It has been a while since I updated the blog. As you can tell by all of the pictures we have had three months of fun and many memories! The girls had a 16 month doctor appointment and below are there stats.
Sophia
Weight 25 pds. 5oz. - 78th percentile
Height 32 1/4 inches - 90th percentile
Head Circum 47 1/2 cm - 86th percentile
Claire
Weight 23 pds. 3oz. - 50th percentile
Height 32 1/2 inches - 91st percentile
Head Circum 46 3/4 cm - 69th percentile
As you can tell they are very healthy and still tall! They definitely passed all of the 15 month milestones and then some. We are amazed every day with the things they are doing. It is a blessing to watch and so much fun!
Since my last post at 14 months Claire started walking and she went from taking a few steps here or there to practically running within a week. The orthopedic braces worked wonders! She started full blown walking on August 26th, just two days shy of being 15 months. I definitely have my hands full now.
The girls vocabulary amazes Matt and I. They wake up talking and they go to sleep giggling and talking. We have had many two word and three word phrases come out of Sophia and Claire. I am amazed at how they process what I am saying to them. I can ask if they want to see something and they will reply "I see it", "I want that" or "What is that". I am bias but I think they are so smart. Below are some of the words that they are saying....I have lost track of them all.
Hello, Hi, Bye Bye, Mommy, Mom, Mamma, Dad, Daddy, Dadda, Love You, Thank You, Hi Guys, By Guys, Got It, Hey Sis, Please, Goldfish, Amen, Yummy, Baby, Dude, Diaper, Cat, Ball, Bird, Bunny, Eyes, Nose, Bath, Shoes, Apple, Banana, Basement, Nanna, Pappaw, Grandpa, Grandma and many of their Aunts, Uncle's and cousins names.
You can provide the girls with multiple step directions and they will follow through. I will tell the girls to pick up a particular item and go put it in a certain spot and they do it. I am sure this is normal for their age but it still floors me every time. They process information so well and it definitely makes daily life so much easier. They can actually help me a little bit.
I described there personalities in my last post and not a lot has changed. Sophia is still our quiet and content one at home who becomes our social butterfly when we are out and about or with groups of people. Claire is our loud and crazy child at home but becomes shy in public and with groups of people. They are both so sweet and loving. They love to give eachother kisses and hugs which are sometimes unwanted by Sophia. Claire can't get enough of grabbing her sister to give kisses and hugs and Sophia becomes annoyed by the affection. It melts our hearts when the girls come to give us a kiss or hug. I am cherishing these moments because I know the day will come when those are hard to come by.
The girls wake up in the morning talking to eachother in there cribs. It is so funny. Most of the time Sophia can only get a few words in over her loud sister. One of there favorite activities is to get in a crib together and jump and tackle eachother. They fall on eachother and just giggle away. This entertains them for at least 10 minutes which gives me enough time to put away all of the clean baby clothes. The girls love chasing eachother around the house. During these sessions it is non-stop laughing. They hide behind curtains and giggle at eachother when they open the curtains. I love being able to watch them interact. I know I am lucky because not too many people get to have twins and see this special interaction.
Sophia and Claire know all of their body parts. We love playing the game of saying a body part and having them point it out. They know eyes, nose, head, hair, mouth, ears, belly button, knees, feet, toes, etc. They especially love showing you there nose, mouth (as they open it wide), and belly button (pull up there t-shirt). They have been doing this for a while now but it is still a favorite in our household.
The girls have many teeth now. Sophia has 8 teeth although many of them are only partially or halfway through. Claire has 11 teeth although five of them are only partially through her gums. Claire got all of her one year mullers at once which made for a really difficult few days. Mommy didn't get any sleep and Claire got very little. It really sucks when you can't do anything for your child to relieve the pain. Tylenol, orajel and teething tablets don't cut it when you are getting four at once. I think teething is my least favorite thing so far.
The girls love to play the screaming game. They learned it from Will. It is so funny! All of the sudden one will start screaming and the other will try to beat her. Thankfully they don't have annoying screams. They did it in the car for about 5 minutes on the way to the grocery tonight. I joined in...why not : ) They giggle so much after each scream.
