19 Months Update

So here we are at 19 months already. River and Riley are still moving along developmentally at their adjusted age, which is now 16 months. They are getting more fun and more challenging with each passing month. They've gone from taking a few steps to practically running! They spend their days exploring the house and would much rather play with household items than their toys. One of their favorite things to do is stand on their Learning Tower and help Mommy prep food. (I'll be doing a separate post on that!). So I spend a lot of time with them working on practical life skills (putting on sunglasses, washing toys, prepping good, cleaning etc). And they just love doing activities like that. Especially Riley. She wants to do everything the adults do, particularly Mommy.

      Washing their animal figurines 

     Making pumpkin muffins in a mug         

This month has brought a language boom for the dynamic duo. For River it has been with understand and Riley it has been with signing and speaking. Riv is a bit behind his sister in the language department, but we're not too worried about it. (We all know women talk more anyway! LOL). He says Mama, Dada, Baba all the time. He knows G and I are Dada and Mama but he also uses it for different reasons- such as Mama when he wants something in general  and Dada when he points to objects and wants to know what it is. We have noticed he calls his cup and blanket baba, which I recently connected the dots that both items start with a B (Blanket and his <water>Bottle). So that's a step in the right direction! They are both still signing "more" "eat" "all done" and Riley also still signs "help" and "please" but has also added "potty" "book" "hat" and "bird." When it comes to speaking this girl is amazing us with new words all the time! She's up to about 25 words! Mind you, she's not making sentences or anything, but she can repeat the words we say and is JUST now starting to point to things and say things on her own. The words she added to her vocabulary this month are: water (wawa), hello, hi, owl, kick, cow, yes, potty, bow & okay. She also babbles and talks with her hands (hmmm that sounds a lot like Mommy ha!). So needless to say, we are pretty impressed with her. They both are understanding SO much though. We've always talked to them in complete sentences and explain everything we do around the house and apparently it's paying off! They totally surprised me recently when I asked them to throw something away in the garbage and they each individually walked over to the laundry room, lifted the garbage can lid and threw it out! They really do pay attention! 

Ever since being in swimming lessons the twins have been SO comfortable with the water. They LOVE going to the pool and swimming underwater between us. So we try to make it a point to go to the pool, or some other water activity, at least once each weekend. Some close friends of ours were visiting from Tallahassee this month and we got to visit with them at their hotel pool! It was a wade-in pool so the kids could just walk right in. Funny thing was, they would have kept right on going if we didn't stop them! They were so comfortable being in the water, they walked all the way in until the water was up to their necks! Such a brave little pair. :-)

This month we had a visit from their Aunt Kim (G's sister). She spent a long weekend with us and got to have some quality time with the twins. It was great seeing her and she was a huge help with keeping the twins occupied!

Other than that, not much else to report. Riley is still a book worm (although River really loves books as well!). You can frequently find her in the playroom surrounded by as many books as she can possibly pull down!

They love climbing into laundry baskets

Eating watermelon in their Adirondack chairs

Eating corn on the cob for the first time

Munching on some peppers & hummus

Someone stole Mommy's sun hat!

Besties <3

Click here to see River & Riley's 19 month montage video.