Pretend play. The boys like to cook at their kitchen, preparing and serving dishes such as eggs and toast to guests. Beckett seems to get the concept of pretend play a little more readily so far than Theo. Beck especially likes to put his baby doll to bed in his bed. I haven't had the heart yet to tell him that the best way to tuck in a baby is NOT to ball the thick blanket together and stuff it around the baby's head. He tells the baby, "no more talkin!" and says "I'll be right outside." Beck also pretends he's a firefighter and uses the various spray devices on his fire trucks to put out the fire.
Playing together. The boys have a few games now that they play together. One will ask the other if he would like to play such-and-such game. Most of these I do not understand. There's one that they call something like "Get out my hugs" that involves wrestling and rolling around on Mama and Daddy's bed, with lots of laughing. They do it before bedtime before we read books in, but sometimes they will also try to get the other to go upstairs during the day. I'm pretty sure it is not actually "hugs" because when questioned they will say "HOGS, not HUGS" but we are clueless as to what it might mean. They also like to chase each other on foot or in their cars around the house, taking turns being the chaser and chased.
Eating. Theo continues to be a more adventurous eater, asking to try anything he hasn't tried before. He likes red pepper, edamame, roasted cauliflower, broccoli, and pretty much any fruit. We don't eat a lot of meat with the boys but they liked the parmesan crusted chicken we made a few weeks ago, plus they like rolling up turkey taco meat in tortillas. And turkey pepperoni in quesadillas.We have simplified our lives by not doing snacks, which means they are hungrier and more eager to stay at the table with us at meal times.
Potty training. Both boys are doing really well, with very few actual accidents (rather than just a few drops here and there)--maybe one or two in the last month. Beck doesn't wear a diaper for nap and hasn't for a couple months, and has had only one accident (when he was sick), which is pretty amazing actually because he drinks a huge quantity of water at meals and all the time, so he pees quite frequently when not sleeping. Both still wear diapers at night and Beck sometimes asks, after he's been tucked in, "I can pee in my diaper?" He's definitely aware of when he needs to go and can hold it more reliably than Theo. Though last weekend when we traveled to Rochester Theo announced about 35 minutes from home that he had to pee (and neither were wearing diapers). There wasn't a great place to stop so we asked him to hold it, and he did. I was impressed.
Sleeping. Every night and nap seems different, with no rhyme or reason for the drastic differences. We have moved up bedtime to 7:30 and naptime to 12/12:30 whenever possible, which seems to have made a difference. Naptime has become much more relaxed lately, and most days the boys go down for naps in the same room with little or no nonsense first. I decided that letting them play again after meals lets them ramp up their energy again, so now we have one or two minutes of play after meals and then straight upstairs for getting ready for sleeping. Once or twice a week we separate them for naps in different rooms so they don't keep each other up with their crazy antics. Nighttime often is a matter of reading, singing and then kissing goodnight, and other times it's an hour or two of getting up, goofing off, and closing the door or separating them. It's hard to connect anything to the good or bad times. Even days when they've gotten lots of exercise and eaten well and everything goes according to schedule, it's sometimes a disaster. And some days when we've lazed around the house and they have been ornery, they go to sleep just fine. It's mostly a mystery. But it's definitely better than it was two months ago, and a heck of a lot better than it was four months ago. I'll take it!
Schedule: I'm working three days a week now, so they're usually with Mindy Monday and Wednesday and with Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu Thursday. Mindy sometimes takes them to the gym at her kids' school to run their cars around and generally get the wiggles out. Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu take them to music class at the library, the zoo, and the bounce house in Camillus, CJ's House of Bounce. When I'm home with them we usually try to get out of the house in either the morning or the afternoon, taking trips to the Museum of Science and Technology (MOST) here in Armory Square, or the "tree slide" play area at Great Northern Mall, or the bounce house at Drivers' Village. We also just joined a playgroup at a church gym in Camillus that meets most Friday mornings. They have some limited toys and books but honestly I was underwhelmed by the toy options. The next time we go we'll crank it up a bit and BYO trikes and lawn mowers. There's also the zoo, about five minutes away, which has a pretty good indoor part for really cold days, and the animals outside have been quite active when we've been there in colder weather. In the summer they just lay around. Sometimes we hit up the Onondaga Free library, just five minutes up the hill, because they have story hours and play groups and music classes most days of the week, plus lots of diggers and other cool toys. The boys like picking out books to bring home. The boys are also expert shoppers and do well when we go to Wegmans or BJ's.
Talking. It's amazing that a year ago I was (mildly) worried about Theo's speech. Both he and Beckett are talking up a storm, to each other, to us, and to friends and family. They sing several songs, often spontaneously, and have lots of phrases they regularly use that crack us up. There was a spontaneous discussion among Beck and Theo this afternoon about who had the bigger butt, culminating in a comparison of butt size among many of our family and neighbors (I'll politely keep the results of said discussion to myself). Beckett often says please and thank you spontaneously, and apologizes profusely and often even when something is not his fault (e.g. Theo will run right into him and Beckett will apologize). Both like to narrate what is going on and confirm our future plans. They do lots of verbal negotiating all by themselves, working out who will go first and what the game will entail. There is still throwing toys at each other, pushing, and screaming/crying, but there are also lots of exchanges that go more like this: "I not ready yet." "Okay, sorry." "I ready now!" "Okay!"
Capacity for trouble: Theo regularly says to me "You not come in here now, Mommy" or "You stay in there," when he is getting into trouble and would like not to be called away from the trouble. Beckett will report back to me when Theo is getting trouble. I will rue the day when Theo learns to co-opt Beck into his trouble-making; then we'll really be in deep doo-doo. For now Beckett is rarely the one doing the naughty activity. Beckett is often happy to do the same thing, whether it is playing with trains, or driving his cars over the furniture, or reading books, for a much longer time than Theo. Theo has a shorter attention span and more quickly looks for something novel to capture his attention.
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