The Ringley Family Circus: A Progress Report

I feel like I haven't had time to sit down and write a regular update about the babies' progress in a while. Things have been a little crazy around here, and by the time the babies are in bed my brain is too tired to blog. They are changing so much and learning every day, so I need to write down a few things so I won't forget. I also have some pictures I took yesterday morning to share later in the post.

General: We continue to learn about shapes, colors, opposites, animals, animal sounds, puzzles, numbers, counting, and letters. We are also attempting to learn when something is yucky or dirty and they shouldn't touch it or try to eat it (i.e. trash cans, diaper pails, dog/cat food, etc). We've been working on incorporating please and thank you into our daily interactions as well. Here are a few things they've learned recently:

Vocabulary---It seems like the babies are learning a new word or two every day now. Here are a few they have picked up recently:

Up and Down
Yummy (sounds like umm eeee)
Yes (sounds like yessssssssssss)
Book
Umbrella (sounds like ummmm ellla)
Oval
Apple

Sounds---Here are a few of the sounds they know:

A cow says Moo
A sheep says Baa
A horse says Neigh
A dog says Woof Woof
A car says Beep Beep

Potty: We have introduced the potty and each child has their own potty. We talk positively about the potty and we have this book Chloe loves to read about going to the potty. She gets really excited at the end when the baby goes to the potty because I make a big deal out of it, LOL. We ask each child if they want to sit on the potty each night after bath time. Chloe is interested in the potty and does sit on it, Brady is not interested at all yet. They aren't ready and we aren't ready to start full fledged potty training. Right now we are at the stage of letting them know what the potty is and helping them to get more comfortable with it.

Really fun stuff: The kids are so sweet and generous with hugs and kisses now. They spontaneously give each other a hug at least once a day. They give their grandparents kisses by licking the iPad screen on Skype. At bedtime we stand at their doorways (side by side) and they give each parent a kiss and then give each other a kiss goodnight. They love music, particularly 80s music, and enjoy having 80s dance parties in the afternoons. They can now "ask" for something they want, sometimes pretty specifically. Brady brought me Little Blue Truck to read the other day and said "Beep Beep" to get me to read it to him. Chloe brought me Yummy Yucky to read and said "Umm Eeeee" (Yummy). They really understand and know a lot of things, even if they can't say the word, they do know what the object is since they can correctly point to many objects, shapes, and animals in a book or in real life if I ask them too. Their smiles and laughs are the highlights of my day. They are great babies and I am so proud of them all the time.

Challenges: Trying to get clothes on or off either child. They are absolutely too busy to sit still long enough to be bothered with putting on or taking off clothes. Forget trying to brush hair or put Chloe's hair up. Climbing and jumping on the couch. This is a big one, they scare me to death. I am constantly saying "Be careful!" or "Bottoms Down!" but Chloe just looks at me, stands up on the couch and says "Up". Opinions about food. Brady is the main offender on this one. If he doesn't like what we put on his tray he takes his arm in one sweeping motion and just knocks it all on the floor. Ah, life with toddlers. :-)

Drinking: This one is a little random, but after trying nearly every sippy cup ever made we still never found one that the kids loved to drink from. We found one that suited our needs in that the kids tolerated it and it almost never spilled, but that was about it. Last weekend when we were out to dinner, we decided to try giving the kids the little cup with the lid and straw that comes with most kids meals. To our delighted surprise they were really good with the cups and drank a ton of milk from them! We bought similar cups and have been using them at home with a lot of success. The kids are drinking more milk, so we are happy! Chad even found a Cars set of cups for Brady, and he just loves them!

Whew! No wonder I haven't had time to write that all down! If you made it this far, here are a few pictures from yesterday morning for you: