Summary of the last 2 months: THE BOYS

It is amazing to see how quickly Thomas and Luke are developing - they are learning new things every day. I am loving watching their growth.

Luke is walking and crawling less and less. He is still a little unsteady and holds his arms out in front of him (so he looks a bit like a zombie) in order to balance. But each day he get better and walks more than he did the day before. Thomas has no real interest in walking but is able to stand without holding onto anything. So, that is progress! He'll get there eventually.

They are saying lots of words now, although rarely on demand. They say: good, what, yes, hi, that, this, Jesus, amen, mama, dada, cat, water, trash, please, nap, eyes, and so on. Luke says "amen" at the end of most prayers and they both recognize Jesus in pictures and will say "Jesusssss." Sometimes it sounds like "Judas" when Thomas says it and Thomas did go through a stage where the duck, his food, and everything was "Jesus." Luke will often babble away in his nonsense language and when Rob or I say "Really?" he says "Yesssss!" and nods his head. It is really cute.

They both love to hug and kiss and try to hug and kiss me all the time. I get endless amounts of affection from these two little boys.

Thomas loves to sing and both boys love to dance. Most evenings Rob will play music for them and the three of them will dance for a long time. The boys really love it.

At the moment I am trying to teach them body parts. Thomas hasn't been too interested. He just wants to throw and catch a ball. Luke's favorite body part is the belly button. He loves it when I ask him where his is - he will then lift his t-shirt and point to it. He is also constantly trying to lift my t-shirt and point to mine. The other day his shirt was tucked in and so when I asked him where his belly button is and he realized he couldn't reach it, he pointed at his big toe. Yesterday when I asked him where his ears are, he pointed to his eyes and then said "eyes" as he pointed to his ears. Today he pointed to his eyes whenever I asked where any body part was: nose, ears, mouth, hair, etc.

A while back I taught Luke how to blow a whistle (Thomas didn't quite get it) and he thinks it is so much fun. Rob is now trying to teach them how to play a harmonica - a little more advanced, but they enjoy trying. In terms of musical instruments, they both love the guitar best.

The boys love to help me clean

Thomas loves to help pack things away - books, clothing, anything which may be lying on the ground (which they put there earlier while playing). Thomas will hand the item to me and I will then pack it away. Recently, I was just hanging their clothes up and Thomas came over so quickly saying "wa! wa!" as if to say "wait! wait!" He then started handing me one item of clothing at a time so I could hang it up. He would get excited and let out a little scream when I hung up the item he gave me. We hung up about 15 items that way! He even picked up some of the clothes that had fallen off the chair onto the floor. He put them on the chair first and then handed them to me, as if they had to be on the chair first before being hung up!