Misc. Cuteness

I'm too lazy to make this into a more involved blog post, so here are some misc. cute things the kids have been doing lately.

• Addie has started saying, "Mmmm cake!" when eating anything sweet. There is no doubt that she is her mother's daughter.
• Aidan has become thoroughly enraptured with Thomas the Tank. We have been taking advantage of this for times when we need Aidan to be still for a diaper change, etc. We turn on a DVR'd episode of Thomas, and he stops crying immediately and sits very still. We've taken to affectionately calling Thomas the "off button."
• Addie is into helping mama around the house. She'll carry folded clothes to the basket, she'll throw her dirty diaper to the trash, she'll wipe up a spot on the floor with a towel, etc.
• Yesterday, I noticed there was some cat puke in the living room that had been partially wiped up with a kitchen towel. I asked Nick about it, thinking he started to clean it up and got distracted. He didn't know anything about it. Turns out, little miss Addie had seen it and taken it upon herself to clean it up!
• Aidan is (finally) cutting a tooth. He's adding another bottom tooth to his 4 front teeth and one molar that is partially through.

Thanks Abbie!

A few weeks ago, I won a contest at Abbie's Hope and a Future blog for catching her 10,000th blog visit. Well, actually I caught hit 10,001 but it was close enough! She was kind enough to send me a Target giftcard! Awesome!

Wanna see what I got with it? (I also got some chocolate, but I ate it before I could take a picture!)

Abbie recently moved and doesn't yet have Internet access, so she hasn't been updating her blog as much as she usually does. That being said, you should still check it out. If you've had the unfortunate circumstances to be initiated into the miscarriage secret society, you'll especially appreciate her honesty as she shares her life post miscarriage #2.

Blame It on JK+8 and Way Late Memorial Day Post

I've been slacking in the blogging department lately. If you've missed hearing updates from me, blame it on Jon and Kate Plus 8. Seriously! Being the celebrity gossip hound that I am, I've been paying attention to all the media attention they've been getting recently and I've been thinking about where to draw the line when it comes to blogging about my kids. Now that Addie and Aidan are almost two, they're very much real people with personality traits both positive and negative. And while I want to share their daily adventures with you, I also want to respect them as little people and grant them some privacy as well. Moving forward, I'll still be blogging about Addie and Aidan, but I won't be sharing every aspect of their lives with you (not that I ever have) and I probably won't be posting as often.

With all that said, here are some pictures from Memorial Day weekend. It was the first (and only so far) time that we used the pool. Addie took to it more than Aidan, to no one's surprise. That girl loves to play with water!

The Real Water Table

See, we really did get them a real water table, and they love it! It's only been warm enough to play in swimsuits once so far, but it's supposed to be in the 80s a few days this week so we'll see.

Language at 22 Months

I haven't done a language update in awhile. This is mostly a post so I can remember who was doing what at 22 months, so I apologize if it's boring!

Aidan
I've been concerned with Aidan's language development since January or so. At his 18 month well baby visit to the pediatrician, I realized that he was definitely not communicating at the same level as an average 18 month old. I put that out of my mind for a few months, thinking I'd maybe get him evaluated when he turned two if I still thought he was behind. For some reason in late March I began to get more worried about his lack of communication. I tried to see how often he responded to his name (about 25% of the time), how often he'd follow a simple command with a gesture (never), how often he seemed to know what I was talking about (never). And then I began comparing that to his sister. And that's when I realized that Aidan gave me no indication that he understood what I was saying to him.

I decided to get him evaluated by Early Intervention to see if he had a speech delay and to see if he'd qualify for speech therapy. The evaluation showed he had a very significant receptive language delay (meaning that he doesn't understand what he hears) and a mild expressive language delay (meaning that he doesn't vocalize and/or speak as many words as he should). He also had a minor cognitive delay, too. The cognitive delay is probably caused by his receptive language delay because how can he really learn anything if he doesn't understand what he hears.

Aidan was diagnosed with a pretty bad double ear infection a week after the evaluation. After the ear infection cleared up, I noticed a huge improvement in his understanding of language and he actually added some new words, like bye-bye, to his very limited vocabulary. He also had an appointment with an ear, nose and throat doctor. At that appointment, I found out that he has fluid buildup behind his eardrums which is causing them not to work properly. At the end of this month, we'll determine if the fluid has cleared with medication or if he'll need tubes.

In the meantime, Aidan is going to start getting an hour of developmental therapy and an hour of speech therapy a week. Of course, as his ears clear up and his eardrums begin to work properly, he should improve greatly on his own. But since he does have a pretty significant delay already, we're going to move forward with the therapy too.

When we got him evaluated, his only words were: cat, dada and the sign "more." Since getting his ear infection treated, he's added the word "bye," the signs "ball" and "baby," and he shakes his head "no" in response to questions. He also will follow a simple command with a gesture, like "Aidan pull the bath plug. Give it to mommy" (spoken with my hand outstretched, palm open and up). He's also learned his first body part, his head, and he'll point to it when asked. He's definitely making progress.

Addie
Just in the last week or so, Miss Addie has really taken off with language. She now will mimic phrases we say. She copied Nick's exasperated "oh man!" perfectly the other day. She also will answer questions with a "yeah" now instead of the constant "no" she used before. She knows animals and many of their sounds (cow, cat, dog, chicken, bear, rabbit, pig). She calls Elmo "mo-mo." She can identify a square and loves to yell "square! square!" while pointing them out. She also loves the word "two" and when we count with her, everything is "two." We'll go "one," she'll go "two," then we say "three," and she says "two," then "four," then "two," etc. It's pretty funny!

She still says ball, book, eat, milk, juice, cheese, dada, ma, shoes, sock, teeth, feet, baby, and I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them! She also loves to ask "what's that" and "who's that." She's turning into a talker, for sure!

How Not to Make a Homemade Water Table

A few weeks ago, I got the idea that I could make a fun water table for the twins out of some household items. Basically, it's just a container to hold some water and some toys for the kids to use to play with the water. What's hard about that? I have tons of things that can hold water around the house.

I decided to use a rubbermaid-type storage bin to hold the water. As I carried it outside, I was thinking to myself how darn smart I was to think of this idea. I was feeling like a total crafty resourceful momma. I should have known this was going to end not as I had planned once I got that crafty momma feeling. The last time I had that feeling ended in disaster... I attempted to make homemade play-do that turned out hard and crumbly.

So out we go to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful weather. I filled the tub up a bit, then turned around to put the house away. As I turned back around, this is what I saw.

At that point, I figured what the heck, let him play in the water if that's what he wants to do. I took off his soaking wet shoes and let him go at it.

After awhile, they got thirsty and decided to have a drink. Again, I thought, what the heck. They're kids; let them have a little fun!

Addie tested the water out with her toes and decided it was too cold for her liking.

While it may not have turned out as I had planned, it was still a lot of fun! Don't worry though... I also got them a real water table that they are enjoying a lot!

Cute Addie Story

A few days ago, Nick called me to tell me he had to work late. I dread those phone calls because by the time dinner rolls around I am ready for adult conversation and help with the twins. I was so pleasantly surprised that day because the kids were playing together so nicely after dinner.

When Nick walked in the door, Addie stopped running around the play room, pointed at Nick and said, "Oh, it's da!" Then she resumed chasing Aidan. It was the cutest thing to see her stop, point and clearly say a sentence. She's growing up!