Let's start with Nathan. Well, Nathan started walking a week after his first birthday, and there was no turning back! He is a very proficient little walker now and LOVES to walk away when you ask him to come (laughing the whole time). The game of trying to escape on those little legs is just his favorite. Since he has more control now, he can walk up close to you and then turn really fast to move away - and, oh the delight on his face! He still crawls probably 10% of the time, mostly if he just fell walking and there is nothing immediate to pull up on.
My little baby Nathan is now having a much stronger personality! He WAS so mellow and easy going, but the last couple of weeks has shown a big shift in temperment. He has started to get really frustrated with things and throws mini-tantrums. If he can't get a shape into the shape sorter, for example, he gets MAD and takes his hand to push the toy away. He never used to do that, so the toddler personality is hitting full force. :) When I try to make him walk or pick him up when he doesn't want it, he will arch his back, throw his head back, make his body limp and fall to the ground. Great, huh? So mommy has been absorbing herself in toddler raising books to find some best practices on how to deal with these new issues. I have to admit, it's been a sudden transition that I wasn't quite prepared to deal with. Things just got harder!
Nathan is such a loving little guy (when he's not mad of course)! He adores his stuffed animals. For Christmas he and Kenna got a large stuffed monkey and bear. Nathan gets so excited to carry them around and then hugs them all the time. He sleeps every night with his little turtle that he loves. When we check on them later in the night, he's always on his stomach with his arm to the side wrapped around Tortue (the turtle). It's heart melting. Especially because he gets a HUGE smile anytime he goes to hug one of his animals. He's so funny about hugging mommy and daddy...he comes up to us frequently, gives a big hug, then quickly turns around to go play. I'm not sure if that's more for us or for him. :)
Nathan caught on to Kenna's main word, "chat" (French for cat), and he now says it too. Not only for the cats but for everything! lol He points at what he wants and says CHAT! He says mama a lot too. Other than that though, we don't have a lot of words going on for either of the little ones right now. I've been a little surprised because I am very diligent about how I talk to them, with consistent use of the same basic words, labeling objects, simple sentence structures, etc. I thought they would get talking more quickly, but not so much. They both understand WAY more than I would expect though. Some of my favorites:
I can ask, "how old are you?" and they each hold up one finger. :)
"Where is your head/tummy/nose/foot" - they will point to the right body part.
"Push (whatever)" - they push!
"Give me (whatever) please" - they hand it to me
"Come here please" - they come (usually!)
"Do you want more?" - they make the more sign with their hands
"Do a somersault" - they put their heads down on the floor so I can flip them over
"Give (someone/something) a hug - they do!
It's so exciting to see how they understand things now. It's the good reward for dealing with all the new tempermental things. :)
As for Kenna, she is my little love bug. She is SO affectionate. She just gets the biggest smile and falls into your arms for hugs and kisses. When I hold her I can say, "give me a Kenna kiss!" and she pushes her lips up against my face for a few seconds. It's SO sweet! I love Kenna kisses! Perhaps the sweetest thing of all is how much she loves her brother. She wants to hug him all the time and he just doesn't get it. lol She comes up next to him, smiles hugely, puts her arms around him and her head on his shoulder. It's heart melting. Nathan, well, he keeps playing with whatever he's playing with! Sometimes he looks at me so bewildered and it cracks me up. ONE TIME, and one time only, she faced him and put her arms around him, and he smiled and put his arms around her. This was last week. I immediately teared up, it was too precious.
Kenna has 3 of her 4 molars coming through already! Nathan doesn't have any. They don't seem to bother her, which is a good thing. With all the teeth I finally got them into a brushing teeth routine. It's pretty funny because they LOVE the taste of the toothpaste and get excited when they see it's time. Nathan through a fit the other day because Kenna "got to" brush her teeth first. I can only hope this lasts for a few more years! :)
Kenna started walking at 12 months and 3 weeks. Even though it took her a couple of weeks after Nathan she is just as proficient at this point. She will still crawl once in a while, like Nathan, but both of them are predominant walkers now. They are getting much too heavy to carry all the time so I'm encouraging them walking everywhere. When it's time to go to their room, I have them climb the stairs and then hold my hand to walk to their room. If they didn't hold my hand, they would be all over the place, and it's good practice for them to get used to that for other situations.
Both babies can feed themselves with a fork, if I get the food on it for them first. I hadn't tried this at all since the pediatrician had said that usually comes around 18 months but the other day I just handed them each a fork with ravioli on it and they both automatically put it right in their mouths! So I'm working with them now on regular fork feeding. (Until now they used their hands for everything.)
Kenna doesn't really throw tantrums of frustration like Nathan but she has "sensitivity meltdowns". She gets serious stranger anxiety if I'm not next to her. She was in our playroom the other day and I was out of sight in the kitchen. Our cleaning person walked out the front door by her and she practically had a panic attack because she didn't know him. She was HYSTERICAL. I was reading in a book the other day about certain things that are common for shy children and Kenna meets all of them. She always waves at strangers AFTER they turn around and I never understood why. Apparently that is a tell-tale sign of shy kids. I have to be honest that I'm not thrilled about her being shy, as I think it makes for a much more difficult life when she gets older, but I will help her as much as possible to gain confidence and trust.
Here are a couple of recent pics (I know Christmas was a while ago, but I love this pic of Kenna!).
