Daytons Day-to-Day: Leveling Off

The twins are thirteen months old today! The last month has been full of so many laughs and having two is really starting to get fun. Everyone seems to be dealing with the fact that this is life - like it or not - and trying to make the best of it. We have at least as many good times as bad, which was not always the case in the past. I think it probably has a lot to do with our ability to laugh at situations, though. The fact that there are two of them working against two of us seems to not be a fact at all. It seems that there are four of them working against two of us - plus Adam, so like six, really. This month the focus seems to be on walking. The race is on to see who can do it first. They are both standing without any help and seem to have contests to see who can stand the longest. Audie seems to be ahead in the balance department, but I think Anaya has an edge in her willingness to try. She's the daredevil of the two, so I think she's more likely to give it a shot. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Another thing that has increased dramatically this month - fighting. People think, "With two, you have built-in playmates, that must be great!" Yeah...half the time. The other half, we have built-in "I'm tired of this same ole' playmate" fights. In the past, it's been Audie who is more guilty of picking on Anaya than the reverse - and he still does his share of button-pushing. However, Anaya now takes the cake for being the Picking-on Queen. Poor Audie gets poked, prodded, and pinched constantly. Ears, eyes, hair, nose, you name it - if it sticks out, it's fair game. And his pacifier doesn't stand a chance - she steals it first chance she gets, even if she already has hers. All the while, looking at me, grinning, as if she's unaware of what her hands are doing. "Who me?" While we're on the subject of Anaya - It is really becoming obvious that God broke the mold on this one. She is truly one-in-a-million. She loves to dance and talk. She said her first word this month - "Adam." She can sign that she's "all done" and wave bye-bye and clap and tell us how big she is. Her sweet smile is her biggest weapon and that one top tooth poking down only adds to the ammunition. She's precious, right down to her little toe, and getting a snuggle out of her is a little piece of heaven. She's easy on the eyes, for sure. But...She kicks and screams when you try to change her or dress her or fix her hair, or get too close or walk away, or tell her "no"...or just whenever she feels like it. She finishes every meal covered in it, but is my best eater - my little Miss Piggy. She splashes every last drop of water out of the tub. She looks me in the eye while she knowingly disobeys. She is high-maintenance, demanding and unwavering in her desires. She is such a mess, it's scary. And to think, one day she'll drive. Oh, good Lord.

Then, there's Audie. Audie has these giant, dark-as-the-night puppy dog eyes that never let you believe he's guilty of anything. He's got mad-fast crawling skills and is, without a doubt, the more playful of the two. BREAKING NEWS!! THIS JUST IN: HE JUST TOOK TWO STEPS!! Does it feel like you were there?? Seriously!! Just happened!! Back to the regularly scheduled program... He's sweet and cuddly almost always, but the boy isn't afraid to get his fit on either. He'll definitely let you know when he's not happy. He's generally a pretty good sport about his sister needing so much attention, which is quite gentlemanly of him. He also said his first word recently - "ball." As far as he's concerned, everything is a ball right now. He loves playing and wrestling with Adam and Daddy and can't wait to be able to keep up with them. I think he really looks up to Adam and admires him so much. Just yesterday, Adam was reading Audie a book about animals and was pointing and naming all the animals. When Adam left, Audie grabbed the book and started imitating what Adam was doing. Now if we could only instill that whole "lead by example" thing in Adam, we'd be golden. To contrast Audie's playfulness, he's also pensive and analytical and extremely curious about everything from the toilet to the surround sound system. He loves to have fun and laugh and joke. He loves life - except when life hands him five teeth at once. He doesn't eat as much as Anaya does, but he eats more than Adam so I think we're still doing alright. He really takes after Adam in the sense that he's our little sweetheart and is such a ham, and that is a good thing.

Here is a mini-scrapbook from this month: