Lucy and Ellory- Sixteen Months. ~ A Day with the De Jongs

Lucy and Ellory are 16 months! What a fun age to watch them explore, learn, and move. They definitely keep us on our toes, but it's absolutely worth it. They are loving summer and being outside. They are both generally quite happy babies! (How long can I keep calling them babies? I want to keep it up for as long as I can.)

Stats/Doctor visits: No doctor visits this month. They both caught a fever/cold from Norah, but it wasn't too bad. They had a fever for two days, and then just a cough/runny nose for about a week.

Teeth: No teeth. Lucy has 16 teeth, so just waiting on two year molars for her, and Ellory has 12 teeth, so still waiting on her four canines anytime.

Feeding: These girls love to eat, especially Lucy! It's so funny to watch because most of the time they eat more than Norah does! We went to Pizza Ranch buffet they other day, and we joked that we made them rethink their “0-3 kids eat free” policy. Lucy ate three plates! Ellory is still more selective, but is a pretty good eater. She doesn't really like bananas, avocados, or meat, and has definitely decided she wants to eat by herself and doesn't like purees. She will eat applesauce and yogurt, but even fights that in the beginning until we shove a bite in and she remembers she likes it. She will eat (almost) any kind of pouch, but doesn't like to be spoon fed. Lucy eats everything and makes more of a mess when she's eating. They sit in their high chairs really well, which we love! Their favorite thing that they get quite excited about is crackers. Lucy also really loves muffins.

Diapers/Clothes: Wearing size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 at night. I just noticed that size 3 is starting to look a bit small. They switched to 18 month and 18-24 month clothes right after turning 15 months. Occasionally we have to roll up the pants, but overall it fits well.

Sleeping: Ah, how precious sleep is. Their first few rough months of sleep still make us so grateful for good sleepers now! As we mentioned last month, they are down to one nap now and we were working on moving bedtime/nap earlier bit by bit to get ready for Norah's preschool schedule in the fall. They go to sleep at 9 and they are so easy to go down! We sing and pray and lay them down and they usually don't make a peep. It's amazing. Ellory doesn't need as much sleep as Lucy, as she usually takes a bit longer to fall asleep and also wakes up a bit earlier, but lays in her crib content. They are up in the morning about 8:45-9, and take an afternoon nap from 1-3:30ish, occasionally waking a bit earlier and occasionally a bit later.

Words: Ellory can say many words- it's so fun to hear! She can say dada, mama, Norah, bath, bye bye, nye nye (night-night), baby, ball, love you, thank you, please, nose, mouth, eyes, shoes, sigh (outside), dog, more, cracker, bite (when she's biting her food), and maybe a few others I'm forgetting. She just started saying Lucy and it's so cute! Lucy isn't saying many intelligible words, but her language exploded this month too in that she's trying and “talks” a lot! She's always making noises and pointing at something; you can tell she's really trying to say things. She doesn't like to try to say words if we are intentionally trying to work with her- she'll just stare back at you- but babbles a lot on her own will. Her two favorite words are dada and cracker! You can tell they are understanding so much even if they can't speak it.

Developments: There aren't many new developments this month. Lucy's climbing is always reaching new heights- we always call her our monkey. She's always moving and on the go! She loves to climb on anything and everything. She also thinks she can go down the stairs frontwards now, but we are still making her go backwards on her tummy. Ellory is more reserved and tentative. I don't think she's ever climbed anything! She gets scared trying to climb the stairs, so she always just waits for us to carry her down or waits at the door for us to put her in the car or stroller. If we set her on the play table chairs, she will wait until we help her down, even though it's not that far and she could do it. They are both really picking up on routines and where things go, like they'll go to the door if we say we're going outside, they know what new diaper means, they will sit down by the door to get their shoes on, etc. The other day Lucy found a chip clip on the floor and just walked over to the drawer in the kitchen, opened it and put it back in where it goes, closed it, and walked away! They are picking up on so much! Ellory is showing very beginning signs of potty training (though that's far off still), of going away from people to poop and sometimes she'll point to her diaper and say poop if we asked her if she pooped. This is a fluke, but twice when she was a bit constipated I sat her on the toilet and the squatting helped her push it out! She's sat on it a few other times too just because she was interested to, but didn't actually go.

Favorites: Lucy really took a liking to puzzles this month. I got some of our easier ones out that I had put away from Norah and she loves them, still working on the matching, but loves to explore the pieces and practice. Ellory loves stuffed animals and is holding one often, and she loves to walk around with blankets or dish towels and wrap them up in it or cover herself with it and play peekaboo. Ellory likes to play intentional games more, like pat-a-cake or have close, interactive conversations, while Lucy's on the move more (not that they don't do both, but just in general). They both love to find different body parts, especially belly buttons, and be chased! They love going outside, swinging at the park or backyard (Lucy especially), going for walks, and playing in the sand box and water table. They both love taking baths and playing in the water, though they don't love the pool outside as much.

We love you, Lucy and Ellory! I was so scared to be a twin mom, but now I'm so very thankful for it. It's so fun to see two personalities and have twice the love!