Double Digits

The twins are 10 months...while it hardly seems like they could already be so old, they are most certainly transitioning from being little babies to active toddlers. Here is some of what they're up to these days.

The Good:

They're off! The big news these days is mobility. Both babies have crawling down (as Ryan proved to us in church on Sunday while crawling laps in the giant cry room), and are now moving to other forms of mobility. For instance, Allie, who has also mastered pulling herself up, is beginning to cruise. She loves going from one piece of furniture to another, and has begun experimenting with letting go! She also, for the first time, took steps while holding onto my hands! Could it be that walking is in our near future? Ryan is mastering standing up. However, unlike his sister (who practiced by pulling on on easy to hold onto items like the crib), he uses things like half-filled laundry baskets or our humidifier (which is half his size and rounded on top) to try to stand. He refuses to do anything the easy way. Finally, Allie, my little escape artist, learned how to open doors. See, very few doors in our apartment actually latch shut - which wasn't a problem because a "closed" door was enough to stop them in their tracks. But Allie worked with the door until she figured out how to pull it open...and quickly escaped into the hallway. There's no rest from here on out!

The Bad:

Allie has taken to stealing toys from her brother. Whatever he has, she wants. I can already tell it's going to be a struggle teaching her not to take toys. And, now that they have teeth, we had our first problem with biting. Granted, I don't think it was malicious. Ryan just seemed to see her hand close by and think it was worth checking out...Allie was not thrilled. Neither was mommy.

The Funny:

The babies were playing in the play yard while I was packing (right next to the play yard...less than 3 feet from the babies). It gets silent and I look over to see Ryan on his hands & knees and Allie with one knee up on her brother's back trying to get her other knee up. Has my little escape artist recruited an accomplice?

At the very end of bath time the other night I was testing the temperature of the rinse water, Lucas was keeping an eye on the babies, and the babies were splashing and playing. Suddenly, I felt an odd, consistent splash of warm water on my face. I turned and discovered it wasn't bathwater...it was a well-aimed stream from Ry-guy's little firehose! I screamed, Lucas laughed, and the babies kept splashing!

The Aww-dorable:

With Lucas home for recent holidays, and the steady stream of familiy that visited, I hadn't fed the twins by myself for a while. Sunday morning I had them both in my lap drinking their bottles for the first time in about 2 weeks. They were holding hands (it is adorable, but I think it is more a defensive manuever to keep the other from wacking them in the faces or knocking the bottle out of their mouth than a genuine desire for closeness...). Suddenly Ryan starts arching his back...he tilts his head all the way back to look at me (keep in mind he could have just turned sideways and I would have been right there). When he sees it's me holding him he flashes me a BIG smile, lets out a happy grunt, and then snuggles under my chin for the rest of his bottle. Awwwww.

Lucas had to read the scripture in church yesterday. I'm holding Allie, a friend is holding Ryan, and both babies are contentedly playing with toys. Lucas starts talking and Allie looks up and yells, "Dada!" Lucas didn't hear, but everyone near us did a collective "Awwwwwww."