one year ago

It's officially been an entire year since we met Izzie T. and Elijah G. Hard to believe, as I can barely remember what life was like without them.

In the past year, they've gone from tiny little babies to full-on toddler tornadoes. Here are just some of the ways that they've transformed throughout the year:

* They learned to crawl, then walk, and now run, climb, jump, spin, march, dance, get low, and raise the roof.
* They went from babbling consonants to easily speaking in 2-4 word sentences. In terms of expressive vocabulary, they each have well over 125 words, and surprise us with new ones every day!
* Animal sounds and body parts are old hat.
* Isabel knows all of her colours. She can identify them if you ask her to find an object of a certain colour, and she can verbally name the colour of any object. Elijah's working on this skill, and can do it most of the time, but not quite as consistently as Izzie.
* The twins can repeat each letter of the alphabet if we say it for them. They also know some "chunks" (i.e. elijah says "abcdf")
* They *love* to read books, often request their certain stories, and "read along". Current favourites include the ever popular "Brown Bear", "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" (monkey jumpin'), and "Please Baby, Please" (peese).
* If they do something (either purposefully or inadvertantly) that causes another person to say "ouch", they immediately say "I sorry ____ (person's name)" and gently rub the owie.
* They use their play phones to make calls constantly. Here's a typical conversation:
"Hi Gampa, Are you? Bye Bye"
* They love singing songs. Favourites include "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Flee Fly Flo", "Little Green Frog", "May-Ree Mack", "Going on a Bearhunt", and "If all the raindrops..."
* They understand that Mommy, Daddy, Izzie and Lijie wear shirts, but Roscoe does not.
* They are learning that mommy and daddy do not wear diapers, and that they too can be diaper free!
* They love to press buttons. Elevators are especially cool.
* They know the difference between buses, trains, cars and fire trucks, and can tell you what sounds each one makes.
* They love to give hugs and kisses multiple times throughout the day.
* They love to hear music on the radio, and often ask for "more song" when a song ends. However, it was recently discovered that Izzie is a music critic-- She will now stick her fingers into her ears when she hears a song she doesn't like.
* Stevie Wonder is their favourite musician. "Superstition" is their favourite song. "Low" by Flo Rida and T-Pain is a close second. "Amy, Amy, Amy" by Amy Winehouse is also high on their list.
* They can tell you their names if you ask them. They also recognize and respond to their Ethiopian names. (I use their first two names pretty interchangeably, but they hear their second middle names often as well.)
* Each morning, whoever wakes up first makes a very specific sound in order to determine whether the other is awake. The second child responds by making the same sound. Then they choose a word to yell repeatedly until I get there (typically it's either Mommy or Bunny).
* They still eat a ridiculous amount of food.
* No matter what they're currently playing with, whatever the other twin has is far more interesting. They're learning how to share, and enjoy the applause that they receive whenever they spontaneously share with one another.
* They're very athletic. Elijah can easily throw a ball across a room, They can both kick, throw, and bounce balls, and they're working on catching.
* They have begun making requests / demands, such as "Mama, sit!", "Stop", "Help", or "Eat Pancakes". I am regularly told to go to bed (You don't have to ask me twice!).
* They can put their coats on all by themselves by flipping them over their heads. They do request assistance by saying "Zip it up?"
* They know the difference between "mine" and "yours".
* They almost always say please when asking for something.
* They often walk around holding hands, and make a point of showing me when they do.
* When they are upset, they go to my bed until they are feeling "all better"

As soon as i have some updated pictures, I'll post them....