Luci and Nicholas have spent the last four weeks perfecting the use of the words "Mine!" and "No!". We have hourly Pay-Per-View-worthy fights over plastic baby spoons, knock-off Matchbox cars found at the bottom of Cheerios boxes, and occasionally, the odd clump of cat hair. You name it, these two will fight eachother to the death for it.
Luci has made great verbal gains in the past month. She's now rocking the two-and-three word phrases her brother has been using for the past several months. Her favorites include, "Mommy? Are you?" (Where are you?), and "Here you go, Mommy!" (while handing me whatever treasure she happens to have in her hands.
Much like her big-sister, Luci loves to color. Also like her big sister, she seems to be left-handed, although I think it may be a few years yet before we can definitively say this.
She will not tolerate anything in her hair for long, a stage I remember loathing in Isabella, as both my daughters have thin, wispy hair in desperate need of a barrette to keep it out of their faces. I believe this hairband lasted 30 seconds in her hair before she yanked it out.
My tiniest terror still has a Sybil-like personality, and can turn on a dime from sweet, playful toddler into screeching, apoplectic harpie. I am convinced that someday she will win an award for her performances. I have my hopes set on pocketing the boatload of cash she will undoubtedly rake in for her film-worthy dramatics. And yes, I feel I am owed every dime she will make.
Her two top teeth are finally coming in. Once they are fully in (and they just broke the gum line about a week ago), this will bring her total number of teeth to four. I am convinced this has to be some sort of record.
Nicholas has finally learned to kiss correctly, after months of simply pressing two pursed lips to cheek in an imitation kiss. With this new-found skill, he is our kissing bandit of the month, surpassing Luci who has held this title for quite some time. Of course, his kiss approaches cannot be trusted, as any minute he may choose to curl back his lips and sink his razor-sharp teeth into your skin instead. Dude likes to bite. Mommy is decidedly not a fan.
I'm convinced this is what Tony Soprano looked like as a toddler.
He knows when to turn on the charm, though, as Nicholas fancies himself the mayor of my health club's daycare, or so I'm told. He greets all the kids when they arrive with individual shouts of "Hi!" and as soon as he sees his favorite staff member, he shouts her name as if he hasn't seen her in a year: "Keyeeeee!" (Kelly).
Nicholas can count to 10, and knows a lot of his letters if you sing the "Alphabet Song." For example, if I say, "A, B, C, D..." he'll say "E!".
He goes down for his naps and at bedtime so incredibly easily. I will rock him for mere minutes in the chair in his room. Then he lifts his head, points to his crib, and says, "Crib!" I put him in there, and that's it. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes.
Both babies like books, although Nicholas is heavily into the book-ripping stage. His current favorites are Isabella's collection of Clifford tales. The jury is still out on whether he'll inherit her Bleakman love.
This pair is still very, very high-needs. My house is still in chaos mode, and we're still a traveling circus everywhere we go. But they're almost two. Which means in another year or so, I know things will be better. And if I've lasted this long, what's another 18 months, right?
So is Nicholas really that much bigger than Luci? It looks like he's a lot bigger.
I promise, eventually, it will get easier. Pinky swear.
If it makes you feel any better, from my perspective, they sound adorable.
I was looking at my own "just turned 2 a couple of months ago" toddler last night and thinking to myself, "Wow. This really is a cute age." the vocab really starting to develop now, and every time he pulls out a full sentence it's like he's reinvented the wheel. So so cute. I can hardly believe that yours are so grown up already.
When you said that part about putting him to bed - I couldn't help but think - hey, that's already a bit easier isn't it? - oh and you forgot to say what clothing sizes they're in, I was actually *waiting* for it, because I wanted to send them something again - let me know about Isabella too, don't want her to feel left out :)
That's so great that Nicholas is going to sleep so well, and that he's a good eater! They're both so cute. I hope it gets easier for you.
I do love your little hellcats. They are all kinds of adorable. It seems to me as well that things are slowly but surely improving with them! Thanks for sharing ... enjoyable as always.