Two and a bit more

Gosh, this age is getting more fun by the month - and I think a lot of it is what parents normally go through when their bubs is around 18 months on, but I'm guessing we're a bit delayed due to the slow start with speech. Tajy continues to come out with new sounds and comes out with a few words (which he says for a day and then won't repeat), and has mastered those few very frustrated noises when he can't do what he's trying to and we haven't cottoned on quickly enough. Luckily the frustration is being demonstrated by a whinge or two, and no throwing said little body onto the floor and having a total meltdown. Yet. I'm still holding out the belief that the "terrible two's" is actually from 18 months to 2.5 years, so we're nearly there! But knowing that the cause of most of the meltdowns during this period is due to lack of ability to communicate, I truthfully don't think we're going to miss this delightful stage...

Alex, on the other hand, is doing enough talking for both of them. Shapes are his current thing and he gets super excited when he finds a star or hearts [sic] shape in whatever he's looking at. Circle is also still a huge hit, so gold stars for mummy for sticking hundreds of circles on the feature wall in their bedroom before they were even born! I still get the job of putting them to bed (around 7:15pm now) and getting them out of bed (around 7am), and Alex delights in pointing out all of the circles on the wall right above his cot to me every day. "Circle (point), circle (point), circle circle circle (super excited point at a big circle that I've stuck a smaller circle and then tiny circle on the top of )". And yep, the boys go all night and have since they were one. We continued to do a dream bottle for a while, but that stopped a few months back now. The boys sleep with whoever is the favourite (Pooh Bear x 2 for Taj, currently no-one for Alex but Elmo is still within arms reach and 'ted bear' is up on the shelf) plus their Fisher Price seahorse which plays beautiful lullabies when you push it's tummy. We hear these randomly being played during the night, so the boys self sooth when they need to. The sea horse's tummy lights up while the songs are playing, and Alex (as usual) has great delight in pointing out to me that their is a 'hearts' printed on it. Think he turns it on just as I walk in each morning purely to show me!

Pointing out body parts is also a fun game in this house (eyes, nose, hair etc), with the pointing either being to your own features or that of the closest toy/parent/sibling you can reach. They both crack up laughing when we get to the lower extremities as we shake legs and then do the compulsory tickle of the feet. I was going through parts with Alex a few weeks back ("where's your nose?"), to which he'd repeat the word and touch said item - and I then realised that Tajy was also doing the pointing even though he was off doing his own thing. So now we all do it together.

New funny boy thing this month (I'm still quite sure that a mother would never come up with half things a Mr Mum does) is Alex now copies Nik when he's pretending to sleep - or is really trying to have a nap, which I'm quite sure would be highly unsuccessful most times with our two around. Alex's version is to say "night night", lay down (or pretend to fall asleep sitting up with his head tipped over to the side) and then snoring. All three of them think it's hilarious, so Nik yells out "night night" from where ever he is and Alex responds with a loud snore.

Tajy is in about month three of his "I must be connected to my mother at all times stage", so he's either sitting on my lap or walking around with me holding hands unless he's scored whatever toy is the most prized possession without his brother realising. This child is sneaky! Had a huge laugh when I realised that Alex now isn't letting Nik out of his sight, but at least he's not permanently attached to his dad. Yet.

What else? I've been reading a bit as I'm not studying this semester, and the funniest baby/toddler books ever are my latest discovery - Vicky Iovine. She writes the series 'Best Friends Guide to ....' and they're hysterical. Started with her third book (toddler) and have just finished her fourth (getting your groove back). We've also got a new addition to the family this month - Baby Bird. It's a canary which was definitely someones pet that we assume somehow got out and decided to keep flying into our house instead. So Nik caught it, we shoved it an empty cage from the parents and the cat hasn't budged from its vicinity since. Looked in the paper for a good two weeks after we found him, but nothing in the lost notices. Nik's decided now that the previous owner let the bird out on purpose as it sings and sings and sings. And sings. Even with a sheet over the cage. And the name for the newest addition? Courtesy of the chatty child first time he saw it - "BIRD!!!!!!!! BABY BIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". It stuck.

Time for the compulsory photos over the last month...

One way of keeping your brother away from the toy cars...

I think this is the look of a happy little Vegemite face,
but could be wrong.

Shoes with no feet in them - not good!!!

Tajy deciding that his lunch will be more palatable
if he adds water.

Quick or the dead - Taj demonstrates the lunch
steal from his unsuspecting brother.

Boys were given their first balloon-on-a-stick
at the shopping mall, HUGE hit.

Latest bargain buy from a garage sale - $10 bike
that somehow fits two.

Taj modelling his bday pressie from Miss A.

Fashionistas...