17 Months and then some

Noah and Micah are now 17 months and 6 days, and I decided it was time to hunker down and give an update on them. As mentioned in the post with October photos, the boys hit some rocky patches in October with a nasty cold taking ahold of each of them. It was also unfortunate that the brunt of their sickness coincided with Monica's vacation week, so I had to juggle both sick boys for most of that week. It was maybe a combination of illness and molars coming up such that we also had a couple of night wakings, which we haven't dealt with in a loooong time. Like all things less than ideal, we survived and it seems like a distant memory (though early on Sunday morning, Micah woke up in the night, as if he knew DST ending was the right time to cause some trouble).

Once the boys were healthy again, everything about them seemed cuter, happier, and more fun. Their vocabulary has been rapidly expanding, including "cat-ty", "choo-choo" for train, "cracker", "bye bye", "thank you" occasionally, "toes" (while pointing out toes), "shoes", and more I'm forgetting probably. They're putting things together and understanding what we tell me better. For example, we'll tell them to bring over their shoes, and they'll go retrieve them, and then climb into our laps and stick out their feet. They love eating "nanas" (bananas), and also pointing out "baby"s in books, mirrors, videos, and at each other. The boys LOVE watching videos of themselves laughing or talking. In fact, playing videos is becoming a key distraction when trying to reset them from boredom/crankiness and we're not outside playing. Pretty much works every time!

They're starting to play with each other more, and we get cute videos from Monica of them running around together the house or park. Going along with playing together, is "fighting"...which usually means one brother stealing a toy or book from the other, and then a form of retaliation, like a shove or biting (Noah bites, Micah doesn't). We're trying to be sterner in disciplining them when this happens, but it's hard to get the message across sometimes. I think we'll just do the best we can to discourage bad behavior and hope Noah stops with the biting attempts soon. It seems like he only does this with Micah, so at least that's good for keeping the boys welcome at the parks! Still, poor Micah!

Micah and Noah are getting stronger every day, and this makes diaper changes and getting into car seats very challenging when the boys do not want to cooperate. Micah actually picked up a five pound weight with his right hand and carried it a few steps one-handedly the other day! The boys are getting faster and faster at walking, and sometimes get up to a run. They love walking in crunchy fallen leaves, and picking up sticks. One of their favorite activities is pushing their cars all around the driveway, yard, and sidewalk. I'm wondering what parents of young children do all winter when it's too cold to go outside. I'm thinking about joining the local Gymboree for classes and open gym in the winter, or maybe the Davidson Playhouse, which is walkable.

Well, that's about it for this monthly update. Thanks for reading!