The girls are down to 1 nap now which is wonderful. Having 3 full hours to get things done or nap (which i prefer) is awesome and a HUGE change. Today though, the girls were super tired but I wanted to give them lunch before naptime. I turned away for less than a minute while doing something in the kitchen and Claire was slumped over asleep in her highchair and Sophia was slumped over with her eyes barely open trying so hard to finish a cracker. It was so funny! I don't think they have ever done that.
Daddy has been traveling a LOT for work in the past few months. The girls miss him so much and love to talk to him on the phone and have even skyped with him a few times (technology is awesome). When he comes home they get so excited. You would have thought we won the lottery. HA!! I know how happy that makes Matt feel to see them welcome him home with big smiles, kisses, hugs and giggles. Matt works so hard so I can be a stay-at-home Mom. I am thankful at the wonderful welcome home they give him every week...its the best thank you we could give him!
Sophia gives the funniest faces these days. She loves to scrunch up her nose and squint her eyes. In the first picture I posted you can kind of see it. It is so cute! Sophia does really funny things with her arms. When she first started standing up she would always put her arms behind her and lean forward like a ski jumper. Now she does it while she walks. She is so dramatic about it! She also does this funny arm pump maneuver where she bends her knees a little bit and bends over while pumping her arm back and forth. Then she'll take off with her arm pumping away. You have to see it to understand how funny it is and thankfully we have captured it on video a few times. Sophia is running all over the place and quite fast. I can barely keep up with her. She loves roaming around the backyard on her own and can be halfway across the yard in a second. I have to really keep an eye on her. Sophia is our little reader. She LOVES books. She will go pick up a book, bring it to you and then get on the couch waiting for you to read it to her. I am so thankful she loves reading because I really enjoy it. She tends to favor a few books so we have them memorized and she knows all of the hand motions and movements Mommy makes up to go along with them. Recently Sophia has started going to the oven mit drawer and getting out a big red hand mit. She puts it on her left hand and heads to the oven and pushes buttons on the oven like she is ready to cook. I guess she has watched her Mom make quite a few pizza's. HA!!!
Sophia loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny and sometimes Sesame Street. She can't get enough which makes me a little worried. She has figured out how to turn on the TV herself (not an easy task because you have to hit multiple buttons in a certain sequence) and will turn it on first thing in the morning and go sit in her little chair waiting for me to turn on one of her shows. Sophia's hair is getting so long. I was able to put her hair in a ponytail for the first time a few weeks ago. It looked so adorable and made her look so much older. She lets me sit and braid her hair which I love. Her sister can't sit still long enough for me to do the same.
Claire is our daughter with many faces and noises. She loves to express herself...many times in gibberish like her Dad and Uncle Chris. Most of the time it comes out of nowhere and surprises you. Like I said...just like her Dad and Uncle! Claire loves to play dress up already. Most days she can be seen running around the house with clothes on her head, bracelets or purse on her wrist, and possibly even a tutu or lady bug wings on. I found her sitting on the toilet one day with one of my giant purses on her wrist. Halloween was really fun for her because she got to wear an outfit and carry her candy basket on her wrist. Claire has become a professional nose picker and thinks it is quite funny. I have tried to break her of the habit with no luck. Nose picking is one of my biggest pet peeves so I am determined to stop it even though it is kind of cute. All I will say is she did not get this habit from me : ) Each night we say prayers with the girls before we go to bed and a few weeks ago Claire finished her prayers with "AMEN" all by herself. It defintiely got me a bit teary eyed. I feel like was the start of establishing a faith that will be so important to her in the future. Claire is our little domestic child....very much like her father. She loves to wipe her tray after eating and continues to throw all of the dirty diapers away. After I change the girls clothes in the morning, she picks her and Sophia's clothes up and takes them to the laundry room without me asking. She even picks up their sippy cups before bedtime and puts them in refrigerator. I hope this continues. If she is anything like her father she will be very good at cleaning. Thank you Matthew!!! We have found that Claire is allergic to hummus. We almost always have hummus in our house and the girls were begging to have some at lunch one day. I gave it to them and immediately Claire broke out in red splotches all over her face and neck. I thought it was the red peppers in the hummus but we tried it again with plain hummus with the same result. Poor girl...I hope she grows out of it because she really likes it.
We went on our first two vacations with the girls in September. Over Labor Day we went to Ludington Michigan with Aunt Shannon, Uncle Chris and Brycen. The drive to Michigan went great. The girls did not get antsy until we were 20 minutes away. The weather was horrible...cold, rainy and windy which forced us to stay inside our little cabins most of the time. Fortunately we had one beautiful day while Shannon and Chris were still there and got to enjoy the beach on Lake Michigan. The girls loved the sand and water! It was nice to get away and enjoy time with family and of course Brycen! We chose to stay an extra day so that we could enjoy another day of good weather and I am glad we did. The girls had so much fun getting dirty and wet in the sand. Not fun to clean up but the girls had a blast.
At the end of September we went with the Mills family to Florida. The drive to Florida was interesting to say the least. We thought driving through the night would be best so the kids would sleep. I think our girls slept a total of 1.5 hours. Thankfully I knew we would be on the beach and in the sun within 12 hours. I have to say a beach vacation is very different with kids. Relaxing moments did not come until all the kids were in bed. It was so much fun though. The girls loved the beach, pool and sun so much. They had amazing tans when we got back. These girls are very dark complected! Sophia and Claire loved playing with their friends Olivia and Paxton all week. Paxton loved kissing on the girls and Olivia loved playing Mom with them. We had a great time and it was so nice of Erin and Andy to ask us to go with them. Erin and I reflected a lot on the fact that we met at about the same age Olivia is now. I am so thankful our kids will grow up together and have amazing memories together just like we did and Matt and Andy did.
A funny story about the Florida trip. One night while we were giving the kids a bath we had a knock at the door. I answered the door and a lady who was a Paula Deen look-a-like (with accent and all) was standing at the door and said she had pictures for me. She saw Matt, myself and the girls on the beach that day and took pictures of us. She just thought the twins were so adorable and she had to capture the moment. She thought about telling us while we were on the beach but thought it would spoil the surprise. She went to Walmart that day and had them printed off and somehow found out which condo we were staying in and delivered them to us. How sweet is that! People are amazed by twins and I still to this day can't go through the mall or anywhere for that matter without being stopped for 5 minutes to talk about the girls. I love it!
Halloween was so much fun this year. Claire was a Hershey Kiss and Sophia was a bunny. They loved the outfits and looked so adorable! We went to the pumpkin patch mid-October with Aunt Shannon, Uncle Chris and Brycen. It was a lot of fun and we finally got a good picture of the girls with Brycen (they never want to sit still). We went to a kids party during the day on Halloween at the Marr's Home. It was so much fun!! All the kids looked so cute. The girls made haunted houses and got lots of candy, toys and treats. It is so neat to see all of Matt's friends still together and see how the group has grown by 16 little kiddos. We made a stop at Aunt Shannon and Uncle Chris' house to see them and Grandpa Benny. They loved getting special treats and gifts from them and of course seeing Brycen in his dragon costume..he looked adorable! We made our way to Brownsburg for Trick-or-Treating with almost all of the AFC. All the kids had great costumes. The girls took to Trick-or-Treating quickly. They walked up to the houses all by themselves (with Mommy and Daddy closely behind). They loved picking out a piece of candy but thought they deserved more than one from each house. They would try to steal multiple pieces (this is why Mommy and Daddy were right behind them). They would say Thank You after getting candy and Sophia even said Trick-or-Treat once. It was so cute! Uncle Nick works for Hershey and definitely is the house to go to in Brownsburg. You could just Trick-or-Treat at his house and get all of the candy you need for the next month. He had tubs full of candy to give out to kids and the girls were amazed and didn't want to leave the tubs. Nick may be the favorite Uncle now : )
Whew...that was a lot of information! I guess I need to blog a bit more often. I hope you enjoyed the latest update. More to come!!!
