18 Months

The girls turned 18 months this week.  Lots of milestones that come with their 1/2 birthday this year.

They were able to start attending Nursery at church.  Best day for me!  Sacrament meeting was a nightmare that day.  Usually they're pretty good about reading books and not being too whiny or wiggly.  Well they were fighting and all Siena wanted to do was get off the bench and run.  Needless to say we ended up in the hallway after only 10 mins.  I was thinking, 'good thing they are going to nursery or I would just go home.'  We dropped them off and the nursery teachers were so good to just take over and told us to just leave.  So we did.  Aria was hysterical but only for a couple minutes if that and then they were fine and stayed the entire 2 hours.  I was so proud of them.  I sat in Sunday school thinking 'I can't believe I did 18 months of church with twins.'  They are going to love their nursery class and hopefully they continue to go like they did this week.

They also had their 18 month check up.  Shane couldn't go so I took my mom along with me.  Boy was I glad she was there.  I thought I could maybe handle them both but when I saw how upset Aria was just looking at the nurse, I knew I couldn't do it alone.  This is the first time I realized they know where they are and what is going on.  As soon as we started getting Aria undressed she freaked out.  I had to pry her out of my arms to put her on the scale.  Then I got her calmed down only to have the nurse walk in the room and it started all over again.  Same thing when she saw the doctor.  I felt bad she was so freaked out. They had a great check up.  The doctor always has some great advice on how to handle children their age and it was good to hear they are on track for just about everything.  The one concern I have is that they still aren't talking much at all.  She said they are behind but twins usually talk late and that they are doing everything else really well (interacting, understanding, etc.)  so she wasn't that concerned.  She did say they hold firm to the fact that they need to be saying 50 words by age 2...so we have our work cut out for us.  I keep thinking it's just going to click one day and they will take off with their speaking, so we'll see.  They didn't get any shots this time because we were 1 day early (bugged that they didn't schedule the appointment correctly.)  So they'll get their last set of shots at their 2 year appt.  Strange to think I'll be back with a new baby before the girls go back for their 2 year. appt.

Here are their stats:
Siena:
Height -  33.5 inches - 95%
Weight - 24 lbs - 50%
Head - 50%

Aria:
Height - 32 inches - 65%
Weight -  22.5 lbs - 25%
Head - 50%

Siena is turning into miss independent.  She wants to do everything by herself...already??  She wants to sit in the big chairs, she is trying to walk up and down stairs without crawling up them, she likes to get down and run no matter where we are.  She has the cutest little mischievous smile from time to time.  Her temper tantrums have gotten better over the last week but she still thinks she has the right to anything she sets her eyes on, as in...my iPhone, anyone's laptop, our video camera, etc., etc.  It's a constant struggle to keep things out of her eye sight.

"Can you fold your arms?"

Aria is my sensitive girl.  She also has her own opinion and definitely lets you know when she doesn't agree with you.  She's a mommy's girl and loves to be held and many times will still bring me books and sit on my lap for a long time just playing.  She loves to run around as well but you can see she's a little more cautious about it.  For instance when we go on walks, they run down the sidewalk and all of the sudden Aria will see a big crack or even the cement color will change and she'll stop, analyze whether she can move forward and then slowly step onto it and test it out.  As soon as she is there she starts running again.

"Where are your toes?"

Their favorite activity these days is chasing each other.  They love to climb up our stairs and run from one end of the hallway to the other screaming and laughing at each other.  Sometimes they run together, other times they run from opposite ends and pass each other. 

Since it's been so warm this week we've been taking them on walks and instead of putting them in a stroller like we had to do last year, we just let them run.  On one of our walks the girls saw a neighbor's cat.  You've never seen them so excited chasing that thing until we were almost in their backyard.  Siena was signing cat the entire time and Aria was trying to pet it.  They had a hard time turning around and leaving it only to hear it meow behind us a few houses later.  The girls acted like it was Christmas all over again.  It followed us almost the entire way home. 

Yesterday when we got home from the doctor's office I took them into our backyard to run around.  We don't have one toy or thing to do in our backyard and you should've seen how excited they were.  They ran around the grass yelling and laughing for a long time.  You would've thought we had them in prison all winter long.  They are going to love being outdoors this summer.  Now whenever we go into the garage to get in the car, they don't walk to the car like they used to, they walk to the garage door that leads outside and just stand there, probably hoping I'll open it for them.

 They've been practicing walking up and down stairs and this one that falls onto grass is perfect for them and they practice on this step over and over and over again.  And then sometimes they chicken out and just go down backwards, or in splits like Siena is in this picture.

One other funny thing is Aria has always hated touching grass.  I  keep thinking she'll grow out of it but after all winter she still remembers.  If she is running and falls down she lifts her hands and sometimes feet off the ground and whines until I come stand her up.  She refuses to put her hands on the grass to pick herself up.