Almost Two!

When we celebrated Jaden & Cody's 23-month milestone, we realized that we had reached an important benchmark. No longer do we refer to the boys' ages in months... now, they are simply "almost two!" From here on out, they'll just be 2, or 2 and a half, or 3, or before we know it, 18 and graduating. Yikes! How quickly the time is passing with our little ones!

Jaden and Cody only went through a short stage in which
they enjoyed wearing these new hats. Good thing we
captured some pics during this time!

Jaden, Cody-- 23 months and... er... lovin' it??

Jaden, Cody-- taking a quick breather from their wrestling match

The most exciting part of this month has been hearing Cody and Jaden's vocabulary finally start to pick up. At the start of the month, they would point at objects and exclaim, "dat!" for everything. Or, if they were particularly excited, or if Mommy and Daddy don't respond right away, their remarks speedily become "dat-a-dat-a-dat-dat!" The boys won't stop until we give them the word for the particular object of interest.

During the latter half of the month, more and more actual words started forming. Some of their recent favorite words include door, bark (which they eagerly exclaim upon seeing or hearing a dog), green (grrrr), help, blue, no, Jaden (jay-jay), baby (which they will say whenever they hear a child of any age crying), and opposites (oppa) from one of their books. They enjoy imitating the sounds that Mommy and Daddy make. They're trying SO hard to communicate!

The boys have also been making fun language connections lately-- squinting their eyes and pointing at the window when we read about the sun or pointing at their chest when we talk about buttons. Their favorite connections are enthusiastically pointing at our front window when we read about a school bus or a garbage truck since that's where we frequently spot these vehicles.

Their playtime favorites include building book piles on the couch or the floor, flipping our light switches (yes, which they can reach independently now!), going on walks with their mowers to see our neighbor's stone lion.statues, putting stickers on paper, and playing with play-dough. Mommy was excited that the colors on this homemade play-dough turned out so vibrantly! The boys love poking at the play-dough and commenting on the various colors.

Cody and Jaden are also very eager to help in the kitchen. They will drag chairs over to the counter to watch and help whenever Mommy is cooking. Here, the boys help pour ingredients into our cookie dough recipe.

Here are some other fun facts about Jaden and Cody during Month 23:

• They are big helpers for hand washing before meals & love getting out and putting away their stool.
• Oddly, both boys laugh and point whenever they see a picture of a child crying in a book. We're hoping this is only because they enjoy seeing the child's teeth!
• Both boys have developed an aversion to Mommy's camera and will often shake their head and whine whenever she attempts to get a picture.
• They "tell" us when their diaper is dirty by yanking on their pants.
• Devotion time during snacks is a favorite time of day! The boys LOVE doing the actions with Mommy and will often cry when she puts away the devotion book.
• The boys love feeding each other pieces of dry cereal in the morning or giving one another drinks out of their sippy cups.

Lately, we've been encouraging the boys to do specific actions with one another-- hugging, high-fiving, or fist pounding, as seen in the picture here. These interactions always make our boys laugh and laugh!

In fact, the best way to describe the boys' goofy twin behavior is just to let you see it. The following two videos contain various directions and twin-lovin'. Please excuse Mommy's random commentaries. :)

Cody and Jaden have always enjoyed stepping into Daddy's shoes. Just recently, the boys have been successful in walking around the house in his shoes. Seeing them walk around like these reminds me of just how small they are! They've got a ways to go before filling Daddy's shoes! 

CODY

This last picture of Cody isn't the best expression, but it captures a common sight-- seeing our little man snuggle up with his favorite doggie. This stuffed animal is a must-have for naptimes and for transitions after naps.

Cody has made us giggle lately because he's taught himself to toot. Most often immediately following baths, he'll push hard and then laugh hysterically at himself when getting out even the smallest sound. Cody has also become our little snuggler lately. Surrounding naptimes and often during church, too, Cody will cozy right in against Mommy or Daddy's chest and stay there for quite a while. Daddy and Mommy love this precious time with our loving Cody-boy!

JADEN

Our Jaden-man's activity of the month is stacking books. He will throw BIG fits if these book piles are knocked down or if Cody attempts to take a book from his stack. Our little particular boy is still very concerned with details. One day when attempting to put him down for a nap, Jaden cried and cried until Mommy realized that she had put Jaden's favorite sheets on Cody's mattress. As soon as the mattresses were switched, Jaden's tears stopped instantly, and he calmed right down for his nap!

Jaden's fun accomplishment of the month is that he learned to jump-- yes, actually an off-the-ground jump! His favorite place to practice his jumping is on this quilt from my Aunt Jeanene and cousin Marcie. This video isn't the best at showing Jaden's jumping skills, but it sure is a funny one to watch both boys' attempts! (Jaden is in the blue shirt in the video.)

Our almost-two-year-olds sure bring adventure, laughter, craziness, and joy to our lives. We love you, little misters!