal to me for their age.